Blue Ribbon Pumpkin

No, I haven't been entering gardening competitions and winning blue ribbons for my pumpkins... but I do have a Blue Ribbon Design pumpkin to show you!

And yes, that also means I have another finish for 2016....

Finish #8
This month's theme for the Halloween Ornie Blog is pumpkins.  I found the perfect quick stitch for this month... "Halloween Portraits" by Blue Ribbon Designs.

This little pumpkin is one of 6 or 7 designs included in the "Halloween Portraits" set.  Besides the cute pumpkin there is also a ghost, witch, black cat, crow, owl... plus a couple more that I can't remember... I will have plenty more to stitch over the coming months for my Halloween themes!  The designs were published in the Just Cross Stitch Halloween 2015 magazine.

Once I have stitched a couple more on this piece of fabric I will turn them into little pillow ornies... but the final finish may be some time off!! :o)

So that's it for today... all up to date with my posting again.  I still have a TUSAL and GG post to do this week so I will try and be on time for those posts later in the week....

Til then, happy stitching!
Hugs xx

FF, FNSI & IHSW Round Up

It's Monday.... and time for a weekend stitching round up post!

First up is Friday Frolics.... nothing to report as nothing was stitched on Friday :o(  Epic fail....   We were out on Friday night and by the time we got home it was a bit too late to even think about threading a needle for a few stitches....

And of course you know what that means don't you??  Double epic fail!

Friday night was also FNSI and while I did sign up for this and I was hoping to be home in time to stitch with everyone... it just didn't happen! :o( :o(

But I am an optimist and I also look for that silver lining.... last weekend was also IHSW and I did manage to stitch most of the weekend!!  Having a cold, damp Spring Sunday helped immensely!

Joyce didn't post a sign up page last week.... but I didn't let that deter me.... want to see what I stitched on Saturday and Sunday?

Saturday saw me rummage around in the Stitching Box and come up with "Halloween Sneak Peek" by The Trilogy, which was good timing as I needed to stitch and post my "ghost" on the Halloween Ornie SAL Blog before the end of the month.... indeed before Halloween which falls at the end of the month!!!

I am really pleased with my weekend stitching progress... because not only did I start and finish the Ghost square... but I also started and nearly finished the Jack (pumpkin) square!  (If the Argentina/Ireland Rugby game had gone another half hour I would have probably finished that one as well!!!)

So first up... here is the "Ghost" square

"Halloween Sneak Peek" designed by The Trilogy

After a weekend of stitching on the Ghost and the Jack, the whole piece now looks like this:

"Halloween Sneak Peek" designed by The Trilogy
as at Oct 2015

Not bad progress for Saturday and Sunday, even if I do say so myself!!  I have only one more square (the witch) to stitch on this one and then back onto the border.....  Before I post my Ghost on the Halloween blog I need to do some Halloween decorating... have no idea what I am going to do but I think a trip to Spotlight is called for, or maybe I should just take a photo of the cobwebs and big black spiders that we have hanging around on the back patio and use them as my decorating!!!

I am going to put this one away now so that I can start on my Christmas Ornie SAL Blog piece for October.  Hopefully I will have something to show you all next week....

Til next time, happy stitching!
Hugs, xx

Hallowe'en SAL Update

There aren't enough days in the weekend

~ Rod Schmidt ~

Hi there!  I know I have been very re-miss with my monthly updates for the Hallowe'en Ornie 2014 SAL Blog.... that's because I haven't really been doing any Halloween stitching lately!  I sort of got stuck in May when my job changed and I went back to working 5 days a week - less time at home to stitch translated to less stitching being done!!

But today I do actually have a Halloween styled WIP to show you all!  My last update on the Halloween SAL blog was back in April with the cute little Owl I stitched on plastic canvas.

May was a bit tricky because I couldn't find a monster that I liked enough to stitch.... so I moved on and started to look around to see what I could stitch for June & July.....

I have been eyeing off a design in the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue for quite some time... and I decided to stitch it this year.  Of course, me being me... I took ages to get organised to start... but my train of thought for this design went along the lines of:

May - monsters: nope, no monsters
June - free choice: yep, design is my choice!
July - pumpkins: excellent, this design has a pumpkin
August - ghosts: oops, no ghosts in my free choice design....
September - black cats: yep, there are black cats - 3 actually!

Yippee, my free choice design covers off three out five months.  So while I am still behind in this SAL, my free choice designs does sort of help me get back on track... all I have to do is finish it before the end of the year!!!

So here it is... my latest Halloween WIP:

"Witch and Friends"
Designed by Donna Giampa

As I mentioned earlier, this design was published in the 2013 JCS Halloween magazine.  You can see the finished version of the design on the front cover of the magazine below:

Next month's theme is "Trick or Treaters".  I have found a design for this one... but so far I haven't managed to start stitching October's theme.... but that's ok, after all the month has only just begun!!!

Hallowe'en Ornie SAL
2014 Themes
October - Trick or Treaters
November - Bugs, insects or spiders
December - Free choice

Still to stitch:
May - Monsters
August - Ghosts

Well, that it for another stitching update.  Can't promise you what I will have to show you in my next post... it will be a bit of a lucky dip I think...

Til next time, happy stitching!