January Halloween Ornie

This is the first time I take part in the Halloween Ornie SAL. The idea of this SAL is to make a Halloween ornament each month related with the proposed theme (there is a proposed theme each month). I decided to stitch some of the patterns published in my collection of special issues of Journal Cross Stitch magazine, there are lot of things I want to do and that is a very good opportunity to do them. So let's go with the January ornament.

I need to mention that because of my broken wrist I could manage to do the embroidery part, but to fully finish the ornament, it will need to wait until my plaster is off and my wrist with mobility enough.

January theme is Pumpkin. I chose a design published in the Halloween special issue of Journal of Cross Stitch 2018. The pattern name is Pumpkin Pie and it is designed by Jennifer Rodriguez of Always Time to Stitch. It is stitched on Aida 14 count in cream colour with DMC threads 310, 471 and 721.

I will update the post once I finish my Pumpkin Pie.

Update

I finished my January's ornament.

WIPocalypse - Introducing 2020 Goals

I am here other year to take part in WIPocalypse. 

I have been taking part in this SAL for a couple of years, but every year something happened and I could never finish and always stopped around summer time. I am starting to call that the curse of the WIPs….. As I explained in my previous post, last year I made a big change in my life moving from London area to North East of England, which stopped me to finish the projects I started. That means I have a lot of carry over project. As every year and because that helps me a lot, I am going to join different SALs, link parties and challenges.  But let’s see what my goals are for this 2020.

I am going to join in the following:

•  WIPocalypse. You need to show your advances in a post made the posting date. There is also a question to answer every month and different challenges during the year.

•   People’s Choice SAL. I will not participate in all of them. There is a theme of the month and if I like it I will stitch something for that SAL. It should be posted first Saturday of each month.

• Small SAL. I don’t know if that one will be going on 2020.

•  Fully Finished SAL. Same as smalls SAL, if it is going on I will take part.

•  Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. The idea is stitch some to give as a gift or from something given you as a gift. It can be using a pattern, fabric, thread, etc given to you as a gift or, as it will be my case, something you are going to give to someone. I am going to take part with the Christmas cards I explain below, as I will be sending them to my family/friends at the end of the year.

•  24HOCS Challenges. I recently knew about that Facebook group. There is a over the year challenge, 4 marathons every year and different challenges every month, as 24 hours stitching, Acronym challenge or holiday challenge.

This year I would like to finish:

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• Advent Calendar. I started it in 2018 and it was going to be part of my Christmas decoration this year, but when it was almost finished, only the soldier and star left, I broke my wrist and couldn’t stitch for the moment. I am planning to finish it this month if I can stitch (I still need to wear the plaster for all January).

• Connie Gee Blackwork SAL. That SAL started on 2018 and was going on for all 2019 to complete 25 parts. I stitched up to part 16 and because it is fairly quick I would like to complete it soon.

• Prickly But Cute. I started it in 2018 and finished 3 parts. The SAL consists on 15 very cute cacti. It was planned for 2019 but I didn’t have time to touch it.

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• Hooties All Year Round. I was on time with it until July, when I started to prepare for moving. It will be finished before summer.

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• Dreamcatcher. Something similar happened with that one. I finished the dreamcatchers corresponding to spring and summer and have 2 left.

• Monthly Flowers. That SAL was published in CrossStitcher magazine during 2019. The idea was to stitch every flower and finish it as it was proposed in the model. I finished snowdrop, primrose and daffodil and this one is a MUST for 2020.

• ORT Label. This is a very small project. It is a label for my ORTs jar showing “Irene’s ORTs”. I will try to finish quick

• Few Christmas Ornaments from 2019. I stitched them before breaking my wrist so I could never finish them.

I would like to start and finish:

•        A blackwork Christmas ornament a month. Organized by Magical Quilts and more, consists in stitching one ornament every month in blackwork.

•       A Halloween ornament a month. It is the first time I am going to take part. There is a theme every month and it is presented in a sort of guest blogging in the blog Halloween Ornie SAL 2020.

•         A hardanger gift bag collection. I bought these patterns in Etsy and consists in a collection of 7 gift bags.

•          My favourite things of each month. This is what CrossStitcher magazine proposes this year as monthly chart.

•          Seasons SAL. It is organized by Magical Quilts and More.

•          Temperature SAL. Organized by Magical Quilts and More it is a typical temperature SAL.

