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Monday 26 February 2018

Let's Go Round Again

AKA the new phase of the rotation starts on the 26th of each month.

Why the 26th?  Because there are 26 letters in the alphabet and I'm stitching an Enchanted Alphabet conversion.  The original design is by Lavender & Lace and features some beautiful coloured letters and the frilliest child in the entire world.

My conversion features black and lots of it!  Eventually there will be more spiders, bats, ghosts and pumpkins but for now it is mainly DMC 310.  This month I added a T:

stitched on 32 count Tiger Lily by Sparklies


The colours are a bit off, the fabric is brighter than that.  Only 6 months to go and I can start on the embellishments!

Because my February rotation has restarted I have put away my Chatelaine.  I was really pleased with the progress I made this month and have almost completed the stitching on the central garden.  The first task next time will be to complete the Dense Rhodes Stitches and then lots of grey pavement. Hopefully I will be able to move on to one of the corner gardens!

This is where I left off last time I stitched on it:


And here is where I am now:

stitched on 32 count Cotton Clouds Belfast by Crafty Kitten

Some close-ups of the speciality stitches and the metallics:


All those gaps are going to be beads!



And just to give you some idea of the scale of this piece, here is the full design!



On the theme of going round, my Temperature SAL is still going round.  It appears that I have not mentioned this before!  I discovered this SAL via Katy who linked to Hetti's Blog XX Stitches in Blue XX.  I have wanted to do a Temperature SAL for a while and I just love this one!  Hetti has designed a mini sampler with each 5 x 5 block representing a different day.  Each month spirals out from the centre of the piece.

She recommends some variegated threads to go with the temperatures but I used a different chart as our daily temperatures do not vary much with the average being between 8 and 20 degrees.  I am using the maximum temperature to choose the colour for each day.

I completed a block and started the first row of the next block. 

stitched on 22 count white hardanger

A new lowest high temperature of only 2 degrees C (35.6 F) and another snow bead.

Blues are the coldest days moving through turquoise into green.  The warmest days are that olive green which will move to yellow, orange and red (if the temperature goes over 25 degrees).  If we don't get above zero on any day I can use purple!  The white beads represent a day when it snowed.

🐇 🐇 🐇 🐇 🐇 🐇 🐇 🐇

Finally, I will be hosting an Easter Blog Hop with a Treasure Hunt for the Mystery Phrase.  Provide your own eggs!  If you would like to take part this year, just leave a comment here.  The week before Easter I will send you a letter of the alphabet which will form part of the mystery phrase.  On Good Friday you will post that letter along with a photo of something seasonal that you have stitched (could be Easter or Spring or just something cheerful and sunny or floral). We all hop around like little bunnies to find the Mystery Phrase!

Here's a link to last year's hop so you can see how it all works - Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2017

The Easter Hop is the second peak of our Five Hops Challenge.  Everyone who joins in with all five hops this year (either as a participant or as a commenter) will be entered into the Five Hops draw at the end of the year.


18 comments:

diamondc said...

Hi Jo: Your Enchanted Alphabet is beautiful, I am looking forward to seeing it finished.
Your Chatelaine is very pretty.
I have never heard of a Temperature design, I am looking forward to seeing how the colors change with the temperatures.

Blessings
Catherine

Irene said...

l'alfabeto è meraviglioso, anche il colore del lino è bellissimo

Keebles said...

You had me at ghosts! I love that pattern!

Linda said...

I love the colors in your temperature piece Jo. Beautiful stitching on the other two. I would never attempt a Chatelaine. I like plain old x's.

Linda

Beth in IL said...

You are doing a fabulous job on your Alphabet. I was going to do a temperature piece this year, but haven't started yet. The best laid plans...

Mia said...

Wow, Jo. You are such a busy lady!!!!!!!!! I love your beautiful creations and the full design looks gorgeous!!!!! Kisses, my friend.

Rachel said...

Nice to see the full size Chatelaine for comparison; good job you're not intimidated by how far you have to go! Guess we'll be seeing more beads on your temperate chart for this week too. :)

deb said...

Had no idea your Chatelaine piece would be so big!!! Thanks for the close pictures of your progress - it's just beautiful. Temperature SAL looks like fun.

RJ said...

Oh my Jo that is some stitch. It is enchanting indeed. It is going to be gorgeous! RJ@stitchingfriendsforever

Barb said...

Your Enchanted Alphabet is wonderful. What fun it will be to add all the Halloween elements!

Clare-Aimetu said...

Your Halloween piece is lovely, so effective. The temperature SAL sounds good- there are so many SALs I wish I had more time... and I'm retired !

Christine said...

Snigger. "Frilliest child in the entire world" I like yoyr version much better.
I like the idea of the temperature sampler

Mary - Lecoeurceltique said...

Looking forward to seeing the embellishments on your L&L. They should be interesting. Great progress on your Chatelaine.

Rhona said...

I LOVE your Halloween sampler....it looks wonderful.
I love your temperature SAL, I haven't seen a cross stitch one before. There are many crochet blankets done the same way and they look fabulous. Looking forward too seeing more of this design.

Julie said...

Your chatelaine is coming along nicely.
The temperature SAL is very interesting.

Katie said...

I love your idea of changing the L&L alphabet to a Halloween themed one. So much fun! Your Chatelaine is just gorgeous indeed. Good luck with your temperature SAL.

Brigitte said...

The Chatelaine you chose is just gorgeous and you seem to enjoy stitching on it a lot. It's a pity that I didn't have fun with mine and so abandoned it.
I'm nearly regretting it that I didn't join the temperature SAL Since last Sunday it would have been interesting to see the colours as we have been having icy days and nights down to -20°C (- 4°F). I long for spring ...

Leonore Winterer said...

Great progress on Gardens of Londons - with the sheer size of that project, we are likely to meet with it again for a few years! Enchanted Alphabet looks great as well. I can't believe you're almost done with that, just a few more letters to go!
Your temperature stitch is awesome. Maybe I'll put in on the list for next year, I've been meaning to do one of those for a while :)