The Sweetest TUSAL of Them All

is a Happy Dance TUSAL!

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 with the current project:

You see all the yellow on top?  That came from these:

You really can't stitch down to the last mm with French Knots, can you?  So if I'm stitching French Knots that can only mean one thing - 

Waggle Dance!

A Happy Waggle Dance for Gathering Honey by Jannlynn Designs!  This kit was a gift to me from a friend who used to cross stitch.  When she stopped stitching she passed me some of her stash and asked me to stitch this for her in exchange.

I started back in August 2013 - Every-bee-that-ever-wuz

Continued in March 2014 - Theme-licious-march-update

Took it on holiday during August 2014 - RIP-socal-debbie

It fell fallow until August 2016 when I did an entire 2 weeks on it - Summer-pie-and-round-up-of-month

Then it became my focus piece for April 2017 - Aprils-tusal-is-brought-to-you-by-letter

And for May too!

This was not an easy project to stitch, the fabric had a very canvas-like feel to it and was a very open weave.  I will have to go round and trim all the visible ends before framing.  The threads were great, DMC numbers given so hopefully I can use the leftovers.  Of which there are a LOT.  Except for two colours which I ran out of.

The backstitch instructions were not easy to follow.  They insisted on referring to the flowers by name not place on the chart.  The honeycomb was my favourite part, so quick to stitch and so effective!  The crazy paving was fun too.

I finished the French Knots this afternoon and thought I'd stitch something light and easy as a palate cleanser before continuing with my rotation.

stitched on 32 count pink linen

This is Just Nan's Memories which was a gift from Vickie, hence the pink linen!  I stitched the pink flowers today.  Aren't they pretty?  And easy and simple and fun!  This is going to be a long, thin piece with 12 bands so I planned to stitch one band per month but I think it will be done much quicker than that somehow!

Finally, I have nearly reached the end of the metallic on Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas!  I feel like I have been stitching metallic border for months and months.  According the photographic evidence - since January 2017!  So yes literally for months!  I have about 2-3 lengths of metallic left by my reckoning so you'll see it glitter when I show June's block.

Serendipitous Jo and Her Amazing Technicoloured Theme-tas-Stitch Post

Theme-tas-stitch is hosted by Kerry

Each month Kerry gives us a theme to stitch to and we show our progress on the 21st of every month.

Monochrome May - Choose a colour and stitch on your projects that contain that one colour.

As you can probably tell from the title, I failed happily at this theme!  I don't have a single monochrome project to stitch right now.  We almost have a rainbow - we have Red, Gold, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet and Pink (instead of Indigo!)

I stitched on pink on Vickie's gift, Just Nan's Memories:

Some lovely blue eggs in Nora Corbett's Gathering Eggs:

Variegated Violet in Brooke's Books' Stitcher's Alphabet:

Red and Gooooooollllllllldddddddddddddd in Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas:

And plenty of green and yellow for Gathering Honey by Jannlynn Designs:

I completed the whole of the bottom left hand corner and the words, top and bottom.

Despite my best efforts I couldn't quite finish the whole piece.  I have some extra bits to do around the lettering and some stalks to add to those floating strawberries.  And a tonne of French Knots on those two plants that currently look like thistles, plus the centre of the strawberry flowers and the blue periwinkle flowers.

Because it's a very loose weave fabric I will be going round the back and trimming all the visible threads, you can clearly see one behind that bee and there are plenty of others.  That will be the last job I do before framing.

So that's my unmonochrome May.  Thankfully, next month is garden themed so this will be perfect.  Except I will have finished it by then!  So it's a good thing I will still have this project on the go:

Day 141 of my Ten-a-Day project.  Just Nan's Spring in the Square:

Finally, in one month's time we will have reached The Longest Day and the nights will start drawing in!  Time for a stitching marathon.  Last year I stitched on every single one of my WIPs during the longest day, swapping projects every 20-30 minutes.  I stitched on a total of 21 projects that day.  This year I plan to beat that as I currently have 23 WIPs (excluding Gathering Honey which will be completed by then).  I have my work rota for June and I'm not working on Tuesday or Wednesday so Tuesday will be prep day and Wednesday will be Marathon Day!  Anyone care to join in?  If Wednesday isn't convenient, pick any other day that week!

