Thursday, January 5, 2017

Completion of Joyful World SAL


Happy New Year everyone.  I've been somewhat under the weather for a while and it's hard to keep up my good humor.  Haven't done much crafting or even novel reading for a while.   But I did manage to finish up the Snowflower Diaries Joyful World SAL.   I stitched December before November because I loved that design so much and thought I needed the motivation of a design I loved.  But when I went back and did November, I fell in love with that one too.

Changed enough colors in each month to make good contrast and conform more to the original stitched by Maja with hand-dyed threads.  And very happy that my eyes held up for the last 2 over-one months.  Part of my health problem affects the eyes and that's been an additional issue.





Over the course of the SAL I had many ideas about how to use the stitching.  In the end, I decided to do a relatively simple finish of each and I will only do one a month.  I had an ancient grommet tool that I bought a thousand years ago to make a shower curtain.  I never figured out how to use it and was about to give it away during year-end clean-out.  Then I decided to give it one more try since I understood eyelets and grommets better now after making floss tags and luggage tags.  Lo and behold, it worked!    So I added a coordinating fabric border and backing to January and then added the two grommets.  The piece is now hanging from two magnetic hooks on my fridge.  I needed the larger grommet holes so they would fit on the hooks.  I liked these hooks because they keep the piece flat against the fridge unlike the usual cup hooks.

Click here to see the hooks I'm using.  I couldn't get a good photo in the kitchen.



15 comments:

Robin in Virginia said...

Congratulations on your December and November finishes! I really like how you finished the January piece and bet it looks great on the refrigerator. I hope your health issues lessen in 2017. Thinking of you!

Mini said...

Congratulations on finishing the SAL. That's a very unique way of finishing the stitched piece. Great Idea!!

Brigitte said...

Sorry to hear about your health problems at the end of last year. I hope it will be better this year.
Congratulations on finishing this beautiful SAL. And a great idea to display the respective month on your fridge.

Vickie said...

Oh Annie, that is so creative! I love your idea! :)
I am sorry you have been suffering my friend. I feel for you. ♥

Sheryl said...

Lovely work Annie, all the Joyful World months are very pretty, I´m way behind with mine. Hope you will feel better this year.

Jackie's Stitches said...

What a clever finishing idea! Great way to display your gorgeous stitching through out the year!

I hope you are feeling better.

Jane said...

What a great way to finish them, you could have a whole year and change each month. Hope you can get to resolve some of the health issues

Margaret said...

Love how you finished this! Perfect place to enjoy the piece too. It'll be great to hang each month as the months turn. Good plan on spreading out the finishing too. As for your eyes -- just getting old doesn't help with seeing. lol! But I think my health problems also affect my vision. Not fun. Makes it harder to stitch. :(

Desiree Ehleiter said...

Love your finish! Did you follow instructions for this? It looks absolutely professionally done! I hope to stitch these pieces someday and want to determine how I will finish before I begin.

Gina E. said...

Dear Annie, my best wishes to you for a happy and healthy new year! As usual, I haven't been visiting my blog family for a month or so, and am now catching up. One would never believe that you have any problems with your eyes, your stitching is always exquisite :-) I am sorry to read about your health issues and not knowing your age group, I don't like to comment about old age affecting our health - LOL! I am 68 and fiercely guard my eyesight with regular check ups and daily Lutein capsules to help ward off macular degeneration etc. So far I have been lucky, no cataracts, glaucoma, md, or anything else, but like most of us, I spend too much time on the computer, reading books, and sewing in one form or another. I think the secret is to rest my eyes every 15 minutes, but who remembers to stop what they are doing when they are involved in some serious craft work??

Carol said...

Congratulations on finishing all twelve, Annie! I really love these last two so much and may even stitch December one day, myself. Turning them into a hanging for your refrigerator is so great--both pretty and practical as that display method won't take up any room at all in your apartment.

Darn health problems--I do hope you get some relief soon. It's so hard when our bodies seem to let us down when we've been good to them all these years :) Hang in there, my friend...

And Happy New Year!

Hetti said...

The last two parts of the SAL are so beautiful in your own colors and I like the Januari finish very much! I hope that this year will be a better and healthy year for you Annie,
XXX Hetti

Astrids dragon said...

What a great way to end the year, they look fantastic! I still have to finish Aug-Dec, oops. I love the way you finished them, I'm still now sure how I'm doing mine.
I hope you're feeling better and are able to continue stitching without too much trouble.

Penny said...

Sorry you have been under the weather, Annie, I've missed you. You did such a lovely job stitching each month and what a clever finishing idea!

The Inspired Stitcher said...

What a great way to finish these! I love them both. Congrats on beautiful finishes.