Theme-a-licious Looking Backward and Forward VIII

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!

This was the theme for August:

Airborne August

What's that soaring through the air with the greatest of ease? It's the things with wings on your WIPs!

So I worked on my Wings of Love sampler for my cousin's wedding.  It's not called that, it's called Couers en Boites but it is how I got it into this month's theme.

I also stitched a little dragon for the Dragon Dreams 12 Dragonlets of Christmas:

Lilly of the Woods is also a fairy with wings, but Andie requested I did not stitch the wings so she went with the other Dreamers on her piece.  So Lilly is my Anti-Theme piece for this month and here is the space where the wings would have gone if I was going to stitch them which I'm not:

That seems to be about it.  Apart from this little butterfly:

Next month is:

Sampler September

Whether you're stitching the alphabet over and over (and over), starting your own band (sampler), or marking some spots, this is your month!

That should be a cinch for me!!  Samplers are one of my favourite things.  I could even start planning my 2014 Band Sampler RR...

 I also shared this photo of how I like to stitch the RRs.  Because I'm only using a length or two of each colour it doesn't seem worth pulling out all the colours so I just get my full set and select the colour I need for the piece I'm stitching that evening.  It makes a nice spread on the table!!

You can see my lovely coloured-in copy of the chart in front of me.

And my small ORTS tin ready to be added to the ORTS jar for TUSAL day.

Finally, I sent the latest postcard in the Summer Blog Hop to Evalina but it's not up yet so watch her blog!!  I am expecting one more picture in then I will email the final ones out in one big end of summer flurry!

Love is All Around Us

Because we have just returned from my cousin's wedding!!  It was a lovely wedding, she looked stunning and her groom was very handsome. The cake was OUT OF THIS WORLD and I will add some photos to the next blog post once I've downloaded them.

Here is the finished Couers en Boites I stitched for the Happy Couple:

Here is is framed next to the card I made:

And here is a close up of the card:

I started stitching the card first to see what the design looked like over 2 on 28 count but red really doesn't cover well so I stitched the sampler over 1 on the same fabric.  The chart is a freebie from Carton-Marie, a French Blog.  Here is Mii's totally different verson on her blog Mii Stitch.

I thought this was a good opportunity to share some other Wedding Samplers I have stitched over the years.  Unfortunately, most were pre-digital camera and there are alot of missing pieces.

This is Lavender & Lace Celtic Noel stitched as a bride using my own colour conversion which I did not keep.  Sorry!  The roses came from Mirabilia's Sleeping Beauty.  I just free-styled the placement.

This sampler came from a magazine called Celebrations and I have stitched it twice, this version is for my cousin and the other was for friends of my brother.  I carefully labelled the back with my name and wrapped it up.  Unfortunately I had forgotten my surname was different to my brother's (I was married) so the poor couple were unable to work out who had stitched it for them!!  The mystery was solved when they had their first child and I sent a card.  I received a lovely Thank You note only a couple of years late LOL.

This one comes from Cross Stitcher magazine August 1998.

And this is a tiny version of the same sampler.

They are both stitched on the same blue evenweave, just the light was different on the day I took the photos.

This one is a very special Anniversary Sampler. I stitched it for my grandparent's Diamond Wedding Anniversary, changing the ribbon border to match their living room.  There are all sorts of nice details in there, from a mini skein for Cotton to the Ivory lace-making bobbins.

I inherited it back when they passed away.  I also inherited my Nana's engagement ring which always comes out special occasions so I wore it for the wedding.

This is a freebie from Passione Ricamo I stitched on red aida for my friends' engagement.  I'm still waiting for the wedding!!

So that's the round up so far!

Finally, the latest Summer Postcard went out to Astrid before the weekend.  Here is the full list so far:

My card goes to Debbie at Debbie's Cross Stitch

Debbie's card goes to Christine at The Alchymyst's Study

Christine's card goes to Lynn at Kearnel's Korner

Lynn's card goes to Clare at Aimetu's Stitching

Clare's card goes to Vickie at A Stitcher's Story

Vickie's card goes to Julie at Julie's Stitchyknitty Journal

Julie's card goes to Penny at Larkspur Lane

Penny's card goes to Astrid at Dragon Stitches and Stuff

Theme-a-licious August 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!

This is the theme for August:

Airborne August

What's that soaring through the air with the greatest of ease? It's the things with wings on your WIPs!

