Smalls SAL - January

Good morning blogging friends,  Today is the first check in of the year for the Smalls SAL hosted by Heather at Stitching Lotus.  If you would like to find out more about this group which you can join at anytime during the year, just click on my sidebar button.

At the beginning of the month I joined the Round in Circles Hardanger SAL hosted by Mabel Figworthy ...another button on my sidebar .... and this is the first little design.

The pattern was stitched on 28ct. evenweave fabric with white perlé #12 and #8 and as this was the very first design, we just did Kloster blocks, eyelets, satin stitch and star stitch.

  I wasn´t sure what to make the design into but thinking that Valentine´s Day is soon, a heart ornament might come in handy as a gift.

Thank you to all who commented on my last post with the blurry photos which I will try to improve but I am curious to know how other bloggers post photos to their blogs as I have had quite a few problems with the clarity of photos when downloaded from computer files.  Any advice?

  See you next week.

Sheryl                                              

Box of Delights

Hello blogging friends,  I have been having problems downloading photos as they result blurry, sorry about this, I will try and get the problem sorted out when I see my technician next week.

 I at last had time to frame the blackwork design `Box of Delights¨ by Elizabeth Almond.

There are lots of different small patterns to embroider, so you can choose the ones you like best and the number you want to stitch depending on what your finished project is.

I wanted to cover a small tray I had bought at a local thrift shop some time ago because I didn´t like the hunting picture depicted and for my `Box of Delights´ I chose blues and purples to match some tiles in my kitchen.

Starting before Christmas, in a hurry as always, I miscalculated the number of rows needed to fit the tray and had to unstitch one vertical border of stitches and add on another row of patterns.

I had a piece of glass cut to fit the tray and cover my embroidery.

I enjoyed doing this embroidery and like the end result although I should have done the surrounding embroidered edge in a dark colour but not black which I think too heavy for the colours I chose..........
 more blurry photos.............

Hope all our American friends keep safe and sound during the worrying blizzard warning announced for this weekend.    Until next week.

Sheryl

End of 2015 Stitching

Hi everyone and a very Happy New Year to you all.  I should have done this post days ago to complete my stitching for 2015 and include any one of these following small patterns as part of the December Smalls SAL.........but somehow the time just disappeared and I woke up to find that we are now in January.

I expect everyone has seen on various blogs these past weeks this free design of the Twelve Days of Christmas offered by Paulette Stewart at the The Plum Street Samplers and which I decided to stitch as a table runner.

I chose these DMC colours and had to use 40ct linen as my local shop didn´t have a lot of choice and no 28 or 32 ct.  I started out OK but...

With several designs stitched, I realised I didn´t like the colours, but there was no turning back and I did find a pretty trim that I thought might help me like the work more.

With a strip of fabric added between patterns and the trim sewn in place, I started to like the table runner a bit more.

and with a rush, I managed to finish it in time for Christmas but still not happy with the colours and as nobody seemed to notice  or comment on it at home, I think this table runner will be put away indefinitely.

Thanks for passing by, always grateful for your visit and comments.  until next week.

Sheryl