End of the Owl SAL (sob)

It's all over - the owl SAL is finished. This was my first stitch-a-long and it was such fun. I will really miss stitching these little owls. I'm looking forward to what Tonia has in store for next year.

December Owl

Completed Owl SAL
Oakhaven Designs

I had the misfortune to come down with pneumonia at Thanksgiving, so I've spent a fair amount of time lolling on the couch and stitching. My latest project is from a fairly recent Just CrossStitch magazine (I can't remember which one offhand). It's called Summer Song by Midsummer Night Design. Other than ornaments, it's the first thing from the magazine I've ever stitched, despite having been a subscriber since 2006. I enjoy getting it but don't often find the projects calling to me. So I was pleased to find this one. It's nice to be working on something summery as the winter winds start to roll in.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas/Chanukah/New Year!

A Finished SAL and a Nearly Finished One

 

I'm so sorry that the iStitch Mystery SAL is over - it was such fun to get each successive design and to rush to get it completed. I was always so thrilled when my  picture got into the first slide show (not very often!) I'm so happy with the way it turned out. Now I just need to figure out how to finish it. We don't have Hobby Lobby here in the east so I can't use the box it's designed for, but hopefully I will find something else. Thank you to Carol for making this SAL possible!

And here's November's owl - only one more to go. I do wonder what December's will look like. I don't know what I'll do when all my SALs are finished. Of course, maybe I'll get something else accomplished! I bought a Halloween design that I never got to, and except for the bag of candy in our kitchen, that feels like it was ages ago. Yesterday at the hairdresser they were playing Christmas music so that's probably where I should be putting my stitching energy. Hmmm, maybe if I finish my (not) Jenny Bean Christmas Sampler, it would count...

October SAL Pictures

This will  be short and sweet - I'm just posting my latest SAL pictures:

This is the October owl from Oakhaven Designs. I didn't realize it when I took the picture, but you can barely see the little white ghost to the right of the owl - those two black things are his eyes. You can only faintly see the white stitching for his body. He certainly is ghostlike in this picture!

And here's Part 6 of the iStitch Mystery SAL. Part 7 arrived in my inbox yesterday and I've made a small start on it. Then there's only one more part to go!

SAL Progress

For a slow stitcher like me, the SALs I am participating in are just perfect - each one has just the right amount of stitching so I can keep up. I'm determined not to fall behind in either of them. Here's my latest progress.

First up is September's owl from Oakhaven Designs. It's been such fun to see what kind of owl Tonia will come up with each month. My son's friends have seen me stitching on this, and now every time they come over they ask to see the latest owl. This little white-winged guy is supposed to have French knots for his eyes, but I just can't seem to do them on Aida, so he gets the sleepy-eyed look.


And the Mystery SAL from iStitch keeps getting prettier and prettier. This is what it looks like through Part 5, which I finished this morning. The next part won't be released until October 8th - I'm going to be in withdrawal!

The Frame Game

I had a couple of my more recent finishes framed at Joann Fabrics. Finding the right frame for a piece is no easy task! I really wasn't sure what would be best for Dandy Dreams, and struggled to find something that fit. I had a very opinionated framer helping me who felt that it should be matted because it was fairly small, but I resisted, though I did let her convince me to use glass for both pieces - something I continue to be ambivalent about. I'm curious - what do people think about the glass issue? To use glass, or not to use glass, that is the question. In any case, I ended up with a frame that I don't really love, but the color is exactly the color of the lettering and the rough texture seems to go with the design. So I'm going to live with it.

Dandy Dreams
Silver Creek Samplers
28 count Chime linen and DMC

With The North Wind I again chose not to mat it. This frame has a little bit of blue running along the inside beveled edge that you can't really see in the picture. I like this one a lot.

The North Wind
Little House Needleworks
Meadow Mist Belfast/Crescent Colours and DMC

Now my only problem is finding places to hang these pictures. I don't have a lot of unused real estate for wall space. There's one perfect wall but it contains my husband's poster of a cyclist climbing the Going to the Sun Highway, and I would fear for my marriage if I ever suggested taking it down.

I also stitched up a small LHN design called Snow White, though I used Mer Bleu Belle Soie instead of the Icing it called for. Blue is such an icy color - it just seemed to fit the piece.

Finally, I've been enjoying the iStitch Mystery SAL, and here it is up to Part 3. As I told Carol. I was really relieved the latest section was tiny - last week I scratched my cornea, which put a big crimp in my stitching life. After three different medicines I seem to be on the mend, and I'm looking forward to Part 4!

I just gor the September Owl chart from Oakhaven Designs, so I'm off to get that going. Hopefully my eye will cooperate!

Jenny Bean No More

My title sounds like I lost Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler, but fortunately that is not the case (though I remember with a shudder my temporary loss of Sew Spooky). As I came into the home stretch on JB, I realized that I didn't want someone else's name on my work. Maybe this is why I haven't yet tried stitching a reproduction sampler, in spite of often gazing with envy at the beautiful work of others. I've never changed anything before, other than floss colors, but with a little bit of guilt, I charted my initials instead of the name, and added the little motifs on either side. While I was at it I made a few other alterations - I didn't like the eyelet B, so I made up another letter style, and I changed the block shapes on the front of the barn (I'm into symmetry, I guess). I dated the sampler with the current year. Oh, and I removed the extra W and X in the alphabet - I couldn't figure out why they were there other than to fill in space, but I think it looks okay without them. So here's my version of Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler, sans the final border - I ran out of Rose Garden and had to order another skein - don't you hate when that happens?

I've done a few other little things lately - this is Blue Moon, a freebie by Brightneedle:

And here's August's owl:

Last but not least, I was lucky to get to sign up for the iStitch Mystery SAL, and just completed Part 1 this afternoon. It's my first project with 40 count linen, and I'm using HDF Beleaved - the greens are a little darker than they show up in the picture. I'm so excited to be participating in this, and am determined to keep up!

The only other thing I'm working on right now is Snow White, by Little House Needleworks, which I'm actually stitching in blue. But I just kitted up a project that will be my first foray into using black linen, which may make for some interesting challenges. I hope to get started on that one soon.

Dandy Dreams Done

I finished Dandy Dreams - what an enjoyable project to stitch. I wish the photo showed the buttery yellow color of the linen better than it does. I think this is the first piece I've ever made that didn't have a misplaced stitch in it! I'm so used to fudging it - I could hardly believe it when everything fell into the right place. Though I did change the yellow designs in the border, since I didn't like them being asymmetrical - this way they look more like full dandelions in bloom.

 Dandy Dreams
Silver Creek Samplers
Picture This Plus Chime Linen
DMC

Here's July's owl - this was a really quick one. I'm certainly amassing quite an owlery - they'd fit right in at Hogwarts. The January owl reminds me of Hedwig.

I have had such trouble uploading and placing pictures, and finally realized that there was a new editor that made everything easier. It's so nice that everything doesn't load at the top of the page anymore!