The Spring Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Pre-stitch Part 1

Welcome to the first pre-stitch of the Spring Mystery SAL! Although spring is still far off, and for those who are just going into autumn it's even further off, it's always nice to look ahead to when things warm up again after winter. The nice things about this year's Spring Mystery SAL is that you can make it to fit any season just with your colour choices! Go for darker greens and bright autumn colours for an autumn feel, light greens and pastels for spring, and medium greens and happy colours for summer!

Tutorial: Stocking Construction

This is a tutorial on how to construct a stocking - it was written and posted to go with the A Blackwork Christmas SAL but will also work for any of the other stocking patterns I've given over time. It will be given in sections that you can use depending on how you want to finish your stocking - not everyone wants a lined stocking but you may need pointers on how to finish a two sided stuffed stocking. Please note that this is a photo tutorial so is picture heavy - please make sure you are on Wi-Fi if using a mobile device.

A Blackwork Christmas - January

Welcome to the first of this year's A Blackwork Christmas posts! As I mentioned in the announcement post all of the patterns are stocking shaped. Should you prefer a more traditional square shape for an ornament then feel free to stitch the Blackwork pattern into a square shape instead. I've followed up with a tutorial on how to construct a lined stocking. I've edited this post to add the link to it.

NFSAL 2020 - January

Welcome to the first of this year's NFSAL posts! This year I probably won't be able to stitch them all but the very wonderful Carla Eldridge is going to be stitching them instead as my model stitcher! If you have read the announcement post you will have seen that Carla and I have been in this from the beginning so I'm extra happy that she is again going to do the model stitching for this year. You can read Carla's post on her blog - it's a fun read and she gives tips on things she encountered while stitching as well! Always handy!

Easy Christmas Cards SAL - January

Welcome to the first of the Easy Christmas Cards SAL! I'm running late again - sorry! This month to start things off I have stitched on perforated paper as it gives you lots of options of how to use it next. If you don't have perforated paper that's fine, just use fabric instead.

35 x 35 for 2020 - January

Welcome to the First 35 x 35 for 2020! I *did* consider doing 20 x 20 for 2020 but I wanted to work on something bigger than the 25 x 25 for 2019. The plan this month was to do just the one pattern but I ended up with two as I couldn't decide which I liked the most - so you get the choice instead!

Blackwork SAL 2020 - January

Welcome to the first part of the 2020 Blackwork SAL! This year is quite a bit different from last year as you can choose the shape you want to stitch - If you don't know what I'm talking about I suggest you read the information post first as that has everything you need to know to join in with it. I'll be doing a separate pdf per shape so you don't need to print off any more than necessary.

The Spring Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Information Post

Great news! As mentioned in the Magical Mystery SAL group (I tend to put sneak peeks and stuff there hehe) there will be a Spring Mystery SAL again this year! I'm posting this information nice and early so you have plenty of time to plot and stitch the pre-stitch parts.

Bookmark SAL - January

Welcome to the first of twelve bookmarks that you can make over the course of 2020! This month I'm starting with a not quite standard shape - an arrow! I have not only made the pattern but also two versions of pattern showing the outlines for two ways to give it a same fabric back, and I'll give some alternate suggestions on how to stitch this.

Weavers Animals Band Sampler SAL - Part 1

Welcome to the very first part of the Weavers Animals Band Sampler SAL! I'm sorry this is a little late, my rheumatism is playing up and sitting at my desk is unpleasant, so I put off doing stuff till a bit too late. I hope you are all ready for the stitching to come - this year I'll be giving two versions - the full sized one and a smaller version. Both get a colour and black and white version of the pattern to make your stitching life as easy as possible however some months the pattern section will be the same - as it is this month which means I'm only giving one pattern this month.

Tutorial: Double Ornament of the Month Construction and Options

I thought that this year I would get the tutorial on how to construct this year's ornament shape up at about the same time as the first pattern so that you can see what's possible and decide how you want your ornament to be. I'll show you how I made mine and what else you might be able to do with yours.

