Halloween Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2020

Welcome to the Hallowe’en blog hop, hosted by Jo over at http://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com.

Along with a picture of some seasonal crafting, we get to share a letter, follow the links through the whole of the blog hop to find the mystery phrase. 

I'm not a massive Halloween stitcher, but I saw this little one and it made me giggle, as I think she looks like me!!

My hubby had the same reaction as me, but my BFF disagrees on the likeness.   What do you think?

So, in the spirit of my post, let me share my letter, 'I' (as in icky..)

Head over to http://janalynmarie.blogspot.com for the next stage of the Hop. 

What did you just say? Lockdown SAL

So, first, the progress picture.  Did a little bit of all sorts this week, some of the bluebell stems, bits of brown path, and a bit of variegated blue.  Ironically the exact same shade looks much more prominent on my BFF's post.. http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com

It's a wonder we managed any stitching at all though... I discovered, quite by accident, that Skype provides a subtitling facility. So there was much hilarity as we tried out regional dialect like 'Howay'.  We even attempted a virtual translation between English and Spanish, but either our regional accent is too strong for the translation to understand the Spanish words, or we were just misunderstanding how to use it.  But it was great fun giving it a try.  Must have a look and see if that's a function of our work Skype too. 

All sussed - Lockdown SAL

All the progress for me this week is in one single colour, sometimes one particular piece of thread will do that.  It's represented on this pattern with a sort of backwards 's' symbol, hence my BFF christened it 'Suss'.

It has been a weird week, lots of busy times at work, both in the office and at home.   Finished the working day in a position of better understanding than I began with, so I feel like both parts of the day were 'sussed'.

My BFF's had a tiring time of things too, so you may get just a pictorial update from her.  Check out her blog at http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com over the next couple of days to see her progress. 

People's Choice SAL - October

Another SAL hosted by Jo over at http://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com, each month she allows her readers to choose a theme to post about.  So this month, the people chose Wizards.

My hubby has a growing collection of wizard figurines, many of whom have been brought back from my travels or shopping trips.  So, when I first started to cross stitch in earnest, my BFF's suggestion was this wizard which is actually part of a set of bookmarks.  

Being an absolute newbie at the time, though, I chose to stitch on 11-count Aida, and frame the final item.

It took a couple of years to complete, not that it was a big stitch, however, we suffered the trauma of 2 miscarriages and a traumatic pregnancy with our son.  Somehow the act of cross stitching on this piece and its complex half stitches (at least to an absolute beginner) became bound up with the personal traumas for me emotionally, and it was some time before I could pick up the needle to start again.  I'm still often like that in troubled times, I have learned to deal with it by choosing simple patterns when I am stressed, which I can stitch on until I feel more confident again.

Here he is in all his glory. 

The Goose Drank Wine - Lockdown SAL

Back to the minty grass again this week, hence the blog title... This one's been brewing for a few weeks now as it's our joint automatic response to the colour used for the minty grass.... Can you guess what colour it is yet?  I'll keep you in suspense till the end of the post anyway.

Added the finishing touches to the variegated tree, and even got started on the bluebell stems in the bottom right. 

Head on over to http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com to see how my BFF got on.

Oh... And the thread, of course, is 369.  The song is The Clapping Song written by Lincoln Chase, although I'm not certain which recording of it I remember from childhood! 

Gifted Gorgeousness October

It's the 15th of the month, which means it's time for Gifted Gorgeousness, hosted by the lovely Jo at http://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com

I thought I'd save my big finish from the end of September to share with you all... I've posted before about the Golden Wedding sampler I made for my parents.  But here is the final finish, in its frame. Check out my earlier blog posts for the work as it was in progress! 

A post of many colours - Lockdown SAL

This week I did a little bit of a few things.  Finished off the brown in the path, added in some more soothing grass.  But I'm running out of minty grass thread 369, so we decided to do some more variegated up in the trees.  

It did not look like a massive space, but somehow that 'one at a time dotty' style of stitching for the variegated thread slowed things down.  I'm not at all a fan of this variegated green, it's very difficult to be random with it.  Not something I want to revisit, and in fact, if the thread runs out then it will be replaced by a random selection of normal greens.

We did, however, have an hilarious night's nattering, with my BFF's mother's embarrassing stories of youth keeping us amused.  But I found out that I'm no good at trying to retell and recreate the hilarity, so I will keep the memories inside and smile again about them throughout the week ahead.

Head over to http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.com to see my BFF's progress.