This is on black paper, with metallic watercolours.
It has a look of a chalk painting here.
I am having fun with these little pictures with metallic paint.
I'd not thought of adding paintings into the blog before this.
Possibly as these little paintings are for adding to other things that I thought of it at this time. The pumpkin went onto note paper for a letter to my pen pal for instance.
Maybe, as I come across them I might share some previous paintings, and perhaps I might get back into doing some on occasion just because? Because I have paint and brushes and well why not.
I don't have a pumpkin song link so the song from Ghost in the shell it is. And because I am drawn to it even when some of the blending sounds are not my usual thing still I delight in them.
If you would rather have cross-stitches on a Halloween theme, you can search using the Halloween label or the search bar. There are some pumpkins!
prewarned that Roni's ta da stitching finish needed more time for a fully finish so we might RAL not SAL. I hunted out my wire, plyers and a long waiting project.
And little harpoon and stabby stabby needle felting commenced.
and there was chatting and laughing and the very odd but satisfying sound of the needle felting.
As I was in full on stabby mode when Roni finished her "TaDA" we did not switch to the SAL, which had been the original intention, I kept on with the stabby stabby, thank goodness for leather finger protectors, and Roni picked up a "something different" project of her own.
Not sure when she will post an update, she is busy busy but here is a link to her blog for when she does.
I need an easy stitch when things are not going quite how I would like them to do in my life beyond the crafts. And sometimes I need something so complicated and bitty it can help to shut out all the argh and negative thoughts trying to take over.
In this instance I am going for the latter.
The dragon begins to take shape
I need to go back to the neck ninjas and not get too drawn into the wing, after all I am approaching the area that was the starting point of my first attempt (the one I had to pick out).
Tomorrow we will be back to the SAL as Roni has had a Ta Da finish with her time sensitive project.
doing what you may ask! Starting my one over one, close shades and lots of confetti project.
On a new piece of fabric and starting in a different place as from the middle was not being helpful. And this time I will try not to be drawn into following tempting swathes of a colour cross country which may well have resulted in my inability to count.
The section of knot all in the same thread was wonderfully soothing.
Hopefully it will go better this time. and in and moments of frustration well I can just take a break and keep at unpicking the last attempt, I am almost done. I knew if I had to wait till that was done to restart I quite likely never would.
The World of Cross Stitch magazine has a design request section, I have never made a request for a particular design myself. However, I have found the small designs that have resulted from other peoples requests to be quite useful.
In the delightfully titled Wishes Granted section of the March 2025 edition a request was made for something in the traditional Korean clothing. Hanbok and the result was a petite design of a lady in Hanbok.
For some years, indeed so many I can't recall the exact number I have had a small snatch of material, possibly a curtain sample. A light mushroom pink with darker and lighter leaves on it. I always had in mind that it would be good for an Asian themed embroidery or cross stitch. The issue was one of size and coverage. It is a small bit of material and I wanted to utilise the pattern on it within the finished piece.
So it has waited and waited and then with this little lady the wait was over. .
The figure is stitched one over two, the red Chima (that's the skirt) follows the original pattern whilst the Jeogori (ribboned jacket) was originally a brighter blue and I used softer shades with a slight sheen. In retrospect that was perhaps too subtle and I should have used something brighter, or maybe not? I waver between liking the subtlety against the material and wishing I'd use the blue which would pick up the blue tones in the other pieces that it hangs amongst on my wall.
Offsetting the figure to one side at the bottom edge left the majority of the leaves in the pattern uncovered .
Whilst I was pleased with how the figure came out The piece itself somehow felt incomplete.
The solution to what was missing was made itself known when ,as I was listening to a favourite piece of music, Hijo de la Luna by Forestella. What was missing was the moon. She was looking at the moon. I could stitch a moon that sat behind the leaves and the picture would become a story. (there is a link to recorded versions of the song at the end of this post)
The moon is mainly one over one, with a few half stitches, a few compressed stitches in both the vertical and horizontal to give the moon a subtle texture. I am pleased with the overall result.
