Finish It In...2019 - Check In Post for February

Welcome to the second Finish It In... 2019 post for the year! In this post I'll show you what I have done since the first post... well some of it as of course there are some things I can't show yet. Those things will show up sometime this month, or in some cases, next month! Yes that's right I even got some stitching done for March! For now I'll start where I started last month showing you the older things I want to finish.


I had decided that the way I was going to do this was to first make sure I was up to date with my February stitching before I would do anything on these so I'd not get behind on the monthly stitching. In the end I had part of Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to work on the older things so each project got a day, with a little stitching done on the January 50 x 50 in between it all to keep that project moving too.

Before

After

 As you can see quite a bit of progress has been made on the Ornament of the Month 2018 February - May ornaments. I finished stitching the second May triangle ornament, did the backstitched squares for the backs of February - April, added the beads on all of the ornaments where needed, and cut them all out. I even started finish finishing the February square ornament! I shall probably complete the finishing on it before I move on to other things.

Before

After

When I picked this up again I discovered that I'd stitched the left side border four stitches too close to the embroidery so that had to come out. Then I finished the border stitching and added some of the backstitched motifs. I have three left to do before I can finish finish this. Then I have two more to stitch. One thing I did have a problem with is that the bit of fabric is actually too small for it to be in a hoop for the corners to be stitched - I didn't fancy stitching it in hand as my hand cramps up after a bit and this isn't cheap cardboard like Aida that doesn't flop unless you bend it. So I racked my brains and remembered I'd seen someone had a solution to this some years back - I couldn't for the life of me remember where and Google failed me (that's a first!). Fortunately I remembered enough to give it a go anyway and I succeeded at making a cardboard frame - it's not perfect but it worked.

Mini square frame... made from a cereal box!

I'll write a tutorial for how to make these in another post (probably next week or the week after - this week is a bit busy) - they are handy for using up scraps and would probably also help if you like to stitch on paper and need something to stop the corners from getting bent.

Before

After

The NYE Mystery SAL was the last of the three older projects I'd put on my list and I actually managed to finish this! I still have the back to do before I can finish finish this so it's staying on my list for now.

Then for the new starts for this year - for the most part January stitching only, you will see the February ones later this month as the posts happen. (I'm *so* mean!)

Ornament of the month:
You get to see January and February as the post for this month already happened. I have actually already started stitching April as I want to be able to cut January free so I can finish finish it.

Mamluk SAL:

Medieval Owl:
You may remember that I stitched August and September parts so that people concerned about the colours used could see them in stitched form before starting.

Blackwork SAL:

50 x 50 in 2019:
I had not managed to finish this before the post, it was more work than anticipated with the thread breaking as frequently as it did (sometimes I only got two stitches in before it broke!)

Main pattern before.

Main pattern as of today.

I'm doing one or two of the little diamonds between each project so I don't get too frustrated with all the thread breakages, though now I'm using a size 26 needle it isn't as bad as it was... still it's a huge needle for 20ct Aida.

Alternate pattern before.

Alternate pattern finished.

25 x 25 for 2019:

NFSAL:
Not on my list but this time I did stitch the February NFSAL! As it's already been posted to Deviant Art it's not a secret any more so here it is:

The pattern will be posted tomorrow along with instructions on how to stitch this (though perhaps with all the beads the same hehe)

Now it's your turn! Make a blog post if you blog, make a vlog/flosstube, a post on Instagram or Facebook and make sure I at least can see what you have stitched in the last month!  If you blog or vlog please put a link below - it will be fun to see what you have stitched and who knows... you may gain a larger audience in the process! Not sure how it works? Check out the overview post!


Also Finish in... news: There is now a Facebook group just for this project so you don't have to wait till the first Wednesday of the month to share your progress on a project that isn't something I designed. You are encouraged to start your own photo album in the group so it's easy to see your progress between postings of each project. Members of my main group are automatically accepted others will need to be approved first. You can find the group here




I'll be back on tomorrow with the February NFSAL and Friday with the February 50 x 50 for 2019 - it's a busy week on the blog!