8th Blogaversary on the 8th

It's my 8th Blogaversary today!  Where has the time gone?

That's me when I was 8.  Once again you can just see my little brother to my right wearing pink and green.  That was a very fetching mustard and green knitted tanktop,  My little sister was at the other end wearing a brown/orange toned dress with a blue ribbon trim.  In the 1970s it was All The Colours For All The Children.  None of this pink/blue nonsense we have now.

We'd had a fairly stable homelife that year.  I moved into the Juniors at School and Mrs Butler's class.  I actually saw her earlier this year and recognised her so it was nice to let her know what an influence she had been.  I read my first Charles Dicken's story in her class - A Christmas Carol.

How has the blog done over the past year?   Readership has held steady, my pageviews have increased but comments have decreased.  I suspect that this is connected to the way people read blogs now.  It's much harder to comment using a mobile device.  If you are a regular silent follower, why not make this post your first comment?  It would be amazing to push those comments to 20,000 by this time next year!

Here are my blog stats:

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8 years

865 posts

645 followers

17,952 comments

1,000,909 pageviews

WOW

Yes, I burst through the 1,000,000 mark this week!

I'd also like to wish my Blog-Twins Susan and Calamity Jr a very Happy Birthday too!

What have I been working on recently?  I had a quick look back at last year's Blogaversary post and all the pieces there have been finished which is encouraging.

So far this month I have worked on my Hallowe'en and Christmas pieces.  The Christmas piece is very close to a finish but here's a photo when I had just started:

This is a Dragon Dreams design and the fabric is actually Reed Green not grey.

I added some bats to my spooky conversion of The Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace.  They were a freebie found at this blog - Brigitte Dadaux

I took this little Just Nan Butterfly Lace along to my Crafty Coffee Morning last week and got the purple finished and all this white border too:

stitched on 32 count lavender linen

Having worked on my Christmas and Hallowe'en pieces for 3 days each, this is where I would usually pick up my Chatelaine but I decided to do something different this month and work on another of my "19 in '19" choices. As we are close to Easter I chose Gathering Eggs by Nora Corbett.   The first picture is with my TUSAL jar so I can link up with Daffycat for this month.

I worked hard on her hair and face for two days.  The frog had attacked her last year so it was nice to get this part finished.  Lots of different colours and blended threads too.

stitched on 32 count Vintage Country Mocha

Hasn't she got a sweet face?

Last year I asked you all what was your favourite blogging or stitching moment of the last year so it seems like a good idea to revisit that question this year.  Leave a comment and let me know.

A new blogging year also seems like a good opportunity to launch a new blog.  I've been showing my painted rocks recently and everyone seems to enjoy seeing them so I thought I would start a specific rock blog -  Serendipity Rocks UK.  It's still a work in progress, I'll be adding posts over the next two weeks so make sure you follow using a Reader so you see them all, or just pop back from time to time.  I decided on a blog rather than Instagram or Facebook because I can add Labels to the posts and find specific themes if I want to.


Finally, I will be hosting my Annual Easter Treasure Hunt on Good Friday the 19th April. If you would like to take part this year, just leave a comment here. The week before Easter I will send you a letter of the alphabet which will form part of the mystery phrase. On Good Friday you will post that letter along with a photo of something seasonal that you have stitched (could be Easter or Spring or just something cheerful and sunny or floral). We all hop around like little bunnies to find the Mystery Phrase!

Give Me a Blog Until it is 7

And I will show you the stitching!

Apologies to Aristotle.

Happy 7th Blogaversary to me!

I have no idea why I only have one of a pair of bunches, I assume the other one was hidden behind my head.  Love the 1970s wallpaper though.

By the time I had my 7th Birthday I had acquired a little brother (you can just see him at the edge of the photo) and moved house, yet again!  We did stay in that house for 8 years though to make up for the numerous moves before then.  I was at the same Primary School and in Mrs Blake's class.  It was this year that I experienced my first loss - Jeremy the Gerbil passed away while I was at school one day.  I was devastated and Grandad promised to make a headstone for him.  Mum expected a little wooden cross made in his shed.  Not a foot high piece of marble with his name carved in it!   Grandad was a stonemason by trade, she should have realised.

Here are my blog stats:

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7 years

757 posts

625 followers

16,012 comments

831,532 pageviews

WOW

I'd also like to wish my Blog-Twins Susan and Calamity Jr a very Happy Birthday too!

