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Wednesday 15 February 2012

Theme-a-licious February Update


Fan-Girl February is this month's theme.

I plan to stitch on a choice from my four favourite designers - Joan Elliott, Just Nan, Nora Corbett and Teresa Wentzler.

So far this month I have stitched two different Just Nan projects.  The first one to be completed is one of her smalls, Spring Peepers.  I have had this chart and charm for eons and the fabric for a couple of years.  Thanks to the Just-Nan-a-thon it finally came to the top of the list.

Stitched on 28 count blue evenweave.
The design is very simple, mostly plain cross stitched with a few eyelets and some beads.  I used standard beads rather than the petites (because I didn't have the petites!).  There are four backstitched frogs in gold.  To liven up the lilies I added four straight stitches to each one using DMC Light Effects (the pink one!).  This made a huge difference to the piece, I love them!

Here's how my Just Nan smalls are displayed:


Some of them aren't Just Nan but rather than have gaps they're up there too.  My Dad made this shelf based on one I bought from a House Clearance shop which was just 10mm too small all round to fit the frames.  Typical.

The second Just Nan finish was for the Yuku Board Band Sampler Round Robin.  Kathy's theme was Just Nan in blue.  Here are my bands:

My bands come from the Burgundy Stocking and the Evening Star Sampler.  I changed the colours to fit in with Kathy's scheme.  I also added the beads to my band as I noticed Kathy had stitched the same band in different colours so I echoed her bead placement.

And here is the whole piece so far:
It's now off to Sophia to finish and return to Kathy.

This evening I started my Joan Elliott Round Robin piece based on the 6 Flower Fairies.  The other 6 participants will be stitching a Fairy each and I'm stitching the centre piece made up of 6 of the flowers.  I don't have a progress pic but here is my plan produced on the computer:


Finally a Big Thank You to everyone who took part in the Secret Stitching Sweetheart event yesterday.  It was such fun visiting all the blogs and seeing everyone guessing who'd sent which piece.  The bonus piece on my blog was by Mouse.  I will be doing it again next year, and if you can't wait that long, there will be an online Easter activity too.  All you will need is an Easter or Spring related stitched picture to join in.  Keep your eyes open for the sign up sometime towards the end of March.

21 comments:

gracie said...

I am already planning!

Nicola said...

And me

Anonymous said...

Hi

Just wanted to say your projects are looking great.

I love the Just Nan pieces.

Linda said...

I love the shelf unit. The pictures look great on it.

Linda

Kathy A. said...

Where to start???
I love my Round Robin. Thank you. The bands you chose are perfect!
Your Joan Elliott RR looks wonderful! I look forward to seeing it come together.
Your sweetheart swap was a lot of fun. I was introduced to some new bloggers! Thank you.
I love your Just Nan turtles and your little display case.

Lesleyanne said...

Lovely Just Nan pieces. Your flower fairies are going to be stunning.

Christine said...

Great JN pieces and the flower fairy sampler looks as if it is going to be fabulous

cucki said...

aww cute just nan piece..and all the fairies are so cuteeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
big hugs xx

Shebafudge said...

Thanks for organising the Valentine's 'swap'. I really enjoyed it and found some new blogs to stalk.

Hmmmm....Easter/spring...I wonder?

Your JE RR looks really pretty, I will look forward to seeing it 'in the flesh' once it's done.

Happy stitching!

The Knitting Cross Stitcher said...

Lovely way to display your stitching.The Just Nan designs are so pretty.
I had a smaller version of the shelves your Dad made,in my bedroom, when I was a teenager in the 1970's . I wish I knew where it had gone.

Sue said...

Beautiful Just Nan pieces. Your display is fabulous. Looks like talent runs in your family!

Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri Malinovich) said...

Your JN piece is beautiful and the whole display is just wonderful! Great job on the RR piece and I love the fairies and flowers you've put together. That'll be a stunner!

geeky Heather said...

I LOVE what you did with the lily pads and I like the larger gold beads! But then, I'm always for more bling. =)

Your fairy RR is going to be STUNNING!!!

Caitlin @ Naughts Cross Stitches said...

such beautiful stitching. A lovely shelf to display them on.

I like the band sampler. Lovely colour choices.

Also that exchange sounds interesting :D

Susan said...

I love Just Nan's smalls. I have a bunch of them stitched and hanging above the window in the craft room. The Just Nan RR is beautiful and your Joan Elliott RR is going to be AMAZING!!

Anonymous said...

A New follower just poppin on to say that I think you are very talented and I like your taste in projects. Beautiful work done.

Topcho said...

Those Just Nans are simply gorgeous! They're like real jewels. And I love how you are doing the Joan Elliott RR, this is truly going to be amazing project! I have some of the magazines featuring JE fairies and I hope to stitch them someday. Until then I'll watch your progress!

Giovanna said...

Lovely work on the JNs, congrats!
Thanks for making it easy for me to comment :-)

[really making an effort to avoid the V word, lol!]

Kaisievic said...

Lovely stitching, as usual, Jo.

hugs, Kaye xoxox

Joysze said...

OH!!! I love your Just Nan display, Jo!!

Looking forward to your JE SAL. :D

Ewa said...

Beautiful stitching, Jo! I love that band sampler - lovely!