April TUSAL and Dancing Daffodils

This is April's TUSAL, posing with the two uncompleted Spring/Easter designs I started as part of March Madness.  The picture in the frame is a Travelling Pattern started by Cucki.  I'm not sure where it has reached now!

I also completed and mounted the Hallowe'en Ornie for March:

This is a freebie from La Contesse's blog.  I changed it slightly to make it square and added a little witch charm instead of the charted stitched bats.  It is stitched over 1 on 28count burnt orange Jazlyn.  Several people are taking part in the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL and post regularly but there aren't many Followers yet.  If you're a fan of Hallowe'en I do recommend following the blog just to see all the lovely designs there, even if you don't need another SAL challenge!

And now  for the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop:

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high oer blogs and hills

When all at once I worked it out

The answer's "Dancing Daffodils"

Thank you Christine, the answer was indeed "Dancing Daffodils", a sight usually seen at this time of year but not under the snow so many of us have had.  The only reason we've not had snow here is the wind has come straight from Siberia and blown it all inland!

I did the draw this afternoon, aided and abetted by the Large Boy.  There were 15 picture posters and 37 correct answers (zero incorrect ones!) so we simply assigned everyone a playing card and picked 2 at random, one from each category.  The winners were 2 of Clubs and 9 of Spades, aka Lynda and Linda!

The first Lynda blogs from her Cozy Little Place for Stitching and the second Linda says SUch is Life.  I'll be in touch soon to discover your addresses if I don't already have them.

Thank you to everyone who entered this year and to all those who became new followers for the participating blogs.  It's a great way to discover new friends.

Finally, my Blogaversary Giveaway is still open.  See the previous post for the competition question.  Another big Thank You to everyone that has shared their answers already.  It's so much fun to find out more about you all.

Some Works in Progress and another 5 minutes of Fame

This week I've been stitching alot of smaller projects, I seem to get more daytime stitching time rather than evening thanks to the Small Boy's schedule and sleep patterns.

This is my progress on March's piece for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL.  It's a freebie from La Contesse, from last October.

Once again I'm using my favourite burnt orange 28 count and stitching over 1 with Anchor black.  There isn't anything to choose between Anchor and DMC Blacks are far as I can see so once this skein is used up I'll stick to DMC.

This is my main man Michael!

I'm stitching the Archangel Michael for Julie's Mirabilia Round Robin.  I'm really pleased with this photo, it looks better than in real life, maybe I'm too close to it when I'm stitching?  I did have a slight moment late last night.  As you can see I've done all the darker skin shades.  The key shows the next symbol as being 946.  This is a very bright orange!  Now unless he's from Essex, that's clearly not right!  So I popped onto FB and the Mira Minions page to ask for help.  In less than 10 minutes I had my answer, 948 not 6.  Isn't t'internet great?!

And the five minutes of Fame?  I'm featured in World of Cross Stitching again, the Letters page this time with my Flower of the Year cards.  You may remember I stitched this last year for various Birthdays using my patented method of backstitching on aida then colouring in the design using felt tip pens.  Someone always asks about the pens, they are just standard children's felt tips nothing special or expensive!

Here's a better picture of all twelve designs in month order.

ps I haven't patented that method of stitching, it just sounds good!

Finally, my Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop will be taking place on Good Friday.  Come over and follow the list of blogs, find the letters and spell out the Mystery Phrase.  There will be two prizes, one for a Picture Poster and one for a Treasure Hunter, nothing very exciting, some seasonal stitching and a few bits, maybe something edible!