February FFG SAL

Today is the 10th of the month which means it's time for a Fully Finished Gallery Update. The idea of this perfect SAL is to FINISH our stitching. Normally I would stitch a piece and then throw it into the box of shame to hide away. Not now. These beauties deserve to be displayed and I'm working hard to work on getting those older pieces out and finished like they deserved to be. Each month this year I would love to FFO my monthly fairy and at least one other box of shame piece.

Stop over to Rachel's link up post to see what other beautiful pieces have been created for this check in.

Let's look and see what I've finished off since my last check in...

January 15th I finished off a part of the Stitcher's Code SAL. I've already shared it with my readers but here it is again...

I finished this one in hand using a whip stitch. I make a backstitch border around the stitching on the stitching front side and do a back piece with the border, the backstitch outline, and the year. Then I whip stitch the backstitching together to join the pieces. Kind of like a biscornu but just square instead.

February 6th I pulled out my sewing stuff and had a finishing day. 1 new piece and 4 pieces from 2019.

New Finish was my February Fairy. Finished her as a pillow with backing fabric...

I had the perfect fabric for the back of this one.

Love2Stitch was stitched last year. I made it into a small pillow with backing fabric...

3 Mill Hill Halloween pieces I wanted to do a fun finish on. I bought this wooden plaque at Dollar Tree. Painted it orange. Glued the 3 pieces and some fun buttons I found at JoAnns...

Taboo Kitty on the left. Ghost in the middle. Moonstruck Manor on the right. I'm really happy with how they turned out. Will be fun to display when Halloween season comes around again. Now I just have 3 pieces left unfinished from 2019.

So let's recap my finishes because of this SAL...

2019 I reported 41

Jan -- 19

Feb -- 6

Total of 66

 

Thanks Rachel for hosting!  See ya next month with hopefully more.

Monday Update -- Hoosier Stitcher Retreat

What a weekend! I attended the Hoosier Stitcher Fall Retreat. It was located in Mitchell, IN which is a little over 3 hours south of where I live. It started Thursday. Luckily there were several friends from my area going as well. So mom and Jeremiah gave me a ride to Markle which is only 30 minutes away. I rode down with two lovely ladies. One I've known for a long time and her friend who just started stitching in June. So nice to see someone new to the hobby. She is hooked now by the way. Unfortunately I developed a head cold a few days before the retreat but I wasn't going to let it stop me from having fun. So I took a lot of medicine with me. On the way down we stopped at Fancy Works a stitching store in Bloomington, Indiana. Here is what I bought while there...

I had bought the other two seasons of the Erica Michael set while attending the PA Retreat over a year ago. I had paid for the these two that the lady said she had at her store. After a year of waiting and never receiving the patterns plus getting lied to over and over about how she was mailing them the next day blah blah. I demanded my money back and ordered them from Fancy Works. I only gave her a month and she got me the patterns right away. So now I have the complete set to do in the future. I also found this cute Halloween pattern that Rachel had just stitched up. I bought a piece of fabric for it and I've decided to do the cats in black and the words in this purple thread I found. What do you think?

I really wasn't feeling well but we arrived safe and sound about 4pm. There ended up being 23 of us this time at the retreat. It was wonderful! First I got busy and got my hour in on the Halloween Biscornu that I'm using for the #witchystitchy challenge for Day 6...

Then I started a Mill Hill kit from my October acrostic list. Taboo Kitty. I got 1 hour and 14 minutes in and just couldn't stay awake any longer. So I headed to bed early.

Friday I was actually feeling quite a bit better. Not all the way though. The medicine I had helped a lot and I took way too much. Everyone was picking on me because they could tell when my medicine would kick in and when it would stop working. I worked on Taboo Kitty for 40 minutes to get to a good stopping point. I got my hour in on the biscornu for Day 7...

I went back to working on Taboo Kitty and finished it after 4 more hours and 36 minutes...

It took a total of 6 hours and 30 minutes. Not bad for a mill hill kit. I really enjoyed working on it. I decided I just had to start the 2nd lantern mill hill kit and started Moonstruck Manor before bed. I got 1 hour 28 minutes and went to bed about 2am.

Saturday I was really feeling better. Well rested and ready to go. I started the day with getting my hour in for Day 8...

Then back to Moonstruck Manor. I worked on it for 4 hours and 46 minutes and that finished it up...

This one took me 6 hours 14 minutes. After finishing this one up I picked out Boo from Rovaris to maybe try to finish before bed. Here I was with that one before retreat...

No going to bed till finishing and guess what I finished it after 3 hours and 49 minutes more working on it...

So I finally went to bed at 5am! I kept saying I just had to finish my crabs.....I stitch too many nautical charts I guess....my spiders were crabs until I remembered it was a Halloween piece haha. I woke up at 8:30am so I really just took a nap but I wanted to get a little bit more stitching in before heading home.

I got my hour in on the biscornu for Day 9...

Then I got a tiny start on Trick or Treat Mill Hill kit before heading home. Only 16 minutes. Packing up was priority. So I'll wait and show that one when it's not just 30 little yellow stitches.

The retreat was very needed and just wonderful. I swear it's like a counseling weekend too. We all talk and solve all the world's problems. It's so wonderful to not only share a love of a hobby but our lives with each other. There were 5 new people who had never attended a Hoosier Stitcher Retreat before. 3 were PALs girls that I was so glad to see again.

