January Smalls

Mary at Mary's Thread is hosting the Smalls SAL again in 2022. On the last Friday of the month we share our small stitching items that we have completed but not necessarily fully finished. Mary has a link up post on her blog so we can pop over to see everyone's work, it's super to see all the lovely stitching. Thank you Mary for hosting this great SAL. 

Before I share my Smalls I must apologise for the non ironed photos. I had had the iron out to do another project (it's a gift so I can't share yet) but I forgot to iron my smalls - hee hee.

My first small is The Robin's Gift by The Little Stitcher as part of Jo's JCS Stitch Along on Facebook. I used a grey fabric and am going to finish him as a mini cushion, he's so cute isn't he!

My next small is something for me. I love upcycling a box, I have always loved using boxes and tins for things and have many empty boxes in my drawer because 'one day they will be useful'. One such box is my Radley watch box, it was far to nice to throw away (my watch is in my jewel case) but I wasn't sure what it would be used for. I have just bought a new sewing machine and the Radley box is a perfect pin cushion for next to my machine, the inner cushion is perfect but the top needed covering. 

It's always tricky with a box as the size can be restricting, I see many designs but they just don't fit. After lots of calculations I found Durene Jones 'One stitch at a time' on 22count would be perfect, it was a bit tricky doing the back stitch. As it's quite small I also struggled with a charm for the top but in my button box I found a tiny covered button in the perfect colour. I'm hoping to have it all assembled for February's FFO. 

Are you doing a temperature SAL this year? There are quite a few available this year, I did one in 2019 but I still haven't fully finished them. I'm trying to only stitch things I know what to make up as, it can be so tempting to stitch designs just because they are so lovely but never actually make them up. 

Anyway I quite liked Jardin Prive's SAL this year but I have no place for a framed picture. I do however need new cake bands as I only have the snowmen and one other. I have taken the flower design from the JP SAL and will stitch two bands of 26 flowers each. My winter band will be January to March and October to December,  my summer band April to September. 

My stitching plan is to do each week's flower on a Sunday evening, so far I'm on track with the first three weeks of January done. The petal edge is the highest temperature of the day and the inner is the coldest. 

My final two smalls are two more letters for my Alphabet Tree. I am using two different designs and now have A and Z in both. I'm not sitching all the letters of each design as that would be 52 letters, too many for the tree as I will also have quite a few letters gifted from my stitchy friends.  

What am I talking about? Well my tree for St. Lawrence's Tree Festival in 2022 will be an Alphabet Tree. I'm planning to stitch the DMC Bead Alphabet (as cross stitch) and the Assisi Alphabet from an old The World of Cross Stitching magazine. 

I'm using pastel coloured fabric and have chosen threads to compliment each fabric; I have pink, green and blue. I have edged each design using DMC Rayon 35200 and frayed the edges. Each design is mounted on white foam felt cut to the exact size with silver ribbon for the hanger as you can see with my finished As.

If you would like to help with the ornaments for the tree I'd love to receive your letters. Here's the details: 

Fabric - any pastel colour, any count size

Thread - any make, any colour

Design size - no larger than 2.5" x 2.5" 

Fabric size - minimum 4" x 4" so I have room for the border and fraying

I live in the UK and to help with postage and customs please just stitch the letter on your fabric and send it to me inside a card. I will make up the letters so they are all the same finish.

If you would like to stitch a letter, maybe your initial, please let me know in the comments and I will forward my postal address. I'm so looking forward to stitching the other letters, thank you to everyone who has offered to help, special thank you to Rachel who has already stitched and sent two letters.