SYOA - Knight Bus - update #1

My Knight Bus is starting to take shape. I decided I didn’t like having the same purple (550) inside the door for the whole bus. I went through all of my purples until I found one I liked (333) to use for the rest of the bus. I’m finally happy with this combination. 

43, 4, and 1 ??

 I am still keeping up with the Peppermint Purple (Green) SAL. I completed week 43, last Wednesday on the day it was released.

I added some more items to the bottom of my Harry Potter SYOA project.  I am not adding the letters at the bottom as originally charted. I found 4 small house crests. This photo shows how I placed 2 on each side. I used the same floss colours and placed them in the same order as the swirls at the top. I will be stitching my wand in the middle under the Quidditch Chapter. Still deciding what colour wood for my wand.

Here is a close up of the 2 on the left.

Finally 1 Knight Bus, which will hopefully balance the top with the castle and train. I started stitching the Knight Bus yesterday. I already frogged most of the purple because I thought the floss colour was darker on my computer screen, but it was too light. I will use the same purple for the whole bus with lots of back stitching to show the details. There was a photo online of the Knight Bus with a Honey Dukes sign on it, so I had to add that little detail (also less purple to stitch). I know the bus is not facing the opposite way from the train, but the back door is only on this side and I wanted to show that detail. I didn't think about that before stitching the train, or it would have been flipped.

2021 Stitch-a-longs

I know this year is not over yet, but we stitchers like to start planning our projects for the new year early.  We need time to buy supplies and get things kitted before January 1.  Steward Cunningham (the person who designed the Harry Potter project I’ve been working on all year), has 2 new stitch-a-longs starting in January 2021.  He has posted the project size and thread needed on his website https://cunningcrossstitch.blogspot.com/2020/10/2021-stitchalong-briefings.html  for the 2 SALs listed below.  

The first one is Magic Kingdom SAL. There is no frame, so it will start on January 1.  After that, each pattern drops on the 1st of each month.  I’m not a Disney fan, but I will download the patterns in case I need to stitch them in the future for a friend or my sisters.

The second one is an Animal Crossing SAL.  There is a frame around this one, which will be released on November 15, 2020.  I am definitely participating in this one because it is my favourite video game.

Let me know if you are going to stitch either of these projects, I would love to follow along with your progress.

Peppermint Purple (Green) - weeks 41 & 42

I’m all caught up!! Today block 42 was released.  I finished both blocks today.

Week 41

Week 42

Weeks 1 - 42

Peppermint Purple (Green) - week 40

I’m almost caught up, here is week 40.

Peppermint Purple (Green) - weeks 38 & 39

I completed 2 more blocks, and only 2 more until I am caught up.

Week 38

Week 39

I thought I’d show everyone the whole project.

Peppermint Purple (Green) - weeks 35, 36 & 37

Trying to catchup on this SAL. This Wednesday they will release week 41. I should have lots of time to finish all 7 blocks by the end of the week. I stitched 3 yesterday, so only 3 more before Wednesday.

Week 35

Week 36

Week 37

SYOA - Chapter 5 - Happy Dance

I finally finished Chapter 5 - Potions Classroom.  I used DMC regular, metallic and rayon floss along with some pink beads.  I struggled with getting the potion bottles the way I liked them.  Finally decided to fill in the empty part of the bottles and backstitch them with DMC 168.  I tried the dark outline as Jo suggested, but I just didn’t like it with all of the dark brown of the shelves.  I probably shouldn’t have used bright colours for the potions in the bottles, but I really wanted to use the 2 fluorescent floss colours, so I just continued using more bright colours.  Overall I really do like this Chapter.  I do feel like something is missing in the right hand corner, but not sure what to add without it looking to cluttered.  I wanted to add another pink swirl, but my son Jaspar said not to make it look symmetrical and I do agree.  I was going to add a floor, but I already backstitched the cauldron and didn’t want to frog it.  All of my other Chapters have some beige negative space, so it should look fine leaving it this way.

Here is the whole project.  I love how there is pink in the 2 opposite corners to balance each other.  I used the same light pink from the teacup in the swirls from the cauldron.