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Friday 31 July 2015

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

WIPocalypse
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.

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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?

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!

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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!





23 comments:

Minnie said...

Love the progress on The Primitive Hare cube and I've also stitched Brooke Nolan's cakes, all 12.

Thoeria said...

Lovely stitching, Jo :)

Kaisievic said...

Oh, your Vampire witch is just perfect and you gotta love a pie chart! Great post, as always, Jo.

stitchersanon said...

Gorgeous choices there. Very pretty. Love your comments on the comment section..if you are a robot please pretend....rofl, made me giggle

Bea said...

Another new to me designer. Oh dear, this does not bode well!

Tiffstitch said...

Beautiful stitching!

Linda said...

Beautiful stitching Jo. I have some of her free designs but have not stitched any of them.

Linda

gominam said...

Great progress on your WIPs. I just love how colorful London is. The Cakes are adorable, love how you converted the witch into a vampire, very unique!

Margaret said...

You are making good progress!

Preeti said...

Beautiful stitching!! Thanks for the details about the designer !!

Kate said...

You've been busy, so you're allowed to slide :-) But you've still made wonderful progress. Ooh, I love Brooke's Books, too. I have my eye on the series you're being so secretive about! I've looked at it so many times I can tell you lots about it. I'd also love to do the cake series and the advent animals, and I just bought her Little Women series. She's a great designer.

Mrs Milkybar Kid said...

Gorgeous stitching and the cutest vampire I have ever seen! I have all of Brooke's Oz series in my wishlist, must actually BUY some one day lol! I think next year I might stitch her Stitcher's Alphabet, she has such awesome freebies!

sew.darn.quilt said...

Wonderful progress!

Susan said...

I have done several of Brooke's cakes for birthday gifts. Everyone seems to appreciate getting cake but not the calories. :-)

Heather said...

Lovely progress :)

Stitching Noni said...

Great updates! I see what you mean about Hope taking so much time... The pie chart really shows where your stitching time goes :)
I enjoyed reading your Brooke piece - I love her designs which you can probably tell by the number of WIP's I have currently got going on that are hers!!
Hugs xx

Brigitte said...

Great to read about this designer. I got to really know her only when I saw all these fantastic alphabet animals appear on various blogs. Your vampire witch is just awesome.

Sarah in Stitches said...

Awesome stitching, as usual! Loved reading about this new (to me) designer. Thanks! :D

Leonore Winterer said...

Lovely progress and great DESIGN post! I really like Brooke's Books ^_^

Suz said...

Great stitching, and I just love the pies :)

Unknown said...

Loving the PH cubes....these may fall into my cart soon. ;)

Julie said...

I love the pie chart, Hope is a lovely piece of stitching.

Kerryp77 said...

Great progress, I love finding out about new (to me) designers.