Happy Extra Day!

Did you all enjoy your extra day today?  Hope you managed to get some stitching in anyway.

I have made a good start on the third of Nora Corbett's Alphabet Fairies - E

I am stitching her on the same fabric as my J which is another Crafty Kitten 32 count Murano, this one is called Love-in-the-Mist.  This is 2 day's worth of stitching:

There's quite a lot of metallic in this one and also quite a few beads.  I am very interested to see how long she takes too.  You would think that each fairy would take roughly the same amount of time to stitch, give or take a few days.  But look at this month's Pie Chart:

Nora's S fairy was stitched up in a mere 10 days.  Now this chart shows 8 days for the C fairy but she already had 14 days in January, so that's a massive 22 days in total.  More than twice as long as S fairy.  Now maybe I spent more time stitching each day in February but I don't think so.  C was just a lot more stitching!  I wonder where E will be?  I intend to stitch on her as much as possible now because I do have four full days at work in the next two weeks which really reduces my stitching time to about an hour a day.

I've also been making great progress on Shepherd's Bush's Mulberry Sampler and here's the bottom portion I've been stitching the last couple of evenings:

This part is all speciality stitches, including a full 6 strands of thread couched in place.  I've got another row and a half of Bargello and a row of Smyrnas and then it's on to the cutwork!  I leave that until last so I don't distort that part when I continue stitching.

Isn't Bargello awesome?

I am tracking my spending this year but not with any budget in mind, just to see where it all goes!

February

Cross Stitch Crazy	£4.99
iStitch Charts x 2	£15.11
Flossaway bags	£4.05
Beads (fairies)	£7.21
Kreinik (fairies)	£6.50
Just Nan chart	£9.86
Total Spend	£47.72

I bought a single issue of Cross Stitch Crazy because there was a big article about the Stitching Out Stigma project I was involved in last year.  The squares have all been made into two hangings which are being displayed in the new Mental Health Unit in University Hospital Llandough, Wales.  You can see all the individual squares in the online Gallery too.

The article

and

a close-up of one of the hangings, with my square top row, second left

The iStitch charts were because Carol was having a sale so I bought two Advent Charts which one being half price.  The weird price is because Carol's charts are sold in US$ so they convert to odd pence.

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Finally, it's nearly time for the Easter Blog Hoppity Hop!  Taking place over the Easter weekend each participant will be allocated a letter of the alphabet which they must post along with a nice Easter or Spring themed stitched photo.  In recognition of the varied talents of my followers I think you can also show any sewn, quilted or otherwise crafted Easter or Spring themed items.

Everyone will then hoppity hop around like a little fluffy bunny and collect the letters which will spell out something seasonal.  If you would like to be a picture poster then please drop me an email.

If you'd like some inspiration then look at the freebies on this page of my blog - Themed Freebies