Last year I was working on my Christmas and Hallowe'en pieces and the same goes for this year although they are different designs.  I have also done some fully finishing this afternoon, trying to get back into that habit, and got some progress on both Diamond Bouquet and my Alice SAL which I took with me to visit my Godmother.  It's amazing how much stitching you can get done on two 3 hour train journeys.

Here is Jardin Prive's Happy Hallowe'en Night:

stitched on 32 count Cognac linen

And this is my Christmas progress on Just Nan's 12 Days of Christmas:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

Amazing progress on Alice by Mrs Peggotty.  I need to complete two pages per month to finish this by the end of the year.  The piece is 7 pages tall by 3.5 pages wide.  I have stitched nearly all of the right 7 pages:

stitched over 1 on 25 count blue evenweave

It's so nice to reach the flamingo.  Stitching the neck is really easy and very quick too.

This afternoon I did some narrow bands on my Diamond Bouquet by Just Nan:

stitched on 28 count lilac evenweave

Because they were speciality stitches they were very quick and that left me time to do some FFO'ing.  Yay!  Sunday afternoon used to be the time for that and it's a good habit to get back into.

Here is Just Nan's Painted Lady which I completed back in February.  I have mounted it on patterned card and then on a page from an old Monet calendar.  Monet's paintings make great backdrops for floral designs.  I would recommend going into a certain chain of bookshops at the end of January and buying up their calendars for 75% off.

Close-up of the finished piece:

It's been a good year on the blog again.  The Blog Hops continue to be popular and attract new participants.  The Gifted Gorgeousness SAL posts are the most viewed on the blog.  I guess people come back to link up and see who else has joined in.  The Blogger of the Week was new last year and continues to grow with 55 different bloggers featured so far.  I'm taking part in all the old blogging favourites such as WIPocalyse, the TUSAL, the Smalls SAL and the invigorated IHSW as well as the newer FB based Stitch Maynia.  I will be starting 31 Just Nan smalls one per day throughout May if anyone wants to join the Just Nan-a-thon do let me know.  Any Just Nan project you like.  If I have it I will start that one too.

Finally, no competition this year but just for fun - what has been your best blogging or stitching moment of the last 12 months?  Leave a comment below!

Now I am Six

I'm as clever as clever

So I think I'll be six

now and forever

It's my Sixth Blogaversary today!  I remember being six quite well, I was in Miss Pearce's class and I got a Timex watch with a red face and a blue strap for my Birthday.  I got the watch because I could already tell the time and Miss Pearce often used to ask me what the time was because her watch didn't keep time well!  We had been living with my grandparents and were moving into a house of our own.

Here are my blog stats:

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6 years

650 posts

597 followers

13,540 comments

682,174 pageviews

WOW

A little check of my Happy Dance blog tells me that I have completed 372 pieces since the start of my blog.  That makes my couple of dozen WIPs pale into insignificance!

I'd also like to wish my Blog-Twins Susan and Calamity Jr a very Happy Birthday too!

This week I've been stitching on my Hallowe'en and Christmas pieces:

Winged creatures from Happy Hallowe'en by Imaginating

Four Calling Birds from Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas

I also did a little finish-finishing and framed a piece from last year:

Mulberry by Shepherd's Bush

I drew a little mulberry sprig in the corner to decorate the mount:

Now for the fun part - a giveaway to celebrate!  I haven't got anything in particular in my stash I want to part with at the moment and postage is so high right now so I thought a PDF would be the best idea.  The one I have chosen is quite versatile, it comes in 9 parts and can be stitched as a large sampler or several smaller ornies.  Best of all, proceeds from the sale go to charity.  Four parts have been released already so I would send them to the winner straightaway and then send each piece as it is released throughout the year.  The giveaway that keeps on giving!  Have you guessed what it is yet?

Stitchrovia - Quotes to Live By

The nice thing about this prize is that if you already have the first four parts then I can still send you the next five, you don't have to miss out just because you've already started it.

So how do you enter this draw?

The usual, be a Follower via the button on the right, leave a comment here saying you'd like to be in the draw AND telling me what your favourite quote is.  It doesn't have to be one from the Stitchrovia SAL, it can be anything you like - serious, inspirational, funny, subversive etc.

You will get one entry for commenting here and an additional entry for each of the following:

Being a participant in the Easter Treasure Hunt on Good Friday

Entering the Easter Treasure Hunt and guessing the Mystery Phrase

Linking up for Gifted Gorgeousness this month.

