Joan Elliott Round Robin and a row of cats (minus the frog)

I finished my block just in time, mailing day is Tuesday!  Karen's theme is Fairies.  I had thought of Winter Fairy or Poppy Fairy but when I saw the two designs already stitched I knew I had to choose one with more wing showing.  So I went for Butterfly Fairy from the cover of the latest Joan Elliott book Fairy Enchantment (available from Waterstones for only £9.99).

Here is my block:

And some close-ups:

And the whole piece:

I used the recommended DMC and Kreinik from the book but subbed the Kreinik french knots for beads.  C'mon - Kreinik AND french knots, who is Joan kidding?!!

The difficulty was remembering which squares to leave empty for a bead as the charted knots went inbetween stitches but I wanted beads to replace stitches.

This is such a great Round Robin so far.  My design is slowly growing, Daffodil was added this turn.  Of course I only get to see photos until the end of the year.  I've signed up for a Giant Mira RR for next year, blocks will be 5,000 stitches rather than the usual 2,500 but we'll get 12 weeks to stitch rather than the usual 6.  I'm going for the Calendar or Birth Month Fairies for my choice.

I can now show your Rachael's Birthday Card.  I stitched this as part of the Needlecraft Haven Birthday Exchange but as Diane shares Rachael's Birthday I stitched her the WOCS Flower of the Month and chose Rachael's favourite cats for her card.

The original design came from this French blog, Novalee Point de Croix.  She has lots of freebies, several featuring cats.

This card was stitched over 1 on 25 count using DMC 69.  The moon is my own addition to cover up the frog's mess!  When you frog red thread from white fabric you can see the red left behind!  So there is a nice little moon now.

Finally, a Big Thank You to everyone who commented on The Danse Macabre post about my completed Dark Alphabet.   After posting Wednesday evening I was up half the night with a Small Boy who decided 3am to 6am was Play Time.  So when I got the the computer Thursday afternoon I was feeling rather tired to say the least!  Reading all your comments really buoyed me up again.  It's so great that you all shared my excitement at finishing this project and getting the lovely gifts.  I'm also pleased that people appreciated the individual pictures as they took ages to load on!

Theme-a-licious May Update

May's Theme is Memory May, the idea being to stitch something which holds memories for you.  I don't really have anything in my stitching schedule which fits that so I've decided to go for Making Memories.

I have to stitch the Joan Elliott Round Robin because there is a mailing deadline so what little evening stitching time has been dedicated to that one.  Why do I have so little evening stitching time?  Because the Small Boy has randomly decided that his nice bedtime routine of bath, story, song and snuggle down to sleep is no longer good enough for him.  He prefers bath, run around like a loon, lose control of his higher functions, run around and fall over alot, snuggle up to one of us and fall asleep between 10 and 11pm.  So very little stitching time in the evening for me. :-(

The theme for this one is Fairies and I've chosen the Butterfly Fairy from the cover of Joan's latest book - Fairy Enchantment.  This is a lovely book but the charts are quite different to her others.  The symbols are not the usual ones and are harder to follow.  They are unnecessarily complicated mini-drawings (a yin-yang, a fan with a line under it etc).  Also the backstitch lines are quite thick which obscures the symbol underneath.

I received an email from Christine today to say that her prize finally arrived!  A mere 6 days to cross the country.  I've had stuff reach America quicker than that!  Here's what I made her for being the Most Commenty Commenter earlier this year:

This is a freebie chart available from Dorkstitch.  Inside the box are two packets of cookies.  Not just any cookies but M&S cookies!  I hope Christine gets to eat at least some of the cookies before her children devour them all.

The design was stitched on 28count evenweave with a nice silver sparkle in it.  I used three strands of black DMC for Darth himself and two strands for everything else.  I think 3 strands on 28 is the only way to get the coverage.  I also used metallic red round the light sabre.  I stuck the fabric to the lid of the box (using double-sided tape) then edged it with some black ribbon.

Finally, only two more followers needed for my 250 Giveaway sponsored by Yiota.  If you want a chance to win one of her cross stitch kits then drag your friends along to my blog!