Another Quick update...

 Hiya everyone! 

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my last post. I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting for an update. I'm past the burnout, but the vaccination has given me a fun new side effect that has Dr's puzzled, so I'm doing blood tests and stuff to try and find out what's up. All we know is that after trying to do stuff for a few minutes I start to shake as if I've run a marathon. This includes sitting at the computer which doesn't make communication easy. I'll try to keep you better updated. 

Could someone please link this in the fb groups? Thanks!

Quick Update...

Hiya everyone!

Sorry for the radio silence - I kept on meaning to say something but then didn't have the energy. Last year's crazy schedule has finally caught up with me, and I've got a bit of a burnout going on. I am also recovering from some very unpleasant side effects of the Corona vaccine.

What's planned:

• I'm going to take a bit of me time
• Then I'm going to play catch up with all the missing posts.
  

You will NOT be left with partial SALS!

That is one thing I would never do to any of you! Please hang on in there, and I'll be back asap!

NFSAL 2021 - February

Welcome to the second of this year's NFSAL posts! This year I will be stitching all the patterns myself, though this month I wasn't able to finish due to health reasons.

Sampler SAL - Page 2 - Week 3

Welcome to the next part of the Sampler SAL! I'm so sorry that this is so very, very late! I have not been well and stitching has been a struggle, so it's taken a lot longer than usual to get the embroidery done to show you. It's variegated thread month and this week brings us folded thread, so you can loop start, blended with a solid, and what is often (but not always) called tweeded. There will be a catch-up post as soon as possible to get things back on track.

Friday Freebie: Shimmering Seas - Scissor Case

Welcome to the third Friday Freebie for 2021! Last month I started this three part series with a fob and a pincushion. This week I'm finishing the series with a scissor case. Unfortunately my health hasn't allowed me to do the stitching so the tutorial of how it's constructed will have to happen when I'm better. If you are waiting for the Sampler SAL please be patient, it's not forgotten and should hopefully happen tomorrow.

Blackwork SAL 2021: Shades of Blackwork - February

Welcome to the second part of the 2021 Blackwork SAL! This below freezing temperature is really getting to my joints and making it difficult to stitch as a result. Today I could barely hold the needle and finally just gave up, so you won't have as much to see on the photo. The pattern however IS complete, so all is good!

Sampler SAL - Page 2 - Week 2

Welcome to the next part of the Sampler SAL! This being a weekly SAL it's going to get complicated with how many parts there are, so I'm chickening out early and going for “next” instead. It's variegated thread month and this week brings us diagonals and the old up and down the column stitching!

Ornament of the Month 2021 - February

Welcome to the second Ornament of the Month for 2021! The Birthstone for February is amethyst, so that's what this month's colours reflect. I still had some real amethysts left over from the batch I bought back in 2015 for the first Ornament of the month patterns, so I dug them out and used three as part of my finish of this month's ornament.

Tutorial: 2021 Ornament of the Month Shape Construction

I thought I'd already done this, but apparently I had not, so this is going up later than planned or desired. I noticed it was missing because I'm preparing to stitch the February Ornament of the Month and wanted to know how much floss I needed to make the cord for the garland. Good thing I make notes and keep photos! This year's shape is not exactly simple to stuff, so it's done in parts as you work, I'll show you when in the photos. I'll also explain when things are done differently for an ornament version as of course you don't have to make this into a garland like I am. Please read the notes at the end before starting to do the finishing if you are making a garland.

Tutorial: Making Cords for a Garland Finish

While making the tutorial for the 2021 Ornament of the Month Shape Construction I realised that it would be clearer if I split the cord making part from the ornament making part of the tutorial, so here is a second cording tutorial. For general cording making instructions look here. This tutorial expands on the previous tutorial so knowing the basics is required. There are three options for how to make cording for a garland finish.

Sampler SAL - Page 2 - Week 1

Welcome to the fifth part of the Sampler SAL! This time we are starting the second page. This month is, as I announced last week, all about variegated threads: the many ways they can be used to achieve different effects. We are starting with three ways to use the threads — one for the header and two different ways in the elements. This week most of the stitching is cross stitch aside from the page title that's done in backstitch.

Temperature SAL 2021 - February

Welcome to the second Temperature SAL post! This time is an update post, so I'll be showing you some pictures of my own progress. It didn't go as fast as I'd hoped as I was rather beset by issues. First the fabric I'd picked wasn't the same as the one from last year and I *really* wanted them to be the same. Then I ordered the wrong new fabric. Having discovered what I did use last year I then found out that I didn't have enough of the correct fabric and had to order yet more fabric… sigh. Next up the brown thread I wanted to use turned out to have areas that looked exactly the same colour as the fabric when using one strand.

Friday Freebie: Shimmering Seas - Pincushion

Welcome to the second Friday Freebie for January 2021! Last week I started this three part series with a fob and this week I'm continuing it with a pincushion — and not just a single options pincushion but two! First is the standard square version that can be finished square or as a biscornu and the second is a box pincushion. If you'd like to read more about the threads I'm using then check the previous post.

Sampler SAL - Page 1 - Week 4

Welcome to the fourth part of the Sampler SAL! This time we are going to finish page one. This week we are again going to use a simple stitch to make a big impact! The stitch of this week is satin stitch! The most difficult part of satin stitch is the tension — pull too tight, and you get pulled satin stitch (where you pull the stitches tighter to pull the threads together) but that's not what we are going for this week. This week all stitching is done with two threads in the needle. I've highlighted helpful hints about the number of stitches to save you from having to count.

