May Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I will be showing both my Hallowe'en and Christmas SAL partworks as well as any actual smalls I stitch.

Happy Hallowe'en by Imaginating gained a black cat:

And Witches by Oberlin Samplers gained a non-black cat:

Five Goooooolllllllllddddddddddd Rings for 12 Days of Christmas!

Here's the whole piece at the moment:

And this is literally how little metallic I have left to stitch:

I've been making steady progress on my Ten-a-Day project, Just Nan's Spring in the Square:

Day 147 - 1,470 stitches

As well as the humorously titled Ten-a-Day I am also doing a Thirty-a-Day for Linda's So Many Stitches.  I am stitching a series of the Just Nan freebies as ornaments for this challenge.  Here is the third one so far; Christmas Hearts:

Day 14 - stitched on 32 count antique white evenweave

The iPad takes rubbish photos and you have the light coming in from the left changing the fabric colour, but it's quicker and easier than getting the camera out every morning!

I have been very disciplined and finally-finished both of the ornies as I went.  Here's number 2; Christmas Star:

stitched on 32 count Twilight Blue linen

backed with plain blue felt

Beads!

I changed the metallic and beads to silver and crystal for this project instead of the charted gold.  I think they look more elegant on the blue fabric.  The fabric is the very stiff Wichelt linen which isn't so nice to stitch on but does make it really easy to ornamentify.  You just fold it along a thread and it stays folded!

Finally, I posted another Blogger of the Week, a newer-to-me stitcher this week.  Remember, the blog isn't just for me and my Old Pals network - if you're new to stitching or blogging please do ask to be featured.  I love meeting new friends.

April Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I will be showing both my Hallowe'en and Christmas SAL partworks as well as any actual smalls I stitch.

I stitched the N for Happy Hallowe'en by Imaginating for the Winged Creatures theme:

Stitched on 32 count Lime Green Murano

Here's how the whole piece looks now:

For the Christmas SAL I completed Four Calling Birds from Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas:

I finish-finished two Easter designs, one for my scrapbook and one as a cube:

A start and finish in just four days:

Spot of Spring by Drawn Thread

I've been trying to finally-finish some of my smalls and was pleased to get this one done the very day after I completed the stitching:

Just Nan Christmas Rose

stitched on 32 count Antique White evenweave

stitched as charted except for the small hearts,

I substituted satin stitches for the beads.

Finished as an ornie:

The reverse:

This was one of my 23 Just Nan starts for March Madness.  I stitched for one day on each design and then on the 1st April I picked up the first one and stitched 30 stitches per day until I finished it.  Once I completed all the plain cross stitching I stopped counting and did the satin stitches and beads in one day and then I finished it as an ornie the next.  The following day I picked up design number 2 which is Christmas Star.  I will continue to stitch 30 a day until this one is done too.  I chose 30 because that will enable me to average one finish per month.  Here is Christmas Star after 6 days of stitching:

stitched on 32 count Twilight Blue Permin linen

Finally, it's Friday so there's a  new Blogger of the Week, follow the link to find out who the featured stitcher is this week - 

Blogger of the Week

April's TUSAL is Brought to You by the Letter

K!

The K is from my spooky conversion of Lavender & Lace's Enchanted Alphabet.  I'm stitching it all in DMC 310 on 32 count Tiger Lily Murano from Sparklies.  I won't be stitching the flouncy girl or the rabbit but will be adding lots of bats, pumpkins, spiders and other spookiness.

It's TUSAL time, the Totally Useless SAL where we all show our ORTS and link-up on Daffycat's blog.

Here is my TUSAL jar with two of my current projects:

On the left is Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas and here's the part I have just finished; the top border.  I needed a break from all that metallic!

The other project has been my focus piece for the month; Gathering Honey by Jannlynn Designs:

I am a little bit disappointed that I didn't quite finish the bees, I had to work a full day this week which left no time for stitching the backstitch!

Here's my latest progress on my Ten-a-Day project.  This is Day 116 on Just Nan's Spring in the Square:

And here's a new Thirty-a-Day project; another Just Nan freebie, Christmas Star:

Day 4

Which of course means I must have finished the previous Thirty-a-Day project!  I think I'll save that for the Smalls SAL post on Friday.  Give you something to look forward to.

Now here's a pleasant task - drawing the winner for the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop.  Each picture poster got one entry and each phrase-guesser got one entry too.  I used the Random Number Generator to pick a winner and the name out of the RNG was:

Mary from Le Coeur Celtique

Congratulations to Mary!  I shall be looking around your blog to decide what to send you as a suitable prize.

The Mystery Phrase was guessed by everyone this year - The Earth Laughs in Flowers - a phrase from a poem entitled Hamatreya by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  For those of you unfamiliar with the poem, here's a link to the full version - Poetry Foundation - and here's a link to a blog post talking about the meaning behind the poem which is rather interesting - Karen Joslin.

My initial thought for a suitable prize was a chart with the saying on it.  So I Googled the phrase and guess what came up?

Heartstring Samplery - freebie

Yes, a free chart, so a prize for everyone who entered!  Just click on the link above to download the chart.  I have deliberately made that picture small so you go and visit the source.

In addition to being entered into my Easter draw, all the participants got additional entries into my Blogaversary draw (if they followed the instructions on that post).  That draw is still open, until the end of the month so you've got time to enter if you haven't already.  Just visit my Blogaversary post and follow the instructions.

Finally, the Blogger of the Week blog is doing so well.  I just love reading all the answers and looking at the beautiful stitching.  If you would like to be featured, please send me an email.  If you know someone who is too shy to volunteer themselves, then send me their email or blog address!