March TUSAL and Stitching Library

          

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current project:

And here's her beautiful face:

This is the lovely Taurus from Nora Corbett stitched on 32 count Taurus Murano from Sparklies.  I plan to get 7 days stitching on her this month.

What's on my Shelf?

This is a feature I'm going to include on my TUSAL post until I run out of books! I started a Page on my Happy Dance blog for my Stitching Library and realised what a huge task it was so decided to break it down to one book per month. For the next four years...

Title: Needlework Animals

Author: Elizabeth Bradley

Publisher: Ebury Press
ISBN: 9780091807641

This is a big book, nearly 11 x 12 inches

Tucked inside was the original receipt from 1999 showing I paid a mere £4.99 for a book whose RRP was £25.  Bargain!

The projects are all full cross worked on 10 count canvas using Elizabeth Bradley's wools.

This map is huge - 52 x 35 inches!

But look at the details, she shows it with some toy animals and I can imagine a child using this as a playmat

The book is divided into chapters:

and

There are some great quirky designs such as a 36inch carpet python:

As well as more traditional animal portraits:

Wild and domestic:

This is my favourite project, an entire Alphabet in a gorgeous Victorian Picture Book style

She shows a lovely Birthday greeting using the letters:

And includes a set of fun numbers:

The designs are all charted for Elizabeth's own wool brand and there is a conversion to DMC wools at the back.  You'd have to make your own colour choices if you wanted to stitch these using DMC cotton and a standard fabric rather than canvas.

No, I haven't done any of the designs, I bought this book in my "collecting phase" with grand plans pre-children!

🐇 Good Friday - Friday 7th April 🐇

Finally, it's time to sign up for the Annual Easter Treasure Hunt.    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 2021