NFSAL 2021 - January

Welcome to the first of this year's NFSAL posts! This year I will be stitching all the patterns myself. I have chosen to do the whole year border option as I haven't done a full sized NFSAL with border yet. If you don't know which border I'm talking about have a look at the announcement post as it has all the information you need and both border patterns!

Sampler SAL - Page 1 - Week 3

Welcome to the third part of the Sampler SAL! This time we are going to continue with the first page. This week we are going to make stitches made up of a single simple stitch that together make something else: eyelets! The stitch is often referred to as the Algerian eyelet stitch and has several other names (as often happens with needlework stitches) I'm calling them eyelets for short. The base of all eyelets is a single stitch though they might look more complicated than that if you are unfamiliar with them. This week there are two versions of the pattern — the main pattern and a pattern with extra eyelets in case you wish to do some more to practice or because they are fun!

Friday Freebie: Shimmering Seas - Fob

Welcome to the first of the Friday Freebies for 2021! It's a bit later than planned, mostly due to me not thinking clearly yesterday when I was on a roll and started stitching the second part of this series too close to today’s pattern so had to get quite a bit of stitching done in order to be able to free today's pattern.

Sampler SAL - Page 1 - Week 2

Welcome to the second part of the Sampler SAL! This time we are going to continue with the first page. The stitches used are still very simple, but we will be doing two different stitches this time. Since visually they look more or less the same from the front I'm giving both backstitch and double running stitch — and for I think the first time ever — I'll show you the back of my work, warts and all!

Blackwork SAL 2021: Shades of Blackwork - January

Welcome to the first part of the 2021 Blackwork SAL! I'm sorry this part is late, life got busier than expected, and I ended up with less time to stitch than planned and to show this properly I needed to stitch it all. As always with evening pictures it's difficult to get the colours right, especially when you aren't stitching on white fabric.

Sampler SAL - Page 1 - Week 1

Welcome to the first part of the Sampler SAL! This time we are starting the first page. Initially the stitches may be simple, but it's to make sure everyone is on the same playing field moving forwards. Simple also means finished quickly, which isn't a bad thing either. Please wait with embellishing/getting creative till I indicate which spaces are available to do your own thing — there will be space on every page to personalise it with extras if you so chose — or just to practice a stitch a bit more.

Ornament of the Month 2021 - January

Welcome to the first Ornament of the Month for 2021! As you may have seen in the FB group, I was too exhausted yesterday to also finish stitching the ornament as well as write the blog post. I have done the stitching today — at a slower pace that I was trying to do yesterday. I'm still very tired, but I also want to get this done, so you aren't waiting any longer. Things have not been fully finished yet, and I still need to write the tutorial for the finishing of the main shape, but I'm afraid that will have to wait till I have a bit more energy — it will be done before the end of the month. There is a LOT of information in this post — it should answer many questions you may have.

Temperature SAL 2021 - 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 and other information required to get going!

Temperature SAL - 2020 Wrap Up Post

Welcome to the thirteenth Temperature SAL post! This is the final post for the 2020 Temperature SAL! It's quite a bit later than planned but then not everything went to plan today, including that moment when I grabbed DMC 913 instead of DMC 911 and didn't notice till after I'd finished all the stitches of the month with it. Joy. So a bit of ripping and restitching later, and it's all done but not ironed as I just don't have the time to iron it today, and I still need to add one more day.

2020/2021 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! Furthermore, I hope to see many more of you jump in as you find the time in your busy schedules — the NYE Mystery SAL starting in the middle of the week certainly didn't help with having much time!

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, with many good days. 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. And most of all I hope the world becomes calmer without so much hate and selfishness — peace and love are much better for everyone!

2020/2021 NYE Mystery SAL - Part 14

Welcome to the 14th and final part of the NYE Mystery SAL! I hope you have had as much fun as I have! I also hope you are happy with the result of your efforts! Of course, I can't wait to see your final pictures — I'm so excited! As always I've still got one more pattern for you, the back pattern should you wish to make something two-sided with your stitched results. That will be posted in four hours time.

2020/2021 NYE Mystery SAL - Part 13

Welcome to part thirteen of the NYE Mystery SAL! It's the penultimate part of the NYE SAL! Everyone will be in the New Year now, so it's good there isn't much of the SAL left! I wonder if the pattern is going where you thought?

2020/2021 NYE Mystery SAL - Part 12

Welcome to part twelve of the NYE Mystery SAL!  I'm sure that by now you are wondering what the next few parts will bring, after all there are just two more parts to come after this one, so there isn't much left to do! I'll keep you busy don't worry!

2020/2021 NYE Mystery SAL - Part 11

Welcome to part eleven of the NYE Mystery SAL! As its four am here at the time of this posting I will hopefully be sleeping, so won't be able to respond to any issues till I wake up later on.  It's not yet New Year for everyone — another two  hours to go for those of you on the east coast time zone, and more for the rest of the Americas. Here on the blog things are continuing as per the plan!

2020/2021 NYE Mystery SAL - Part 10

Happy New Year!!

Welcome to part ten of the NYE Mystery SAL! At the time this part of the NYE SAL shows on my blog New Year's Eve has become New Year! I hope you all have a wonderful 2021 and that life returns to normal for us all before too very long. Hang on in there till it does — you have got this! After this part there are just four parts left so if you get the stitching time you could have the front finished by the end of the day, especially if you live in countries that come after me time wise.