Saturday 18 December 2021

Animal Crossing New Horizons SAL - Happy Dance!!

It has been a productive stitching year because I completed my year long project. I'm so happy with how this project turned out. I can’t wait to hang it on the wall in my craft room above my TV in my video game area. I will show a photo of how I frame it in 2022.

ACNH SAL
Start Date January 1, 2021
Finished Date December 17, 2021




December - K.K. Slider is a dog musician who visits your island on Saturday. After 6pm you can attend his live concert and he will give you one of his records. This is the image Stewart used for creating the block. I didn't like the spotlight above his head creating shadows on his face. I changed him to just be white, no other shades.










Here is my stitched block.


There are 107 songs to collect. My favourite song is Welcome Horizons, the ACNH theme song. You can play the music on any record player, radio, stereo in the game. You can hang the records on the wall as art.


Sunday 12 December 2021

A Late Wedding Gift

The year is almost over and my Animal Crossing SAL is almost completed. 2022 Stewart is doing stand alone projects for each month. I won't be participating, but might save the patterns for another time.

Yesterday, I started a new project called Frederick the Literate. This is a late wedding gift to my son Jordyn and daughter-in-law Sarah who got married July 2020. At the time, I was working on the huge Harry Potter Stitch Your Own Adventure and Peppermint Purple Blackwork projects so I didn't have time to stitch them a wedding gift. Also, I didn't know what to stitch for them. After discussing it with them, we decided that I would stitch Frederick the Literate because the cat looks like one of theirs (Roman).

I bought this as a kit about 20 years ago but never got around to stitching it. I swapped the 14ct aida for 28ct Monaco (which I dyed black). Unfortunately they don't want a black background, they asked for a brown bookshelf as the background instead. So I didn't really need to dye the fabric, but I don't have any brown or white large enough for this project. The design size is 172st x 154st (13"w x 11"h).

This is Roman their cat.










This is what the project will look like when completed.












Here is my progress from yesterday (1st day). I'm starting in the top left corner of the bookshelf.






Thursday 9 December 2021

ACNH - all caught up

November - Stewart designed Daisy Mae as the character for this block. She sells turnips on Sunday mornings. You have until the following Saturday night to sell them before they rot. You have to check twice a day (morning/afternoon) to see when Nook’s Cranny is buying turnips for a profit (more than you paid for the turnips). It is called the “stalk market” in the game. You hope to buy low (under $100 bells) and sell high ($200 - $700). This is where having lots of friends playing the game helps. Everyone checks their stores to see who has the best price. I don’t like Daisy Mae’s character with the snotty nose.

I love all of the flowers, shrubs and vegetables in the game. Photo borrowed from the internet.

Leif (sloth) sells you plant starters.  I love his cheerful personality and all his bright yellow apron and trailer.
I designed him standing in front of his RV trailer, but I only put a tomato (left) and carrot (right) plant in front of him. Here is my island all up to date.
Here is the whole project. The last block will be released next week Dec 15th. 











Friday 3 December 2021

ACNH - Isabelle - Happy Dance

Tonight I finished the October block with Isabelle. I decided to add white beads for the lily of the valley flowers.

Then I decided to add some shooting stars in the night sky with Celeste and Wisp.

I hope to finish this project by the end of the year. I only have 2 blocks left. Stewart will release the last pattern on December 15th.

Thursday 2 December 2021

ACNH - Isabelle

October - Isabelle is my favourite character in the Animal Crossing series. She works in the Resident Services office and gives us the morning announcements. Stewart’s design is based on this scene where Isabelle gives us the morning announcements.
Here is my progress from yesterday.

I’m adding a perfect flower to this block. We find a flower called a lily of the valley on our island after we reach 5 stars.



Tuesday 30 November 2021

ACNH - Jolly Redd - Happy Dance

September - Jolly Redd is a legitimate art dealer who arrives at the secret beach in his boat called the Treasure Trawler.
When you go inside you will 4 art pieces (paintings & statues). Sometimes they are all real, sometimes they are all fake, and other times they are a mixture. I usually go online to see which ones are the real ones, so I don’t waste money in my game.  

Below you can see the ancient statue and the Twinkling painting.  These are the 2 art pieces that I tried to represent in my cross stitch block.


Here is my cross stitch block. I added the painting and statue to Stewart’s original design.








Sunday 21 November 2021

ACNH - Able Sisters - Happy Dance

I completed this block last weekend, but I forgot to post a photo.
Here is a photo of the whole project to date showing all the blocks completed from January to August.





Thursday 4 November 2021

ACNH - Celeste & Wisp - Happy Dance

I finished Wisp a few days ago, so this block is now completely done.



ACNH - Able Sisters

I also started the July block that I skipped before Celeste.  This one is the Able Sisters, which is a clothing store run by 2 porcupine sisters named Mabel and Sable. Here is the interior of their store. Mabel helps you, while Sable does the sewing.

