Friday Freebie: Golden Star

Christmas is almost upon us and I'm sure many of you are busy doing last minute preparations - some because it's planned that way and some because eek time happened. I'm somewhere in the middle of those two... some things are going according to plan while others suddenly jump at me to remind me that things need doing - at least all the gift shopping is done!

Medieval Owl SAL

This has got to be one of the most complicated patterns I have ever offered as a SAL. But he's so fun I couldn't resist! I found this little chap hidden away in an illuminated manuscript some years ago, sadly I can't remember which one any more as that would have been fun to include right now but I'm pretty sure it was a bestiary, and have been fiddling around with the pattern ever since.

Mamluk Cross Stitch SAL

As patterns go the Mamluk Cross Stitch SAL isn't very big or very complicated but it is very old and as a result the pattern was drafted from the only surviving section of the embroidery. It's made from flax fabric and embroidered with cotton - as you can see above it's not very clear which colour it was before other than small fragments of red. I suspect it was probably black due to how black seems to discolour as it ages (I could be wrong, this is just a guess of mine and I'm not an expert in the field). Edit: It seems I was wrong... it was blue as can be seen in the Ashmolean link I posted below - which proves that I am indeed not an expert!

Weavers Birds SAL - Information and Border Pattern

After the success of last year's Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL I decided to make a somewhat smaller pattern based on the same weavers draft patterns found on the Antique Pattern Library for this year. The theme this year is birds.

2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL!

Yes the time is upon us to prepare for the most fun NYE possible for us stitchers - well I hope it is anyway! Like last year we will be starting on what is December 30th for some and December 31st for the Australians etc. amongst us.

Friday Freebie: Fob a Month - December

Welcome to the last of the Fob a Month patterns - for now at least. If you have been enjoying these smaller patterns don't worry as I'll be doing a series of 25 x 25 stitch patterns next year! They will make great fobs if you use 14ct Aida/28ct evenweave. At the time of writing this I haven't yet made an overview post about these but some general information can be found in yesterday's post. That said on to the reason for this post: the Fob a Month for December! It being December I didn't have to think twice about which flower to choose: poinsettia - what could be more Christmassy?

SALs for 2019 - an Overview of Plans and Days

Next year is going to be super busy here when it comes to SAL's I have a lot of plans and idea's and will be making them happen in different ways. This is a post to let you know what I'm planning and when to expect things to happen! Note: This is an overview post so exact information for each SAL will be given at a later date.

Friday Freebie on a Saturday: Ornament of the Month - December

Welcome back for the twelfth Ornament of the Month! It's a little late as I have to admit that I completely forgot yesterday. This is the last pattern for this year and it has by far the most beads/French knots of any of the patterns - if done with beads it will be full of bling! Of course if you wish to use less beads/French knots then by all means do less - it's entirely up to you.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 48

Welcome back for the long awaited (and slightly late) last part of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! I do hope you have all enjoyed the ride and had fun stitching - I know I have loved seeing what you have all been up to week to week! I really do need to get round to posting some more pictures of what you have all stitched as the results have been amazing so far!

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 47

Welcome back for part 47 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! I'm sorry about the delay! I'd completely forgotten it was Tuesday - it's been so busy I'm messing up days. And that so close to the end of it all too - I bet you have all been chomping at the bit to get to this post.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 46

Welcome back for part 46 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! There is so little left of this pattern now I bet those of you who have had time to do the patterns as they were released can smell the end! I'm going to be mean though and stick to the schedule! Not much longer to wait though as the last part will be given before the end of this month - so if you are up to date (or still have a few weeks to do) there is still time to finish before Christmas!

Friday Freebie: Fob a Month - November

Welcome to the eleventh edition of the Fob a Month for 2018! While it might be a given to do the poppy in November because of Remembrance Day I won't be doing that because I did the poppy in August. I did however choose another of my favourite flowers instead: the Anemone. I love the white ones the most with the big purple-black centre so that's the one I designed.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 45

Welcome back for part 45 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! This week the first part of the last band. I do hope you enjoy this last band too! As some people showed in the past that they didn't like the partial beasts I am giving a second picture below to show how you can stitch the beasts instead to have no partial beasts.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - November

Welcome back for the eleventh Ornament of the Month! Now it's November, some of you may already be thinking about Christmas decorating - maybe some of you even have trees out! Personally I wait until after Sinterklaas (the Dutch "Santa") has been on December 5th before getting my tree up but that's mostly because with kids it's easier to do one holiday before the other rather than mixing them up. Now it's a family tradition to do it like this and the one time I did it a few days sooner as the kids no longer believed in Sinterklaas it felt really weird to have it up "that early" so I haven't done that again. I'd love to hear what your family or personal traditions are in this respect!

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 44

Welcome back for part 44 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! So... if you are in the USA or any other part of the world that didn't change to winter time last weekend this post is only a little late... if you are in Europe, where the clocks changed to winter time last weekend, this post is more than an hour late - sorry about that! All I can say in my defence is that I got caught up watching Heston Blumenthal first making a Gothic Horror dinner for six unsuspecting diners and then he made chicken tikka masala though I did manage to drag myself away before he started making the naan bread.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 43

Welcome back for part 43 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! This week you get the "missing" bits from last week's pattern section as well as this week's ten lines of stitching for a total of twelve lines of stitching. I'm very glad I realised what day of the week it was just in time to post this as I was busy stressing about my oldest son who just arrived in Italy for a school exchange trip - he will be fine but I always stress during the flight.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 42

Welcome back for part 42 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! This week is a little exciting as it's the end of the band - and shorter than usual as well for that very same reason! As always I like to round off the band with the separating band and not do any part of the following band just because one or two lines of stitching isn't nice to try and work in, especially if you are using multiple colours.

Friday Freebie: Fob a Month - October

Welcome to the tenth edition of the Fob a Month for 2018! This month is all about Halloween for many people and although my fob a month series has been flower themed I did sneak in a little Halloween anyway. One of my favourite autumn flowers is the humble dahlia. It's not always appreciated for what it is: a blaze of colour towards the end of the gardening season brightening things up with the many shapes and colours the flowers come in.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 41

Welcome back for part 41 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! I'm so sorry this is delayed! I had a parent's evening and expected to be home on time so I could get this post made before it was time to go up - as you can tell I didn't.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - October

Welcome back for the tenth Ornament of the Month! A few people may recognise the images below - they were the ones you might have briefly been able to see last month when I posted the incorrect images and posted this month's instead, fortunately I got last month's pattern correct so not all was released too soon! This month the correct images and pattern have been included. The colours remind me of pumpkins and Halloween.