Bank Holiday Pie

The festival of Whit Sunday was originally a combination of Pentecost (the 7th Sunday after Easter) and Beltane (the Pagan start of Summer) and is now commemorated with a long Bank Holiday weekend the last weekend in May.  The schools combine it with the Half Term Holiday so the children get the entire week off and not just Monday.

As is traditional to start the English Summer, it will be cold and rainy.  We had a thunderstorm last night.  The Small Boy and I did manage to visit The Plant Man and buy some fuchsias and bedding plants though.

And I did some stitching while watching Floss Tube (or Flaaaaaas Tube as the Large Boy calls it.  When he's not saying "Nifty Needle Nannies" a la Katie the Stash Queen!).  I am continuing with Little Snap Dragon, right down to the bottom of his tail.  Thankfully this area has much less confetti so progress is quicker.  All of the tail stitched is just one colour so far:

stitched on 32 count Evening Sky Murano by Crafty Kitten

And here is the whole piece with a tape measure for size.  I am not sure if you can see those numbers but that is roughly 12 inches or 30 cm from the metal tip to the red number near the tail.

Lots of progress on Just Nan's My Fair Ladybird too:

stitched on 28 count evenweave

And now the special Whitsun pie:

You can see that Snapdragon is way out in front this month but Snowy Cottage had 14 days from last month.  Once again, there are more than 31 days because some days I stitched on two designs.

Finally, after last month's blow out I wasn't intending to buy anything this month.  Until Brooke Nolan announced a special May Day Sale, everything in her Etsy store half price.  These two fell into my cart!  Hubby's niece is getting married later this year and loves sugar skulls so these two will be perfect for her.

Brooke's Books Sugar Skulls

A Little More Dragon Progress OR More Little Dragon Progress

Whichever way you look at it, Little Snap Dragon is progressing!

stitched on 32 count Evening Sky Murano from Crafty Kitten

Having commented on all the different greens in this design I haven't actually used any of them this week - it's been blue all the way.  When I got him out of the bag earlier this month I wondered why I had chosen such a big bit of fabric for what appeared to be quite a small design.  As I'm stitching him, it turns out he's not so tiny after all!  The finished design will be 11.5 inches by 16.5 inches.  So he needs that larger fabric.

Last weekend for IHSW I worked on Elizabeth Shephard for two days.  I was in a "border mood" so I I stitched the entire borders for two motifs and then made a start on the swan.

stitched on 30 count linen

You can see how close I am getting now.  Definite finish by the end of the Summer.

Many of you know about my "bathtime stitching", this is a piece I work on in the bathroom each evening while my son has his bath!  He needs adult supervision but doesn't want me playing with him - I might splash him LOL.  So I stitch.  Sometimes I chose a large monchrome piece so I don't have to worry about colour changes but recently it has been Smalls.  In an effort to fit them into the rotation somehow.

Here is a little freebie from Just Nan:

stitched on 28 count evenweave

Remember back in the pre-internet days when your LNS gave out freebies from your favourite designers?  Just Nan used to print them on a stiff pink paper and I have a small collection.  I have stitched a few and have fabric for a few more.  This one is called My Fair Ladybug and you attach a little ladybird charm in the centre of the design.  Won't take long to stitch up.

Finally, you all know I'm a big fan of Hallowe'en and general spookiness!  I signed the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog up for this event:

There were short stories, top tens of monster and monster films, a bit of crafting and a wonderful monster make-up montage, plus the best of our cross stitched monsters.  

You can find the party here - Little Gothic Horrors

and our group blog post here - Hallowe'en Ornie SAL

A Little Dragon Progress

I first saw this design in an advert in a cross stitch magazine back when I didn't have the internet at home.  I thought it was lovely and wondered where I could get it.

