The Crazy and Cheerful Alphabet Club

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 C for crazy and cheerful and Chiara!  Also Coven in the photo above, taken from A Dark Alphabet by A Note of Friendship.  C is also for crochet as shown in my current Alphabet Club project; A Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books Publishing:

stitched on 28 count Afghan

The whole piece so far.

I am stitching the alphabet on a long thin piece of afghan fabric which I will eventually sew togther into a book.  This will be the cover and the missing space will have the title stitched in it.

I don't do Crochet and I shall ignore Cross Stitching and save it for X so C as a theme could be Christmas (which could also be an X).  I don't often stitch cards because of the amount of time involved but here are some from 2011:

Four designs from World of Cross Stitching magazine.

The city skyline always makes me laugh.  The designer had chosen some beautiful iconic cities to stitch.  And also Coventry!  Anyone who has ever been there will appreciate why I laughed so much.

But it does begin with C and is a City too so most suitable for today.

We often think of Angels at Christmas and here is my interpretation of Joan Elliott's Christmas Angel:

And Lavender & Lace's Celtic Christmas:

My C UFO is a very old one:

Coffee Fairy by Yiotas X Stitch

What an embarassingly small amount of stitching!  The fabric is called Monarch by Sparklies.  Do you remember I said Kate dyes mad fabrics?

And my WIP is a CCN design which I started for the DUCJC this year:

Obviously CCN is a designer I like and there's also Nora Corbett (she can be C as well as M for Mirabilia as she designs under two different brands).  On my WIP list this year I have her Little Snowy Gray Cottage and J is for Joanne:

Both are stitched on hand-dyed fabrics from Crafty Kitten, another C!

Of course the ultimate C designs must be Martine AKA Chatelaine Designs.  These gorgeously intricate designs are on everyone's "favourite" list and one of the hardest things is choosing just one.  I had finally made my decision - Gardens of London

then she goes and releases this one:

Hallowe'en Kitty Mandala

What am I supposed to do now?

And now on to the Blog Roll, some of the blogs I love to follow beginning with C:

Cross Stitch and Other Musings

(the lovely Ewa and her HHH3)

Crafty Princess

(stunner!)

Crafty Rahenna

Create - E - Witty Unleashed

Caring Stitcher

Cozy Little Place for Stitching

Oh my gosh, I have realised there are loads more C blogs!  How about you scroll through my blog roll and pick a few out?

Finally, Hallowe'en is fast approaching so it must be time to launch the Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop.  Regular followers will know the format.  Leave a comment here saying you would like to take part in the hop as a Picture Poster.  When I have everyone signed up I will choose a Mystery Phrase and allocate each Picture Poster a letter of the alphabet.  On 31st October they must make a blog post showing their letter and a photo of something they have stitched on a Hallowe'en theme.  On my blog there will be a list of all the contributors so people can hop around and collect the letters to work out the Mystery Phrase.  You don't have to be a Picture Poster to collect the letters and join in with the competition but all Picture Posters do get an extra entry in the competition.