So the Giveaway is open until the 30th April when the GG link-up closes.  If you do not comment here with a quote, you will not be entered into the draw, even if you do the other stuff, they are for bonus entries!  If you don't want to stitch any of the Quotes, you may nominate a person from the other comments to be gifted the chart on your behalf.  You can do this publicly by commenting or anonymously by emailing me.

Finally, we have another Blogger on the Blogger of the Week blog, don't forget to go over and say Hi!

Who is it this week?

Five Years Old Today!

It's my Fifth Blogaversary today.  The photos were taken on my Fifth Birthday at my Nana's house.  We had recently returned to England after an army posting to Singapore for several years.  Do you see those strange white things on my feet?  Socks!  We had to wear socks and shoes all the time in England.  And long sleeves.  And cardigans.  My first memory of England was standing on the railway platform wondering why it was so cold when I was wearing all these extra clothes!  It was August too.

We brought back an enormous amount of stuff, several packing crates worth but my dolls' pram had to be left behind.  So I'd been promised a new one as soon as we got back.   It was a beauty, a twin pram with a hood at each end, you can just see my two dolls sat at either end.  I still have the pram, it lives in a cupboard now waiting for my grand-daughters to arrive!  It has been played with by various visiting children but not often.

Some Blogaversary stats:

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5 years,

542 posts,

565 followers

10,690 comments

381,887 page views

WOW

To celebrate my Fifth Blogaversary we have a very special Happy Dance - Nora Corbett's J is for Joanne:

She was a gift from Justine and started on Day 30 of the DUCJC2015.  I restarted her on 17th March, 2016 and finished her on 5th April, 2016 having put in a total of 9 stitching days.  The beading took up two of those days!

She is stitched on 32 count Love-in-the-Mist Murano from Crafty Kitten.  The same fabric as her sister E.  I used most of the Crescent Colour threads but substituted Blanc for the wings (one skein of Cloud was not enough to do four sets of wings on four fairies) and some of the greens.  I blended 3362 and 3363 instead of Desert Mesquite.  I also changed the backstitch colours to 356 for the skin and green for the dress.  I did all the scrolls in Kreinik too.

Yoga Fairy!

Bling!

Flash photography to show the bling

Action shot to show the beads!

There are a lot of beads in her.  The large flower beads in her hands look great too.

Here are all four fairies together:

I don't plan on stitching any more of these at the moment.  Unless someone has another daughter unexpectedly!  The temptation to stitch all 26 is quite overwhelming at times but I will resist.

While I think of it - Happy Birthday to Calamity Jr and Susan Yellow Flower Meadow too.

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Finally I am celebrating a Big Zero Birthday in September and have planned a BIG BLOG HOP for the event.  My plan is to attempt to get one Person per year of my life and allocate each person a year.  I will give you a Fact About Me from that year and ask you to base your post on that fact.  So you might get 1971 - "I am five years old and I start school".  Your post could be about you being five, you starting school, you in 1971 (if you were born by then) or some world event which is relevant to you from 1971.

I will ask you to post a photo of something you have stitched which will appeal to me!  I think you all know my tastes in stitching by now and I'm looking forward to some eye candy and probably some stash acquisitions too!  Got to have something to spend that Birthday money on.  So if you want to be in the Hop, please leave a comment or email me.  Because we need so MANY participants for this one, please feel free to share it on your blogs and invite your friends to join in.  The more the merrier!  We can always share eventful years or skip the dull ones depending on how many people we get.

Over the weekend I am going to try get an image we can all use to advertise the Hop and maybe set up a separate page with a linky.

Happy Fourth Blogaversary to me!

That's me on my 4th Birthday!  I remember that car so clearly, it had pedals and we "drove" it round to a friend of my Dad who put eyes on the front of it.  The dress I was wearing was white with red polka dots and red ric-rac braid round the middle.  There was a J embroidered on the pocket.  My sister had a similar one with her initial and my doll Susan had one too.  My Mum made most of our clothes and always made a dress for my doll with the scraps.

I have no recollection of that rabbit and while it may be appropriate for this time of year my Birthday is in September!  Susan is the larger doll in the blue dress on the settee and the smaller doll was called Nina.  Apart from that rabbit I remember so much from this age and surprise my parents with how detailed my memories are.

