April IHSW

IHSW or International Hermit and Stitch Weekend always starts on the third Friday of the month.  It's a chance to lock yourself away and focus on your stitching for the weekend.  You can take part on your blog or via the Facebook page.  Links at the bottom of this post.

It's great when IHSW co-incides with a double Bank Holiday Weekend AND you don't have to work at all.  So I got plenty done on all four days this month.

My main focus was my Discworld Mappe.  Here is where I started on Friday:

 

I had already stitched a length of brown when I realised I hadn't taken a starting photo.

Here's where I finished today:

We now have a fish and the whole of the Counterweight Continent done except for the backstitch.

The Counterweight Continent - according to L-Space

The entire continent is governed by the Agatean Empire, whose capital city is Hunghung.

Geographers and philosophers had long inferred the existence of such a continent, as in order to make the Discworld "work" , it was taken as given that there must be a more-or-less equal weight on the shoulders of all four elephants. Otherwise things would get distinctly unbalanced and the floor might start to tilt underfoot, with unforeseeable and possibly dire consequences. (This prospect also engages the minds of the Balancing Monks, who travel around the Discworld leaving judiciously located small weights behind them wherever they travel, so as to keep things in balance).
Source: L-Space


Great excitement as I also had a new start this weekend.  Last year I was stitching-along with Linda on Mrs Peggotty's Alice and the Flamingo.  Linda was very keen to stitch another design this year and we chose The Queen of Hearts.  She will be my "bath-time" project for the rest of the year.  For new followers, this is NOT a project I stitch in the bath, but one I stitch while my son is in the bath and I watch him to ensure neither he nor the bathroom drown.

When I printed out the chart for the Queen, it became obvious she is smaller than Alice.  Which seems strange.  So, in order for them to appear more similar I have chosen to stitch her on 22 count hardanger rather than 25 count evenweave.

Here is my progress so far:

stitched on 22 count hardanger

A few people have said that they don't do Facebook and asked if I could host a link-up for them, so here it is! Just add your name and the link to your actual IHSW post, not just your blog home page.

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The next IHSW will be 17th - 19th May so make sure you note the date in your diary or come and join us in the Facebook Group - IHSW on Facebook. If you don't do Facebook then you can check in here.


Finally, thank you to everyone who took part in the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop and everyone who has hopped around to visit the blog and guess the mystery phrase.  All the links go direct to the posts now so you have plenty of time to try and guess the phrase.  Happy Hopping!