October Smalls

As much as I'd hoped to stitch some Halloween smalls this past month it just didn't happen. I realized I was falling behind in my stitching and I had some Christmas stitching to get started at as well as two birth samplers to work on. Christmas stitches will have to be mailed well in advance this year so now I'm pushing myself.

I got started on the first stitch which is a Christmas gift for my eldest granddaughter. It looks anything but Christmas though as she had requested that I stitch a snake for her. A snake! Where was I going to find a chart for that? It couldn't be a childish serpent either as she is now 15 going on 16. I spent several weeks checking out online links to patterns but so many of them were actually larger or complicated pieces which I just knew would take a huge chunk of time to complete. Finally I came across a pattern that I thought would work. Tribal Snake is a cobra snake design by Kim Treagust of KLT Charting Designs. I downloaded the pdf chart and after checking it out I decided to stitch it over one. The design was much larger otherwise and I didn't want a framed piece. 

 So far it's going fairly quickly. I basically started with the outline and then will do all the fill in next. I'm stitching this on a piece of 28 ct Sudden Storm Lugana with a Victorian Motto floss, Something Wicked.

I think it's going to turn out pretty cool. The floss looks black in the pic but it's actually a dark grey-blue.

That's the only small I've worked on all month and I only got started at it a week ago! I'm also getting ready to start my younger granddaughter's choice which was a little easier to find, lol. She chose a rabbit so I ordered a kit from Alisa which is where I found the Hedgehog kit that I stitched a few Christmases ago.

Here's a link to what it will look like. I will not be using the Aida for this. I will use the floss supplied and look through my stash for an appropriate choice of linen or evenweave. I find the evenweaves are a bit easier to work with during the final finishing.

That's it for this month! I would also like to stitch a couple of actual Christmas ornaments for the girls in addition to their choices so I'm on the hunt for a couple that won't take too much time so that I have time for some personal stitching before the holidays. See you soon!