Ornament of the Month 2020 - January

Welcome to the first Ornament of the month for 2020! I'm sure you are wondering what shape this year's ornament will be! The good news is, as already mentioned in the overview post: no holes! The second bit of good news is that there is a tutorial for this year's shape too! It's here. But first some other things...

Post!

In-between the mayhem of the NYE Mystery SAL my long awaited for order arrived - it had been delayed for 2 reasons - firstly due to the huge number of orders Michelle from Jodyri Designs had to lengthen the time from order to posting from 15 days to 4 weeks and secondly I'd said that if it was easier to just send all of my November and December stuff together - it was. So it was all put in the post on the 11th December and after that the postal gods decided I didn't need all this stuff till after Christmas - as if!

Seasons SAL - Winter

Welcome to the winter edition of the Seasons SAL! A bit later than planned but I had some teething issues with the Temperature SAL that needed sorting out properly first - it's my first time doing something that's very specific and I had to learn how to do it properly. I also had all these plans for showing off a stitched, finished item but of course I also thought I had a time machine and could do more stitching than there were hours in the day - with the NYE Mystery SAL only finishing at lunchtime today I just didn't have time to do more than collapse for a bit, make the New Year's post, the Temperature SAL post, watch Doctor Who, and now this.

Temperature SAL - January

Welcome to the first of 13 posts for the Temperature SAL!  This first post will be the place to start the SAL properly after you have read the information post that has fabric sizes, floss etc in it. Now you get the pattern, stitching order and other information required to get going!

Happy New Year!

Since not everyone does the NYE Mystery SAL I am also making a separate post to wish everyone a happy New Year! I wish for all of you the best health possible, many good days and few bad days to follow the good. I also hope that you can find happiness in small things and not get thwarted by the old mean frog that makes you rip your stitches out.

2019/2020 NYE Mystery SAL - The Back and Final Post

Welcome to the final post of the NYE Mystery SAL! I want to thank you all for stitching along with me - sometimes literally as I wasn't always up to date with the SAL myself but as you can see below I did manage to finish on time! I have had so much fun seeing all of your versions - and new people joining in now and then too!  I hope to see many more of you jump in as you find the time in your busy schedules - NYE landing in the middle of the week certainly didn't help with having much time!

2019/2020 NYE Mystery SAL - Part 32

Welcome to the 32nd and final part of the NYE Mystery SAL! I hope you have had as much fun as I have, it's been quite the journey this time what with having over double the number of posts than usual! I also hope you are happy with the result of your efforts! I can't wait to see your final pictures - I'm so excited!

2019/2020 NYE Mystery SAL - Part 31

Welcome to the 31st part of the NYE Mystery SAL! After this part there are just 92 stitches left! Fortunately for this part there are only 88 - a number you will have seen pop up quite a lot this SAL as the aim *was* to mainly have 88 as the stitch count. It's nice when you can mostly do as planned, though I would have preferred not to have had those two very big stitch counts in the mix, especially as I could have had more stitches in the first few parts instead. Hopefully they were not too daunting - I know I was able to get them stitched within the 4 hours between patterns - I hope more of you were too! I'm actually a bit sad right now - it's almost finished - but then again I'm happy it's almost over as I can't wait to see your versions finished!

2019/2020 NYE Mystery SAL - Part 30

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Welcome to the 30th part of the NYE Mystery SAL! When this post gets published it will be midnight for me so the New year will have started - I'll be writing another post later in the day but for now I want to wish you all the best for 2020, may you be as healthy as you can be, may finances work out - even if things are not as easy as you'd like, and most of all may you have a wonderful stitching year! At the same time we have reached another milestone for this SAL: the last three parts... just two more pattern posts for the front after this one, then two more posts to round things off completely. There will be more today, but I'll tell more in a later post.