June D.E.S.I.G.N SAL

The idea of this Blog Hop is to choose a different designer each month and do a post focusing on a piece of their work you have stitched on during the month.  The hosts of D.E.S.I.G.N ask us to answer a few questions on our chosen designer.

1. What designer are you talking about this month?

Brenda Gervais from With Thy Needle & Thread.  That link goes to Brenda's blog of the same name while this one Country Stitches Online goes to her shop which sells her own line of charts plus those from other designers too.  She also sells charms, fabric, ribbons and other embellishments.

The design I chose this month was the unseasonal January Wordplay:

stitched over 1 on 32 count Star Sapphire linen.

I changed the fabric to this pale blue which necessitated changing most of the colours too.  I even changed the bluebirds to red cardinals because I do love the pop of their red.  I used all DMC threads too.

You can see the original colours in this photo of the model stitching:

2. Have you stitched a project by this designer before?

Yes.  Last year I stitched April's Wordplay which as a gift from blogger Jenny:

stitched over 1 on 32 count lemon evenweave

3. Would you buy/stitch a design by this designer again?  Why/Why not?

Yes, I would.  Because I am a sucker for seasonal series!  At this rate I will finish the whole series in 2025 which is fine.  They are quite quick projects so will be ideal for my "25 in '25" challenge!

4. What made you choose this particular design/designer?

Both these charts were gifts.  Jenny sent me the first one which I really enjoyed stitching so when Shirlee offered her chart in a giveaway I threw my name into the hat and was lucky enough to win it.

5. Did you notice anything that distinguished this designer from others?

Brenda has a primitive style, whole stitches only, very little backstitch.  She is not a well-known designer in the UK.  I couldn't even find her charts on the SewandSo website (unless they are hidden in the Other Designers category) but I did discover that Patchwork Rabbit stock them so I will be able to puchase the rest of the Wordplay series.  There are several Hallowe'en themed charts on the WTN&T website which are rather tempting too.

Her blog is always very interesting.  She talks about the design process, showing her floss tosses and discusses the issues around colour.  She also charts reproduction samplers and shares some of the history of the pieces.

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And here is the Pie Chart for June:

And since we are halfway through the year (yikes!) here is the year-to-date.  It's not a Pie Chart, it's a Doughnut Chart!  Sorry if these stats are making you hungry:

In this one I have bundled together the designs which have only been worked on for a small amount of time.  The numbers represent days.  The days may be of varied lengths, I don't count hours but it all evens out.  Book of Spells is worked on every day but only a little bit each evening usually.  Those 11 days are when I didn't stitch on anything else.  Usually when I worked a full day and took it in with me for my lunchbreak stitching.


Finally, I have launched the annual Summer Postcard Blog Hop.  The theme this year is Pets.  All you need to do is email me a photo of something you have stitched on this theme plus a little message about what pets mean to you.  Once I have a few I will start emailing them to the participants who will display them on their blogs.  The Blog Hop lasts all Summer so don't worry if you don't have anything suitable stitched yet.