The Zenith of the Zany and Zealous Alphabet Zoo

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

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

This is it, the final Alphabet Club post for me!  The idea for the Alphabet Club first came about when Chiara and I were chatting over two years ago.  We have been joined by various bloggers each month, although Chiara herself is taking a little break from blogging.  Because of this, I've added the linky for the final month here.  Whatever letter you are doing in September, please link up here so people can come and check out your progress.

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As usual the first piece I will show is from A Dark Alphabet by A Note of Friendship.  This was a partwork mystery sampler which Julie (the designer) and I raced each other to finish!  We have Zombees for Z.  Julie explains why in this post - A Note of Friendship

For those of you who would like to see the entire piece in more detail, you can check out my Danse Macabre post.

The next project I always show is my Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books.  This month we have a brightly coloured Z for Zigzag:

Here's the final page:

and here is the whole piece laid out on the floor!

The plan is to stitch a title in the gap on page one, next to A and then sew the tops and bottoms of each page together to make a soft book.  I'll make sure I post photos when it's completed.

Z is for also for Zebra, here's a tiny one from an Alphabet Sampler I stitched:

And a pair from Joan Elliott's Noah's Ark:

Z is also for Zombie, as well as Zombees!  Here is a cute Zombie Kitty designed by Carand88.  I stitched two of these for friends who were organising a Horror Festival.

I don't have anything from a designer beginning with Z but there is one big name in the stitching world - Zweigart!   The people who make the fabric, as ubiquitous as DMC in the stitching world.  Zweigart are celebrating their 140th anniversary this year.  They are popular because of the range of fabrics they produce, in a rainbow of colours, the quality of the products and their famous "orange" line trademark in the selvage.  If it isn't orange, it isn't Zweigart!  They also produce chart books and have a blog with some great ideas for how to use their products.
Both the website and the blog have a Translate button on the rop right if you don't speak German.

It's a good thing that Zweigart have a blog, because there are no other Z blogs in my Reader at all.

Which brings us to the final topic, an answer to the question everyone has been asking as we approached the end of the Alphabet -

Q: What are you going to do next?

A: It begins with Z and here are some examples:

Lesley Teare

Stitch Land

Joan Elliott

Three from Maria Diaz:

From SewandSo:

Lesley Teare

Orchidea

Soda Stitch 1 and 2

My personal favourite from Satsuma Street, being released one per month:

But this is the design I am going to be starting this month while I wait for Satsuma Street to release Virgo and Libra!  

They come from this book which I picked up very cheaply from Waterstones Marketplace.  A really good place to find older, out of print books at very low prices.

So there you have it, the plan for the next 12 months is to Stitch the Zodiac.  I will continue to post the first Saturday of each month and add a Linky which will last all month for you to join in.

You can choose a design like I have with small versions of each sign, or a larger design like the Joan Elliott and Lesley Teare, or just the individual signs for you and your family.  But here's the really good part - you don't even need to stitch a Zodiac design to join in.

I'll be starting with Libra for my first post; Libra is an Air sign represented by the Scales.  So you could share something related to Air, or balance, justice, weight, anything that says "scales" to you.  You could even shoe-horn a mermaid or fish in there!  You can look up the birthstone or flower for Libra and show that.  You can show a current piece, a WIP or an older finish.  If you have a Libran in your family you could show something that relates to them.

Finally, I'll be posting the first Linky on Saturday 7th October, which serendipitously is my Grandad's Birthday!  The first in a long line of Librans in my family.  Please join in, it's always more fun stitching with friends!  You don't have to post on the 7th, but that is where you'll find the Linky for the whole month.

You can read all the previous Alphabet Clubs posts by clicking the relevant letter here:

Amazing

Brilliant 

Cheerful 

Delightful 

Elegant

Fabulous 

Gorgeous

Happy 

Imaginative 

Joyeous

Keen 

Lovely 

Marvellous 

Nice 

Opulent

Perfect 

Quintessential

Remarkable 

Sensational 

Terrific

Uplifting 

Valued 

Wonderful 

eXciting 

Yummy

The Yummy and Youthful Alphabet Years

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.

I am very proud of the Y from the Dark Alphabet this month as I suggested this subject to Julie and Becky.

Y is for Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of Life.  There is some lovely artwork on the Note of Friendship blog for this letter.  It was one of my favourite blocks to stitch.

Y is also for Yarn as Brooke's Books show in this month's Stitcher's Alphabet:

I love this cat with all the yarn balls hanging off her as she plays with them.  To me, she looks like she is sitting in a martini glass having had one too many martinis and got into a muddle!

Y is not a terribly popular letter for stitching designs but I have You Were Hatched by Teresa Wentzler:

And this WIP from Yiotas:

Coffee Fairy

A nice Yellow Daffodil from World of Cross Stitching magazine:

And some more Spring Yellowness from Lizzie*Kate and the Snowflower Diaries.

