February TUSAL and WIPocalypse Speciality Stitches

It's TUSAL time, the Totally Useless SAL where we all show our ORTS and link-up on Daffycat's blog.

Here is my TUSAL jar with my two main projects of the month:

And here are the glittery ORTs from the Joan Elliott project on the right:

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WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings
Also linking up with 17 in '17

Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World.  I have chosen my "17 in '17" which are the 17 projects I want to focus on this year.  You can see the full list on this page here.

I have done well again this month, thanks to my SALs.  I worked on six different projects.

You can see a glimpse of my Chatelaine in the top photo and here it is in full:

stitched on 32 count Cotton Clouds by Crafty Kitten

You saw my Tipsy Witch from Happy Hallowe'en by Imaginating for the Smalls post:

stitched on 32 count Lime Green Murano

I have completed all the metallic around the inner borders on Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas:

I completed another page on my Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books:

stitched on 28 count afghan

I added the I to my conversion of Lavender & Lace's Enchanted Alphabet:

stitched on 32 count Tiger Lily by Sparklies

And of course I continued to add ten stitches each day to Just Nan's Spring in the Square:

Day 57

Measi always gives us a topic to discuss

February - What is your favourite stitch other than the standard cross stitch? (Bonus points if you provide a how-to link or diagram it on your blog post!)

I am not sure this is my favourite speciality stitch but it certainly looks pretty and I've been enjoying doing them this week:

The Queen's Stitch is used to great effect in the centre of my Gardens of London Chatelaine.  I am using the charted Gloriana silk called Winter Brook.  This silk was donated by Mouse.  It is a very subtle variegated silk and make a lovely effect for this section of the design.

For my bonus points, here's a diagram for how to stitch a Queen's Stitch:

And an awesome giant diagonal Queen Stitch!

Finally, I have a new blogging project I've been working on.  One of my favourite articles in the now defunct Cross Stitch Collection was their Blogger of the Month.  I have decided to continue to showcase some of my favourite blogs and bloggers with a series of posts called Blogger of the Week.  I have my first victims contributors lined up already and if I have time this week, I will be launching the blog on Friday!  Watch this space for more details and a link too.