Theme-a-licious September 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!

This is the theme for September:

Sampler September

Whether you're stitching the alphabet over and over (and over), starting your own band (sampler), or marking some spots, this is your month!

This is a nice easy one for me, no shoe-horns required this month.  The first piece I finished was the September Alphabet Kitty:

Apart from Andie's Mirabilia RR the only other thing I've worked on this month so far is Just Nan's Autumn Typography.  This is so close to being finished, there is probably only one evening's work left.  So rather than spoil the finished result I thought I'd make a nice jigsaw for you all to do.

Simply print off, cut out and rearrange!!

 That was a rather short and sweet update so I thought I'd share some of my winnings with you.

The first to arrive was a giveaway from Drea Dear for her 6th Blogaversary.  Yes, 6th!  Appropriately enough she found my blog through the Theme-a-licious.  She has designed and stitched this lovely Irish Blessing sampler herself and even hand-dyed the fabric herself too:

The original draft of the sampler can be found here, you can see the changes she made!

Andrea also included a new chart she has designed and personalised with my name, plus the DMC threads to stitch it and this gorgeous piece of fabric she hand-dyed.  Apparently both pieces are dyed using leftover wine which is very different.  This one is a little bit more purple in real life, sort of a bruised plum colour.  I love it.

The next Giveaway was from Stitcher Anon to celebrate a Creative Crafting Blog Hop.  Gaynor offered a number of different prizes for the different crafts and I won the Cross Stitching prize!  This is her photo of the prize because I haven't taken one myself/

As well as these goodies I also received two of her brand new series of  "Little Maids in a Row".  The first two are Pretty in Pink and Boo-tiful in Black.  Ms Black is perfect for me!  Many years ago I attended a "Colouring Workshop" where they look at your skin tone, hair colour, eyes etc and decide what season you are.  I am a Winter which means one of the best colours for me is black.  My friends did laugh when they heard that.

Radient in Red and Graceful in Green are coming soon.  To keep up with all the new releases you need to look on the website Stitcher Anon or the FB page.

Finally Nicola and I are in discussions about the Scarlet Letter Year blogs.  Everyone wants them to continue, me most of all because I will never finish my sampler before 20th Feb 2014!  We've been talking about a Gallery after someone mentioned samplers they had stitched prior to the start of the blog.  It will also give us more time to interview some of the leading lights of the Reproduction Sampler World.  Here is the list so far if you want to learn more about these stitchers and most importantly of all - Is Nicola the only person that forgets her glasses are on the top of her head?!!

INTERVIEWS

 (conducted by Nicola and edited by Deb)

Barbara Hutson
Margaret Chess
Ellen Chester
Bethany
Carol Sims
Fran of C Street Samplers
Deb Thread Gatherer