So what have I been singing all week?  On the Wings of Love by Jeffrey Osbourne.  Well, actually I haven't, but it is the only way I could think to include this piece as part of the theme:

I finished the whole Couers en Boites design but didn't photograph it before I took it to the framers.  This is just one of the hearts stitched over 2 to make a card for the couple.  That's their initials, they're not getting married in LA.

Also with wings we have dragons and fairies.  First up is my progress on this month's Dragon Dreams design:

And my Lilly of the Woods for the large Mira RR:

That pillow is so bitty and boring.  I can't wait to finish it and get on to the drapes.  Nora's drapes are one of my favourite things to stitch!  Have you seen the new Mirabilia released today?  Simply called "Red" she seems to be inspired by Little Red Riding Hood and is amazing!!

The Viewer is already working overtime as the Mira Minions try out every combination of fabric with her!

For those of you not familiar with the Minions and the Viewer, here is a link:

The Marvellous Mechanical Mirabilia Magic Machine

A stitcher known as Thutmosis set up the Viewer to help people decide which fabrics to stitch their favourite Mirabilia designs on.  She has now expanded it to include Chatelaines, Joan Elliott, Passione Ricamo and Teresa Wentzler all with the designers' approval and blessing.  She has fabric from all the major hand-dyers plus plain Zweigart too.  The HTML programming necessary must be immense but she does it all for free!  All it will cost you is several hours days of your life as you lose yourself in the different combinations.

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop is hopping onwards to Penny.  Here is the full list so far:

My card goes to Debbie at Debbie's Cross Stitch

Debbie's card goes to Christine at The Alchymyst's Study

Christine's card goes to Lynn at Kearnel's Korner

Lynn's card goes to Clare at Aimetu's Stitching

Clare's card goes to Vickie at A Stitcher's Story

Vickie's card goes to Julie at Julie's Stitchyknitty Journal

Julie's card goes to Penny at Larkspur Lane

There is still time to send a card if you haven't already done so, just click on the green "There's No Place Like Home" for more details.

Theme-a-licious Looking Backward and Forward VII

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!

This was the theme for July:

Jubilee July

It's time to celebrate! What are you celebrating this year? Stitch on your holiday-related projects, OR find some WIPs you know you'll never finish and set them free .

It's the end of the school year which I celebrated by presenting the Small Boy's keyworker with a stitched picture designed by me.  Based on an illustration for the traditional children's rhyme:

It was my friend's Birthday in July so I made her a card.  No, not cross stitched for a change!

My friend loves rubber duckies so when I saw these little ones on Ebay I knew they would be perfect for her.  The fabric I covered the card with is the one I will be using to back July's JBW cat ornie too.

What bigger celebration is there than a wedding?  This is the sampler I'm stitching for my cousin's wedding next month:

Coeurs en Boites

I had an outpatient's appointment this morning so I took this along.  I stitched an entire heart while waiting!!  A very nice elderly lady came by with her grand-daughter and asked to have a look.  She was most impressed as was the girl's mother who recognised it as cross stitch.  Yes, not knitting or crochet but genuine cross stitch!  The lady did not have a long wait so I said "I think I'll come to your clinic instead".  She replied "oh no, I go to the silly clinic because I do daft things sometimes".  It did remind me of the many trips to the hospital with my Nana over the years.  She would always kiss the nurses goodbye and insist on tea and cake in the cafe saying "Well, we've had a nice day out".

Earlier in the month I stitched some more of my Scarlet Letter sampler to celebrate Nicola's Scarlet Letter Birthday.  Here's the latest picture:

So, what's coming up next month?

Airborne August

What's that soaring through the air with the greatest of ease? It's the things with wings on your WIPs!

O....K....  Dragons have wings.  um...Joan Elliott's next two diary designs are a mermaid and a unicorn so no wings there.  The Mirabilia Round Robin will have to count and there is this design which was in the large box of stash I was given.  My friend asked me to stitch it for her as it is the one thing she regrets not being able to stitch herself:

It's an old Janlynn design called Gathering Honey.  Of course bees have wings.  The verse reads "Pleasant words are like a honeycomb.  Sweetness to the soul and health to the body" from Proverbs 16:24

Did you know that eating local honey can help with hayfever and pollen related asthma?

Finally the good news is my friend said I may pass on some of her designs to my blogging friends.  They are mostly small pieces suitable for ornies or box tops, there are some nice sunset designs and a lovely set of seasonal samplers, again quite small.  I'm thinking about doing a SAL for those starting with Winter in January 2014.  I'll post a picture soon and see who is interested.

Hearts Stitching

I've been stitching away on my little Hearts sampler this week, daytime and evening as I want to get it finished in good time to be framed and wrapped.

Coeurs en Boites

Here's my progress on the Scarlet Letter sampler including a ruler to show just how big the piece is:

I've actually completed the pink row and started the blue outline of the row above now.

Apart from that I've been adding a new page to my Happy Dance Blog (see top tab) for all my scrapbooked finishes to have them all in one place.  I've been ebaying some old magazines to raise a little stash-cash, tidying the accumulated piles of school detritus, making a FB page for hubby's business, going to work and listening to whatever video clip the Small Boy has settled on for the day.  The Direct Line advert is a great favourite today as is Peppa Pig in foreign.  At least it's better than the rude over dubbed version he found last week.  Good job he can't speak and repeat the Geordie swearwords!

Finally, I sent out another postcard in the Summer Postcard Blog Hop so watch out for that popping up soon.  edit to add - see this post Aimetu's Stitching

July WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi of Measi's Musings.

The main focus of my WIPocalypse this year is supposed to be my "13 in '13" a list of 13 projects I want to complete in 2013, click on top tab for the list.  But as I haven't stitched on any of them this month I'll show something else from the other sections instead!

I've been stitching some of the designs from the Joan Elliott diary which was a cover gift with World of Cross Stitching magazine last year.  I have completed three, January, April and June and have now mounted them for inclusion in my scrapbook.  February is nearly finished but has been put aside for next February so I can try stick to the relevant month.

Here are the two latest:

April Dragons

June Wizard (I cut that circle myself.  Neat, isn't it?)

And here is the Needlecraft Haven May Challenge piece from The Little Stitcher.  I added the stripy shoes embellishment because of course, we were all singing Ding Dong the Witch is Dead as we stitched this piece!

In this case she has been killed by cross stitch.

The lovely scrapbook papers came from a new-to-me online scrapbook shop I found by Googling "Wizard of Oz scrapbook".  The site is called Scrapping the Magic and is rather Disney overload (the owner set it up to sell to people who have visited Disney and want to scrapbook their holiday photos).  But if you dig around the mouse droppings there are some great papers and embellishments.  Sorry, I shouldn't be rude about Disney as many people love the company and they are superb at what they do.  Trimming the hedges at Eurodisney with a wood template to ensure each one is exactly the same is dedication to detail!

Here's a random Eurodisney topiary elephant:

The papers arrived very quickly, solidly packaged in a stiff cardboard box 12x12 so there was no way the postman could bend them.  Prices are very reasonable and I will definitely be using them again.  There is lots of advice for the newbie scrapbooker on the site and also a monthly competition.  Use their template to create a page on their theme and send it in.  

Finally here are the three hearts stitched so far on my Couer en Boites project:

Three done, nine to go.  Mii left a comment on the last post to say she has stitched this design too.  Of course when I went and looked at her blog Mii Stitch I remembered that is how I found the chart myself! Thanks for the inspiration Mii.

Is it hot enough for you?

This little dragon has found the perfect way to keep cool in the summer:

He's the seventh in the Twelve Dragonlets of Christmas series by Dragon Dreams released as an exclusive on their Facebook page.  He is the Large Boy's favourite so far.

This is a new start, it's going to be a Wedding Sampler.  One heart done, 11 to go.

It's a freebie I downloaded and labelled as "Marie Carton" which I think is a French blog but the bookmark must be on the old computer!

OK, I've done a little googling and here is the link for Coeurs en Boites.

I'm stitching on 28 count white evenweave using 1 thread of DMC 304.

I also finally reached the far side of my Scarlet Letter Sampler.  14 inches across altogether.  Phew!  I can either start filling in or move on to the outlining of the next band up.

Finally, the third postcard in the Summer Blog Hop has appeared.  Here are the three sent so far:

My card goes to Debbie at Debbie's Cross Stitch

Debbie's card goes to Christine at The Alchymyst's Study

Christine's card goes to Lynn at Kearnel's Korner

If you're joining in, don't forget to include a little message on the theme of "Home".  All details click on the "No Place Like Home" photo on the right side bar.