The Mystery is Beeeeees!

That's a quote for a children's cartoon we like and which my son says every time I get out the next project!

I've been stitching this piece for quite some time now and aim to finish it this Summer.  I was given the kit by a friend who had stopped stitching.  She passed me her stash and only requested that I stitch this piece for her.

By the end of 2016 I had completed all the centre and this top left corner:

As someone commented, it's not really obvious why it's called Gathering Honey.  It's more of An English Garden Sampler.

But now the piece looks like this:

The missing ingredient was bees!

I just loved stitching the honeycomb.  It is in 3 strands of cotton rather than 2 so it really stands out.

So far in May I have finished backstitching the bottom left corner bees and started on the leaves in the bottom right.  This corner will be as complex as the top left was.  Lots of backstitch too.

I also have to finish those two bushes in the centre section, there are about 100 French Knots to make the little flowers.

The large empty spaces will have words backstitched which won't take long.

After I finished my SALs this month I decided to support a friend and join her for a new start for Maynia.  CraftyCreativeClare is a FlossTuber who is also a FB friend.  When she showed her list of projects for Maynia I saw that she had a chart which I had just won in a Giveaway.  So the serendipity meant I just had to start that one with her!

It's funny because we didn't consult with each other apart from to say we'd start on Friday, but we both started in the middle although she went up and I went down!  I wanted to have a definite part of it completed.  Also, I used 35 count Country Mocha linen and she used 18 count aida so they will be almost the same small size.

Can you identify the chart?  It should be easy for Nora Corbett fans.

It's Gathering Eggs which I won from Carol of Stitching Dreams.  The title goes rather well with Gathering Honey too.

I've been making progress on my Ten-a-Day project.  This is another FB group where we each chose a project approximately 60x60 stitches which we could complete in a year doing just ten stitches each day.

Here is Just Nan's Spring in the Square, Day 131:

stitched on 32 count Light Mocha linen

I am currently stitching the dark purple in each of the corner pansies.  The fabric looks like a weird colour because I take a quick picture with my iPad each day and the light is coming through the window on the left.  I'm not going to get my camera out and mess around with the settings every single day of this project!

I am also stitching 30-a-Day as an advance start on Linda's So Many Stitches project for next year.  Back in March I started a bunch of Just Nan freebies for March Madness.  Now I am working my way through them, stitching 30 stitches per day with the goal of completing one per month.

Here's a much better photo:

stitched on 32 count Twilight Blue linen

The chart says add some gold eyelets and gold beads next but I think silver would look so much better so that's what I am going with.  One day for the eyelets, one day for beading and one day to finish as an ornie.  Once I get to the end of the cross stitching I drop the 30 a day and just do what needs doing to finish it.

Finally, I do intend to have a Blog Hop this Summer.  I'm thinking of doing another Friendship Hop where each participant is given the name of another participant and they have to make a blog post featuring something that they think the other person would like to see.  So if you got me, then you might show a dragon or something Hallowe'en themed!  So stay tuned for the sign-up post.

April Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I will be showing both my Hallowe'en and Christmas SAL partworks as well as any actual smalls I stitch.

I stitched the N for Happy Hallowe'en by Imaginating for the Winged Creatures theme:

Stitched on 32 count Lime Green Murano

Here's how the whole piece looks now:

For the Christmas SAL I completed Four Calling Birds from Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas:

I finish-finished two Easter designs, one for my scrapbook and one as a cube:

A start and finish in just four days:

Spot of Spring by Drawn Thread

I've been trying to finally-finish some of my smalls and was pleased to get this one done the very day after I completed the stitching:

Just Nan Christmas Rose

stitched on 32 count Antique White evenweave

stitched as charted except for the small hearts,

I substituted satin stitches for the beads.

Finished as an ornie:

The reverse:

This was one of my 23 Just Nan starts for March Madness.  I stitched for one day on each design and then on the 1st April I picked up the first one and stitched 30 stitches per day until I finished it.  Once I completed all the plain cross stitching I stopped counting and did the satin stitches and beads in one day and then I finished it as an ornie the next.  The following day I picked up design number 2 which is Christmas Star.  I will continue to stitch 30 a day until this one is done too.  I chose 30 because that will enable me to average one finish per month.  Here is Christmas Star after 6 days of stitching:

stitched on 32 count Twilight Blue Permin linen

Finally, it's Friday so there's a  new Blogger of the Week, follow the link to find out who the featured stitcher is this week - 

Blogger of the Week

Dearest Edward

What a surprise - four calling birds arrived this morning.  They are very sweet, even if they do call rather loudly - they make telephoning impossible.  But I expect they'll calm down when they get used to their new home.  Anyway, I'm very grateful - of course I am.
Love from Emily

12 Days of Christmas (Correspondence) - John Julius Norwich

Joan Elliott has gone for the modern Calling Birds (1909 version only) rather than the traditional Colly Birds (1700s onwards) which are blackbirds.  I expect she liked the blue rather more than black!

