Saturday Sampler: Keeping Busy Edition

 

Before we get to important stitching news, I want to thank all of you for the continued prayers and the lovely messages for me and my family. I deeply appreciate all of them. This year has not started out as we had hoped, but we are blessed beyond measure and I count all of you among those blessings. I'm thankful to you and for you. (And for Tiger Lily, who has been my constant companion since I returned from Texas.)

Now, let's talk stitching, shall we? First, my 2021 blog book just arrived. This is a yearly tradition I treat myself to every January. I use this service and have always been happy with the books. There are discount codes on their Facebook page (you don't have to have a FB account to see them) and I recommend waiting for a current code if you're thinking of making a book. I am a paper and pencil, hard copy kinda gal, and I love having my blog in book form. 

As you might imagine, I didn't get to have my annual Stitchy Planning Week between Christmas and the New Year, so when I got back from Texas I started trying to put my mind to a little planning. At least for the first half of the year, my plans aren't as ambitious as they usually are since we'll be moving at some point. Don't know where, don't know when. Not stressful at all. So I needed some small, enjoyable, accomplishable (new word!) projects to get me through the coming months. Here's what I came up with:

Jeannette Douglas Bouquet Sampler 

This is free! Twelve pretty, seasonal bouquets and you can see all of them! I've only ever done one mystery SAL (large stitched piece with a common border, and you don't know what's coming) and from that experience I learned I'm not a mystery SAL person. I ended up going my own way on four of the last five installments, and while I'm very happy with the finished piece, I discovered that I'm a bit too much of a control enthusiast to put time and money for supplies into a large project I haven't seen. (If you love them, there are lots starting this month!)

And this is why I love this SAL. I'm stitching each bouquet individually as that's what works for me right now, but if you want to stitch them together, you can see what the finish will look like. January bouquet is up now.

She has also provided a list of all the hand dyed threads needed for the entire project, along with DMC conversions, so if you want to gather your supplies for the whole project, you can do so. 

I love the SAL explosion that happens every January. This did not used to be a thing, but in recent years it seems to have really taken off and while I don't do a lot of SALs, I'm happy to see anything that increases interest in stitching. If you'd like to join a SAL, this is a great list:

2022 Stitch Along List

There are all kinds available. Some are free, some not. Some are mystery, some not. Different techniques. 

I think more than SALs, I enjoy monthly series. I guess that can be considered a SAL, but maybe with a series you feel you can drop in and out as you choose, and you don't have to stitch every installment. Or maybe that's just me. Or maybe it's the lack of a border? Maybe I just have psychological issues? If it has a border it's a SAL and if it doesn't it's a series? I have no idea... 

Anyway.

2022 Bird Calendar 

This is my second choice and I am so looking forward to it. Last year I stitched her Tea & Coffee Series (still need to stitch December), and I loved it. I was hoping she'd do another series this year, and when I saw it was birds I just melted! I adore birds and I must say, it felt like a little gift just for me. Please do check out her Etsy shop. She has so many pretty things.

Also, keep your eyes open for Nashville Market goodies. I have noticed the very first few items begin to show up, one of which is a new edition of the Market cookbook they began producing a couple of years ago. Very cute little cookbooks with some small designs included. I'll try to remember to post Market preview pages when shops start putting them up.

Lots to look forward to in the stitchy world, and lots to keep busy with. Hope you're all happy and healthy and stitching up a storm!

Skeleton Crew is FINISHED!

I cannot believe I'm done with this thing! It has been a WIP for way too long, and it's actually been only a couple of hours' work from being finished for months. But that's how it goes when I only worked on it in little bursts every few months. Had I worked on it consistently it would've been a pretty fast stitch, even given its size. I normally stitch smalls, which is a good thing since I only stitch a couple of times a week at most, and sometimes don't pick up a needle for a couple of weeks (must fix that). This is the biggest piece I've stitched, so it was a major departure for me, and it's a major triumph that I stuck with it and finished it. Yay, me!

Off to knock off another WIP ('cause now I'm feelin' all big and stuff)...

SAL Update: Keel Hauled

Not much progress to show as I haven't touched this in about two months, but I figured if I'm trying to get back on track, I may as well post an update... with a whole two hours of stitching. I'm getting clooooose!

Here's a close-up of the old guy getting keel hauled. Wonder what he did to deserve that?