•          A Christmas card a month. Again organized by Magical Quilts and More, this one is to stitch a Christmas card every month. I am going to have 12 cards at the end of the year to send to my most beloved friends. I will present in the GG2020.

•          A Christmas Ornament a month. This is similar to the Halloween one, organized by the blog Christmas Ornie SAL. There are 3 options to choose, 12 days of Christmas, Christmas carols or Just Cross Stitch magazine. I am going to stitch the last option.

And that’s all. I don’t know how much I will be able to stitch in January with my broken wrist but I hope all will be settled and in February my wrist will be fine and ready to stitch.

2019 Summary

2019 is over and, maybe it is quite late, but it is time to make a summary of the year. This year I made an other big change in my life. After living in London area for 8 years I decided to move to the north of England. I left my job and I got a new one in  Northumberland, North East of England. So I packed all my stuffs and my little Luna and moved to the North to a very cute and beautiful town close to the Scottish border. I am very happy here, all is very different, people are very friendly, it is colder and I am very close to the beach and hills.

I don't know the hills yet, I need to go to the Cheviots, but what can I say about the beach......? There are beautiful landscapes in this area, I love how quite you can be sitting in the beach with nobody around.....

But as a consequence of moving, my stitches have been completely stopped. I stopped in June as I got the new job and I was looking for my home. Then I was preparing all for moving and finally moved. After reaching to my new place I had lots of things to do, in the house organising all, in the job getting used to a new company and outdoor as I was amazed and couldn't stop visiting beaches every afternoon.

Finally I settled a bit and started to do some stitches. And unfortunately I fell down and broke my wrist, so again I stopped stitching.

I started the new year with a plaster cast on, but now I improved a bit and I am able to do small things. I can fix the fabric in the hoop, I can thread the needle and using a embroidery hoop that I can hold with my leg while sited I am stitching again. Hope my wrist heals soon and I can start doing embroideries at my normal pace.

WIPocalypse - April Check In

The WIPocalypse SAL is hosted by Measi's Musings.

Time to slow down for a while and look back to see what I could do this month. As every month happens, I did so much less than what I really wanted to do. Some of my annual projects didn’t advance as I was preparing some Easter decoration and now I need to catch up with them.

But before I start showing what I did, as every moth I do, let’s see the list of my WIPs.

1. Hooties All Year Round 1
2. Just Cross Stitch Christmas ornament
3. Month Flower
4. Connie Gee Design Blackwork SAL
5. Advent Calendar
6. Season Dreamcatcher
7. Easter Egg NEW
8. Easter decoration NEW
9. Litha

I am running behind with the owls. April’s owl should be done by now but I could only make March’s one on this month. It is representing Saint Patrick’s Day. I hope I can catch up and finish April’s and May’s owls by the end of May.

I finished two flowers this month, primroses, representing February and daffodils which represent March. Both of them are done in evenweave fabric using DMC stranded cotton threads. Primroses are framed using a hoop and the daffodils are finished as a small cushion.

I made a good advance in the Advent Calendar. I finished the ornaments for days 4 to 7. They are pair of mittens, a bauble, a snowman, a poinsettia and an angel. I will try to go up to day 10 in May.

Last update I mentioned that I started my Seasonal Dreamcatchers. Well, it is finished now and looks very nice. I made it in 14 count Aida fabric using the DMC called for threads. They will be very nice once they are all together.

This month I also finished the Litha Banner which I was carrying over from last year. I finished it as I did with the rest, using this time yellow back fabric.

For Easter this year I prepared two embroideries. Both designs are from the Just Cross Stitch April issue magazine. One of them is an Easter egg embroidered with speciality stitches. You can read more here about the stitches I used in that piece. 

The other one is more simple but not less nice because of that. The design says Happy Easter and shows some typical Easter things as eggs, bunnies, etc.

I started the spring magical mystery SAL proposed by Magical Quilts and More. I just started it and made the two first parts. That will be over soon and I will show it next month. For now, I want to show the fabric and threads I chose for it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

I couldn’t do anything for the JCS Christmas ornaments or the Connie Gee blackwork SAL.

Measi’s Musings use to do propose a question every month. For the month of April the question is:

“Talk to us about your longest running WIP or UFO”

Fortunately I don’t have now any WIP or UFO running for long time, but the project which took me longer in finishing was the Queen of Water. I started it on 2015 and finished only beginning of this year. I will try to avoid that happen again as much as posible.

