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Saturday 5 September 2015

The Brilliant and Beautiful Alphabet Band

It's the first Saturday of the month, so it's time for detention!

"They only met online, but it changed their lives forever"

I think most of you know the lovely enigmatic Chiara who blogs at The Grey Tail?  We were chatting via email a while back and between us came up with the idea of an A-Z language challenge.  We batted some ideas around and are calling it the The Alphabet Club.  Chiara has the full details on that link but basically she will post a link-up post on the first Saturday of each month (Saturday being detention day in the film) reminding us of the month's letter and we will all link up with themed things, from stitching to designers and local customs.



This month's letter is B for brilliant and beautiful (that's me and Chiara!) and also Bargello, the lovely flamestitch in the photo above, taken from A Dark Alphabet by A Note of Friendship.  B is also for buttons and beading and butterfly as shown in my current Alphabet Club project; A Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books Publishing (more Bs) there.


The little blue button is proof that the destashing of your wardrobe by clearing out anything not worn in the previous season is a silly idea.  That little button was the spare button from one of my old work shirts which has not been worn for at least 13 years (Large Boy is 13 this month).  I have a collection of very similar styled shirts waiting for my return to office work.  Which may or may not happen in the next 20 years.  But they will be ready if I do!

Anyway, I didn't quite finish A last month due to the lack of tiny white beads, so here is A pushing it's way into a B post:


And here they are together:


I am stitching this series on a piece of 28count afghan which will then be made into a book by sewing the panels back-to-back.  There is room for four letters on each block plus a title on the first page and my initials and the dates on the final page.

More beading on today's project, The Sugared Almond Cottage by The Nutmeg Company:


There's another one of these for the other side!



That is a petite 28 needle shown for scale.  Now I can start sewing them together.  The special curved needles I ordered arrived today and I bought some mounting board yesterday in preparation.  Watch this space!

Of course the Champion of Beading has to be Mill Hill.  I always use their beads because they come in so many colours, nearly every chart gives their numbers and they are easy to get hold of.  They also do some lovely heavily beaded designs of their own:

Hallowe'en by Mill Hill


Winter Wonderland by Mill Hill.

Frosted Heather Rose by Mill Hill

Which brings us nicely to my next B - Band Samplers.  I do love a band sampler and have taken part in three different Round Robins to stitch them as well as several of my own working.  Here are four seasonal favourites:

Seasons by Just Nan

My "B" WIP will be Book of Spells by The Goode Huswif:


I've already mentioned Brooke's Books as a B designer, other designers I enjoy stitching include Blue Ribbon Designs and Blackbird Designs.  You can read my post about Blue Ribbon here and see my BBD finishes here.

And a designer I haven't stitched yet, although I have one of their charts is Brightneedle:

Ezmeraldas House - cross stitch pattern by Brightneedle
Ezmeralda's House

And now on to the Blog Roll, blogs I love to follow beginning with B:






Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop and the penultimate card was sent today:

First postcard from Cheryl goes to Noni at Fireflies and Cats in the Garden
Second postcard from Vickie goes to Katie at Jeremiah's Mom
Third postcard from Noni goes to Julie at Julie's Stitchyknitter Journal
Fourth postcard from Katie goes to Anna at Stitch Bitch
Fifth postcard from Julie goes to Bea at Thoughts and Musings
Sixth card from Narita goes to Kaye at Kitten Stitching
Seventh card from Anna goes to Vickie at A Stitcher's Story
Eighth card from Kaye goes to Jocondine at Jocondine
Ninth card from Jocondine goes to Cheryl at Today I Found
Tenth card from Bea goes to Leonore at Needle, Pen & Sword (sent today)





23 comments:

Vickie said...

Love the Stitcher's Alphabet! How fun!
ooOoo! Your little cottage looks sweet.

Kaisievic said...

Wow! Jo, I say it every time, but it is so true! Such beautiful stitching and you are so talented! Love, love, love all of your work. hugs to you, my very dear friend.

Heather said...

Great b post!

rosey175 said...

Gosh, the beaded book will be so heavy when it's done! The weight of finished beaded projects always impresses me. Love Winter Wonderland!

Great B post, I like all the variety you cram in :D

Sarah in Stitches said...

Beautiful stitching! This is a great lineup of "B" things, and I love your "B" block for A Stitcher's Alphabet! :D

Mini said...

That is a lot of gorgeous "B" stitching. Great progress on the cottage and Stitcher's Alphabet .

jocondine said...

Bravo! must be the comment of this B post. So many lovely stitchings with beads and this house is so cute. I love the front door with all the details. Bon dimanche. xxx

Christine said...

Beading, Bargello and band samplers, all in the same post! Some of my favourite things

Cross Stitch Claire said...

Can't wait to see your cottage finished, it's so cute! What a lot of things you've found for B!

Leonore Winterer said...

Wow, so many beautiful pieces in one post! I didn't know Brooke's alphabet patterns had that many beads, maybe shall look into them myself.
The Mill Hill pieces are gorgeous, as are the band samplers. I have the pattern for the winter one, maybe I should start looking for the others too :) And I adore the litle cottage you're working on!

Rhona said...

So many beautiful pieces! What a great post!

gominam said...

Ooh, so many pretty pretty beading projects! Who knew a 13 year old spare button can turn into a nice addition, just Brilliant! Love the band samplers too:)

Tiffstitch said...

"B"eautiful work on everything and great info too, thank you!

Daniela Bencúrová said...

Embroidery with beads I really like!
Greetings!

Linda said...

Awesome post and awesome stitching Jo.

Linda

Justine said...

What a gorgeous post! I may have to try one of those Mill Hill beaded designs, they look like fun!

Brigitte said...

So many B words related to your stitching. All your beaded pieces are so beautiful. I also have a couple of Mill Hill kits in my stash but have never tried them. After seeing yours maybe I should just pull one out and start. I also love band samplers particularly the ones by Just Nan. Your four seasons are just stunning. Now I am totally inspired and who knows - I might just go, dive into my stash, pull out a project and start something new. Is this a good influence or a bad one that your posts have on me? LOL.

Julie said...

Great post, the JN samplers do look splendid, I think I have a couple of those charts in my stash pile.

Pamela said...

Lovely projects and great B post. I think everything needs beads.

Suz said...

Lots of lovely work, and I love the Bargello Brimstone, very cute :)

D1-D2 said...

So many beautiful Bs. I especial love alphabet pattern.

Bea said...

Love your projects and the variety you stitch. Rather partial to the letter B myself (snicker).

Stitching Noni said...

Jo, I love your post.... full of lovely "B" things... beads and buttons - who can go past both of them? :o)
You have stitched some beautiful projects using beads!
Can't wait to see what you come up with for "C"
Hugs xx