Blue Moon WIPocalypse and D.E.S.I.G.N. SAL

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings

The focus of my WIPocalypse will be my "15 in '15"which are 15 charts I want to stitch in 2015 (following on from my "11 in '11", "12 in '12", "13 in '13" and "14 in '14" - imaginative, eh?)

Over the last month I have stitched only one of my 15 designs.  Oh dear, not good!  As you will see from the Pie Chart at the bottom of this post Hope took up a disporportionate amount of this month!

Stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

The one that I did stitch was the letter W from The Hallowe'en Cubes by Primitive Hare.

Measi always sets us a topic of discussion and for the second Full Moon of July we have the following topic:

July – It’s a blue moon today. Show us your favourite WIP that features a lot of blue!

Not too much blue going on but I do have the London Eye from Pretty Little London, so here's another look at that one:

Stitched on 32 count Antique White evenweave.

**********************************************************************

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?

Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books.  Here is the piece I started working on this week:

I'm going to be a little bit mean and not tell you anything more about it until tomorrow!

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

Yes.  I have completed three and have another WIP from the DUCJC which I aim to finish this year.  The first two designs I completed were part of Brooke's Cake of the Month freebie series:

June

August

The plan, as ever was to stitch the whole series!

The third finish was in JCS Hallowe'en 2013 and I converted her into a Vampire rather than the Bat Witch Brooke had designed:

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

Definitely!  Here is my current WIP, Trixie the Hallowe'en Witch:

I have a whole series of these witches bought in a clearance sale.  Plus of course, all the freebies she so generously gives us on her website - Freebies!  That links to page 2 where you can find all the adorable Advent Animals.  I am still considering stitching that series too.  

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

Brooke uses lovely bright cartoony colours and adds lots of details to her designs.  They are mostly stitched using whole stitches only as many are designed for perforated paper.  She does like to use beads and also memory thread to embellishment her designs.  I am always drawn to a series of designs which is why I started the cakes in the first place.  They came from her Yahoo group which I am not sure if it is still running or not.  She has a FB page if you want to enquire there.

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

I mentioned the perforated paper earlier.  Several of Brooke's designs have a 3D effect made by layering different elements of the design using separate pieces of the paper.  You can also see in the cover photo of Trixie that she has used strands of thread for the broom too.

She does likes her holidays and celebrations so if you head over to her website you can see some of the varied designs she has for sale.  I particularly like the Bride's Tree range and the wonderful tradition behind the designs.  And the Wizard of Oz collection.  And the Alice in Wonderland collection!

**********************************************************************

Finally, a pie chart for July.  You can see how much time Hope too, considering it was not a large design.  I only keep a note of how many days I stitch each design, not the number of hours though.  So maybe they were shorter days!