Theme-a-licious Looking Backward and Forward II plus my Oldest UFO

February's theme was Fan Girl February, stitch your favourite designer's work.

I managed two of my four favourites - Joan Elliott and Just Nan.

The two Just Nan pieces can be seen in this mid-month update and the Joan Elliot piece was my contribution to the JE RR starting imminently on the Yuku WWRR Board.

I've decided on the Flower Fairies series.  There are six of them and seven stitchers in the RR so I thought I'd do the centre piece featuring each of the flowers.  The mock-up can be seen on the post linked above.  Here's the pic:

 I've not stitched any metallics, beads, backstitch or leaves yet.  That will all be added when it returns to me in November.  I was unsure about having any leaves but I really like the pop of green on the Chrysanthemum so I will be adding some more at the end.

The whole thing:

The blocks have been stitched in tacking cotton to show the placement.  I don't want solid lines around my fairies, I want their hair and tendrils to flow outside the blocks.  I've spent ages drawing on the working copies of the charts to show which bits to stitch and which not!  I hope it all makes sense to the other stitchers.

Now I've got the blocks marked out I'm really pleased with it, there are two 50x50 blocks, two 40x60 and two 60x40.  All the fairies are facing inwards so they look like friends!!  I may stitch borders round each block when it returns, I'll see if it needs it.

The fabric is Sunlit Heath by Crafty Kitten, it's more green in real life.  I stitched Nimue's Baby Swing on it and Green Goddess.  Those of you who have mailed things to me may recognise the word "Heath" from my address.  Yes, the fabric is named for me!  How cool is that?  Thanks Dawn.

Looking forward - March is:
March Madness
Stitch or knit on something different every day...it's madness...of the funnest possible kind.

Now, anyone who knows me as a stitcher will know that's just not for me!  But Heather says we can be loose and imaginative in our interpretation of this, just step outside our comfort zone a little.  So I thought I'd see how many different designers I could stitch on without doing more than one by each person.  Unfortunately obligation stitching has already cause one glitch - I need to stitch two of the WOCS Flower of the Month cards and if I stitch the JE RR then I shouldn't stitch Green Goddess or vice versa.

But hey, it's my hobby so I can do it if I want to!  I'll just claim a "moment of madness" made me do it.

Finally, here's a little finish for the oldest UFO thing organised by Evalina Maria:

Before

After

Those little frames are quite tricky to get the fabric in!  I'm not entirely happy with it, it's a little squiffy still.  I'll have another go tomorrow I think.  I have no idea where the chart comes from, there's no label or packaging at all.  I used threads from my scraps bag and subbed the coloured stitches on the tree for beads of the same colour

This was also part of the Christmas All Year Round fun and was my first finish for their our blog.  March is a free choice month so I may stitch one of the Heart Strings Santas Dixie Samplar sent me.  There's only 12 to choose from!!