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Monday 30 April 2018

April Pie and Stitch from Stash

For my final post of the month I thought I'd do a look at my focus piece for April - Gardens of London by Chatelaine Designs.  I started this one February 2017 and plan to make it my focus piece for five months this year.  In an attempt to see some real progress on it!

I stitched a lot in February 2018 and here is how it looked at the end of that month:


And here is where we are now:

stitched on 32 count Cotton Clouds Belfast from Crafty Kitten

And some close-ups:


Top Left Garden


I am using a mixture of the recommended silks and some substitutions.  Some are the plain DMC recommended on the chart and others are variegated from Jodyri Threads.  Sometimes I am blending two DMC shades to make a subtle effect too.

The gaps in the centre part are all for beads.  The gaps in the border of the small garden are mostly speciality stitches and some beads.  I plan to stitch all the xxx first and then the speciality and metallics.  The beads I will leave until the end.  Because I haven't bought them yet!

And now the part you have all been waiting for - Pie!


I managed nearly half a month on Gardens of London which is about average for this year.

Now on to to Stitch from Stash:

April
Cross Stitcher sub £8.72
JCS sub £22.94
Beads £8.00
Total £39.66

The RoEx has worked in my favour because my Just Cross Stitch subscription has gone down in price this year.  I think Cross Stitcher have made an error because their subscription was due in May not April.  I have emailed them.

The beads were a real bargain.  A local crafter had a table at our Friday Coffee Morning and was selling various scrapbooking items and multipacks of beads.


These are not Mill Hill, maybe a little bit bigger than standard Mill Hills but great for making hangers for ornies or trimming them.  And at £3 for a packet of four, that's a bargain!

Finally, here's the progress on my Temperature SAL by Hetti:


You can see the warmer days we had at the beginning of the month on the right hand side, some nice yellow there.  In the bottom left you can see the mini heatwave too.  That bright orange is 26 degrees Celsius or 79 F, phew what a scorcher!   Now down to a chilly 7 C or 45 F to finish the month.








13 comments:

Stasi said...

My first visit to your blog....love the pie chart! I'll be back!!!

Vickie said...

Gardens of London is so wonderful!

Barb said...

The Gardens of London is just beautiful! You are making good progress. I always love to see your chart!

The Knitting Cross Stitcher said...

I am excited to hear you are going to be stitching on Gardens Of London,it is a lovely design.
I also like the idea of charting the changes in weather through stitching.I have seen another one on IG with little flowers as the temperature markers.I love your version,it will be very colourful when completed,with I hope some bold oranges for warmer weather....fingers crossed.

diamondc said...

Hi Jo: Lovely stitching, I always like to see your progress.
I have never done a pie chart maybe this is a good year to start one.
The beads are probably size 11 they are just a little bigger then Mill Hill beads.

Blessings
Catherine

deb said...

Outstanding progress on your Chatelaine! I love the look of your temperature SAL. Curious about that - are you using a set of recommended colors for particular temp ranges or did you pick them all yourself?

Beth in IL said...

Love your progress on your Chatelaine. And when I see your temperature chart, I want to pull mine out. Where did I put it? And where are the threads?

Julie said...

There'll be some nice colours in the temp SAL this bank holiday weekend if the weatherman is to be believed. Tourists will be flocking to the seaside.
Chatelaine is amazing, lots of time put into that.
Great bargain on the beads.

Christine said...

Great to see some warm colours in the temperature SAL at last.
Scorchio!
Should get some more this weekend

Susan said...

Beautiful, as usual. Your Chatelaine is coming along very nicely. I like the temperature SAL - I keep thinking I'll do something like that, but then sanity kicks in...

Katie said...

Fantastic progress. Love your pie chart as always.

Astrids dragon said...

Wow, that's some pie!!! And great buy on the beads!
I like the temp SAL, I had something in mind to make but didn't get it together in time... maybe next year.

Leonore Winterer said...

Great progress on Gardens this month! Your substitutions are working out very nicely so far. And a great deal on the beads! I'm sure you'll find good use for them.