Tag: halloween

Challenges & SALs, Prairie Schooler, Quilting & Sewing, WIPocalypse, Works in Progress

WIPocalypse February 2026

Anne S

Not much stitching to show for February due to a big mental health slump – I just couldn’t get overly motivated with anything, and when I forced myself to work on a sewing WIP that was almost finished I totally stuffed it up by lopping off the seam allowances by accident … that kinda sealed the fate of the remaining WIPs for February and I’ve been avoiding them all ever since in case I ruin anything else 😉

Sewing

Before my big sewing disaster I did manage to successfully complete one item at the end of January, though – a wrist pincushion that’s a free pattern by ByAnnie. I was nervous it would be uncomfortable to wear, but it’s an absolute dream to wear and use. So glad I made this, it’ll hopefully save me regularly sending my small tub of pins flying from my sewing desk (I’m incredibly clumsy these days, even more so that I’ve always been). I used Tilda fabrics from my stash for this … and had an unexpected furry model assistant in the background desperate for a cuddle 😉

Stitching progress:

When Witches Go Riding by Prairie Schooler – this is the only stitching project that saw progress during the last month. Surprisingly it just may get finished this year if I keep this up!

Stitching question

What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?

I signed up for the HAED SAL this year, and for the second year running I’ve decided to opt out from the stitching because I have so many pokers in the fire that need dealing with instead. Also I do a lot of cardmaking each month as part of Instagram hops etc, and that feels like enough commitment for the year so I don’t feel overwhelmed. From a stitching/sewing perspective, the only items I’m participating in are some monthly blog and Facebook challenges:

  • WIPocalypse
  • WIP Warriors (private Facebook group)
  • 52 week sewing challenge

Finishes

Girls’ Night Out

Anne S

I managed to finish this fun project on 29 October after regularly doing 100 stitches here and there for various stitching challenges. It was such an enjoyable project to work on! I’ll likely turn it into a flat-fold for display next Halloween. The bottom photo is the closest to the fabric colour – it was a hard one to photograph!

“Girls’ Night Out” by Just Another Button Company
(free chart with purchase of the button pack)
Stitched on 30ct Weeks Dye Works Lilac linen, using mostly threads as charted
Started 14 February 2025 – Finished 29 October 2025

Shepherd's Bush

Creepy Cushion

Anne S

I managed a small finish this week, after using this project as part of a few stitching challenges. I was determined to get it finished before Halloween this year! I was really disappointed with the threads in this kit, which is unusual for a Shepherd’s Bush kit – the threads were sooooo short it was really wasteful and caused so many ‘stop and starts’ through this piece that at one point I caved and purchased a full skein of the border thread just because it had started putting me off actually stitching on it. As soon as I had some longer threads to work with it gave me a boost to get it finished.

“Creepy Cushion” by Shepherd’s Bush
Started 20 January 2025 – Finished 12 October 2025
Stitched using kit fabric and threads

Uncategorized

Missing in action: 1 stitching mojo!

Anne S

It seems my mojo has well and truly taken a hike over the last few months … since my last finish, I haven’t touched a needle for a few weeks … although I finally took a day out recently to remind myself how much fun stitching is when I attempt it!  I’ve been very behind with my Hallowe’en SAL, so I had the perfect designs put to one side to get up-to-date once again … and it was pretty simple stitching so I didn’t have to think too much!

Halloween ornie SAL

Anyway,without further ado here are my SAL pieces for February (skeletons theme) and March (owls theme) – both designs are by The Prairie Schooler.  The design states to stitch on Lambswool linen, but I found a piece of 30ct WDW Guacamole recently that I should would be good to use instead (it also meant I could be lazy and leave the background of the skeleton unfilled, win-win!!).

FullSizeRender

Then on the weekend I started my Smalls SAL piece, and managed to put the final stitches into it while watching TV tonight.  I’ll wait, though, and schedule a post with the finish piccie and details in it for the official SAL reveal day in a week’s time.

That’s the sum total of my stitching, though, for the last month or so … fingers crossed next month will see an improvement! 🙂

One really exciting thing that happened a couple of weeks ago, though, was that my Mum came to visit unexpectedly.  I won two tickets to the opening night of Les Misérables in Sydney – I found out on the morning of the show the people I’d invited to go with me had decided to turn down the offer … chatting to Mum she said she’d love to come.  I jokingly told her to jump on a plane and come over.  Well, she totally surprised me by saying OK what time do the flights go?  It turns out she had 15 minutes to leave home and get to the airport – and she totally blew me away by actually going through with it!  She pretty much rocked up in the clothes she was wearing and one change of clothes in her carry-on bag … I was in shock all weekend that she was actually in Sydney visiting me!  I took a day off work on the Monday and we had a lovely long weekend together.  I’m pretty much resigned to the fact it’s unlikely she’ll visit me in Aussie very often anymore (she even took her toilet bag home this visit, which she’s always left here, so that’s a sign in itself) … so it was very special to have her here, and I made sure to make the most of it.  She arrived in Sydney with about an hour to spare before having to leave for the show – we had a really wonderful night out, it was one of those nights that amazing memories are made of!

Les Mis

Then on the Sunday I dragged her out again and we drove over to the Hunter Valley for the day … then we finished the weekend travelling by having a lovely picnic out at Audley Village in the Royal National Park.  All-in-all it was an exceptional few days spent with my favourite person in the world … it really doesn’t get any better than that! 😀

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Halloween, Shepherd's Bush

Halloween is on it’s way!

Anne S

After hearing people talk about Halloween coming soon, I got a sudden urge to do a small bit of Halloween stitching … this little project has been sitting around for far too long in my ‘to be stitched’ pile, especially as the chart was on loan from a dear friend … so it finally got to see the light of day and I stitched it up over the last 2 days.  Unfortunately I didn’t have any of the green Fuzzy Stuff thread for the witch’s hair, and I’m too impatient to wait until I order some, so I just decided to use the green DMC that is used for Frankenstein’s face.  I also changed the fabric to something that I think suits it quite well 🙂

P1060885

“October” by Shepherd’s Bush
stitched on 32ct Thunderstorm Belfast linen
with recommended DMC threads, but using DMC instead of Fuzzy Stuff for witch’s hair

I managed to do quite a bit of stitching yesterday for the first time in weeks, and hope to have another happy dance in another day or two – a project I started in March this year when I was in NZ … and which was in my planned 2013 project stitching (Little Blue Potting Shed by Brown House Studio).