Janet from Janet's Jabber Floss Tube was my lovely driver for the weekend. We've been friends for a long long time. Since our kids were just a few years old. She has a blog and now is a floss tuber. I picked on her all weekend about thinking she was famous but honestly she does a fantastic floss tube. One of the only ones I really enjoy watching actually. She made us all these lovely giveaway bags...

Notebook and pen. Little bag of candies. A 310 floss because we all can never have too many skeins of 310. A cute wire bracelet thing for holding floss bobbins or what nots. One of the new quilters holders that a lot of people are using to hold their extra fabric. Plus the fabric square is a too cool floss catcher for the arm of your couch. I love using them for beads to keep them from rolling off the table too. Also she gave us all a cute Indiana shaped needle minder she had someone make with HS for Hoosier Stitcher on them...

The little compass one beside it was given to me by another friend at retreat. Love it too!! The organizer also had some grab bags that were donated by designers who she asked for donations from. Here is what I brought home...

Two cute charts. Grab bag from Weeks Dye Works. Two fantastic project bags. Like I said it was a great retreat. I had a blast. Here is my bedroom and my table area all setup...

Yes I have the Daryl bedding from The Walking Dead. He is fun to sleep with haha. We made it safely home even though I was very very tired I'm ready to head back and stitch with my girls. I got a TON of stitching done this time. I had my timer with me I really clicked it when I put my stitching down for any length of chatting or time away. So it's a pretty accurate account for my time stitching.

Thursday I stitched 2 hours 15 minutes.
Friday I was ready to have a good day....7 hours and 49 minutes!
Saturday though I was really rested and ready to go.....9 hours 34 minutes!!!
I should stay up till 5 am more often haha.
Sunday was a little 1 hour 16 minutes but packing and goodbyes took a lot of time.

It was fun keeping track of my laziness. Definitely a stitching filled stitching retreat this time around. Last night I went to bed at 9pm and woke up this morning at 9am. Nothing like a 12 hour catch up on sleep. Have a great week. I will be back with more posts probably tomorrow. I need to do a WIPocalypse update.

#24HOCS October Challenges

October is going to be fun. Jen posted two different acrostics AUTUMN HARVEST and DARK OCTOBER XS. You can do both. You can do one. You can do neither. By the way I just LOVE how laid back this group is. So I picked the Halloween theme acrostic. Let's see what I'm hoping to work on for each letter...

D -- Moonstruck Manor Mill Hill Kit

Goal: Would be Great to Finish

Minimum 4 Hours

Connection: Dark House in the Project

A -- Harvest Wagon Mill Hill Kit

Goal: Would be Great to Finish

Minimum 4 Hours

Connection: Autumn Harvest Collection Mill Hill Kit

R -- Boo Keychain by Rovaris

Goal: Would be Great to Finish

Minimum 4 Hours 

Connection: Designer has R in name

K -- Taboo Kitty Mill Hill Kit

Goal: Would be Great to Finish

Minimum 4 Hours

Connection: K in Title

O -- October Lizzie Kate Flip It Stamp

Goal: Finish

Connection: O in October

C -- Let's Get Spooky by Ursula Michael

Goal: 24 Minutes Minimum

Connection: Cat in Design

T -- Lunar Trick Mill Hill Kit

Goal: Would be great to finish

Minimum 4 Hours

Connection: T in Title and Trick or Treat

O -- Ghost Mill Hill Kit

Goal: Would be great to finish

Minimum 24 Minutes

Connection: Ohhhh It's a Ghost

B -- Halloween Biscornu by Lakeside Needlecraft

Freebie available here

Goal: Would be great to finish

Minimum 4 Hours

Connection: B in Biscornu

E -- Ghool School from Glendon Place 

Goal: Minimum 24 Minutes

Connection: Eerie Haunted School 

R -- Witch Kit from Mouseloft

Goal: Would be great to finish

Minimum 24 Minutes

Connection: Rachel sent me this cute kit for my 40th Bday

X -- Nautical Year October from Sand, Sea & Cross Stitch

This is the only piece that isn't Halloween themed but 

it's my monthly piece so I have to stitch it. I will hurry haha.

Goal: Finish

Connection: Xstitch23 on Instagram is the reason I bought these

S -- Wanda's Boot Mill Hill Kit

Goal: Would be great to finish

Minimum 24 minutes

Connection: Shoe 

(yep it's a stretch haha hey I could have said Sexy boot so shush haha)

Lots of fun pieces. Lots a Halloween. Lots of Mill Hill Kits. I sure hope to make a lot of progress. We'll see. We all know I'll sure try.

I'm not doing the Holiday Calendar this time either. I just want to focus on the acrostic instead. 

The other challenge is the open calendar where you need to stitch a total of 24 hours in the month of October. I never seem to have a problem with that one at least haha. Even in August it was the only challenge I marked complete. 

I need to get busy. I have a lot of things I want to stitch as you can see. First I have to finish mom's pillow. Come on needles get it done and out of the way.

By the way I'm finally done posting for the day. Only 5 updates posted. Sorry to bother you guys but least there is a lot to look at and maybe motivate you. Let's get to stitching!