Stewart designed the block with these 2 characters, but I wanted to add another one to this block as if it looked like a photo of all 3 sisters.  I have completed Sable (burgundy) and Mabel just needs backstitching.

They also have another sister named Label who is a fashion designer who travels to your island and asks you to help her with her studies. She wants you to dress up in different outfits like (vacation, business, goth, going to a party, formal, etc). Then she gives you a special piece of clothing from her fashion line “Labelle” (dress, shorts, tshirt, tights, shoes, hat, coat).




Saturday 23 October 2021

ACNH - Celeste

I am still a few months behind on this project. I skipped the block for July because I'm still designing the background for the space, so I can't stitch the characters yet.

August - Celeste is Blather's sister.  She visits your island at night time, usually when there are shooting stars.  She gives you Zodiac and Space themed DIYs to build.










Here is my block so far.  I have completed Celeste, but need to figure out how to stitch a ghostly shape. I might try using glow in the dark floss.  I will also add some stars and/or shooting stars to the sky after.



Wisp is a ghost that appears randomly at night.  He gets scared and 5 spirits pop out of his body.  You need to find and catch the 5 spirits with a bug net.  Return them to Wisp for a gift (furniture or clothing).




Wednesday 15 September 2021

ACNH - Flick & CJ - Happy Dance

Last Sunday night I finished this block.  I placed them in the bottom right square, so CJ can fish off the dock.


It has been a while since I showed the whole project. I’m a few months behind with my stitching.  This block is from June and yesterday the September block was released.


I received my Animal Crossing Monopoly game today.  For anyone interested, it looks like a monopoly game, but it is not played like the classic game. Dave, Jaspar & I are planning to play it on Friday afternoon.  Hopefully I win the first time we play, since it is my game.



Friday 10 September 2021

ACNH - CJ - update #1

I don’t seem to find time to stitch these days. Always something else to do in the garden or outside while it is nice weather.
I have finished the cross stitching on CJ, now to add a purple butterfly above Flick’s head and a red snapper fish attached to CJ’s fishing rod. I added some of the sand colour for them to stand on. I will add a nice bright blue for the sky.





Monday 23 August 2021

Friday 20 August 2021

ACNH - Flick & CJ

June - CJ & Flick
These are 2 new characters to the Animal Crossing series.  Monday - Friday you have random characters visit your island to buy or sell items to you. CJ & Flick buy all of your fish & bugs for more money (bells).  You can also give 3 of a certain bug to Flick and he will make a model of it for you.  Or you can give 3 fish to CJ and he will give them to Flick to make a model of the fish for you.  I have made lots of bug models (butterflies, honeybees, wasp, jewel beetle, and dung beetle), but only 1 fish model (red snapper).  My favourite fish in the game is the Red Snapper.  Even though the fish are larger than the bugs, but the fish models are so much smaller than the bug models.

I just started stitching Flick.  Stewart designed them to be in the bottom left hand corner near the dock, but since my dock is on the bottom right corner that is the square I am stitching them in.

Here is my progress so far.





Thursday 22 July 2021

ACNH - Blathers

May - Blathers (owl) is the curator in charge of the museum exhibits.  He accepts all of your donations of bugs, fish, fossils (dinosaurs) and art pieces. I have completed 3 areas in my museum. I just have 1 more painting to find for the art room.
I am stitching the background to look like this area behind Blathers.

I started this square on July 14 and just finished it tonight.  I have not been stitching much because I have been enjoying the summer weather. 




Thursday 8 July 2021

July 2021 - Houses


I always forget about this SAL until I read Jo’s blog Serendipitous Stitching.  This month’s topic is Houses, which is one of my favourite things to stitch.  I have stitched 28 houses over the past 26 years, I'm sure these will not be the last!
  
My first cross stitch back in 1995 was called Summer Symphony.
















New Home card for a family member in 1996.



















Spindles and Posts - stitched in 1999
















Proud to be on Duty - 1999



















Grandparents Day - 2001











As Seasons Change - 2001



















Down Main Street - I stitched these 3 stores for a friend in 2003.







Cantenbury Cafe - I designed this for my sons' basketball coach (2005) when they bought a coffee shop.



















Gingerbread House ornament



















Lighthouse - This was a stamped cross stitch kit that a family member had.  I cut out the stamped area and stitched on 28ct, but still using the fabric background as a mat.



















Amish Scene - I love this busy, colourful scene.









Victorian Dollhouse - Designed by Joan Elliott.  I had a wall dollhouse like this in the 90's, so I definitely had to stitch this project in 2012.















3D miniature house ornament - 2013










Santa’s Village (12 houses) - Designed by Country Cottage Needleworks - 2013





Stitcher's Place - This was designed by Tiny Moderist for my old LNS (2015).















This was my local needlework shop which closed about 4 years ago.