Magical's Quilts and More...: April 2020

Thursday 30 April 2020

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 4

Welcome back for day four of the fourth round of mystery stitching! Sorry this post is a bit late - neighbour was at the door and we got chatting - haven't spoken since before this lockdown stuff happened so had a lot to catch up on, and I hadn't written this post yet. Yesterday's bread had spent about 23 hours in the fridge and more than doubled in size width ways - so it filled the tin completely instead of just partially. It had risen but had adhered to the oiled cling film so when I removed it the rise got lost.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 3

Welcome back for day three of the fourth round of mystery stitching! Things are progressing nicely and I don't think I saw anyone making a mistake with the placement of yesterday's squares. I have the second bread made from yesterday's dough cooling and we will soon have it for lunch - I'll take a photo before I cut into it.

A Blackwork Christmas - April

Welcome to the fourth edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! This month I again reached for a nice warm colour - I chose orange! On the spool the Kreinik looks more orange than when backstitched, which caused some issues with the colour for the cuff but a few rounds of stitching and ripping later (and the discovery that I was just two stitches from the top after adding the backstitched outline because I'd not paid enough attention - I managed anyway but it was a bit fiddly.)

Welcome back for day two of the fourth round of mystery stitching! The flurry of beautiful finishes has continued and the starts of many have started showing up too! Yesterday I had the day off from baking bread as I'd made two different loaves on Sunday. Today I'm also making the dough for two loaves. The first I'll bake today and the second will have a very long, slow second rising in the fridge.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 1

Welcome back for day one of the fourth round of mystery stitching! I was just looking at fb between writing this post and the previous one and was floored by how beautiful all of your creations are! Some of you have been busy finishing, others are collecting them all first and will see what it becomes once we know how many there will be. Whichever way you decide to go with the finishing - if you decide to finish them at all as sometimes the stitching itself is the goal not the end result - have fun with it!

Welcome back for the final post of the third Mini Magical Mystery SAL! Don't worry it's not over - the Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 starts in an hour! This post is just a final post showing my stitching of part fourteen and what I have done with my version.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 - Part 14

Welcome back for day fourteen of the third round of mystery stitching! This is also the final day of patterns for this SAL - I'll be back one more time to show what I have made tomorrow an hour earlier than usual. The next round of the Mini Magical Mystery will start tomorrow at noon as per the information post.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 - Part 13

Welcome back for day thirteen of the third round of mystery stitching! Just one more day for this SAL but at least you know the next is on the way so you won't go a day without a pattern to stitch, unless you choose not to! Again no bread to show off today as funnily enough a loaf of bread from the supermarket lasts two days when a homemade one vanishes before four pm! I have a seven grains bread rising as I type this so there will be something to show you tomorrow!

Tutorial: Tortellini Construction

Sometimes you have a square embroidery that just calls to be finished but you don't know what to do with it and don't have more fabric - or inclination - to make a back for something - or you have done pincushions/biscornu so often you are looking for something different! What ever the reason there may come a time that you want to make something else with your square embroidery.

Welcome to the fourth of this year's NFSAL posts! This month I stitched the NFSAL myself as I liked it so much I just *had* to - and then I made it into a tortellini shape! I wrote a tutorial for it so you too can make a tortellini with a square shape embroidery if you wish. You can find the tutorial here

Welcome back for day twelve of the third round of mystery stitching! Today, as mentioned yesterday, no bread photo as I'd not needed to bake bread yesterday due to having bought a loaf with the weekly shopping.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 - Part 11

Welcome back for day eleven of the third round of mystery stitching! Today's progress to the grand finale is going to add to what you did yesterday. Did you see that there will be a fourth Mini Magical Mystery SAL? You can check it out here! My loaf yesterday went well, I was a bit nervous as I was using some of the yeast that I'd frozen because the half pound block I'd managed to get my hands on was, of course, too much to use in one go so I put most in the freezer in little 2 oz. packages.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Information Post

Hi and welcome to the fourth information post for a Mini Magical Mystery SAL! With lockdowns still enforced for many people I'm continuing with another mystery to keep you stitching! This pattern is the same size as the other three and has around the same number of stitches as the third mystery. This mystery will start the day after the current mystery ends: 27th April.