The gold frame has a slightly aged look with little flecks of red visible which work well with the red in the figures clothing. Its slightly distressed corner also fits in with the pieces vibe and it goes well with the Celtic Knot Tree which has a similar vibe and of course la-sacpigliata both of which it will hang with.
I finished it back in April but I have waited until today to post it having found that there is a particular day of the year on which the traditional Korean dress is celebrated.
I am English, and we don't have a traditional dress. There are some more iconic outfits from particular periods, or occupations, like the Beefeaters from the Tower of London who still use the Tudor period uniform, or Morris Dancers, or even bowler hats and umbrellas. However, we do not have the one thing that you could consider a traditional dress. Bit sad that. The other three nations that make up the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland well they do, nice but not much help for me.
Oh, I sent the picture into the WOX and it was published.
And of course it has to have a Forestella link and well it has to be for the song that inspired the addition of the moon. So here it is as promised. Well choosing one version was difficult so here are several.
I did say it is one of my favourites, but then most of what this group sing is a favourite piece of music so perhaps I should call it a favourite favourite!
I completed the dark yellow with added gold filament ( I have a little bit of gold filament to use up) in my 15 mins off screen time.
So tonight I was starting with the mid gold. (also with filament, I have a little to use up you know) and with the bell at the bottom right. Yet somehow I managed to turn the piece upside down and was actually stitching on the upper left bell. And yet, well it was still in the right place within the bell when I turned it the right way up..
I think I have all of the colours in so just lots of green to do now and the backstitch of course.
Things were going quite well with this, three projects that have been going for between 1 and 17 years all finished and all the threads and material to hand for a new start.
And then ah there is something out with the count. It will be just the one stitch that is in the wrong place but all its friends around it well they will have followed along.
So, it needs a good hard stare so I can see where that miscount occurred and just how much is going to have to come out. And unpicking when you are stitching over one takes more time to ensure the material stays intact.
ah well these things happen!
update, I think I may just have to start again..hmmm as the where is not becoming apparent and much as is done fighting to see what is wrong and what is right may take more effort and consume time than just starting again.
usually this would be stitching on Millennium, guaranteeing it at least two outings a year to be worked on.
However, as my newer project is one over one (and I had just realised there is a miscount) and I am still on the one over one on Millennium I was not feeling it at all.
So Sunday stitching (which due to various factors meaning we have not been getting to church) has not been worked on for some time got a little work on it.
Not a lot, some purple fill and some black which should (if in this instance I have managed to count correctly) will give me lots of jumping off places.
The oddity of visitor numbers and the question of real people rather than some AI glitch raised its head last month. As there was a sudden spike in numbers which dropped as soon as October came along back to more normal levels. In September 2025 I had 103,433 views. Given the total views I have had since 2013 when I started this blog is 675,972 you can see why I might wonder what was going on.
Much as I would like to think there was a sudden interest by real people realistically some random glitch in code has to be responsible, oh and of those 103,433 views there were four comments from three people , hooray and thank you.
because of some pink material left over from backing A Stitch for Grace made me think of the pink squares for sun bonnet Sue. And just how long it had been since I made any.
So the pattern, well that was downstairs in an envelope.
Finished Sues had been popped into the loft out of the way at some point and never been un-popped since.
But trips to the loft for one thing don't always result in that thing, or not perhaps in just that thing.
In this instance I did find the Sun Bonnet Sue's (and the pattern which I thought was downstairs and which at some point I must have moved!) and the bag of bits, and totally forgotten about several pre-cut base squares, so the material I was intending to use is just not needed.
I brought them down.
They were in my bag from the pair of bags an earlier trip to the loft had inspired back in 2020! Funnily enough I had just been wondering what I had done with / used this bag for.
It also contained a previously started as DISTRACTION from sizing up the Sampler Quilt and had then been relegated to "a bag" (anyone else hearing that as the line from The Importance of being Ernest? No? Just me then.) for later action.
And having brought them down, did I immediately make a start on any of them? That would be a no!
They have become another project waiting in a bag and I will need to get skirt bits cut out ready for the next time I have the sewing machine out.
That may be some time as I appear to be in a cross stitch and painting mode at the moment.
