The Vastly Valued and Valiant Alphabet Venture

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.

Do you do voodoo?  There are times when we all want to stick pins in an effigy of some politician or other!  Cross stitch is for when you want to stab something 10,000 times.  Without getting arrested.

(Side note - Getting arrested seems to be a theme with bloggers just recently.  First of all Gaynor was arrested in January, then Jeremiah was charged with chicken rustling and even sweet little Nathan spent some time behind bars.  Thankfully they were all found innocent and released without charge!  Other than a great photo opportunity.)

Anyway, the voodoo block is from A Dark Alphabet by A Note of Friendship.

V is also for Variegated Thread, Valentines and Violets, all of which feature in this month's block from Brooke's Books' Stitcher's Alphabet.

stitched on 28 count afghan 

I already showed my collection of Valentine Hearts for H and we have the Valentine's Blog Hop each year too.

Here's a collage of Valentines from my Secret Stitching Sweethearts this year:

Variegated threads are wonderful to use.  They are a great way of adding texture to a plain block of stitching if you use a tonal thread or you can add multicolours without changing thread every 10 stitches.  I used variegated threads quite a lot in A Dark Alphabet, Kelpie being particularly effective:

I also used them in CCN's Cherry Hill to produce a variety of greens:

They work well for lettering and borders too.

I have only completed one design for V, the Victorian Doll's House in 2010:

For designers I have a trio of spooky finishes from Val's Stuff:

This sweet freebie from Vavi

I also have three samplers from Victoria Sampler in my stash which I do hope to add to the rotation one day.

My blog roll is very slim again but luckily Veronica blogged recently:

Veronica's Vault of Creativity

Finally I have been asked what will happen when we reach Z?  Do not panic, for I have a cunning plan!  I won't be starting again at A just yet but I do have plans for another series of posts and will announce all in the final Alphabet Club Z post.