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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

NFSAL 2020 - December

 

Welcome to the final part of this year's NFSAL posts! It's been a fun year for this SAL, though I haven't been able to stitch them as often as I'd liked. Carla Eldridge was going to do the stitching this year but work and corona got in the way of her being able to keep up, so I did the best I could when I could. Next year I'll be doing the stitching myself because corona is still out there and Carla is still working really hard so doesn't have the time. I hope Carla does find stitching time soon, it's good for the soul!

35 x 35 for 2020 - December

Welcome to the twelfth and final 35 x 35 for 2020! I seem to be doing a lot of final posts these days but that's the downside of getting to the end of the year and the end of many SALs. Next year will be a lot quieter for me and that's a good thing... I'll even be able to catch up on things I couldn't finish in previous years - well theoretically anyway - perhaps new projects will call my name louder? You know how it goes. As an extra surprise there are two versions of this pattern - the initial pattern that I created - and stitched - and the reverse version that I didn't stitch. You get to choose which one you prefer!

Bookmark SAL - December

Welcome to the twelfth and final part of the Bookmark SAL! If you enjoy bookmarks and blackwork then you may enjoy next year's Blackwork SAL as the shapes we will be filling in are a pretty good size for a bookmark and can be easily extended if you wish. This month I was able to finish the bookmark on time and fully finish it too!

Ornament of the Month 2020 - December

Welcome to the twelfth and final Ornament of the Month for 2020! I hope you have had fun stitching these this year and can't wait to see yours! The good news is that this SAL will be returning in 2020 - with a new shape and an option for another one if you prefer. No dangly bits next year - unless you add a tassel! This month's colours of the month are Indigo, Green, and greenish-blue. As I've already done four shades of blue this year I decided not to go with Indigo and greenish-blue (aka teal) but instead I chose a nice dark Christmassy green.

NFSAL 2020 - November

Welcome to the eleventh part of this year's NFSAL posts! Yesterday I was thinking happily that I was on top of all the things and didn't have any SAL stuff left today - and then I saw the NFSAL post was still due today... talk about a yikes moment. I didn't get the backstitched part complete this month but I did do the cross stitch (not that it's all that much).

35 x 35 for 2020 - November

Welcome to the eleventh 35 x 35 for 2020! Today's post is rather late because I felt it was important to finish the stitching before taking the picture. As I only had half the final colour of cross stitch and the straight stitches left I knew it wouldn't take all that long to complete. This month there are cross stitches and straight stitches! The straight stitches may look daunting but they stitch up really quickly - there isn't really a wrong way to do them either so just do whatever feels right.

Bookmark SAL - November

Welcome to the eleventh part of the Bookmark SAL! I'm running a bit late today, yesterday's headache ate into the time planned for stitching this and I wanted to have the half I was working on finished so I could show the shape/colours before making the post. This month there are two colour suggestions and two ways to finish the bookmark!

Friday Freebie - Announcement Post

Some years ago I used to have a regular Friday Freebie post - one where you'd never know what was going to happen next and could be any size, shape or colour depending on my mood, the weather, time or year etc. Some I'd stitch in advance, some I didn't depending on time and my health at that time. I decided that for 2021 I'd not only do that on the 5th Friday of the month if I was up to it but also do it on another day of the month to give me a bit more creative freedom during the year. This is a SAL you can skip ones you don't like so much or don't have time for as the next month's pattern won't rely on you finishing the month before.

Ornament of the Month 2020 - November

Welcome to the eleventh Ornament of the Month for 2020! I'm running a little late - I'd hoped to be able to finish the ornament in time but alas the arm that was inflicted with the flu jab a few days ago wasn't feeling very cooperative - but at least I'm no longer feeling so horrid. I always get ill for a day or two after the jab while my body deals with the invaders - this year worse than others - joy. What you will see is a mostly finished ornament - but fully stitched. This month's colours of the month are dark blue, red and yellow. I used yellow last month and don't have a second red Kreinik so went with the blue as I did have a second dark blue thread.

NFSAL 2020 - October

Welcome to the tenth part of this year's NFSAL posts! This month I not only finished the stitching but I did a pretty fancy finish to it too! I got pictures made for part of it but I didn't take photos of the lace edging I crocheted as I'm not really very good at crochet and was making it up as I went along - I can tell you what I did so if you know how to do basic crochet then you too can achieve the finish I did!

35 x 35 for 2020 - October

Welcome to the tenth 35 x 35 for 2020! This month there are cross stitches, backstitches, and beads! The beads are optional and can be done as French knots, colonial knots, using beads, or just as a cross stitch with shiny metallic threads - or skipped in their entirety if you prefer! I'll show you a photo of the unbeaded version below first, then you can see that it can work both with and without the beads!

Bookmark SAL - October

Welcome to the tenth part of the Bookmark SAL! This month there are many options available for how to stitch and finish this month's pattern! The pattern itself has four sizes on it - shown as three options because option three has two possible lengths, but you can do so much more with it!

Ornament of the Month 2020 - October

Welcome to the tenth Ornament of the Month for 2020! I'm running a little late - both the thread and the beads were contrary today and it didn't help that I'd cut my left index finger while cooking dinner today - it's not a fan of being used, so I had to hold the ornament without it. This month's colours of the month are white, yellow and variegated. As I don't want to stitch with white this year and all of the other ornaments are/will be solids I don't want to use the variegated option. In addition I've already done a yellow I decided to go with gold, which is kind of a yellow.

NFSAL 2020 - September

Welcome to the ninth of this year's NFSAL posts! I was finally feeling up to doing stuff and promptly overdid it - I'm sure my body saw what I was plotting for the weekend and decided the only way to avoid it all as a nice flare up of my rheumatism. On the plus side the 24 hour blood pressure test I had two weeks ago has shown that my blood pressure is fine as is and I don't need blood pressure meds after all - so there is that. I did start this month's NFSAL but only got the one stitch in - not exactly enough to show much of anything.

35 x 35 for 2020 - September

Welcome to the ninth 35 x 35 for 2020! This month there are only whole stitches and only three colours. No partial stitches, even of the nice sort so it's an easy stitch really. I decided to go for three of the newer colours of DMC: 027, 028, and 029 but you can use any three colours or shades of a colour that you like.