Fast forward a few years and I started blogging and entering giveaways.  Lesley from Lesley's Stitching Diary was the host for one of them.  Can you believe my luck when back in April 2012 I won the chart I had seen all those years before?  Little Snap Dragon is designed by Dyan Allaire for Kustom Krafts.   Later that year I received the threads for the design in a magazine exchange with Kathy (I sent her a UK mag and she sent me the threads plus a very long Joann's receipt!)  And there they sat, in my stash binding their time.

That time came last year with the DUCJC and my Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.  When I was sorting our my GG stash I knew Little Snap Dragon had to be included.  In fact he was the first project of the DUCJC2015 started on 1st January, 2015.  And here is how far I got:

And then back in the box for the rest of the year!  I included him in my "16 in '16" this year and the lucky little dragon's number came up this month!  I restarted him on Monday 16th May and here he is after another four days' stitching:

Lots and lots of green.

Not one or two greens but

nine different greens.  So far.

Plus one dark navy,

This is quite confetti filled unlike my preferred Mirabilia and Joan Elliott designs where the colours flow nicely alongside one another.  Here's an example:

Look at all those different symbols to make green and navy!

Anyway, it's looking lovely and my highlighter pens are doing overtime.  The fabric is another 32 count Murano from Crafty Kitten.  This one is Evening Sky.

Finally, another shout out for my Birthday Blog Year - The Years of Jo's Life.  If you decide to take part, I will allocate you a year and an event which you blog about and include a photo of something you have stitched that you think I will like.  Drop me an email if you need more details!  The blog hop will take place on the 17th September this year.

DUCJC 2015

The DUCJC is a very special challenge in memory of a very special lady.  SoCal Debbie was a prolific stitcher, blogger and commenter.  Sadly she passed away very suddenly last year.  One of her favourie challenges was the CJC:

CJC = Crazy January Challenge, one new start for the first 15 days of January

UCJC = Ultimate Crazy January Challenge, one new start for all 31 days of January

DUCJC = Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge, stitch 31 projects one per day for January

Linda Stitchin' with my Furbabies is organising this all via a FB group.  Thankfully Linda is not making us all attempt the SDUCJC (Super Duper Ultimate Crazy January Challenge) or 60 starts throughout January and February which she did with Debbie in 2012.

I have listed out my choices on my Challenge page.  Here are the first three days of stitching.  All three days have been "at home" days so I have got plenty done.  I decided to have three new starts for these whole days and save the WIPs for work days when I have less time to stitch.

Day 1 - Dyan Allaire for Kustom Krafts - Little Snap Dragon

Stitched on 32 count Morning Sky by Crafty Kitten

Day 2 - JBW - Hobby Horse

Stitched on 32 count Antique White linen using DMC 115

This will have my cousin's baby's name added under the rocking horse.

Actually, that raises a good question - why is this called a hobby horse when it clearly is a rocking horse?  A hobby horse is a stick with a horse's head and maybe some little wheels that you ride around whereas a rocking horse you sit on and rock back and forth.  French speakers - are there two different words in French for these toys?

A hobby-horse.

Day 3 - Country Cottage Needleworks - Poinsettia Place

Stitched on 32 count Permin Twilight Blue linen

I don't have the subtle variegated green so I am using a blend of the converted DMC and the next shade to it (3364 and 3363).  I have found this is a great way of substituting varigated threads especially when you don't want the stripy effect, just a less blocky look to a solid area of stitching.  I will get some more stitches in this one tonight.

What are my thoughts of the challenge so far?  Don't pick your favourite projects at the beginning of the month!  I am already itching to carry on with the first two choices!

I've also spent some time today tidying up the blog, making sure all the links have been updated to this year's SALs and removing the old ones.  I am miles behind on adding projects to my Happy Dance blog so that will be next.  I have a couple of finishes which were gifts so I couldn't show them before so that will be for another post too.

Finally, these three new starts all count for my Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.  Two were gifts from generous stitchers and one will be a gift for someone.  Credit will be given on the 15th January when we share our first GG Update.  Don't forget, you can join in any time, this year, no obligation to post every month.