It's only the fourth of May and I've already posted as many times as I did in the entire month of April. I'm on fire. (I'm still winding floss, too.)

SAL Update: The High Seas

I'm all the way down to the waterline! Putting the whitecaps on the waves, then on to the keel.

SAL Update: Hoist the black flag!

The masts are finished!

SAL Update: The Return of Spooky Pirate Ship!

Been awhile, huh? I've been plugging away... 30 minutes a day, every day. Hoping to be finished by the end of the year.

Hard work:

SAL Update: More Sails

Well, I was moving along pretty well and then August arrived and progress came to a screeching halt. I was really hoping to have that mast finished, but no.

Mr. Wonderful starts graduate school at the end of the month and that will be a whole new kind of crazy. Yay.

Stitchy Happiness

There are lots of great things about having stitching as a hobby, and one of them is how happy I can be made by small things, like a magazine. Perhaps I'm simple-minded, but it sure makes me easier to live with when I can get all excited about the annual Just Cross Stitch Halloween Special Issue and remain unmoved by designer shoes and bags. Just ask Mr. Wonderful.

I love Halloween. I don't love the gory, bloody, body-parts-strewn-everywhere direction it seems to have taken in recent years. The Halloween I love is the Halloween from my childhood: fat pumpkins, smiley black cats, and cute little ghosts. Halloween is one of my favorite subjects to stitch and the appearance of Halloween stitchy magazines every summer is an event at my house, so when I called my LNS this morning and discovered they had just received their shipment of the JCS Halloween Special Issue, I was off and running. What was I supposed to be doing? Cleaning the house. Did I clean the house? No. Do I feel guilty? Maybe a teensy bit, but it goes away when I'm flipping through my new magazines.

I also picked up the floss and fabric for our next SAL... but the design is still a secret!

Pretty, huh? The fabric is 32 ct. Blue Spruce. If you're getting in the mood for Halloween stitching, too, check out the Stitchy Cousin's newly posted freebie finish here. How cool is that?!

SAL Update: Miss Witchy Face

No update last month, what with computer problems and all kinds of nonsense, but I have a little progress to show this month. Most of the witchy figurehead is done.

I think I'll finish the bow of the ship and then go back to working on masts and sails.

The deadline--October--is creeping up on me. Must. stitch. faster. Or if not faster, more. This is the largest piece I've ever done, and surprisingly, I haven't gotten tired of it. But I'm already looking forward to our next SAL, which will remain super secret until this one is finished. Hint: more spooky!

SAL Update: Meet the Boys

Skeleton Crew finally has a crew!

Meanwhile, this was going on behind me...

Overcome with fatigue, no doubt.

SAL Update: Main Mast Finished!

I really should have gotten more done since my update last month, but even slow progress is still progress, right? Right.

Happy Stitching... even if it's slow!

SAL Update: Mainsail Madness!

The mainsail is done! For those who have just joined us, my stitchy cousin and I are doing a stitch-along of Skeleton Crew by The Cricket Collection. Because pirate ships. [Her blog, Panda Ponders, is linked over on my blog list.] My "progress" has been sad, so I decided to go nuts and finish that stupid mainsail if it killed me. I think I'll be making little white x's in my sleep, but it's done. It's nice to have a big, fat chunk of stitching right smack in the middle of the design done, isn't it? Satisfying. Gives you false hope you can finish the whole thing. Before you're eighty. Anyway, here's The Supervisor checking to make sure my super cool octopus needle minder is secure. 

And the mainsail, in all its tattered, ghost ship-y glory.

 
I have this delusion that I can finish the rest of the main mast by the end of this month. That's what a little progress will do to ya.

Happy Stitching!

Supervision

And now for something completely different. In addition to all those cute littles I'm working on, I'm also slaving away (sort of) on this SAL (stitch along) that my cousin and I are doing. It's Skeleton Crew by The Cricket Collection. A big pirate ship with a bunch of skeletons aboard. Because every room can be improved by a pirate ship with a bunch of skeletons aboard. Right? Right. It's on 30 ct. Saltmarsh Green by R&R Reproductions. This is the bottom of the mainsail. We're supposed to have it finished by mid-October. Think I'll make it? Nope, me neither. But it's not for lack of Tiger Lily's careful supervision.

And check out my super cool needle minder... an octopus. Awesome, huh?

Yeah. Pretty awesome.