The Zenith of the Zany and Zealous Alphabet Zoo

It's the first Saturday of the month so it's time for detention!

"They only met online, but it changed their lives forever"

This is it, the final Alphabet Club post for me!  The idea for the Alphabet Club first came about when Chiara and I were chatting over two years ago.  We have been joined by various bloggers each month, although Chiara herself is taking a little break from blogging.  Because of this, I've added the linky for the final month here.  Whatever letter you are doing in September, please link up here so people can come and check out your progress.

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As usual the first piece I will show is from A Dark Alphabet by A Note of Friendship.  This was a partwork mystery sampler which Julie (the designer) and I raced each other to finish!  We have Zombees for Z.  Julie explains why in this post - A Note of Friendship

For those of you who would like to see the entire piece in more detail, you can check out my Danse Macabre post.

The next project I always show is my Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books.  This month we have a brightly coloured Z for Zigzag:

Here's the final page:

and here is the whole piece laid out on the floor!

The plan is to stitch a title in the gap on page one, next to A and then sew the tops and bottoms of each page together to make a soft book.  I'll make sure I post photos when it's completed.

Z is for also for Zebra, here's a tiny one from an Alphabet Sampler I stitched:

And a pair from Joan Elliott's Noah's Ark:

Z is also for Zombie, as well as Zombees!  Here is a cute Zombie Kitty designed by Carand88.  I stitched two of these for friends who were organising a Horror Festival.

I don't have anything from a designer beginning with Z but there is one big name in the stitching world - Zweigart!   The people who make the fabric, as ubiquitous as DMC in the stitching world.  Zweigart are celebrating their 140th anniversary this year.  They are popular because of the range of fabrics they produce, in a rainbow of colours, the quality of the products and their famous "orange" line trademark in the selvage.  If it isn't orange, it isn't Zweigart!  They also produce chart books and have a blog with some great ideas for how to use their products.
Both the website and the blog have a Translate button on the rop right if you don't speak German.

It's a good thing that Zweigart have a blog, because there are no other Z blogs in my Reader at all.

Which brings us to the final topic, an answer to the question everyone has been asking as we approached the end of the Alphabet -

Q: What are you going to do next?

A: It begins with Z and here are some examples:

Lesley Teare

Stitch Land

Joan Elliott

Three from Maria Diaz:

From SewandSo:

Lesley Teare

Orchidea

Soda Stitch 1 and 2

My personal favourite from Satsuma Street, being released one per month:

But this is the design I am going to be starting this month while I wait for Satsuma Street to release Virgo and Libra!  

They come from this book which I picked up very cheaply from Waterstones Marketplace.  A really good place to find older, out of print books at very low prices.

So there you have it, the plan for the next 12 months is to Stitch the Zodiac.  I will continue to post the first Saturday of each month and add a Linky which will last all month for you to join in.

You can choose a design like I have with small versions of each sign, or a larger design like the Joan Elliott and Lesley Teare, or just the individual signs for you and your family.  But here's the really good part - you don't even need to stitch a Zodiac design to join in.

I'll be starting with Libra for my first post; Libra is an Air sign represented by the Scales.  So you could share something related to Air, or balance, justice, weight, anything that says "scales" to you.  You could even shoe-horn a mermaid or fish in there!  You can look up the birthstone or flower for Libra and show that.  You can show a current piece, a WIP or an older finish.  If you have a Libran in your family you could show something that relates to them.

Finally, I'll be posting the first Linky on Saturday 7th October, which serendipitously is my Grandad's Birthday!  The first in a long line of Librans in my family.  Please join in, it's always more fun stitching with friends!  You don't have to post on the 7th, but that is where you'll find the Linky for the whole month.

You can read all the previous Alphabet Clubs posts by clicking the relevant letter here:

Amazing

Brilliant 

Cheerful 

Delightful 

Elegant

Fabulous 

Gorgeous

Happy 

Imaginative 

Joyeous

Keen 

Lovely 

Marvellous 

Nice 

Opulent

Perfect 

Quintessential

Remarkable 

Sensational 

Terrific

Uplifting 

Valued 

Wonderful 

eXciting 

Yummy