If you are interested in the different versions, check out this Wiki page - The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Two versions have Canary Birds, some have Coloured Birds and one has Ducks Quacking (1864), so Emily got off quite lightly there!

I have decided to stitch all the background parts of each block with just one strand so they don't overpower the main feature.  I also changed the French Knots to tiny over one crosses to make them more even.

Here is the whole piece so far.  I have stitched all the red on the second Angel and will continue the border this month.

Theme-tas-stitch is hosted by Kerry

Each month Kerry is giving us a theme to stitch to (or shoe-horn our existing stitching into).  We link up on the 21st of each month.  The theme this month is:

April Showers - What pieces do you have that contain water?  It might be rain, river, sea or lake - see how many stitches you can make!

We need a gigantic shoe-horn for this one, nothing watery at all unfortunately.  The first piece is my Just Nan So Many Stitches project.  I started this as part of March Madness for Theme-tas-stitch and then have continued to put 30 stitches per day into the project.  Today I added some Ice beads.  Ice is frozen water.

Stitched on 32 count Antique White evenweave

That was the small shoe-horn, now the large one.  What needs water to survive?  What do we always say when it rains?  "Oh well, it's good for the garden".  So here's a little garden:

This is Just Nan's Spring in the Square - Day 112.  So that's 1,120 stitches doing just Ten-a-day for the FB challenge.  Recently I've been adding lots of colour to the flowers.

Here's a larger garden:

This is Gathering Honey by Jannlynn.  Last time I stitched on this I completed the top left hand corner which was very time-consuming with all the colour changes and fiddly fractionals.  This time I have finished the entire border (yay!) and the top right corner.

I stitched the bees first:

And then added the honeycomb around them.  For the bottom left corner I will backstitch the bees after the honeycomb because some of their legs got a little lost doing it first.  The honeycomb is three strands of thread and the legs are only one.

Hopefully I can complete the bottom left this month and then focus on the bottom right next month.  That's more fiddly flowers.  Then there's some writing to add top and bottom and it's done!  So if not a May finish, then it should be one for June.

Finally, thanks to everyone who took part in the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop.  The competition is now closed and I will be drawing and announcing the winner in my TUSAL post on Wednesday.  My Blogaversary draw will continue until the end of the month.  Don't forget, anyone who links up for GG gets an extra entry into that draw.  

When is a UFO an FO but not an FFO and yet remains a UFO?

When it's Brooke's Books' Stitcher's Alphabet, that's when!

stitched on 28 count afghan

Spaceship, spaceship!

The latest block of the Stitcher's Alphabet is now complete, it's full coverage so it took ages!  The flying saucer is metallic and there are beads too.  

So it's an Finished Object but it's not a Fully Finished Object as we still have V-Z to stitch but it remains a UFO in the picture!

Progress on Joan Elliott's 12 Days is slow as the Small Boy has decided a 30 second dip in the water is sufficient and then another 10 minutes of being told "Back in the bath".  So no photos until I have stitched this month's block 4 Calling Birds.

My two Sew Many Stitches projects are going well.  In March I started 23 Just Nan Smalls and the plan is to stitch 30-a-day on one until it is finished and then move on to the next one.  I should average one a month that way.  The first is smaller than average so will be a nice quick finish.

Here we have the first six days of Christmas Rose (the first photo is two days' progress not one)

stitched on 32 count Antique White evenweave

Meanwhile Spring in the Square is in it's 95th day!  950 stitches looks like this:

And the full 95 days looks like this:

That last big box is intentionally blank to keep the proportions of the other boxes the same!

Finally, we have exciting events coming up - my 6th Blogaversary this weekend and the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop the following weekend.  And of course, more Bloggers of the Week each Friday.  Life is just one long social whirl!

🌟🌟  Blogger of the Week  🌟🌟