While I think of it - Happy Birthday to Calamity Jr and Susan Yellow Flower Meadow too.

Some Blogaversary stats:

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4 years,

434 posts,

561 followers

7,699 comments

253,087 page views

WOW

 

I've had a look back at my first post and some previous Blogaversary posts.  It is traditional to reflect on past projects and compare them to current posts.  On my first post I was stitching a Mirabilia Mermaid and A Dark Alphabet.  Both of which are now finished.  I was also working on a piece for the Craftivist Collective.  I don't currently have a Mirabilia on the go but I did start a Nora Corbett piece in January and I have a bit of a special Mirabilia project to show you for part of the Gifted Gorgeousness post this month. 

 

Yesterday I spent most of the day stitching on my Satsuma Street SAL with Linda and Kate.  Here is my progress on Pretty Little London:

 

 

I filled in Big Ben's clock face and stitched St. Paul's Cathedral in the bottom right corner.  And the raised portions of Tower Bridge.

 

The other tradition for a Blogaversary is to have a Giveaway.  This year I have made it complicated for myself by amalgamating my Easter Treasure Hunt, my Blogaversary and the Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway into one larger giveaway!  There will be 7 different charts up for grabs (2 for Easter, 4 for Blogaversary and 1 for GGG).  Picture posters for the Treasure Hunt get one entry, Mystery Phrase guesses get one entry, comments on this post get one entry and link ups on the GG post on the 15th get one entry.  All clear?  Don't worry, I have the complicated stuff to do, you just have to leave a comment as below:

 

To enter the Giveaway please leave a comment here stating your top three choices of these charts:

 

A - Lizzie*Kate Friends are Angels

plus Peace, Love and a Cure (not shown)

 

B - Christmas Number 1

 

C - Christmas Number 2

 

D - Christmas Number 3

 

E - Told in a Garden - The Courting

 

F - Told in a Garden - Piecemakers I

 

G - Told in a Garden - Voice of the Shepherd

 

The first chart is one I have stitched myself and want to pass on and the others are the charts I bought from Needleprint for the express purpose of using them as giveaways.  There were some Lavender & Lace charts I wanted in the same bundle and I kept my favourite Christmas design too.

 

Finally, the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop is open until the 11th April so if you haven't hopped around yet please do.  It's always good to meet new blogging friends and you'll get an extra chance in this giveaway.

 

 



 

 



Blogaversary Number Three!

Happy 3rd Blogaversary to me!

I'm about 3 and half in this picture, but my parents were really bad at writing on the backs of the photos so there are quite a few where I'm not sure if I'm three or four.  This tree was my "treehouse" when I was three, my sister and I used to have tea parties underneath it.  The pinafore I am wearing had the story of Little Red Riding Hood told in pictures, each panel had a different picture.  I don't know if you bought them like that or if they came as a kit that you made up. 

Also, Happy Birthday to Calamity Jr and Susan Yellow Flower Meadow too.

Some Blogaversary stats:

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3 years,

325 posts,

465 followers

5,342 comments

151,967 page views

WOW

Last year I was mainly stitching on Round Robins and monthly challenges.  The same is true for this year!  I have had a lot less finishes this year though.  This is deliberate because I am trying to focus on some of my bigger pieces rather than so many smalls as in the previous two years.

So what did I do on Sunday?  That's right, I stitched a totally random small project which doesn't fit in with any challenges, themes or targets at all.  So the only way to justify stitching it is to make it the prize for the blogaversary!  Sneaky, huh?

Here is the finished stitching:

Stitched on 19 count Ariosa Antique Rose

using Jodyri Threads ChaChaCha and DMC B5200

This is a freebie available on The Little Stitcher's FB page to promote her new Alice in Wonderland chart which is now on my wishlist!!  

I can't decide how to finish this small piece, it's only 70 stitches by 35 stitches.  So this is where the competition comes in - 

What weird and wonderful way should I finish my stitching?

The winner will get the weird and wonderful finished piece!!  The winner will be chosen by me based on how much I love the idea and how feasible it is.  I will also show the suggestions to the Large Boy first and see which ones he likes (he will unbiased as he doesn't know who anyone is!).  In fact I will probably write them down as they come in without anyone's name on so I forget who said what.

Back on track on Monday I stitched Block 10 of the Primitive Hare Spooky Countdown:

Finally, the School Easter Holidays started this week so we must be approaching Easter!  Which means, not long left to sign up for the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop.  Click on the bunny to the right for more details.

