Well, I am LATE with this posting but it’s a good long one! Rachel at Ten Hour Stitcher has created a wonderful new SAL to encourage FFOs this year! Posts are supposed to be up by the 10th of the month, but I needed a little extra time for various reasons! Nonetheless, this is an excellent SAL for me because I am acquiring a drawer of stitches that need full-finishing! So I will aim to get several FFOs a month and try not to let that drawer get too full!

First I have this little finish. This was my Valentine for Ariadne, my Secret Stitching Sweetheart.

Even though this is a little project, it is very special. I received the Mill Hill kit, half finished, in a bag of stitching odds and ends that came from my Grandma, after she died. I finally finished it up and put it in the cute frame and now I have a treasure from my Grandma.

Next up are my biscornus! I did 2 for other SALs but I will show them again here:

The hearts and roses one is called Christmas Rose from The Victoria Sampler Biscornuments chart. I followed the guidelines to make tassels and cord, and this time I made enough tassels and cord for the whole set so when I stitch the others they will all match.

The holly one is from JCS 2008 by Cherished Stitches. I had a whole vial of red beads, also from my Grandma’s stash, and decided to use them when I stitched the sides together. I still need to find the perfect red button to put in the middle but I really love how this came out.

Next is my Little Lady Prim Sewing Set, which I also turned in for Gifted Gorgeousness. This is a free chart from The Little Stitcher-she has a number of really cute freebies on her website if you spend the time to poke around!

I finished with ruched ribbon (the blue is a little too bright but I like it anyway) on the pincushion, which is stuffed with walnut shells.

And I made a twisted cording for the fob. Now, I assumed this was supposed to be a fob since it had scissors on it and it is small enough, but Laura says it was designed as a needlebook. Oh well! I really love how it came out!

Finally, I have this, which I am SO proud of:

This is Random Thoughts by The Drawn Thread which I started back in fall 2016. The stitching was finished in winter 2018 with plans to do the hemstitched border right away this year. I had never done hemstitching before and the trickiest part was folding in the sides and squaring up the corners.

They are not quite perfect as hard as I tried, but it was my first effort so I will be happy with it. Then the hemstitching took me 3 days, a few hours here and there, to get it done last week. I only worked on it during daylight so as not to mess it up, and it’s much harder for me to get stitching time during the day, otherwise I think one night would have sufficed.

Anyway, I am just pleased as punch with it. I look at it and can’t even believe that I made this thing. Do you find this to be true, that once you have finished an object, and it moves from “WIP” to ‘FFO” it suddenly BECOMES itself, where it is no longer a part of your active work but an object in and of itself? It now really has a complete “thing-ness” instead of being something in your hand that you are coaxing into being. And it is almost as if your relationship to it has changed. You have made it and now it has grown up and apart from you, like a child.

Anyway I think I will prefer to have it framed rather than bell pull style hanging so I will take it over to The Attic and do that as a birthday present for myself next month. But as far as my work is concerned, it’s an FFO!

Now, if you want to see all the FFOs in FFO gallery, be sure to go back to Rachel’s!