Gifted Gorgeousness May Link-Up Post

Welcome to the May link-up for Gifted Gorgeousness.  The linky will stay open until the end of the month so you have plenty of time to join in.

I made good progress on Oberlin Samplers' Witches, a gift from Barb:

Steady progress on Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas, a gift from my MIL:

A new start with a chart I won from Carol of Stitching Dreams.  This is Nora Corbett's Gathering Eggs:

stitched on 35 count Country Mocha linen

Another new start, another giveaway, this time from Vickie of A Stitcher's Story, Just Nan's Memories band sampler:

stitched on 32 count pink linen (what else for Vickie?)

My focus piece for the month is Gathering Honey by Jannlynn Designs once again.  This was a gift from a friend and the finished piece will be gifted back to her.

I've been focusing on the final corner, the bottom right this week, it seems much quicker than the top left corner was.

I owe a couple of people gifts, people who won giveaways.  Once I get paid this week I will sort those out.  Stitch from Stash is very much a necessity here this year!

I did receive some gifts myself.  The lovely Nora Corbett chart from Carol, a chart from DJ which I had admired on her blog and a great RAK from Angela, all the way from Singapore.

And now it's over to you.  This is where you link up your post for this month.  Please use your name or your blog name in the field and NOT the words "May Update" so I can easily see who has linked up this month.  And link to the actual post, not just your blog.  It is easier if you copy and paste the link, rather than typing freehand.

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Finally, I do hope that you are remembering to visit the Blogger of the Week blog each Friday to see who our featured stitcher of the week is.  Clue for this week - Pink Poodles!

The Mystery is Beeeeees!

That's a quote for a children's cartoon we like and which my son says every time I get out the next project!

I've been stitching this piece for quite some time now and aim to finish it this Summer.  I was given the kit by a friend who had stopped stitching.  She passed me her stash and only requested that I stitch this piece for her.

By the end of 2016 I had completed all the centre and this top left corner:

As someone commented, it's not really obvious why it's called Gathering Honey.  It's more of An English Garden Sampler.

But now the piece looks like this:

The missing ingredient was bees!

I just loved stitching the honeycomb.  It is in 3 strands of cotton rather than 2 so it really stands out.

So far in May I have finished backstitching the bottom left corner bees and started on the leaves in the bottom right.  This corner will be as complex as the top left was.  Lots of backstitch too.

I also have to finish those two bushes in the centre section, there are about 100 French Knots to make the little flowers.

The large empty spaces will have words backstitched which won't take long.

After I finished my SALs this month I decided to support a friend and join her for a new start for Maynia.  CraftyCreativeClare is a FlossTuber who is also a FB friend.  When she showed her list of projects for Maynia I saw that she had a chart which I had just won in a Giveaway.  So the serendipity meant I just had to start that one with her!

It's funny because we didn't consult with each other apart from to say we'd start on Friday, but we both started in the middle although she went up and I went down!  I wanted to have a definite part of it completed.  Also, I used 35 count Country Mocha linen and she used 18 count aida so they will be almost the same small size.

Can you identify the chart?  It should be easy for Nora Corbett fans.

It's Gathering Eggs which I won from Carol of Stitching Dreams.  The title goes rather well with Gathering Honey too.

I've been making progress on my Ten-a-Day project.  This is another FB group where we each chose a project approximately 60x60 stitches which we could complete in a year doing just ten stitches each day.