Theme-a-licious April Update

Theme-a-licious is hosted by Heather of It's Geek to Me

Each month Heather thinks up a theme for us to stitch to, or in my case, a theme to somehow shoe-horn my existing stitching into, no matter how tenuous the link!

April's theme is:

Amazon April

Dip your needle into the vast swath of fabric dedicated to your BIGGEST projects!

The first BAP is the Large Mirabilia Round Robin.   We decided to make the boxes twice as large as usual (5,000 stitches rather than 2,500) as we could fit more of the design in.  There are three groups of four stitchers and we get 12 weeks to stitch rather than the usual 6 weeks.  Even so, of course, I was still stitching almost up to the limit!

This the Archangel Michael:

This is his Bling:

And this is the whole of the design so far:

Julie chose Angels as her theme and designed this incredible layout herself.  The fabric is PTP Heather Lugana and is really soft and lovely to stitch on.  Archangel Michael is one of the less stitched Mirabilia designs which is one of the reasons I jumped at the chance to stitch him.  I don't think I'd ever do the full piece for myself but it is nice to stitch something different.

There is a ton of metallics, beads and treasures even in this small piece of the design, 12 of those little topaz diamonds for a start.

That's it for this theme so far!  I still have Sophia's Band Sampler RR glaring reproachfully at me from the corner of the room so I must crack on and finish that next.  Then the choice is between Joan Elliott's Green Goddess and the Scarlet Letter Sampler.  Difficult decisions indeed!

Thank you all very much for your Congratulations on my recent Blogaversary.  I'm glad you liked the cute photo, I have cute photos of me up until the age of 7 or so, then I'll just post a picture of a cake or something LOL.  It was great to read about all your progress (or lack thereof) since last Easter.  I remember alot of the projects so I must have been paying attention throughout the year.

I allocated everyone a playing card and got the Large Boy to pick a card, any card and not put it back.  Then do it again because it's my 2nd Blogaversary so we'll have two winners.  The winners of a small something are........

Giovanna

 and 

 Emma/Itzy

Finally, I just noticed a few more followers have joined me, heading towards 400 now, so there's another excuse for a little giveaway.  I'll wander off and try think of something interesting to ask you all.  You don't get anything for free on this blog, you have to work for it!

Happy Blogaversary to Me!

Happy 2nd Blogaversary to me!

I couldn't find a photo of me and my cake, but this is my 2nd Birthday present, my trike.  Each one of those wheels was a different bright colour.  I hadn't forgotten my skirt either, this was the height of the swinging 60s and skirts really were that short!

While I think of it - Happy Birthday to Calamity Jr and Susan Yellow Flower Meadow too.

Some Blogaversary stats:

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2 years,

217 posts,

390 followers

3,487 comments

84,730 page views

WOW

Back when I started this blog I was stitching Mirabilia's Bluebeard's Mermaid and the Dark Alphabet from A Note of Friendship.  A year later my Mermaid was finished and framed, the Dark Alphabet was close to completion too.  So far so good!  My only other WIP from the beginning of the blog is now officially a UFO, an Art Nouveau Head stitched on aida.

My WIPS from one year ago are slightly more embarassing, Green Goddess and My Lovely Sewing Tools are still unfinished, but on the "13 in '13" list for this year.

So, my questions for my Blogaversary Giveaway are - 

What were you stitching on last Easter?  

And is it finished yet?  A WIP or a UFO?

Obviously if you have a blog this is an easy one to look up, but don't worry if you don't have one.  Just have a think back to last Easter, or look at your photos from then and see what you can work out.  After all, if you don't have proof, it's not like I can say "you made that up!"  This is just for fun LOL.

A winner will be picked next Sunday 14th April and they will get a small something.  Not the Small Boy, you can't post livestock as I'm always telling the Large Boy when he suggests it!

The other big announcement, the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop winner will be coming later this week!  I'm too old for too much excitement in one post LOL.  Besides, I'm giving you until midnight BST to enter the competition, this is your final chance.

Finally, Sunday was Finishing Day again.  Funny how Sundays often seem just right for a little sewing.  I found the backing fabric for the March JB cat and make him into a little ornie, and to sit next to him, the April cat.  Although Easter was in March this year, it is more often in April so I went for a Chocolate Cat!

 

  

And all four together: