August Just Nan SAL and Theme-a-licious Update

Just Nan SAL is hosted by Zeb of Keep Calm and Cross Stitch

I stitched two different Just Nan designs this month, they will follow as part of the main post this month.  They are Moon Riders Jasper and Nan's Garden bands for a round robin.

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!

Author! Author! August

The words are speaking this month! Hunt out those WIPs with a verse or two. It's time those projects with words and sentences grew.

Once upon a time a young girl who lived in a country where it was always Winter and never Christmas.

She was very sad and often lonely so she would wander through the woods building herself friends from the snow which lay all around her.  Because it was always Winter the days were short and she knew she must be safe at home by nightfall.

The woods were also home to many strange and frightening creatures.

There were rumours of witches

 living in unusual tumbledown or halfbuilt cottages within the depths of the woods.

One day when the young girl was returning from her daily Build-a-Friend expedition she encountered a beautiful shimmering fairy, her Guardian Angel.

"I am here to grant you the traditional three wishes.  What is your greatest desire, oh lonely young woods girl?" the Angel sang to her.

The young girl thought hard.  Should she wish for Frosty the Snowman to come alive?  Or should she think of herself?  Maybe the circus could come to town to entertain her and Frosty?

"My first wish is for the key to a beautiful garden full of Summer flowers, where bees Gather Honey"

The Angel waved her wand and granted this wish.

"It's a very lovely green garden" the girl said, "but somehow I imagined a few flowers?"

So the Angel waved her wand again and a beautiful archway of roses appeared in the garden with beds of fragrant flowers and more bees.  The girl knew she would never be hungry for honey again.

"And for your final wish?" asked the Angel.

The young girl thought hard, "I would really like a special treat"

"It's always Winter in the woods and never Christmas.  I would really love to see a complete White Christmas"

The Angel looked at her and said "Come on dearie, I gave you a flower garden amidst the snow but some things need more than fairy magic!"

Hope you enjoyed the story!

Finally the Summer Postcard Blog Hop is nearly at an end.  I am waiting for one more photo promised to me then I will send out the final two postcards.

First postcard from Marcy goes to Gracie at Needles, Pins and Dragonflies

Second postcard from Krista goes to Jocondine at Jocondine

Third postcard from Michelle goes to Sharon at Shebafudge

Fourth postcard from Mouse goes to Vickie at A Stitcher's Story

Fifth postcard from Christine goes to Marcy at Stitching Plus

Sixth postcard from Astrid goes to Krista at Just Stitching Along

Seventh postcard from Vickie goes to Michelle at Michelle's StitchCraft Place

Eighth postcard from Jocondine goes to Deborah at A Patchwork of Crafts

Ninth postcard from Gracie goes to Maggee at Stitching Devotee

Tenth postcard from Deborah goes to Heather at It's Geek to Me

Eleventh postcard from Maggee goes to Mouse at Tales of a Stitching Mouse

Twelfth postcard from Sharon goes to Kaye at Kitten Stitching

July Just Nan SAL and Theme-a-licious Update

Just Nan SAL is hosted by Zeb of Keep Calm and Cross Stitch

I only stitched one small JN design this month, the Moon Rider for the Hallowe'en Blog SAL.  Here it is again:

Stitched on 32 count lavender evenweave

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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!

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.

The first celebration was the end of term for my sons.  I stitched a Teresa Wentzler freebie for the older boy's teacher:

Design information on this post

I also continued on Spooky Countdown (which is counting down to Hallowe'en, a great holiday!) and Noel Blanc (for Christmas, another great celebration).

Primitive Hare - Spooky Countdown

A Mon Ami Pierre - Noel Blanc

I have returned to the left hand side of the design for the final stretch.  This will be a square border with an over 1 design in the middle.  Then we have the word "Decembre" underneath, a large "BLANC" in the middle and a final snowflake on the right hand side.

This next one is really a celebration of one particular designer; Joan Elliott.  It's a FB exclusive SAL.  One face released per month.  Here is my continuing progress on Guardian Angel:

Stitched on 28count Snapdragon evenweave from Crafty Kitten.