And a nice little Yacht from Cross Stitcher magazine:

Over in my Blog Roll we have my dear friend Susan, who has been a little quiet of late:

Yellow Flower Meadow

And that's about it!  The more literate among you may have spotted that Y is the penultimate letter of the alphabet and the Club will be finishing next month with a Zoo full of Zebras (probably).  But never fear, I have devised a new theme for everyone to join in with and it is most appropriate that it will be launched next month.  No more clues, you'll have to wait and zee.

Finally, I was contacted by the lovely Emma from the delightfully named DripDropPolkaDot on Etsy.  She's a new designer and has started with a range of little "Weeble" People.  She's offering followers of my blog a 20% discount if you use the code "SEREN20" between now and the 20th August.  Here are my two favourites from her designs:

 

The eXciting and eXhilarating Alphabet Xerlo

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.

I am so impressed with my title this month!  Although I have a feeling that "xerlo" may actually be a made-up word.  I found it here - Word Central

"xerlo

1. Function: noun

   Definition: a person's place or their things that they keep at their place

   Example Sentence: My xerlo is filled with my favorite things."

Anyway, here's what X stands for in the Dark Alphabet:

Xaphan is a fallen angel who fans the fires of hell!  You can find out more about him on The Note of Friendship blog.

X is also for the most obvious one of all - X stitching:

This is from Brooke's Book's Stitcher's Alphabet.  A close-up of the stitcher's crown, I substituted beads for plain stitching in the crown:

Not surprisingly I don't have a whole lot of themes or designs beginning with an actual X but I do have a design by Mr. X-Stitch:

The lovely Mona Lisa stitched over 1 on 28 count evenweave

1.75 x 2.25 inches in size - Xtra small

I stitched a Xylophone for an alphabet sampler:

I also have a chart by Xs and Ohs in my stash:

And I have this wonderful app:

There is a small charge for the app, I'm not sure how much because I've had it for years now.  There is a section for threads with so many different brands, a section for fabrics and a section for charts.  Almost every designer you can think of is in there and if they aren't, just email the app designer and he will add them at the next update!   Once you have added your charts you can export them to the Journal and mark them as Kitted, Started or Finished.  You can add as many notes as you want.  There's also a Wishlist and a Shopping List.

Just a really useful app and very simple to use too.

Blog roll time and I found just three blogs with a X or 2 in the title:

Agi and the X Factor

All XXs

Time 2 Xstitch

Finally, X is Xasperated.  Which is what I am with Photobucket.  I used them when I first started using the Yuku Boards before I had my blog as they were a nice photo hosting system, you could make folders and label your photos.  When I started my blog I continued to use them although I did realise that it was easier to load photos direct from your desktop.  Until Blogger had a hissy fit for a few months then I had to revert to Photobucket.  So you can imagine my horror when I saw this all over my earlier posts:

Yes, Photobucket have decided WITH NO NOTICE WHATSOEVER to start charging for 3rd party hosting and are holding all my photos to ransom unless I upgrade my account with them.  So now I have to go through 6 years of blog posts and my entire Happy Dance blog to find out which entries need to have the photos re-added from my desktop.  Thank the Stitching Goddess that I saved everything on there too!

Thanks Photo*ucket.

The Wonderfully Wordy Alphabet World

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.

Our first W from A Dark Alphabet is a Wyvern.  I loved the effect of the variegated thread I used for him.  A Note of Friendship explains that a Wyvern is a dragon with only two front legs and a barbed tail.

The next W is for Wool from The Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books:

I have completed another page in my Alphabet Book, here are the four most recent blocks:

stitched on 28 count afghan fabric

W is for one of my favourite themes - Witches!  Trixie Witch from Brooke's Books is in the centre but if you want to know any more about any of the others, please ask.

W is also for Wizard:

Joan Elliott - Wizard from A Year of Magical Stitching

W is for Weddings, one of the perfect occasions to stitch a sampler for.  This is one of my favourites:

W is for Winter - a wonderful time to stitch when it's cold outside and a wonderful theme to stitch with icy blues and snowy whites.

Which designers begin with W?  With Thy Needle is one and they have a series called Wordplay:

Who is in my Blog Roll to represent W?

Wicked Stitcher

Wisdom with Needle and Thread

A Work in Progress

The WIPocalypse

That last link is to Measi's Musings, the hostess of one of the longest running SALs that I take part in.  Originally set up in 2012 to ensure the End of The World saw us all with zero outstanding projects, we have successfully stopped the Apocalypse by refusing to complete all our WIPs!  The world cannot end while there is still stitching to be done.

Finally, I realised that I missed a very important link in my last Alphabet Club post for V -

The Viewer!

If you have never heard of Dana and her Viewer, do check out this link but be prepared to lose many hours.  Dana set up the Viewer primarily for Mirabilia designs, as far as I know.  You can choose a design and choose different fabrics to see which ones look best.  Since the early days she has expanded to include a wide range of fabric dyers and other designers too.  There are currently 13 different designers (plus 4 incarnations of Nora Corbett!) and 18 different fabric suppliers.

What is most incredible about the site is that Dana does this for free, voluntarily.  Although I do believe she is looking into monetising the website in some way in the future.  She's doing market research on the FB page.