IHSW update and a forthcoming Giveaway

Last weekend was the third in the month and International Hermit and Stitch Weekend.  For more details in how to join in, just click on Hermie the Crab on the right hand side of this blog.

I decided to spend all of IHSW on My Lovely Sewing Tools from Gift of Stitching magazine and made some good progress as you can see:

I also finished the CCN design Cherry Hill Cottage which I will scrapbook.  I need to visit the craft shop and maybe buy some cherry themed trimmings.  I used the variegated DMC 107 for both the red and the pink but forced the colours by cutting the skein into red and pink sections.

The background is the scrapbook paper which I will be using.  Obviously the fabric will be trimmed to size and backed with plain white paper so the pattern doesn't show through.  But you get the idea.

I also made good progress on the Needlecraft Haven monthly challenge piece which I can't show here yet.  The progress was due to it being my handbag project this week.  The Small Boy has started Preschool this term, two days a week just for two hours a time.  I have decided to stay for the first two weeks but in a separate room while he settles in and his Key Worker gets to know him.  So far, so good.  Which means I have nearly 2 hours of uninterrupted stitching twice a week!  Although I did help with the washing-up today LOL.

(for overseas followers - in England children attend Preschool anytime from 2.5 to rising 4, then Nursery from the year in which they are 4, then proper school in the Reception class from the year in which they are 5.  Unless you work fulltime then they can attend a creche style setting confusingly also called a Nursery but it's from babyhood.  Preschool is mainly just playing with a little bit of structure at the beginning and end of each session.)

My followers are slowly increasing in number, the Easter Treasure Hunt was great for helping me and all the participants make new friends.  I was thinking of a 250 Giveaway when I received an email for Yiota, remember Yiota who sent me a lovely Cross Stitch Kit to review?  She was offering to sponsor my next giveaway!  Three winners will receive an email chart of one of Yiota's lovely designs.   So while you're waiting for my followers to reach the magic number, why not pop over to Yiota's Cross Stitch Kits site and have a look at all the gorgeous designs there and try to decide which you would like to win.  Don't tell me yet!

Anyway, "talking" with Yiota inspired me to make a start on the Coffee Fairy.  As my kit was supplied with aida I decided to use some evenweave I had.  I bought this piece from Sparklies with Nora Corbett's Trick or Treat Fairy in mind.  It's called Monarch - should be Mad Monarch!  I have never seen such an outrageously mad fabric before.  But it is perfect for Coffee Fairy.  I'm planning on just stitching the fairy, her cup and biccies not the background.  But here is the beauty of my plan - if the fabric is too overpowering then I can stitch as much of the background as I need, maybe just an oval around her.  Here is one evening's progress, it's the rim and handle of the cup:

This is a completely accurate colour match for the fabric, it really is that mad!

So now we have a rotation of sorts -

Coffee Fairy 1 day a week,
Baby ABC - 3 days a week alternate with
My Lovely Sewing Tools weekends and
2 different Round Robins weekdays as and when.
And Green Goddess must be fitted in too, and Papillon ATW, and I got the fabric for Snapdragon today...

That's just the evening stitching.  There are all the smalls for daytime too.

Finally, I got my copy of Just Cross Stitch (the American mag) through yesterday.  Gorgeous projects, there are several I want to stitch, so much better than the English mags!  I'm definitely going to cancel at least one of them later this year (when a certain series of charts finishes!) and spend the money on fabric instead.

Y, Y, Y does it have to end?

Okay, it hasn't actually ended yet, but Y is the penultimate block on A Dark Alphabet

This is my favourite block of all (I know I've said that before!).  I love the design and the stitching technique, a nice geometric pattern.  The trunk and roots are as charted but the leaves are stitched in DMC 4045 a lovely variegated green.  Yggdrasil is the Celtic Tree of Life and as usual Becky has found out lots of information about it and posted on the Note of Friendship blog.  Apparently Julie is the designer for this alphabet who comes up with the pictures then sends Becky off to research and write the blog.  I think Becky deserves a huge round of applause for finding out so much about so many diverse subjects!

