A blog trying to focus on all the nice things in life, those moments when everything turns out right. Finding the perfect fabric for that chart you love, the ideal sampler quote, just the right picture in all the 1000s of magazines you own. Meeting people who share your interests and obsessions and totally understand why you NEED that chart when you already have enough to last until you're 104
I am very excited to be able to show you this FFO. So excited I didn't even want to wait until 10th July and Rachel's FFO Gallery!
I started this way back in August 2015 as part of The Alphabet Club. For 26 months I stitched one block per month and then planned to finish it into a cloth book.
I stitched it on an afghan fabric which I cut into a long thin piece.
Here are the individual pages of the book:
I actually finished the stitching in September 2017 and there it sat until this year when I decided to add it to my WIPocalypse and actually fully finish the thing.
The first thing I did was add a title - My Alphabet Book, a bar code and an ISBN to the back:
And, yes, that is a real ISBN. Look it up and see why it is appropriate.
The barcode also matches that book as close as I could make it.
Then came the tricky part, sewing it together. What I did was fold over the top edge along the thicker woven part and whipstitched the top of the first page to the top of the page with D,E,F and G. Then whipstitched the page with H,I,J and K to L,M,N and O. and so on.
Then I turned it over and did the same with the bottom of the book pages.
Then I cut four pieces of thin card to size and slipped one inside each page, the openings are at the spine end of the book. Finally I took the two half pages from the beginning and end of the alphabet and whip stitched them to the page with X,Y and Z. The orange selvedge marker makes a nice line down the centre of the back of the book.
I took some video footage to show you.
This one shows a little bit more of how the book is constructed:
If you want to stitch the Alphabet yourself, the charts can all be found for free on Brooke's website here - Brooke's Books Freebies
Finally, the Summer Blog Hop. Anyone want to do a Summer Blog Hop this year? I thought we could do a Know Your Blogging Friends Hop. I allocate you the name of a fellow blogger and you make a post about them, showing something you think they would like to stitch. Could be something you have stitched or something you found online you think they would like to stitch.
So, for example, if you got me as your Blogging Friend you would write a post about my Blog Hops and show a dragon design (or 2!).
To take part, leave a comment here. I'll take sign-ups through to the 28th July and then allocate names with the posts going up on 8th August (It was my Nana's Birthday).
Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World.
Since 2011 I have chosen a number of projects to focus on that year, starting with my "11 in '11" and increasing to "20 in '20" for this year. This month I stitched on 7 of them and had a finish too.
Lyndisfarne - Discworld Map
(Project 5)
Just Nan - Christmas Friends
(Project 8 and a Finish)
JBW - 12 Days of Christmas
(Project 9)
Hands on Design - Bat Balm
(Project 13)
Just Nan - Winter in the Square
(Project 16)
Amanda Butler - Alice in Wonderland SAL in Cross Stitcher magazine
(Project 17)
I set my rotation up this year to work on the 12 Days of Christmas and the Scary Apothecary first each month. Then do at least 14 days on the Discworld Mappe. After that I loaded a Tiny Decisions wheel with the 7 projects which don't have a set place in the rotation. I spun it and it chose Brooke's Books' Stitcher's Alphabet. Long-term followers will be thinking "Didn't you finish that a couple of years ago?" Yes, I did, back in September 2017. But I never fully-finished it and I have wanted to design and stitch a title page and add a barcode to the back before I make it onto a soft book. I realised this is never going to happen unless I put it into my "20 in '20" and so here it is.
I charted up the words My Alphabet Book on graph paper and decided to use a variegated thread that featured the colours in the first three blocks. I did not see the name of the thread until after I had chosen it. Most serendipitous!
My next task will be to add a barcode and ISBN to the reverse and sew the thing together.
Measi always gives us a topic to discuss:
January - What SALs are you participating in this year?
Apart from WIPocalypse, my other SALs are
The People's Choice - posts on the first Saturday of each month - theme in sidebar
Fully Finished Gallery - post anything fully finished on the 10th of each month
Gifted Gorgeousness - post anything gifted on the 15th
Christmas Ornie Blog - a different festive theme each month
Smalls SAL - last Friday of each month
The TUSAL - post on the New Moon each month
Alice in Wonderland is a Mystery SAL with a new block in the magazine each month. I have signed up for the Stitchonomy Year of Mystery SALs although I might not stitch all of them. Leonore and I have also been talking about a Just Nan SAL for the Summer Holiday as that worked well for me last year.
Finally, I will be continuing with the ever popular Blog Hops this year. We will have Valentine's, Easter, the Summer Postcard, Hallowe'en and the Advent Calendar. All at the appropriate time of the year. I am collecting name for the Secret Stitching Sweethearts for Valentine's Day right now. Just leave a comment or send me an email.
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 -
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:
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.
I am very proud of the Y from the Dark Alphabet this month as I suggested this subject to Julie and Becky.
Y is for Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of Life. There is some lovely artwork on the Note of Friendship blog for this letter. It was one of my favourite blocks to stitch.
Y is also for Yarn as Brooke's Books show in this month's Stitcher's Alphabet:
I love this cat with all the yarn balls hanging off her as she plays with them. To me, she looks like she is sitting in a martini glass having had one too many martinis and got into a muddle!
Y is not a terribly popular letter for stitching designs but I have You Were Hatched by Teresa Wentzler:
And this WIP from Yiotas:
Coffee Fairy
A nice Yellow Daffodil from World of Cross Stitching magazine:
And some more Spring Yellowness from Lizzie*Kate and the Snowflower Diaries.
And a nice little Yacht from Cross Stitcher magazine:
Over in my Blog Roll we have my dear friend Susan, who has been a little quiet of late:
And that's about it! The more literate among you may have spotted that Y is the penultimate letter of the alphabet and the Club will be finishing next month with a Zoo full of Zebras (probably). But never fear, I have devised a new theme for everyone to join in with and it is most appropriate that it will be launched next month. No more clues, you'll have to wait and zee.
Finally, I was contacted by the lovely Emma from the delightfully named DripDropPolkaDot on Etsy. She's a new designer and has started with a range of little "Weeble" People. She's offering followers of my blog a 20% discount if you use the code "SEREN20" between now and the 20th August. Here are my two favourites from her designs:
