The Sensationally Super Alphabet Society

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.

S is for Skeleton from The Dark Alphabet by A Note of Friendship Blog.  The charts are no longer available on the blog, but contact Julie or Becky via their emails and ask if you are interested in stitching this project.

S is for Sampler, this month's block in The Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books:

stitched on 28 count afghan

Here is the page I have just completed.  I plan to make a soft book out of these when I finally finish the stitching.

So, Sampler, I love Samplers!  Modern ones, reproduction ones, large ones, tiny ones. I just love them.  In fact the first project I ever cross stitched was a mini sampler:

14 count aida, stitched in 1993

I won't attempt to show every sampler I have stitched, that's what The Happy Dance blog is for.  But here is a collage of my older finishes, these were all completed in my pre-blog days prior to 2011:

S is for Speciality Stitches.  Apparently Americans say "specialty" instead of "speciality", another example of the missing vowels to go along with all the missing letters "u" in words.  This little sampler is one of my favourites for speciality stitches, there are 14 different stitches in a piece 3 x 2 inches in size:

Love by Drawn Thread

There are plenty of designers beginning with S to choose from too.  I counted 16 on my Happy Dance blog!  Three of my favourites are Satsuma Street, Shepherd's Bush and The Sweetheart Tree, so here's one design from each:

Pretty Little London by Satsuma Street

Bilberry by Shepherd's Bush

Tudor Rose by The Sweetheart Tree

S is for SALs, you can see the full list on my WIPocalypse post or you can click on the icons in my sidebar to visit the hosts.  SALs are a great way to keep you on track with your stitching and your blogging.  They are also a good way to connect with other stitchers and feel part of our community.  There's nothing like knowing that people all over the world are thinking "there's a new moon, time to show the world my ORTS" at the same time as you are!

Now the really hard bit - the Blog Roll.  There are so many S blogs it would be impossible to list them all!  Again, I have a list of blogs I follow in my sidebar if you want to check them out but here are a few who comment regularly and I have followed the longest.

A Stitcher's Story

Stitch Niche

Stitching with my Furbabies

Stitching Lotus

Stitch Bitch

Sarah in Stitches

Sewing After Seven

Stitchers Anon

Stitchyangel's Treasures

and lastly, because she's pretty much the only S blogger without the word "stitch" or "sew" in her title:

Shebafudge

Finally, a whole slew of S's - Secret Stitching Sweetheart!  The next blog hop I am hosting is for Valentine's Day.  All you have to do is send me a photo of something you have stitched which is suitable to send to a stitching friend.  I will send the photos to the participants who will post on their blogs and then we hop around to find out who sent which photo.  I need the photos by Friday 10th February please to give me time to sort them out.