(edit - Yggdrasil is, of course, the Norse Tree of Life not the Celtic - thanks to everyone who reminded me of this fact!)

If you go read the post for Yggdrasil you will also find out which inspired person thought of using it - Me!  The Large Boy and I play "Guess the Next Letter" each time and we sent our suggestions for W,X,Y and Z to Julie who chose our "Y".  Fame!

I have signed up for the new Papillon SAL - Around the World in 80 Stitches.  I'm doing the speciality stitch version although I've heard the plain cross stitch one is nice too.  I'm going for a plain white fabric and I'll be choosing my colours this IHSW, probably pinks and purples.  I noticed bloggers all over showing their floss tosses and started a little list.  Then I thought it'd be nice to share this list with everyone.  So I asked Yvonne's permission and she said "of course you can".  So there is now a nice new page tab at the top of this blog which will take you to a list of Stitchers Around the World and a link to their latest SAL blog post.  There won't be photos, that's what Yvonne's Gallery is for, but it'll be a great way of finding other SALers and stalking following them.

So if you'd like to be included and I haven't asked you yet, step up and leave a comment.

Cherry Hill is steaming along.  I love this design and the Newcastle it's stitched on.  I made a slight error with one sheep, it's a line lower than charted so I had to fiddle with the word "Hill".

There are two different variegated greens in this, 92 and 4045.


Finally, while browsing T'internet (as they say in Yorkshire) I found this fascinating chart on Sprite Stitch:

Game of Thrones map

Anyone a fan of the books/TV show?  I love the opening titles.  Most programmes get them fast-forwarded but we always watch these ones in full!  I do love a book with a map in it.  When I was a child I used to spend hours copying the maps from my favourite books!

Do You Do Voodoo Too?

I'd gotten a little behind with The Dark Alphabet, partly because of stitching on the Joan Elliott Round Robin and partly because Julie is banging out the letters this year!!

So I'll be putting the hours into it this month to try catch up.  V was for Voodoo and as usual The Note of Friendship blog is full of information about the letter and plenty of useful links if you want to know more.

This wasn't the most exciting block to stitch, the lettering was great but the little figure got a bit tedious!  When I stitch over 1 in rows I get a ridge between every other line, which is great for some of the pieces but for this one I stitched diagonal rows which made it a little more interesting.  I dangled the carrot of "Wyvern" to get me through it.  I'm using a variegated for Wyvern and it's so much more fun!

The green scarf is stitched in the Van Dyke Stitch, quite fiddly over 1 but a nice little effect.

The next piece is my current daytime project, Cherry Hill by CCN.  This was a giveaway from Crafty Rahenna and I'm loving it.  I'm using DMC on 40 count Newcastle linen, over 2, a mixture of 2 strands or 1 strand depending on the effect needed.  I'm using two different variegateds for the green and there'll be a variegated red coming soon.

Not a brilliant pic because I'm using my scanner.  It's quicker and easier than using the camera for WIPS.

The third project is my alphabet sampler for my friend's new baby boy.  I shifted the letters around to include his name... 

I'm so pleased with the wobbly lower case letters!  I charted them myself on a piece of graph paper and they looked a little upright and straight so I kind of free-styled them on the fabric.  I'll be adding Big Sis's name further down.  This chart was published in Cross Stitcher magazine this year.

There's also a charting project called "I Blame Karen" after Stitchy Woman.  She makes these throwaway comments on stitching forums which set my mind ticking and before I know where I am, I'm surrounded by pieces of sketch paper, graph paper, charts and being accused of being a "Manus-o-phile".  Non-Latin speakers will have to wait to see if this ever comes to anything other than an in-joke and a moment of madness on paper.

Finally, the Easter Treasure Hunt was a HUGE success, it was so much fun blog-hopping to see the letters.  There was only one Picture Poster who couldn't make it, she was away for the weekend but everyone managed to guess the missing letter!!  I'll keep the entries secret until the Friday deadline just in case anyone is behind in their blog-reading.  I used the Easter weekend to catch up on mine, I only have today's posts outstanding and have been commenting all over the place which I love to do.