The Brilliant and Beautiful Alphabet Band

It's the first Saturday of the month, so it's time for detention!

"They only met online, but it changed their lives forever"

I think most of you know the lovely enigmatic Chiara who blogs at The Grey Tail?  We were chatting via email a while back and between us came up with the idea of an A-Z language challenge.  We batted some ideas around and are calling it the The Alphabet Club.  Chiara has the full details on that link but basically she will post a link-up post on the first Saturday of each month (Saturday being detention day in the film) reminding us of the month's letter and we will all link up with themed things, from stitching to designers and local customs.

This month's letter is B for brilliant and beautiful (that's me and Chiara!) and also Bargello, the lovely flamestitch in the photo above, taken from A Dark Alphabet by A Note of Friendship.  B is also for buttons and beading and butterfly as shown in my current Alphabet Club project; A Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books Publishing (more Bs) there.

The little blue button is proof that the destashing of your wardrobe by clearing out anything not worn in the previous season is a silly idea.  That little button was the spare button from one of my old work shirts which has not been worn for at least 13 years (Large Boy is 13 this month).  I have a collection of very similar styled shirts waiting for my return to office work.  Which may or may not happen in the next 20 years.  But they will be ready if I do!

Anyway, I didn't quite finish A last month due to the lack of tiny white beads, so here is A pushing it's way into a B post:

And here they are together:

I am stitching this series on a piece of 28count afghan which will then be made into a book by sewing the panels back-to-back.  There is room for four letters on each block plus a title on the first page and my initials and the dates on the final page.

More beading on today's project, The Sugared Almond Cottage by The Nutmeg Company:

There's another one of these for the other side!

That is a petite 28 needle shown for scale.  Now I can start sewing them together.  The special curved needles I ordered arrived today and I bought some mounting board yesterday in preparation.  Watch this space!

Of course the Champion of Beading has to be Mill Hill.  I always use their beads because they come in so many colours, nearly every chart gives their numbers and they are easy to get hold of.  They also do some lovely heavily beaded designs of their own:

Hallowe'en by Mill Hill

Winter Wonderland by Mill Hill.

Frosted Heather Rose by Mill Hill

Which brings us nicely to my next B - Band Samplers.  I do love a band sampler and have taken part in three different Round Robins to stitch them as well as several of my own working.  Here are four seasonal favourites:

Seasons by Just Nan

My "B" WIP will be Book of Spells by The Goode Huswif:

I've already mentioned Brooke's Books as a B designer, other designers I enjoy stitching include Blue Ribbon Designs and Blackbird Designs.  You can read my post about Blue Ribbon here and see my BBD finishes here.

And a designer I haven't stitched yet, although I have one of their charts is Brightneedle:

Ezmeralda's House

And now on to the Blog Roll, blogs I love to follow beginning with B:

Being Grammy

Butterfly Wings

Brigitte's Place

By the Babbling Brooke

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop and the penultimate card was sent today:

First postcard from Cheryl goes to Noni at Fireflies and Cats in the Garden

Second postcard from Vickie goes to Katie at Jeremiah's Mom

Third postcard from Noni goes to Julie at Julie's Stitchyknitter Journal

Fourth postcard from Katie goes to Anna at Stitch Bitch

Fifth postcard from Julie goes to Bea at Thoughts and Musings
Sixth card from Narita goes to Kaye at Kitten Stitching
Seventh card from Anna goes to Vickie at A Stitcher's Story
Eighth card from Kaye goes to Jocondine at Jocondine
Ninth card from Jocondine goes to Cheryl at Today I Found
Tenth card from Bea goes to Leonore at Needle, Pen & Sword (sent today)