Welcome back for day ten of the third round of mystery stitching! Just four more days to go before you know what this will really look like, I hope you found all the stitches in yesterday's part! Yesterday's slow risen bread was baked on a baking tray and decided to come undone (I also forgot to set a timer so it's good I noticed the smell of the bit of crust burning before it was fully burnt!)

Easy Christmas Cards SAL - April

Welcome to the fourth part of the Easy Christmas Cards SAL! I'm running a bit later than planned. It's been one of those days where you start and everything looks like it's going to go smoothly and then one thing after another happens to slow you down. However I did get the stitching done for this SAL before it was time to post this but there is so much to show in this post that as I didn't start writing it when I should have I will be late - I'm sorry. Please note that there are LOADS of photos on this page, only load if you are on Wi-Fi if viewing my blog on a mobile device.

Welcome back for day nine of the third round of mystery stitching! Today you will find out if you got all the edge stitches done in part six - and can fix it if you didn't. Youngest's bread came out really well yesterday - no picture sadly. There was enough dough for two loaves so we put the rest in the fridge overnight, it was a nice easy morning for me as a result!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 - Part 8

Welcome back for day eight of the third round of mystery stitching! Today things are a little late because I've been helping youngest make today's bread. Yesterday's bread was a success - well breads as I made three smaller beads as oldest wanted no seeds on top, youngest was dreaming of black sesame seeds and I decided to go nuts and do black seeds only (poppy and sesame seeds)

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 - Part 7

Welcome back for day seven of the third round of mystery stitching! Today we hit the half way point of patterns! Yesterday's beer bread was a disaster - it didn't rise at all and as I'd also misremembered the size of the dish required I used one that was 3x bigger than required. Small wonder it failed - but it was a good flat bread! Today I'm making a plain white bread - and I might go wild and sprinkle some black sesame seeds on top!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 - Part 6

Welcome back for day six of the third round of mystery stitching! Making a batch of Swedish cinnamon buns as well as bread in the morning yesterday was a bit much for me apparently as my body's complaints department has several complaints that need hearing today. So today is beer bread day! No kneading, no fuss, just stir and fling into the oven!

35 x 35 for 2020 - April

Welcome to the fourth 35 x 35 for 2020! It's April, which means at some point we will get April showers, which was the starting point for this month's pattern. The squares represent puddles and the backstitching rain and raindrops splashing out of puddles.

Welcome back for day five of the third round of mystery stitching! If you weren't certain after part three that you had your counting right you should be certain now! This mean that we can go off at a tangent and have some fun in other places of the embroidery! I've taken up bread baking as a way to pass the time, have yummy bread and get some exercise - you can get quite the workout making bread by hand!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 - Part 4

Welcome back for day four of the third round of mystery stitching! Hopefully you counted carefully yesterday and found you counted correctly on day one... if not then fortunately there wasn't all that much to remove to get it right with the added bonus of having an easier way to count to the correct place! Yesterday I did get to listen to the bees and counted three different kinds! Not bad for a centre of town garden!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 - Part 3

Welcome back for day three of the third round of mystery stitching! The last few days have been colder here though the sun is shining today pretending its nice and warm still. April being what it is meant that some people got snow yesterday - brrrrrr! Fortunately my apple tree is still in full bloom feeding the local honey bees and bumblebees! Its supposed to be warmer today so hopefully I'll be able to sit in the sun for a bit and listen to the buzzing of the bees.

Blackwork SAL 2020 - April

Welcome to the fourth part of the 2020 Blackwork SAL! Some people pointed out that if I kept on giving as many patterns as I had been in the first three months that I'd run out of patterns some time before the end of the year. They were right! I'm not sure how I got my calculations so off but somehow I had. I had a good long think about things and decided not to go with my initial plan of just doing lots of patterns as it takes a lot of time to make them and then I'd not have time for other things. There are 19 patterns left and eight months (Including April) so I'll do two or three a month for the rest of the year. This month I'm giving two pattens.