Here is Just Nan's Spring in the Square, Day 131:

stitched on 32 count Light Mocha linen

I am currently stitching the dark purple in each of the corner pansies.  The fabric looks like a weird colour because I take a quick picture with my iPad each day and the light is coming through the window on the left.  I'm not going to get my camera out and mess around with the settings every single day of this project!

I am also stitching 30-a-Day as an advance start on Linda's So Many Stitches project for next year.  Back in March I started a bunch of Just Nan freebies for March Madness.  Now I am working my way through them, stitching 30 stitches per day with the goal of completing one per month.

Here's a much better photo:

stitched on 32 count Twilight Blue linen

The chart says add some gold eyelets and gold beads next but I think silver would look so much better so that's what I am going with.  One day for the eyelets, one day for beading and one day to finish as an ornie.  Once I get to the end of the cross stitching I drop the 30 a day and just do what needs doing to finish it.

Finally, I do intend to have a Blog Hop this Summer.  I'm thinking of doing another Friendship Hop where each participant is given the name of another participant and they have to make a blog post featuring something that they think the other person would like to see.  So if you got me, then you might show a dragon or something Hallowe'en themed!  So stay tuned for the sign-up post.

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!

Dearest Edward

What a surprise - four calling birds arrived this morning.  They are very sweet, even if they do call rather loudly - they make telephoning impossible.  But I expect they'll calm down when they get used to their new home.  Anyway, I'm very grateful - of course I am.
Love from Emily

12 Days of Christmas (Correspondence) - John Julius Norwich

Joan Elliott has gone for the modern Calling Birds (1909 version only) rather than the traditional Colly Birds (1700s onwards) which are blackbirds.  I expect she liked the blue rather more than black!

If you are interested in the different versions, check out this Wiki page - The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Two versions have Canary Birds, some have Coloured Birds and one has Ducks Quacking (1864), so Emily got off quite lightly there!

I have decided to stitch all the background parts of each block with just one strand so they don't overpower the main feature.  I also changed the French Knots to tiny over one crosses to make them more even.

Here is the whole piece so far.  I have stitched all the red on the second Angel and will continue the border this month.

Theme-tas-stitch is hosted by Kerry

Each month Kerry is giving us a theme to stitch to (or shoe-horn our existing stitching into).  We link up on the 21st of each month.  The theme this month is:

April Showers - What pieces do you have that contain water?  It might be rain, river, sea or lake - see how many stitches you can make!

We need a gigantic shoe-horn for this one, nothing watery at all unfortunately.  The first piece is my Just Nan So Many Stitches project.  I started this as part of March Madness for Theme-tas-stitch and then have continued to put 30 stitches per day into the project.  Today I added some Ice beads.  Ice is frozen water.

Stitched on 32 count Antique White evenweave

That was the small shoe-horn, now the large one.  What needs water to survive?  What do we always say when it rains?  "Oh well, it's good for the garden".  So here's a little garden:

This is Just Nan's Spring in the Square - Day 112.  So that's 1,120 stitches doing just Ten-a-day for the FB challenge.  Recently I've been adding lots of colour to the flowers.

Here's a larger garden:

This is Gathering Honey by Jannlynn.  Last time I stitched on this I completed the top left hand corner which was very time-consuming with all the colour changes and fiddly fractionals.  This time I have finished the entire border (yay!) and the top right corner.

I stitched the bees first:

And then added the honeycomb around them.  For the bottom left corner I will backstitch the bees after the honeycomb because some of their legs got a little lost doing it first.  The honeycomb is three strands of thread and the legs are only one.

Hopefully I can complete the bottom left this month and then focus on the bottom right next month.  That's more fiddly flowers.  Then there's some writing to add top and bottom and it's done!  So if not a May finish, then it should be one for June.

Finally, thanks to everyone who took part in the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop.  The competition is now closed and I will be drawing and announcing the winner in my TUSAL post on Wednesday.  My Blogaversary draw will continue until the end of the month.  Don't forget, anyone who links up for GG gets an extra entry into that draw.