Hallowe'en Exchange, Challenge and Temperature SAL Catch Up

You know what it's like. You wait all month for a bloggable stitch, and then three come along at once!
The exchange first. This was the Hallowe'en Exchange on Needlecraft Haven. We had to send a stitched ornament, a trick and a treat.
Here is the lovely gift I received from Mary.

Thankyou Mary, they are all wonderful. I shall be displaying my "Christine's Potions" ornament all year round.
And here is what I sent to Justine.

The ornament is a design from Aliolka , The treat is a Lush Bath Bomb, and the trick is a mint tin filled with creepy crawlies.
The Alioka designs were the chosen designs for the Seasonal Challenge on Needlecraft Haven, so that finish killed two birds with one stone, but I decided to stitch another of the designs as a gift for Eloise

So then, of course, I had to stitch one for Naomi as well, only all the Aliolka designs had that cute little spider, and Naomi does not do spiders. Not even very cute ones, so I combined Aliolka's skull motif with a kitty from a Barbara Ana design and stitched her this one (which you've already seen if you saw the Hallowe'en Blog Hop post)

And finally here is an up to date picture of my Temperature SAL

2019 Trick or Treat Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my Trick or Treat Blog Hop Post.

Here is some Spooky Stitching

This is a combination of a couple of designs, the cat is part of this design from Barbara Ana Designs whilst the skull is from an Aliolka design

Your letter for the Blog Hop is

Now please go to An Arizona Stitcher for your next letter

Struggling to Come Up With an October GG

It's not that I haven't done any gift related crafting this month, just that none of it is with its intended recipient yet, so I can't show it.
(For a recap of Gifted Gorgeousness see Jo's blog here)
So, having wracked my brains for sometime over what to post I believe that I may well have come up with the most tenuous shoe-horn in the long and proud history of shoe-horning...
I made myself this dress last week.

Pattern is New Look 6632, and the fabric is a mid-weight lurex jersey from The Textile Centre.
How is it gift related I hear you ask. Aha! Since I don't have an overlocker, and sewed this on a regular machine, I used a short piece of vintage seam tape on the inside of each of the shoulder seams to stabilise them.
And the seam tape?
This seam tape?

It was a gift from Julie
Boom! Gifted Gorgeousness!

Gifted Gorgeousness AKA Where Did The Month Go?

Gifted Gorgeousness has snuck up on me again. In fairness August is our busiest month so it kind of slipped past me, and now here we are again with me desperately seeking something even vaguely gift related to show. (If you check out the rules for GG on Jo's Blog, you'll see that "even vaguely related" is just fine)
I did make this dress for my daughter (and the gorgeous sequin fabric was gifted from Minerva) so this will have to suffice.

The pattern is the Elsie Dress from Sew Over It.
I'll try to do better next month.

August Gifted Gorgeousness - Warning: Picture Heavy

Running a couple of days late with Gifted Gorgeousness this month as it was the annual Village Show yesterday, and since I'm Show Secretary it keeps me rather busy. If you are wondering what Gifted Gorgeousness is, by the way, you can pop over to Jo's blog for a full explanation, but the short version is it's a monthly blog hop where we show our gift related crafting.
I've got a few gifts to show this month.
First up is the VSCyberstitchers July exchange (which happens too late in the month to make the July GG post). Here is the absolutely gorgeous gift I received from Pat

And here is the one that I sent to Marietta.

Then there is this shirt that I made for DH as an anniversary gift.

The pattern is Simplicity 1544, and it is made in a lovely soft ex-Hugo Boss linen, with the contrast details in Liberty Tana Lawn.

I can thoroughly recommend this pattern, it makes a very stylish shirt, though I might be tempted to go a size smaller when I make him another one as there's a lot of ease in it.

I'm going to finish up with a few pictures of the Village Show I mentioned earlier

   

And a spot of shameless bragging about the cup I won for Best in Show Art, with this pastel drawing. (I've no idea who she is, I drew her from a photo I found online)

Naomi also won a cup for best close up floral photo, and we got quite a few 1st place cards between us, so all in all it was a very successful day.

Before and After

Before :- 

Some really rather ugly shoes from Tesco

After:-

Funky new "Fruit Salad" trainers (motifs adapted from a sampler in CrossStitcher magazine. dip-dye effect laces from EvilBay)

A Quick Update on the Temperature SAL

Spent this morning getting caught up on the Temperature SAL

Don't all those lovely warm colours around the outside make a difference to how it's lookin
In unrelated news I've had the chalk pastels out - here are some bubbles I drew, not quite sure I got them right, but it was fun playing with all those colours