Welcome back for day two of the third round of mystery stitching! I have seen quite a few starts already! The colours are all so different from each other - it's such fun to see! Like some others I stitched the backstitched outline that I will need for finishing first. I did it because I wanted to make the finishing at the end a faster and easier process and I had a bit of time yesterday.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 - Part 1

Welcome back for day one of the third round of mystery stitching! It's been such fun seeing what people have been turning the first two parts into! Though some people are waiting with assembly till they know how many there will be - not something I know yet as the lockdowns/stay in place/quarantines are still ongoing and I'll be making these till all that ends - with an extra pattern (probably not given as a mystery) if needed to make things even so that the biscornu makers will have a back for the final one. I don't know about you but my hands are really suffering from all this hand washing. I'm allergic to hand cream, even the hypoallergenic ones, so things are getting painful. But I can still stitch so stitch I shall! Now on to the pattern!

Welcome back for the final post of the second Mini Magical Mystery SAL! Don't worry it's not over - the Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 starts in an hour! This post is just a final post showing my stitching and what I have done with my version.

Welcome to the very final post of the Spring Mystery SAL! Often I'll combine this with the post with the optional back but this time I wanted to show you what yours could look like on the same day as the back was given. I hope you all had fun with this SAL - even if you were not able to keep up with the frequency of the posts. It's been fun seeing the pictures of your progress and I hope to see many more in the days to come!

The Spring Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - The Back

Welcome to the back of the Spring Mystery SAL! It always feels weird to say that but that's what you are getting this time - the optional back that I make for those of you that want to make a two sided biscornu, ornament, pincushion, or perhaps something else I haven't thought of.

Welcome to part eighteen of the Spring Mystery SAL! This part is larger than the previous parts this weekend because it's the last part and I didn't want to give the game away with giving some of the pattern as you'd have been able to guess the rest.

Welcome to part seventeen of the Spring Mystery SAL! It's the penultimate part of this SAL (other than the optional back pattern) and things are starting to really fill out! I hope that things have remained unpredictable - it's something I aim for while designing these SALs but it doesn't always work out that way.

Welcome back for day fourteen of the second round of mystery stitching! This is also the final day of patterns for this SAL - I'll be back one more time to show what I have made tomorrow at the same time as today's post. The next round of the Mini Magical Mystery will start tomorrow at noon as per the information post.

Welcome to part sixteen of the Spring Mystery SAL! Things are really filling up in your embroidery, Soon you won't have any space left! Well ok, it's not full coverage so you will have space left... but where? Time will tell - and there isn't all that much of that let either!

Welcome to part fifteen of the Spring Mystery SAL! I hope you were able to find all the stitches in the previous part - there was a lot of twisting and turning! Did things go the way you thought they would? Or were you pointed in a completely different direction?

Welcome to part fourteen of the Spring Mystery SAL! Just four more parts after this one and you will have completed this mystery! Can you guess where all of the remaining 544 stitches will go? (That includes this part's stitches - 456 without). I'm going to be mean and not give any clues other than each part as it arrives!

The Spring Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 13

Welcome to part thirteen of the Spring Mystery SAL! Hopefully you are all enjoying your day! It's lovely out but also a great day to stitch! I have seen a few more lovely progress pictures since the last time I mentioned them - they are very different from each other but looking fabulous already!

Welcome to part twelve of the Spring Mystery SAL! After lunch I was able to get some time to myself without distractions and I not only finished part ten but I got part eleven stitched too! With this SAL a bit of extra time is all you need to get a *lot* more done than you might expect!

Welcome to part eleven of the Spring Mystery SAL! Having gone to bed with part nine incomplete and a bunch of morning stuff to do before I could sit down to stitch, I'm still not all caught up with stitching - but that's how these high speed SALs go, so don't be too hard on yourself if you aren't 100% up to date - I'm not either!

Welcome back for day thirteen of the second round of mystery stitching! This is the penultimate post for this SAL that is somewhat being flooded out by the Spring Mystery SAL posts. Its a bit of Easter craziness I do every year for a bit of fun.

