The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 10

Welcome to the tenth part of the Summer Mystery SAL! Yesterday I was able to catch up on the mystery stitching - and I wasn't the only one who did some catch up on Sunday as the posts in the Facebook group showed! What fun to see so much progress! Of course it's only fair to show mine too...

The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 9

Welcome to the ninth part of the Summer Mystery SAL! Today there is a picture but it's of part seven as I'm a day more behind than usual - I spent most of Saturday on the sofa because my rheumatism is playing up badly. Such as life as those of you with chronic conditions know... anyway towards the end of the day, just before writing this I managed to get the stitching done.

The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 8

Welcome to the eighth part of the Summer Mystery SAL! Today there is no picture to show what I did yesterday as, other than the 1/8th part of the NFSAL, I wasn't up to stitching. Hopefully I will be able to stitch tomorrow and I'll be able to catch up again! For a bit more on topic information: When you have completed this part you will have stitched 900 stitches! There are just 724 stitches left for the next six parts.

NFSAL 2020 - July

Welcome to the seventh of this year's NFSAL posts! This month hasn't been much better than the last with time etc for stitching so I "cheated" and only did a section of the pattern - which is 1/8th of it. Not much but enough to show what each of the eight sections look like with the backstitching done.

The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 7

Welcome to the seventh part of the Summer Mystery SAL! This post marks the halfway point of the SAL as the first week is over and there is just one week left! I hope you are enjoying the SAL so far and like what it looks like at this stage.

The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 6

Welcome to the sixth part of the Summer Mystery SAL! We (well the lads with some supervision) did get most of the pond dug and sorted out but I had to change some plans as we were working due to my imagination making the area bigger than it actually is - also finding a drain pipe from the houses that were here before the current houses were built in the 90's slowed us down so hopefully things will be finished today.

The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 5

Welcome to the fifth part of the Summer Mystery SAL! Today should be an exciting day for me - oldest and a friend will be digging a pond with a damp soil area around it in the garden next to the fence that was put in 2 years ago and got removed last year because the neighbours added an extension. The area was knee high in weeds and not nice to look at but what with one thing and another it wasn't easy getting to this point this year. In my dry soil making a damp soil area means putting pond liner under the soil to make it retain water better. The idea is to grow nice river bank type plants and create an area for birds and insects to drink/bath as well as have flowing water to help avoid standing water and mosquitoes. Fingers crossed the lads can get the groundwork done!

Easy Christmas Cards SAL - July

Welcome to the seventh part of the Easy Christmas Cards SAL! This month I pulled the bit of plastic Aida I have out and used a small bit of it to make the stitched part of this month's card. I also used some leftover threads from old kits I'd completed, a bit of paper from an old sketchbook and some leftover green card from some crafty project the kids did way back when.

The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 4

Welcome to the fourth part of the Summer Mystery SAL! Yesterday's part will have stitched up faster than the two days before - and today's will be even faster as there are again fewer stitches and also not so many colour changes. It's been so much fun seeing the daily progress of the embroideries some of you are making - and the many different colours used are fun too! From soft on light fabric to bright on black fabric - so many options!

The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 3

Welcome to the third part of the Summer Mystery SAL! I hope you saw my message in the Facebook group - if not or if you don't use Facebook it will be news to you that somehow the fourth green "moustache" shape of the part two pattern was missing from the PDF file. I'm not sure how as the pattern still had it in place and all I had to do was redo the pdf to make it show up again. I replaced the pattern immediately upon finding out. If your pattern shows four "moustache" shapes then you downloaded the pattern after the fix. If you only have three and you don't want to re-print it just start with that bit with today's pattern. I'm sorry for the inconvenience!

The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 2

Welcome to the second part of the Summer Mystery SAL! I hope the many extra stitches of part one and this part will help you be set for the rest of the SAL - this time the stitches are less spread out with fewer colours so that makes it easier for you! It's been fun seeing the first few people showing their colours and stitching!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 9 - Final Post

Welcome back for the final post of the ninth Mini Magical Mystery SAL! It's very late - I'd managed to completely forget that I had to do more posts today after making sure the Summer Mystery SAL part one went up. It's probably because I'd normally do this post before the start of the new mystery and so once that is up I'm finished for the day. Sorry about being so late! I do hope you all had fun! I have loved seeing your stitching in the Facebook group!

The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020 - Part 1

Welcome to the first part of the Summer Mystery SAL! This time it's very different from my usual standard sized mysteries as there are between 96 and 144 stitches per part and only one part a day instead of around 80 stitches per part every 4 hours.

35 x 35 for 2020 - July

Welcome to the seventh 35 x 35 for 2020! This month you get to choose how much - or little - straight stitch you add! There are three versions possible:

• No straight stitch at all
• A single line going all the way round
• Lots!

I'll show you photos of all three to help you choose which version you'd like to do. There are eight photos in this post - if you are low on data I suggest making sure you are on Wi-Fi first.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 9 - Part 12

Welcome back for day twelve of the ninth 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 usual time. The next round of the Mini Magical Mystery is still to be announced - this will happen next week. First up is the Summer Magical Mystery SAL which starts two hours earlier than the post time for this SAL. Check the information post for a link to the countdown clock so you can see when it is for you without having to do a bunch of time zone maths first. I'm not sure about you but I need coffee in the morning to function and it's too early for anything complicated if I've not had any.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 9 - Part 11

Welcome back for day eleven of the ninth round of mystery stitching! If like me you feel it's too soon for it to be the penultimate part then I can't really blame you - two parts less feels like a LOT now I'm just about at that end point! I'll have to remind myself not to do this again if it can be avoided!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 9 - Part 10

Welcome back for day ten of the ninth round of mystery stitching! Hopefully by now you have seen my news post about the future of this SAL if not then go read! How are you all doing? Still coping? Hanging on to the last shreds of your sanity? Or is life going on as per normal because you either are an essential worker (I hope you are getting enough rest between it all!) or were already home all the time and didn't go out much? I don't normally bring it up but I thought I would this time.

Blackwork SAL 2020 - July

Welcome to the seventh part of the 2020 Blackwork SAL! This month you will again get two pattern options. While I was stitching this month's patterns it occurred to me that in a way it's not a bad thing that we got so ahead in the first months of the year - you may find this strange but I for one tend to run out of steam towards the summer/autumn time - usually because I'm using what little energy I have doing things around the house and garden that my rheumatism doesn't let me do the rest of the year and, when we don't have pandemics ongoing, I usually get away for two weeks in the summer. Overall then it's not a bad thing but I have made sure it can't happen for next year's Blackwork SAL (Oh yes... there will be one!)

Mini Magical Mystery SAL - The Future

As the end of the ninth Mini Magical Mystery SAL nears I'm already missing the little patterns even though there will be the Summer Magical Mystery SAL taking over after it. The way the pandemic is looking at the moment it's improving in some places and getting worse in others, leading to localised lockdowns and potentially worse to come. To be Honest I, and I think everyone else, hoped it would all be over by summer and we could go back to some kind of normal afterwards.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 9 - Part 9

Welcome back for day nine of the ninth round of mystery stitching! Slightly late - sorry about that. I have be thinking about the future of these Mini Magical Mystery SALs and I'll let you know later today what my decision is - I don't want it hidden in a post where someone might miss it.