TUSAL August 2016

Hello.... surprise, surprise!! I am on time for this month's ORTs report!

This month's ORTs are sitting with my latest WIP.  This is my wild card entry for the JCS SAL July piece (not quite finished.... just needs beads now which I will do tonight).  The design is called "Christmas Festoon" designed by Patricia Ann Designs.  It was published in the Just Cross Stitch Christmas 2015 edition.

What made up the ORT's this month?

Besides the red and green from the Christmas Festoon piece, I also worked on some other WIP's - pictures below:

Free Gift - Snowman and Penguin Christmas Card
Last stitched on in May for Stitch Maynia

May 2016

Now looks like this:

July 2016

Free Gift - Kate Knight Peacock
Last stitched on in January 2016

January 2016

Now looks like this:

July 2016

Nora Corbett's Christmas Eve Couriers - Comet

16th July 2016

31st July 2016

Halloween Sneak Peek"" - The Trilogy
Last stitched on in October 2015

October 2015

July 2016

I do have one more WIP but I am saving that one for the GG post later this month as it is one of my 2015 GG pieces...

So that's it for this ORT report and WIP update!

Til next time, happy stitching
Hugs xx




What is a TUSAL and an ORT Report??
Essentially TUSAL posts are all about stitching and saving our ORT's (Old Raggety Threads) and every New Moon those of us participating in the TUSAL post a picture of our ORT's, and then leave little msgs for Daffycat on her blog to show that we have been stitching and have posted our wonderful pics. 
Next New Moon - 1 September 2016

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

My Little Black Cat!

Yep, that's right.... this post is all about my little black cat... not a little black book or a little black dress... but a little black cat!! :o) (sorry.... just couldn't resist....)

As you know from previous posts I have been stitching Halloween themed ornies for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL 2015 - some month's are more successful than others!  The theme for August was Black Cats.

As any cat fan knows there are millions of cat designs out in the big wide stitching world for us to choose from... and while I did do some looking around to see what else was out there, I had always planned to stitch the black cat that appears in the Sneak Peek Halloween design that I am currently stitching.

When you last saw this WIP it looked like this:

"Sneak Peek Halloween" as at 24 August 2015

And as of last night it looks like this:

"Sneak Peek Halloween" as at 31 August 2015

Yes!  Another mini finish done and dusted!!

The theme for September is "Spooky Words" and then we have "Ghosts" for October.  There is a ghost square on this piece so you will see it again sometime in October.

That's it for another spooky stitching update.  Hopefully I will be back again soon with some more kitty stitching to show as this weekend is Detention time for The Alphabet Club.

Til next time, happy stitching!
Hugs xx

FNSI & IHSW August Update

Friday Night Sew In (FNSI).... held on the third Friday of every month - hosted by Wendy from Sugarlane Designs.

Friday night saw me putting in the last of the back stitches on my Santa Claus.... You haven't seen him yet as I only started stitching him in the last few days and now he is finished!! Yippee :o) Amazing what a cold, wet couple of days in front of the telly can do for your stitching progress!!

August 2015

This little cute Aussie Santa and mates is my August choice for the Christmas Ornie SAL 2015.  Another task ticked off the list!!  The design is from the Cross Stitch Crazy magazine (issue #171) and is designed by Jenny Barton.  There were a number of Santas from around the world but the Aussie one tickled my Christmas funny bone!!  (I was toying with the idea of putting a red dot in the middle of the spider for the classic Aussie Red Back Spider.... but I don't think it would have worked!) 

If you think he looks a bit strange.... I stitched him on plastic canvas, then trimmed it down before gluing on some felt to the back of him yesterday morning.  I still have to trim the felt down a bit but I will do that later in the week once I am happy that everything is well stuck!

If you want to have a look at who else joined in for Friday Night Stitch In, head over to Wendy's blog (Sugarlane Designs) for sign-up links.

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW).... held on the third weekend (Fri - Sun) of every month - hosted by Joyce (Random Ramblings).

This month saw Joyce have a two part IHSW!  Part 1 was last weekend and....  this weekend was Part 2!

My plan for the weekend was to yet again stitch on "Halloween Sneak Peek" by The Trilogy.  As the month draws to a close I need to finish my "Black Cat" for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog.

When you last saw this piece I had just finished the "Haunted House" for last month's Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog post:

July 2015

Over the weekend I managed to get 2 box borders finished and 3 sides of the "Black Cat" one stitched.

Tonight I will get that last side stitched and then start on the cat and with a bit of luck by the end of the week I will have the black cat ticked off the To-Do stitching list!

If you are wondering what everyone else did over the weekend, drop on over to Joyce's blog and have a look at sign up post for a full list of who was participating.

So that is it for my stitching weekend....

Now before I go.... I have a quick update on some stitching that I have now started doing for "The Alphabet Club" posts.  August was our first month of posting and but I failed to show a stitching piece... but I can sort of fix that now!!

I have decided to stitch an afghan using the gorgeous ABC cats from Les Brodeuses Parisiennes.  I have admired the designs from this French designer for a long time and finally got up the nerve to place an order.... (and it ended up being a rather large one at that.... Euro to Aussie Dollar is not kind!  I wish I had thought to go to their shop when we were Paris a couple of years ago....) I just love Parisienne / French inspired stitching.... ooh la la!! ♥♥♥

I still have a little bit more of the "A" cat to go before starting "B" but I had to put this down for a while to concentrate on other stitchy things.  I must say stitching on the very soft afghan material is going to be quite challenging I think!!