Welcome to part ten of the Spring Mystery SAL! As you can imagine doing two mysteries at the same time can be confusing, especially when you are writing them! I was just cheerfully writing the name of the Mini Magical Mystery SAL 2 in the description box of the post. Good thing I'm off to bed in a moment as I think I either need sleep or very, very strong coffee hehehe.

Welcome to part nine of the Spring Mystery SAL! This is the halfway point of the SAL in posts as there are 18 in total. I have started seeing more people posting their projects and the colours are fantastic! Don't be shy about posting yours - you could be the inspiration someone else needs to get started!

Welcome to part eight of the Spring Mystery SAL! After the single colour of stitching in the previous part you now get all four colours in this part - please take care to make sure you got them all - the numbers are below, the pointers are in the pattern.

The Spring Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 7

Welcome to part seven of the Spring Mystery SAL! The sun is starting to set here and everyone seems to try and distract me from doing stuff - isn't it always the way? I hope you are not getting too many distractions while you stitch! Don't forget to post your progress to the Facebook group (linked below) its good fun to see what everyone is stitching!

Welcome to part six of the Spring Mystery SAL! I hope you are all enjoying the mystery! I had fun myself with it as I'm stitching along with you due to life getting in the way at the time I had planned to get the stitching done. This means I now have to stitch to keep up with the posts. Even then things got busy after the last post so I couldn't sit down to stitch till two hours after part five was posted! This time I made it in time with stitching, I might not be so lucky later.

Welcome to the first part of the Spring Mystery SAL proper! To make things easier for later finding of things we are going to continue with the numbering started with the pre-stitch patterns so this is the fifth pattern for this embroidery so it's part five. It's bright and sunny today - a lovely spring day!

Welcome back for day twelve of the second round of mystery stitching! This part and the last two parts of this SAL will be posted an hour earlier than usual to avoid scheduling conflicts with the Spring Magical Mystery SAL which starts today and runs till Sunday.

Bookmark SAL - April

Welcome to the fourth part of the Bookmark SAL! For a change it's on time - and finished! The construction this month is easy too as it's stitched on perforated paper (or plastic Aida if you prefer) so it just needs cutting out. Please read the pattern notes before starting.

Welcome back for day eleven of the second round of mystery stitching! In case you missed last night's post: the Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 information post is up! For this SAL we are still going strong with some days left of stitching!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 3 - Information Post

Hi and welcome to the third information post for a Mini Magical Mystery SAL! With lockdowns still enforced for many people I'm continuing with another mystery to keep you stitching! This pattern is the same size as the other two but will have fewer stitches in total than the second mystery. This mystery will start the day after the current mystery ends: 13th April.

Welcome back for day ten of the second round of mystery stitching! Just four days left of stitching for this SAL but don't worry the next one starts on Monday! I'll get the information post sorted out later, but it's basically the same as the first two in size. Also please note that the Friday, Saturday and Sunday posts will be an hour earlier due to the Spring Magical Mystery.

Weavers Animals Band Sampler SAL - Part 4

Welcome to the fourth part of the Weavers Animals Band Sampler SAL! Hopefully you are all caught up with this SAL! Of course even in these difficult time it's possible to not be caught up. With all the adjustments we have to make in these times stitching could be a bit more than you can deal with right now. I hope that you are all well and creating something!

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Thursday 30 April 2020

Wednesday 29 April 2020

Tuesday 28 April 2020

Monday 27 April 2020

Sunday 26 April 2020

Saturday 25 April 2020

Friday 24 April 2020

Thursday 23 April 2020

Wednesday 22 April 2020

Tuesday 21 April 2020

Monday 20 April 2020

Sunday 19 April 2020

Saturday 18 April 2020

Friday 17 April 2020

Thursday 16 April 2020

Wednesday 15 April 2020

Tuesday 14 April 2020

Monday 13 April 2020

Sunday 12 April 2020

Saturday 11 April 2020

Friday 10 April 2020

Thursday 9 April 2020

Wednesday 8 April 2020

Tuesday 7 April 2020

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