I used the dark brown hair conversion supplied by Joan, stitched her face over one and used one strand for the wings so there is a transluscent effect with the pink of the fabric showing through.  I started the backstitch this evening and will continue with the metallics then the beads.  I think I will bead as I go for this design.

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog is well underway.  If you have signed up and not sent your photo to me yet, I will do a little reminder soon.  Here are the links to the postcards sent so far.  Why not hop over and say Hello:

First postcard from Marcy goes to Gracie at Needles, Pins and Dragonflies

Second postcard from Krista goes to Jocondine at Jocondine

Third postcard from Michelle goes to Sharon at Shebafudge

Fourth postcard from Mouse goes to Vickie at A Stitcher's Story

Fifth postcard from Christine goes to Marcy at Stitching Plus

Sixth postcard from Astrid goes to Krista at Just Stitching Along

Theme-a-licious June 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!

June Jolt

School's out for the summer! Let's work on things with sunshine in them or REALLY bright colours. Summer is here!

As soon as I saw that first sentence I thought Alice Cooper!  Actually my first thought was "no it's not, in England we don't break up until the third week in July" but then I thought Alice Cooper!  I found a great monochrome design of his face but it was for beading and didn't translate directly to stitching.  I'd have to rechart it to get the dimensions right, he came out very long and thin so I abandoned that idea.  I did consider buying this one from PixelPower but I'd left it rather late in the month.

So what did I stitch this month that could possibly fit into the theme?

These lovely Summery Joan Elliot butterflies:

 

These were stitched as the centre part of the new JE Faces SAL on FB

Fabric is Snapdragon by Crafty Kitten

The rest of my stitching consisted of an Autumn Fairy, some Hallowe'en Countdown pieces, three different Winter projects and the Bride of Frankenstein's Monster.

(Two Winter projects do feature B5200 which is Bright White...)

Today, however, I did start a piece that will come in for the end of term in July but I've started it in June so it totally counts.  Each year I have stitched an end of year sampler for the Large Boy's teacher.  I always try to get something suitable for the person, something they like or a topic they have covered that year.  This year was tricky, she is new to the school and is a brilliant teacher.  We've got on really well and have chatted about books alot.   She recognised the influence of Terry Pratchett in the last piece of written work the Large Boy did so I decided on a Fantasy Book theme for her:

What I was looking for was a small dragon on a pile of books but googling around didn't come up with anything.  Then I found a dragon reading a book on DeviantArt.  The dragon looked familiar, and lo and behold the stitcher revealed it was a Teresa Wentzler freebie, amended to be holding a book instead of an orb.  Futurecast was designed for stitchers to choose their own colour scheme and Teresa has given great instructions on how to do so.  She also has a Gallery of finished designs so you can use their schemes if you want.  The school colours are green and yellow, there was a lovely dragon there in those exact colours so that is the one I went with.  I won't be stitching the border because I want to add the teacher's name and the school's name and year.

Finally the Summer Postcard Blog Hop (which fits in nicely with the Theme) is now underway.  The second postcard went to Jocondine and her eponymous blog.  Follow the link to see her card, message and who sent it to her.  There is still time to join in with the Blog Hop, just click on the garden picture on the right hand side bar to find out more details.

Theme-a-licious May 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!

Menagerie May
Is it a zoo in your stack of WIPs? How many projects can you find that include animals or birds? 

Relatively easy this month.  Lots of my projects contain animals or birds in one shape or another.  Let's start at the beginning of the month:

A bird:

The Little Owl Sampler by Knotted Tree Needleart 

from the Just Cross Stitch Hallowe'en Ornie Special 2012.

One re-animated animal:

Franken-Kitty from Carand88

One arachnid and one animal:

Spooky Countdown by Primitive Hare

Three birds:

Twelve Days of Christmas by The Little Stitcher

Edit to add this little animal!!

Squirrel!!