That's it for today... see you again soon!

Enjoy your week, happy stitching
Hugs xx

Sneak Peek.... Halloween Style!

As most of you know I have been trying to stitch monthly Halloween designs as part of the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL 2015 Blog.... most month's I don't always manage to have a finish to show... but....

I am on time this month; I have finished my July "Haunted House", and I have even managed to get a post up by the end of July!!

My Haunted House is from "The Trilogy's Halloween Sneak Peek".  The last time you saw this design it looked a bit like this:

And now with the Haunted House done it looks like this:

Sneak Peek Halloween - The Trilogy
Haunted House finished July 2015

I did make one small change to the colours on this one.... the yellow/orange that the chart called for was way too close to the fabric colour so I swapped it out for DMC 165.... which does show up somewhat better!

With a little bit of luck I will get the Sneak Peek Black Cat finished in time for an August posting.... and my September theme of "Spooky Words" is almost done as well.... oh, does that mean I might be getting organised! Don't believe it!! :o)

Til til next time.... happy Halloween stitching
Hugs xx

It's a wrap! FNSI & IHSW July Update

Friday Night Sew In (FNSI).... held on the third Friday of every month

Let's start with Friday night's stitching....  I had great intentions of doing heaps of stitching on Friday night but.... I was so knackered when I got home from work that in the end I decided to grab one of the smaller designs that I have been slowly working on rather than risk stitching on something larger and frogging it all out again on Saturday!!

Friday's lucky stitching winner was the little Christmas Kitty freebie from Margaret Sherry.  I started this one back in January, put it down again until April and then forgot about it again until now....

Before I started stitching on Friday night he looked like this:

Christmas Kitty - April 2015

Now he looks like this.... nowhere near finished though!!  Oh well, I am sure there will be another opportunity soon to get him finished!

Christmas Kitty - July 2015

Now after all the fun of a Friday Night Stitch In, don't forget to head back over to Wendy's blog (Sugarlane Designs) to see what she got up to over the weekend.

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW).... held on the third weekend (Fri - Sun) of every month

As I mentioned on Friday, the weekend just gone was also IHSW time.  Now that you have seen Friday's stitching effort, let me show you what I stitched on during Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday saw Nora Corbett Christmas Eve Courier "Prancer" come out of the stitching basket.

When you last saw "Prancer" at the beginning of the month he was missing a leg or two...

"Prancer" - 2 July 2015

 I have now managed to completed his two back legs and started on the front leg.  As you will probably notice the top part of the ribbon is still in the same spot as last time!!!  I am trying to leave all the white stitching to the last possible moment.....

"Prancer" - 20 July 2015

Sunday was a very dark and damp day... perfect weather for stitching on a Halloween design!  Which was just as well as I remembered on Friday that I hadn't got myself organised to stitch the Haunted House for the Halloween Ornie Blog post at the end of the month.

So enter "Halloween Sneak Peek" by The Trilogy.  Now the last time you saw this one was way back in February when it looked like this:

"Halloween Sneak Peek" - The Trilogy - February 2015

As you will notice I have stitched some more of the black border and completed one inside box border.  This little inside border will have a haunted house in it eventually!  All I have to do is get the house stitched before the end of the month....

"Halloween Sneak Peek" - The Trilogy - July 2015

If you are wondering what everyone else did over the weekend, drop on over to Joyce's blog and have a look at sign up post for a full list of who was participating.

So that is it for my stitching weekend.... I did do some "finishing" to my MS Lovers Blog exchange piece on Saturday and Sunday.  Fingers crossed that should be in the mail by the end of this week and then hopefully in a couple of weeks time I will be able to show you a finished finish!!! :o)

Enjoy your week, happy stitching
Hugs xx

Crazy January Challenges - Stitching Updates....

Remember all those lovely designs that I started stitching throughout January, well I have tried to make a big effort to keep stitching on them throughout February.  I did show you some of them in my stitching updates over the last couple of weeks - post link are here and here... and now I have some more for you.

Lizzie Kate's Tiny Tidings XV - "Feeling Festive"

When you last saw this little cute reindeer he looked like this:

Now he looks like this:

Lizzie Kate's Tiny Tidings XV - "Joyeux Noel"

Back in January, the second of the designs from this chart pack looked like this:

Now, it looks like this:

Slowly but surely these two are inching along....

The Trilogy - Halloween Sneak Peek

Back in January I left you with a little bit of a black border:

and today there is not much more to see.... just a tiny bit more of the black border!

Happy Howloween - Brooke Nolan (Brooke's Books)

I just love these two cuties (a cat dressed as a dog and vice versa!).... in January I left them looking like this:

Not a lot of progress happened when I picked this up again the other day... but at least the dog/cat is getting a pair legs!!

Don't you just love how different the fabric looks under different light and photo conditions!  The photo above is probably a lot closer to the real colour of the fabric than the one I took in January!

I have also been stitching on some new starts over February, but they will have to wait for another post!

♥ Thank you for all your lovely comments on my posts over the last few weeks... it is so nice to read your encouraging words. ♥

Til next time, Happy Stitching!
Hugs xx