Theme-a-licious Looking Backward & Forward VIII Plus WIPocalypse August Number 2

Here's the round-up for the progress since the last Full Moon.

Part 1 - My 12 in '12

1. Dark Alphabet SAL - all completed this year
2. Joan Elliott's Green Goddess - not stitched for some time
3. Gift of Stitching My Lovely Sewing Tools SAL - not stitched for some time
4. Home of a Needleworker (PIF from Nicola) - started this month, great progress
5. Blackbird Designs (came with Madame Muriel from Margaret) - completed last month
6. Ed Hardy - Skull & Roses (for a friend) - not started
7. Wedding Sampler (for a friend) - completed this month
8. Baby Sampler (for a friend) - completed
9. Baby Sampler (for my cousin) - completed
10. Yiotas Coffee Fairy -  not stitched for some time
11. Papillon Around the World in 80 Stitches - Parts 1 to 3 completed.  Part 4 well on its way to completion.
12. Nora Corbett Trick or Treat Fairy - not started.

So here are the photos of this month's successes:

A roof appears!

Part 3 completed, Part 4 all done except the metallic

These were delivered to the Bride today, she loved them!

Now I have an empty nail in my conservatory.

 .

Part 2 - Just Nan-a-thon

Not so good, in fact nothing again!  Although I have bought some more charts...


Part 3 - Theme-a-licious
 
The theme for this month was Altius August - Embrace the Olympic motto--Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger)--by elevating your mind. It's the perfect time to learn something new! Or maybe achieve some goals...
I thought I'd follow Heather's example and set myself some targets and award myself Bronze, Silver and Gold medals for how many I complete.  Here are the August targets, in five categories, one for each ring:

Blue Ring
Band Sampler Round Robin - Finish the current piece and also the one due to arrive next week - Finished the first, started the second -  Bronze Medal
Blue Ribbon Designs - stitch the snowman ornie and scrapbook the two together - not at all.

Yellow Ring
Joan Elliott Round Robin - Finish the current piece -  Finished -  Bronze Medal
Birthday cards - stitch two cards for lucky August ladies - 
Finished one - Silver Medal
Finished two - Gold Medal


Black Ring
Giveaways - stitch at least one of the two outstanding prizes - Finished one - Bronze Medal
Needlecraft Haven - stitch the August freebie  Finished - Silver Medal

Green Ring
Papillon Around the World - stitch at least the outlines for Parts 3 and 4, complete Parts 1 and 2 including the metallics. -
Part 1 complete - Bronze Medal
Part 2 complete - Silver Medal
Part 3 complete - Gold Medal

Red Ring
Just-Nan-a-thon - stitch at least one design - not yet
12 in '12 - keep up the good progress and either start or finish another one of my 12.  NB this does not include the BBD as it is nearly done even as I type - 
Started LHN - Home of a Needleworker - Bronze Medal
Finished Every Time Hearts - Silver Medal

So that's a total of five Bronze medals, four Silver Medals and two Gold Medals.  According to the table of medals, that means I am Kenya.  Please feel free to sing the Kenyan National Anthem and salute "our" flag.

I won't attach photos of all the "athletes" this time, they are all featured somewhere in the previous eight posts so have a look back.

Looking forward to September - September Smalls

We all love gadgets, and none better than the teensy tools and holders we make ourselves. Let's stitch some smalls--needlebooks, fobs, biscornus, scissors keeps, pincushions--or knit some teensy things--amigurumi, jewelry, sachets....

Hmmm, not so sure about all the finishing skills needed for that lot.  I think I'll stitch to stitching smalls for my scrapbook.

Finally, I will be emailing the last postcards in the Summer Postcard Blog Hop out later.  A Big Thank You to everyone who took part.  Watch out for the Hallowe'en Hop in October!

Triple Hearts, Round Robin and Papillon Progress

First up, my Triple Hearts finish:

Heart 1:

Heart 2:

Heart 3:

All three together:

These hearts came from the lovely Every Time Hearts chart Minnie sent me for being her 50th follower.  I chose 2 of the hearts and stitched them as charted but using only the pinks and purples provided.  Then I picked a 3rd heart and stitched the outline adding the names and date to the middle.  I also used silver metallic for the dots rather than gold and added a few more than charted!

All three were stitched on 40count Newcastle using 1 thread over 2 and framed in this perfect white distressed metal triple frame from QD!!  They are currently hung on my conservatory wall until I know when I'm seeing the newly-weds next.

Next up is the latest instalment in the Band Sampler Round Robin, Laura's Celtic piece.  Laura rather over-estimated the amount one can stitch in a round and made her sampler 190 stitches wide!  Angi did a sterling job and managed the entire width with some gorgeous Celtic lettering in the middle.  It was then decided that I would baste two columns of 90 stitches and the remainder of us would just stitch one half or the other.  My piece is a another Northern Expressions Needlework design, Celtic Leaves.

And here is the whole piece so far:

I changed all the colours to co-ordinate with the green theme started by Laura and Angi.  Nicole's charts are really great to stitch from, nice, large and clear.  There are good clear instructions for the speciality stitches all written in a friendly chatty style which makes you feel like a friend is teaching you to stitch!  If you look at the Designs page on her blog there is alot of background information about the design process and inspiration for each chart.  Fascinating stuff.

And finally, here is my "cheat" to feel like I'm keeping up with Papillon's Around the World in 80 Stitches SAL.  I'm just stitching the outlines of each part LOL.  My cunning plan is to stitch the outline as soon it is released then do the filling in as and when I get time.  That way I can avoid the annoying "two stitches in one colour and nothing else" thing which is so time consuming.  If I do all the backstitch vines in each part then I can do all of each colour across several parts in one sitting.  That's my plan anyway!

Progress at 3rd August 2012

A Heartfelt Start

I've been waiting to start this one until I had the frame.  Minnie from All XXs sent me the chart and I knew it would be perfect for my friends' Wedding in June.  But I needed the right frame.  I finally found one last week, it's three small frames joined together so I was able to work out what size fabric I needed to fit the apertures.  40 count over 2.  Perfect as I had some white Newcastle in my stash already.

I'm stitching three of the hearts, two as charted and one with an empty centre to put the bride and groom's details in.  Here is my progress so far:

The bottom one isn't offset, it's on a separate piece of fabric!  I'm using the threads Minnie sent but only the purple/pink ones as they match the Wedding Invitation.  There are also some greens but I might use them if I stitch the design for myself.

Finally, the next postcard in the Summer Postcard Blog Hop has been sent on it's merry way across the pond.  This time to Cucki at her Stitching Cove.  Watch out for it appearing on her blog soon.