One amphibian:

Noel Blanc by A Mon Ami Pierre

What do you mean, you can't see the amphibian?  There's one huge great frog sitting in the middle of the piece!!

After stitched the border to the left of the reindeer I moved onto this border and reached the bottom of the left hand piece (I started from the same level as the right hand part to give you an idea of how much I stitched).  When I reached the bottom I was about to turn left when I noticed the bottom motif was the wrong size.  Oops, unpick.  Then I noticed that the five times it occurs (ringed in red) it is charted in different sizes!!  Four stitches wide at the top and bottom and five stitches wide for the other three.  Whereas mine were 4,4,4,5,5 which resulted in being one stitch too short at the end.  Unfortunately the corner design at the bottom echoes the corner design at the top so there was no way I could rechart or somehow fudge it.  And believe me, I tried!

So, an hour of frogging and we've got a few evenings of restitching to do.  Bearing in mind I only manage one or two lengths on this an evening it's very frustrating to say the least!  Maybe I'll do it tomorrow afternoon while we're watching our Sunday film.  I really ought to give those little birdies their beaks too.

Finally, don't forget the Summer Postcard Blog Hop.  This year's theme is Gardens, click on the picture of the garden to the top right of the blog for more details.

Smalls SAL and Theme-a-licious April Updates

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

I chose three different monthly themes to follow this year:

Hallowe'en Ornie SAL - 12 different themes
Little Stitcher Fairy Tale 12 Days of Christmas - one per month
Primitive Hare Spooky Countdown - one per week starting 31st January

This is my choice for April's Owl theme, not quite finished.  I used the DMC conversion which said 327 for the alphabet but I really didn't like it on this blue fabric I'm using.  So I asked advice and Mouse suggested 930.  I'd looked at 939 (too dark) and the high 700s (too Royal Blue) and this was perfect.  So I'm frogging and restitching as I go:

You can see how much better the blue looks.

Here's my Little Stitcher for April, Day of Trees:

And here are the latest 6 blocks on Spooky Countdown:

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! 

April Showers

What pieces can you find in your flood of WIPs that include water? Rivers, lakes, oceans, or rain (and anything that lives within).

This was a really tricky one, until Heather pointed out that snow is frozen water (so I could have The Little Stitcher 12 Days of Christmas included (see above for picture).

I also decided to include a piece which may not feature water but did produce water - tears!

Here it is:

This is the sampler I stitched for my friend's wedding last weekend.  The motifs come from various places.  The hearts are from Carton-Marie (I stitched the whole piece for my cousin's wedding last year).  "Love" is from Happiness is Cross Stitching.  M and D (their initials) are from iStitch's Mystery SAL and the butterfly is from a random download I've had in the file for ages (sadly no originating website on it).

This is the process to making something like this:

Remove the mount and cut out the blocks.

Use this as the template to place your stitching,

Finished stitching.

Lay the mount over the finished stitching.

Lay the frame over the mount and finished stitching.

Realise that the mount is so much smaller than the frame that it moves around and it is almost impossible to get all seven pictures centred and straight.  Cut the fabric up into smaller individual piece and mount each one separately.  Wonder why you didn't do that the first time!

ps the frame comes from QD - well-known discount homeware store in the UK.

Finally, here is something else which caused water this month, more tears of happiness:

I entered Justine's Giveaway because one of the prizes was a cute ladybird pillow she had stitched.  She sent me a parcel of silvery wrapped goodies.

The card is silver-grey too.  The booklet has some nice designs and I don't have this one because it came out after I stopped subscribing.  But look at the chart - Nora Corbett's Jo is for Jo (and Justine!).  I love this design and it was on my wish-list too.  So now to choose a fabric.  I asked my friends on FB whether I should go for a green or lilac colour.

One person said "contrast"

One person said "how about lilac & green (& a bit of blue)"

One person said "a solid colour"

One person said "a neutral cream"

and one person said "a pale blue or lilac"

Can you see why this is hard? LOL  I think an entire evening with The Viewer is called for.

Close-up of my lovely Ladybird pillow.