TUSAL of Feasts

It's TUSAL time again!  For those of you new to blogging, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button on the right hand bar for more details.

This year I am intending to stitch The Little Stitcher's Twelve Days of Christmas as a monthly project.  Laura has designed twelve charts with a different theme for each one to represent the days of Christmas.  She has invented the different themes herself using her lovely imagination!

This week I have stitched The Day of Feasts.  Here it is as part of my TUSAL photo:

Can you see the big blob of white from the Noel Blanc frogs?

Day of Feasts.

Now I would usually post something on the Theme of the Day but I'm not a great cook or a fan of recipes and so on.  I thought instead we would have a Feast for your Eyes, much more suitable for a stitching blog.

A Feast of Stitching Prizes

I mailed three giveaway prizes this month, two for the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop and one for my 5000th commenter.  I had two designs I wanted to stitch for Easter, both of which I received from fellow bloggers.  The first to be finished was Twisted Threads Itty Bitty Easter Bunny.  I stitched this over 1 on 25 count yellow fabric and made it into a little bag into which I popped a chocolate bunny and a skein of the Jodyri thread I used in the design.  This went to Michelle of Michelle's StitchCraft Place

The second design was Sheepish Designs Easter Wabbit which I stitched on 18count pink evenweave and made into another bag with another chocolate bunny and another skein of Jodyri thread, again the one I used in the design.  In each parcel I sent the actual chart that I stitched for the other person.  This one went to Jan of Thread Garden:

Back in February Gwen of Guava Gems left the 5000th comment on my blog.  I wanted to send something suitable so I read through her blog and saw she was taking part in the Snooty Parrots SAL.  I had this little parrot bookmark in my stash, a cover kit from Cross Stitcher magazine.  I used their colours but changed the parrots around a little to make them more colourful.  In the parcel I included a piece of this fabric, I couldn't find any with parrots on but this is very colourful.  I also included a skein of Jodyri's Over The Rainbow thread which includes the same colours as the parrots and a Lucie Heaton booklet of Summer Stitching.

Close up of the bookmark, I used the leftover threads to make the tassel:

And my karmic reward for sending out three giveaways?  One in return!  I've been following Annette the California Stitcher for a while and through her blog I found Lee from Notes from Under the Mountain.  I became a follower and left some comments.  The next thing I know, Lee has chosen me to receive a gift in her Fifth Anniversary Giveaway!!

A lovely band sampler chart by Eileen Bennett, some postcards and information about Hobbiton, Lee lives in New Zealand where the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films were filmed.  The Large Boy was very interested in these.  And a giant sweetie:

Inside the giant sweetie was this:

A tiny strawberry!

Look at the detail in this strawberry, all those beads, the coin is a 1p for scale (about the same size as a cent)

Lee gives some great instructions on how to make one of these for yourself on her other blog Other Side of the Mountain. 

As I mentioned Lee lives in New Zealand so when she asked for my address I was quite apologetic and said I am in England (postage being what it is) and gave the village and nearest town.  To both our surprise, Lee knows the area because her Great Grandfather grew up around here!  Just a few miles down the road.  She asked me about a place she'd had problems finding and I was able to send her some links and some information.  How much of a co-incidence is that?

Finally, if you have already signed up for the Summer Postcard Blog Hop don't forget to send your photos in as soon as possible.  And if you haven't signed up then please do so!

Theme-a-licious March Update

Theme-a-licious is hosted by Heather of It's Geek to Me

Each month Heather thinks up a theme for us to stitch to, or in my case, a theme to somehow shoe-horn my existing stitching into, no matter how tenuous the link! 

March Madness

Work on something different every day...it's madness...of the funnest possible kind.

Regular followers will know that I don't do the daily rotations some people love but I do try to stitch a variety of designs in March.  Back in 2012 I stitched 12 different designers, last year I managed 13 so this year I thought - let's go for 14 different projects.  I didn't want to do 14 different designers because that would mess up the Just Nan SAL!

Here are the 14 in the order started:

1. Measi's RR, Bands from Just Nan Needlestory

2. Somebunny to Love - Bathtime Bunny

3. A Mon Ami Pierre - Noel Blanc

4. Primitive Hare - Spooky Countdown, Block 5,6,7,8 and 9

5. Brooke's Books Belinda the Bat Witch/Vampire now mounted in an Italian scene from an old calendar

6. Snowflower Diaries - Spring Witch, also mounted in a calendar page.

7. Secret Project for a friend

8. Just Nan - Winter Typography

9. Another secret project!

10. Twisted Thread - Easter Bunny

(left over project from last year!)

11. The Little Stitcher - 12 Days of Christmas, Day of Warmth

12. Rachel's RR, Bands from Just Nan Cynthia's Sampler and Sweet Rememberance

13. Jannlynn - Gathering Honey

(project for a friend, stitched most of the green)

14. Prairie Moon - Thine is the Trick and the Treat

(I stitched those two little hands in the bottom right)

Phew!  That's a lot of stitching!  Next month will be tricker, SoCal Debbie suggested the theme April Showers so we have to think of designs with water in them.  Or maybe a nice Anti-theme piece with a desert!

Finally, I am still taking sign-ups for the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop.  Click on the bunny on the right-hand side for more information.  He's a Just Nan design, Dewdrop Bunny.  Please feel free to borrow him and use as a link to promote the Blog Hop.

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop

Welcome to the 2013 Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop.

All you have to do is visit each of these blogs in order, note down the letter above the Easter / Spring themed pic and remember the short phrase they make up.  Come back here after the last letter and leave a comment saying what the phrase is.  I will select one person at random to win a small stitched prize.  I will also randomly select one of the Picture Posters to win a stitched prize too.

The trail starts here with:

D

and then goes onto:

Stitching Lotus

A Stitcher's Story

Cabbages and Kings

Needles, Pins and Dragonflies

Stitch by Stitch

Tales of a Stitching Mouse

The Alchymyst's Study

Such is Life

Suz Made Me Do It

Just a Little Stitchin'

Today I Found...

Guava Gems

Kitten Stitching

Dragon Stitches and Stuff by Astrid

Kearnel's Korner

Comment moderation has been turned on for the duration of this competition which closes on the 8th April, my Blogaversary and also the Birthday of at least two of my favourite Followers!

And here's the story behind the Bunny picture above:

Once upon a time there was a blog that held an Easter Treasure Hunt Blog in the Olden Days of 2012.  Two winners were chosen and one received a lovely prize in due course.  The other did not!  I finally stitched the chart I had chosen for Christine and made it into a cute little pocket.  (Anything to avoid sewing four corners of a pillow!).  I bught a selection of Easter choccies and therein found the second problem shown below:

How do you fit a quart into a pint pot?

Fortunately, the Large Boy was on hand to solve the problem - eat them!

Sorry Christine, I hope your girls have left you some of the survivors!

The design is a freebie from Chatelaine Designs, Yes I have finally stitched my first Chatelaine!  Not quite one of the Mandalas but a good start nevertheless.

Finally, have a Great Easter break, enjoy the competition and Good Luck to you all.