Winners, Commenters and a Little Stitching

First of all, thank you for the good wishes for my health.  I seem to have recovered from the cold part but ache all over and have been getting really early nights instead.  So no evening stitching!!!

As part of the Grow Your Blog Party I held a Giveaway for three different cover gifts from various magazines.  There were three winners chosen -

Julie Bagpuss

Kathy H (no blog)

Astrid's Dragon

I have all the addresses now so the charts will be in the post soon.  I also had a Secret Giveaway for my 3000th commenter.  I like to keep an eye on my comments and noticed that 3000 was looming.  The lucky person was Linda from Stitchin with my Furbabies for her comment on the January WIPocalypse post.  So there'll be a little something in the post to Linda too.

It's good to have some post to send out because I'm taking part in this -

 

All you have to do is write a letter every postal day of February (so not on Sundays) and mail it.  Respond to anyone who writes to you.  So I've started the month with four letters to the four winners.  Tomorrow I have to think of someone else to write to.  It's the Small Boy's Birthday at the weekend so that's next week taken up with Thank You letters.  A couple of Birthdays and a random trawl through my address book and I think I can do this challenge!  I saw this Challenge on Anna's Stitch Bitch blog where all the good ideas come from!

Stitching-wise I had one finish last week, the Joan Elliott January design from the 2013 Diary:

I already had this nice page for my scrapbook and bought some snowflake trim yesterday to finish it off.  I stitched this on 28 count sparkly evenweave over 2.  I used the recommended colours except for the robins' breasts.  There were a few little transcription errors made by the magazine and Joan herself has been helping put them right on the FB group.  They used the incorrect red and not enough of it for the robins!  I also changed the green in the trees to one strand rather than 2 like the rest of the design.

This is a January finish for the Needlecraft Haven Freebie Challenge.  Peace by Happiness is Cross Stitching blog.  I stitched it over 1 on the same 28 count sparkly evenweave.  It's framed using a Christmas card I kept for this purpose.  I keep lots of cards that look like frames because I like to horde, and sometimes they come in useful.

I also stitched the next JBW cat for February's ornie.  I dyed some fabric using fruit teas, 2 bags of blackcurrant tea make a lovely strong pink.  Here is the cat on the backing fabric I bought yesterday:

Finally, don't forget to send me your Secret Stitching Sweetheart photos before the 10th February (that's this Sunday!) if you want to join in with the Blog Hop.  Click on the Heart on the right hand sidebar for all the information.

Stitching Finishes

Here are a few of my recent finishes that I haven't shown yet.

My 10th finish for the year was the Needlecraft Haven February Challenge.  Every month Christine discovers a freebie chart and we all stitch it and finish it however we like.  We can't show anyone until the end of the month.  February's came from  Lynn B of Happiness is Cross Stitching.  We could choose either of the two freebies and I chose the cat.  Then I decided the "LOVE" would look good stitched over 1 underneath the cat.  I changed the "O" heart slightly, it was originally a dangler!  I do have an issue with DMC 310, it doesn't cover well on 28 count.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a good black?  Not an expensive one please!  310 is great for backstitch and I really don't want to have to go for three strands everytime.

My 12th finish was another freebie, this time by Barbara Ana from Cyberstitches.

Here they both are together:

I've got another Valentine design by San Man Originals I want to add on the same fabric but now February is past I don't have the same incentive to stitch it!  It'll be done by next year, I promise.  The fabric is the fruit-tea dyed 28count I used for Mouse's Birthday card.  By careful cutting I have a small square and a long thin piece left.  I am so mean with my fabric and threads!

My 11th finish was a prize in my Epiphany Giveaway which went to Terri of Rosy Stitches.  The design is all my own, this is the second time I've stitched it for somone else, it makes a lovely giveaway.  You must visit Terri's blog to see her lovely beaded rose in her header pic and also her stitching chair which matches this pillow, how serendipitous!

Terri asked which thread I used, it's DMC 4030 one of the newer variegateds.  When I stitched Bluebeard's Mermaid last year my LNS subbed the Carons for DMC threads and this was one of the them.  It's a lovely colour and changed shades nicely as you stitch. 

The backing fabric is one of the upholstery samples I acquired last year, it's very expensive stuff, some of it is over £75 a metre!  How lucky I am to have a load of 12inch squares to play with!   Apparently the sample books themselves cost £70 for the shops so I am doubly surprised they gave so many away to us.

There are two more finishes which I can't show yet until recipients have received them so watch this space.

Finally, I let the Large Boy choose this month's "Falling Things" hence the randomness of them.  Here's the link if you too want random things falling on your blog:

add-falling-coloured-stars-snowflakes-stuff-things

(Large Boy not included, provide your own)