August D.E.S.I.G.N. SAL

The idea of this Blog Hop is to choose a different designer each month and do a post focusing on a piece of their work you have stitched on during the month.  The hosts of D.E.S.I.G.N ask us to answer a few questions on our chosen designer.

1. What designer are you talking about this month?

Jamie Kile of Knotted Tree NeedleArt.

Santa's Hat Sampler

from JCS Christmas Ornie Special 2012

2. Have you stitched a project by this designer before?

Yes, I have now completed three different designs, two Hallowe'en and one Christmas.  Two are mini alphabet samplers.

3. Would you buy/stitch a design by this designer again?  Why/Why not?

Yes, there is at least one more Hallowe'en alphabet sampler and various other ornies in the JCS magazines.

4. What made you choose this particular design/designer?

Regular followers will know how much I love an alphabet design and I knew I wanted to stitch this one as soon as I saw it:

Little Owl Sampler

from JCS Hallowe'en Ornie Special 2012

5. Did you notice anything that distinguished this designer from others?

I have to say, KTN don't seem to have a "signature" look, apart from the alphabet samplers.  I would not have known this house was by the same designer if it hadn't have said.  In some ways that is a good thing because you are drawn to the individual design rather than the hype around a particular name.  You know, where everyone rushes to buy the latest release and then realises that it's not that different to ten other charts they already own!

Little Hallowe'en House

from JCS Hallowe'en Ornie Special 2013

The designs themselves are simple, full stitches only often charted using hand-dyed threads but always with a good DMC conversion.  They lend themselves well to adaptation.  I blended threads on two and changed some colours on all three.  I also added some speciality stitches to the border on the house design.

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Finally, a pie chart for August.  More projects stitched for just a day or two this month.  The days were longer than usual because of the Summer holidays.  It's been a productive month indeed.

August Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather from Stitching Lotus

This year I am going to have two monthly challenges:

1. The Primitive Hare Hallowe'en Cubes SAL

2. The Hallowe'en Ornie SAL themed blog.
and a third one added from August:
3. The Christmas Ornie SAL themed blog

This is the first E from Hallowe'en:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

The theme for the Hallowe'en Ornie Blog is Black Cats.  I have so many charts with black cats it was hard to pick one.  In the end I decided to start a larger piece and just stitch the part with the cats then continue it later on.  This is part of Just Nan's Ghoulies and Ghosties.  You can see the whole design here - JN180 Ghoulies and Ghosties

stitched on 32 count tan evenweave.

And now for a new monthly challenge - the Christmas Ornie SAL Blog hosted by Kaye.  She has chosen themes for the rest of this year and August's was Mr and/or Mrs Santa. 

I've had my eye on this design for some time (2012 in fact!) and this was the perfect chance to stitch it.  It's from the JCS Christmas Ornie Special 2012 and is by Knotted Tree NeedleArt.  I used the DMC conversion on green linen making a couple of changes.  The parcel is a brighter green as are the yellow stitches in the border.  I alternated them with the bright red from the hat (817) to make it look more festive.

This isn't really a small but there was only a small piece left to stitch!  I started it back in January for the DUCJC and haven't picked it up since.  All I had to do was chart and stitch the name which I finally did this morning.  It's for my cousin's baby daughter.  Her first Birthday is at the beginning of September so it will arrive in perfect time.

The design is by JBW and is called Hobby Horse which is puzzling because it is clearly a Rocking Horse.  I stitched it using my favourite DMC 115 variegated red on 32 count Antique White linen and framed it in the perfect frame from my frame stash box.

And here is Tuesday's Satsuma Street progress on Pretty Little London.  I finished Buckingham Palace on the left and thought I'd start on the long boring grey arches underneath the whole piece.  If I leave them until last I will get dispirited I'm sure!

stitched on 32 count Antique White linen.

Finally, we are approaching the end of the Summer Postcard Blog Hop, if you haven't already been to Jocondine's blog you must visit to see her delightful cartoon drawing of our hop.  She is a very talented cartoonist.

First postcard from Cheryl goes to Noni at Fireflies and Cats in the Garden

Second postcard from Vickie goes to Katie at Jeremiah's Mom

Third postcard from Noni goes to Julie at Julie's Stitchyknitter Journal

Fourth postcard from Katie goes to Anna at Stitch Bitch

Fifth postcard from Julie goes to Bea at Thoughts and Musings
Sixth card from Narita goes to Kaye at Kitten Stitching
Seventh card from Anna goes to Vickie at A Stitcher's Story
Eighth card from Kaye goes to Jocondine at Jocondine

July Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather from Stitching Lotus

This year I am going to have two monthly challenges:

1. The Primitive Hare Hallowe'en Cubes SAL

2. The Hallowe'en Ornie SAL themed blog.

Here is my W block which is not quite finished:

Stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

The theme for July on the Hallowe'en Blog was Haunted Houses.  There have been some great finishes this month and here is mine:

This is A Little Hallowe'en House from the JCS 2013 Hallowe'en Special designed by Jamie Kile of Knotted Tree NeedleArt.  I choose a nice muddy green for the fabric.  It's a 32count linen called Dark Reed Green from Willow Fabrics.  I used the recommended DMC conversion with a couple of minor changes.  I blended two shades of purple for the house rather than use a variegated thread.