Small SAL 2019 - April Check In

The Small SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread.

From the last time I posted on this SAL, I decided to do something different as what I planned at the beginning of the year. I started in 2018 the Advent Calendar, I did the corresponding embroideries for days 1 and 2. I want to finish this year and I decided to do each month the embroideries corresponding to two days. I re-started in January and from that time I finished the motifs corresponding to day 3 to day 7.

The Advent Calendar is a design from Tiny Modernist. I am doing all the days in the same fabric in a 6 column by 4 rows disposition. I chose for that design a Christmas Red 18 count Aida fabric with the call for colours from DMC.

Day 1 and 2 were finished last year and they represent a snowflake and a gingerbread man. This year I stitched as I mentioned already days 3 to 7, representing each one the following:

Day 3: pair of mittens

Day 4: Bauble

Day 5: Snowman

Day 6: Poinsettia

Day 7: Angel

And that is like the look all together.

Gifted Gorgeousness 2019 - April Check In

The Gifted Gorgeousness SAL is hosted by Serendipitous Stitching.

I want to show my advance in my Hooties All Year Round. I missed last month check in as I didn’t finish any more owls but I have one more to show in April. Ok, it is not April’s one, I couldn’t do it as I was most of the time doing Easter decorations, but I can show the March’s one.

The owl representing March is dressed for Saint Patrick’s Day and it is holding a four leaves clover, which brings good luck to the person who find it. It is very cute, I like how they look like together with the other two and I hope to finish in the Easter break my April’s owl and show you next month together with May’s one.

Spring Dreamcatcher

One of the projects I want to stitch this year is a set of dreamcatchers, one dreamcatcher for each one of the seasons. I love dreamcatchers and the story behind them.

Long ago, when the world was young, an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain. On the mountain, he had a vision. In his vision, Iktomi - the great trickster and teacher of wisdom - appeared in the form of a spider.

Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language. Only spiritual leaders of the Lakota could understand. As Iktomi spoke, he took the elder's willow hoop - which had feathers, horse hair, beads and offerings on it - and began to spin a web.

He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life and how we begin our lives as infants. We then move on to childhood and in to adulthood. Finally, we go to old age where we must be taken care of as infants, thus, completing the cycle.

"But," Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, "in each time of life there are many forces - some good and some bad. If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. But, if you listen to the bad forces, they will hurt you and steer you in the wrong direction."

He continued, "There are many forces and different directions that can help or interfere with the harmony of nature and also with the Great Spirit and all of his wonderful teachings."

All while the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web ... starting from the outside and working toward the center. When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the Lakota elder the web and said, "See, the web is a perfect circle, but there is a hole in the center of the circle."

"Use the web to help yourself and your people ... to reach your goals and make use of your people's ideas, dreams and visions. If you believe in the Great Spirit, the web will catch your good ideas, and the bad ones will go through the hole." (Note: Some bands believe the bad ideas are caught in the web and the good ideas pass through to the individual. Either account is acceptable.)

The Lakota elder passed his vision on to his people. Now, the Sioux use the dreamcatchers as the web of their life. Traditionally, it is hung above their beds or in their homes to sift their dreams and visions. Good dreams are captured in the web of life and carried with them ... but the evil dreams escape through the center's hole and are no longer part of them. (Note: Some bands believe the bad ideas are caught in the web and the good ideas pass through to the individual. Either account is acceptable.)

Lakota believe the dreamcatcher holds the destiny of their future.

Obtained from historical documents and believed to be public domain.

  

I have few dreamcatcher at home, including one on my bedroom door and other over my bed headboard. But it was a longtime I wanted to stitch one. When I saw this pattern in Etsy I thought that 4 is better than one and I bought it thinking to stitch them separately to display the corresponding to the season of the year.

But once I had the pattern I though that is was going to be better if I stitch all together and it is like that I am doing them. I chose for that design my favourite cross stitch fabric, 18 count Aida rustic oatmeal and I used the DMC called for colours. It is true that for the net part you should be very attentive as it is very easy make a mistake, but in general it is easy and quick to do. I finished it in couple of afternoon, around an overall of 8 hours.

Next one, corresponding to the summer, will wait for sometime as I have spring parts of other season projects I want to finish before starting with the summer projects.

This post will be linked in TO DO Tuesday linky party hosted by Stitch All The Things