November round-up

It is time for our monthly round-up to catch up on the things you might have missed during November!

Ah, it's been a long but also a short month. I feel like I've finally got out of my little embroidery slumber (yes, I fell into one, even if I succeeded to conceal it, haha) and got a lot of inspiration for the new projects. But it also was a little rough here on the blog on the technical side.

As I previously told you, Disqus comments gadget had to be deleted because the spam activity suddenly increased and I couldn't deal with it. I'd like to apologize again for the inconvenience and my own technical incompetence. I'm actually a real noob and I'm trying to fight it according to my possibilities, especially since, well, it's kinda a given that you have to be technically smart when you run a blog... So, it is fully my fault, sorry :(

But I hope you will still leave comments and share your thoughts. You can do that using an anon mode, your Google account, or just with your name and a link to your blog if you have one :)

Also, I would like to remind about the Ko-fi account I opened where you can support this blog and help to keep it ads-free by buying a symbolic coffee. I'm extremely grateful for all donations!

Going back to needlework now, one of the highlights of November was completing the Fall Wedding design. Finally! You can read all the parts here:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Working this design was a little tedious because somewhere in the middle I got really doubtful about my choices of stitches and colors and wasn't sure that my original plan would bring me to the desired place. In the end, after making a few tweaks here and there, it all came out pretty nicely, if I may say so.

There is still a lot of beads left that are waiting to be used somewhere though. Maybe I will get some new idea for a December project, but for now, my mind is empty, haha.

And then... one of the best moments of November was receiving the Garden Stitch Life book by Kazuko Aoki. A wonderful, greatly inspirational piece of needlework literature. Not just a project book but a whole mood!

It probably lacks a bit in instructions and theory, but I don't consider it a drawback in the modern age where you can find all the detailed information on needles and fabrics out there on the web. Instead, in this book, you get an invitation to Kazuko's garden, share her passion both for gardening and embroidery, and look through her prism at the world around you. It's not something you can find and experience by browsing Pinterest. That's why I believe this book is really worth having in your library :)

Speaking of gardens, in November we finished the earlier project of learning stitches and techniques for working dimensional flowers. This time we learned cast-on stitch & cast-on stitch rose, and woven picot for realistic petals. 

And to celebrate this achievement I suggest working a simple bouquet with all these stitches! Sounds fun to me, what do you think? How about working one together? :)

Also, we continued the needlepainting tips series with Part 7 where I shared my favorite Youtube tutorials on long and short stitch. As a visual learner, it is much easier for me to understand the concept or process of something when I actually see it being done in video or pictures. Even between diagrams and photographs of working a stitch, I will always prefer a photograph. That's also why I do my best to make my Etsy designs as visually explicit as possible. So I dedicated the post to Youtube channels and videos I found the most useful. Check them out, and also share your favorite ones in the comments!

Lastly, there was a very fun DIY tutorial closer to the end of November: a plush snowball ornament. I'm so much in love with the softness of plush and stuffing and how it all combines into the look of a little snowball, haha. You can download the templates for a smaller and bigger version of the ball and see step by step instructions in the post.

Actually, the bigger ball is more popular at my home. It started with me hitting my brother with it, proceeded to him throwing it back at me (can't say I expected anything different) and ended with my Dad fighting us both with it.

Surprisingly the ball is still alive, but I started hiding it to decrease the number of battles, hm.

While we're speaking of ornaments, here's a reminder about the new Vignette designs coming to my Etsy store literally in the nearest couple of days. It's going to be a one PDF document with 4 templates for embroidered ornaments, which will also contain instructions both for embroidery and for assembling said ornaments. It is a quick project and all the stitches are most probably already familiar to you, so it's quite easy.

The next post will probably be announcing these designs hitting my Etsy store, so stay tuned!

December is going to be a busy month with all the celebrations and preparations to them, but I sincerely hope we spend a nice time here on Stitch Floral. :)