A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

My rotation for the year goes as follows:

26th of the month - Lavender & Lace Enchanted Alphabet
Then Brooke's Books' Stitcher's Alphabet
Then Happy Hallowe'en with an option on Witches
Then a block of 12 Days of Christmas and one day of the header
Then one day of Gathering Eggs and one day of Memories
Rest of the month - Focus Piece for the month.

In my last post I had completed the 7 Swans-a-Swimming block for 12 Days so it was followed by a few days of daily swapping.

First I stitched quite a lot on the Herald Angel from 12 Days:

I am currently filling in the pale blue and then I'll backstitch her.

I worked all day Saturday so I took 12 Days in to stitch on my lunchbreak and then spent all of Sunday on Nora Corbett's Gathering Eggs:

The shawl turned out beautifully. 

On Monday I went to a coffee morning at a local craft shop which has just opened in town.  The owner makes various things herself and also rents shelves out in the shop to local crafters.  I did buy myself an early birthday present but that's gone away until September so no peeking!

I took Just Nan's Memories with me as it's a nice easy one to stitch and chat at the same time:

Today saw the start of my focus piece for the rest of this month.  Kerry is doing Just One July and there's a new Joan Elliott July group too so it made sense to stitch Joan's Mermaid from July in the Magical Year of Stitching.   I started her last Summer for the Olympic challenges and very unusually did not note down the fabric.  It's either Sparklies or Crafty Kitten, most probably the latter and it's beautiful!

Finally, the Blogger of the Week blog is going really well.  I am so pleased with all the comments everyone is leaving and being able to introduce people to new-to-them bloggers.  I'd love to have more people I didn't previously know featured so please mention the blog on your blog!  I've also decided we should have a little competition when we reach six months so pay careful attention and watch the blog for more information!

The Sweetest TUSAL of Them All

is a Happy Dance TUSAL!

It's TUSAL time, the Totally Useless SAL where we all show our ORTS and link-up on Daffycat's blog.

Here is my TUSAL with the current project:

You see all the yellow on top?  That came from these:

You really can't stitch down to the last mm with French Knots, can you?  So if I'm stitching French Knots that can only mean one thing - 

Waggle Dance!

A Happy Waggle Dance for Gathering Honey by Jannlynn Designs!  This kit was a gift to me from a friend who used to cross stitch.  When she stopped stitching she passed me some of her stash and asked me to stitch this for her in exchange.

I started back in August 2013 - Every-bee-that-ever-wuz

Continued in March 2014 - Theme-licious-march-update

Took it on holiday during August 2014 - RIP-socal-debbie

It fell fallow until August 2016 when I did an entire 2 weeks on it - Summer-pie-and-round-up-of-month

Then it became my focus piece for April 2017 - Aprils-tusal-is-brought-to-you-by-letter

And for May too!

This was not an easy project to stitch, the fabric had a very canvas-like feel to it and was a very open weave.  I will have to go round and trim all the visible ends before framing.  The threads were great, DMC numbers given so hopefully I can use the leftovers.  Of which there are a LOT.  Except for two colours which I ran out of.

The backstitch instructions were not easy to follow.  They insisted on referring to the flowers by name not place on the chart.  The honeycomb was my favourite part, so quick to stitch and so effective!  The crazy paving was fun too.

I finished the French Knots this afternoon and thought I'd stitch something light and easy as a palate cleanser before continuing with my rotation.

stitched on 32 count pink linen

This is Just Nan's Memories which was a gift from Vickie, hence the pink linen!  I stitched the pink flowers today.  Aren't they pretty?  And easy and simple and fun!  This is going to be a long, thin piece with 12 bands so I planned to stitch one band per month but I think it will be done much quicker than that somehow!

Finally, I have nearly reached the end of the metallic on Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas!  I feel like I have been stitching metallic border for months and months.  According the photographic evidence - since January 2017!  So yes literally for months!  I have about 2-3 lengths of metallic left by my reckoning so you'll see it glitter when I show June's block.

Gifted Gorgeousness May Link-Up Post

Welcome to the May link-up for Gifted Gorgeousness.  The linky will stay open until the end of the month so you have plenty of time to join in.

I made good progress on Oberlin Samplers' Witches, a gift from Barb:

Steady progress on Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas, a gift from my MIL:

A new start with a chart I won from Carol of Stitching Dreams.  This is Nora Corbett's Gathering Eggs:

stitched on 35 count Country Mocha linen

Another new start, another giveaway, this time from Vickie of A Stitcher's Story, Just Nan's Memories band sampler:

stitched on 32 count pink linen (what else for Vickie?)

My focus piece for the month is Gathering Honey by Jannlynn Designs once again.  This was a gift from a friend and the finished piece will be gifted back to her.

I've been focusing on the final corner, the bottom right this week, it seems much quicker than the top left corner was.

I owe a couple of people gifts, people who won giveaways.  Once I get paid this week I will sort those out.  Stitch from Stash is very much a necessity here this year!

I did receive some gifts myself.  The lovely Nora Corbett chart from Carol, a chart from DJ which I had admired on her blog and a great RAK from Angela, all the way from Singapore.

And now it's over to you.  This is where you link up your post for this month.  Please use your name or your blog name in the field and NOT the words "May Update" so I can easily see who has linked up this month.  And link to the actual post, not just your blog.  It is easier if you copy and paste the link, rather than typing freehand.

*

*

Finally, I do hope that you are remembering to visit the Blogger of the Week blog each Friday to see who our featured stitcher of the week is.  Clue for this week - Pink Poodles!