I don't enjoy stitching plain borders and this had a double row of plain stitches.  So I changed them to extra large Xs stitched over four threads instead of two.  Then I changed the corner blocks to twelve-legged eyelets instead of plain Xs.  They look a little web-ish to me.

I have just realised that I haven't added the chimney pots!  Oops, back to the needles for me.

Another Little project I've been stitching every Tuesday is Pretty Little London by Satsuma Street.  I am plodding away around the London Eye at the moment:

Stitched on 32 count Antique White linen.

Linda likes these partial shots because it looks like we are the same stage as each other LOL.

Heather did suggest we might like to stitch a "Christmas in July" small which I thought was a great idea what with the launch of Kaye's new Christmas Ornie Blog and Claire's Joy Ornie Collection too.  Unfortunately I just ran out of time!  So we will just have to have Christmas in August instead.

Another word for Small is Mini.  Lynn B from Happiness is Cross Stitching has been designing several Mini Cats for some time now and this year has been posting a free monthly themed Mini Cat each month.  They have been so popular that she has set up a special blog just for them.  So if you like Mini Cats why not pop over to The Mini Cat Blog and admire Peggie's 27 finishes!  I've posted my one and only finish which is the Valentine Cat:

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop.  Five cards have been sent and posted online so far with another one due to go out this week.  You can see them all here:

First postcard from Cheryl goes to Noni at Fireflies and Cats in the Garden

Second postcard from Vickie goes to Katie at Jeremiah's Mom

Third postcard from Noni goes to Julie at Julie's Stitchyknitter Journal

Fourth postcard from Katie goes to Anna at Stitch Bitch

Fifth postcard from Julie goes to Bea at Thoughts and Musings

First Week of the Summer Holidays

and of course, we have had steady and heavy rain since yesterday lunchtime!

The Large Boy is at High School (age 11+ here) and they broke up at 1pm last Friday while the Small Boy lucked out and didn't finish until Wednesday afternoon.  So we took advantage of the time together and went on a Dragon Hunt!  Norwich is our nearest city and one I know well as I worked there for 17 years pre-children.  They have had a couple of these hunts before (Elephants and Gorillas) and this year it was Dragons.  More information can be found here but essentially there are 84 large dragon sculptures dotted around the city.  Each one is decorated by a different person to a different theme.  You visit each one and collect a letter or symbol which then spells out a message.  Sounds rather like my Hallowe'en and Easter Blog Hops!

They are also selling postcards and here is a collection of our favourites:

The bottom left was made by the staff at John Lewis (department store) and is lots of small fabric pieces embellished with buttons.  I'm going to go back and take some decent photos of it later in the holiday.  The bottom right is entirely covered in 2p coins, plus a few 5p and pennies.

It was a good thing that the Small Boy finished later in the week because I was still beading the final teacher gift on Tuesday evening!  Hope was beset with a plague of frogs.  At times it felt like Pandora's Box where I had to fight through all the winged nasties until I found Hope at the bottom!  Here it is all framed to match Believe:

Hope by Joan Elliot - from the Bewitching book

stitched on 28 count Robin's Egg Opalescent by Silkweavers

The Small Boy's school is a little unusual in that the children don't change teacher every year, quite often they do two years with the same teacher.  So I didn't realise last year that he would be moving up a class until it was too late to stitch anything!  So this year I was more prepared.  Believe is for his current teacher and Hope is for the teacher he had in Nursery and Reception.  I didn't see them because Hubby does the school run but he said both teachers were incredibly touched by their gifts.

I did see the teachers at his other school though, the Kingfisher Class.  They had a little leaving ceremony for him which was lovely.  All the children in the class had made a huge card with drawings of each of them and they let him choose his favourite song for them all to sing.  Then I gave them the Kingfisher picture.  One child was nominated to open it and they all craned over - "It's a picture of you", "it's a bird", "it's a kingfisher"  "IT'S US, WE'RE KINGFISHERS".  You can imagine how excited this made a bunch of five year olds!

The Headmaster had been watching all this and then the Chair of the PTA appeared with gifts for me!  A framed photo of the class (including the Small Boy) and a lovely engraved pen to thank me for all my hard work over the last 9 years.  That was unexpected!  We don't usually make a lot of fuss when people leave because it happens regularly as children grow up so it was nice to be appreciated.  I think she's keeping me sweet in case she needs to pick my brain in future LOL

So, end of an era there.

With all the busyness, I didn't stitch much of Pretty Little London, just some blue in the London Eye:

stitched on 32 count antique white linen

The last two days have been dedicated to Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog's July theme which was Haunted Houses:

This is a Knotted Tree design from JCS Ornie Special 2013

I'll show a close-up and more details when I finish it, which won't be long now.

Many of you know that I have been very involved with the Scarlet Letter Year blog set up to celebrate Nicola's special birthday a couple of year ago.  Later this Summer a group of the stitchers are meeting up at the Cotswold Manor House which houses the Fellers' collection of samplers.  There is still room for a couple more people.  The trip is on Wednesday 26th August and costs £30 including a lovely buffet lunch.  If you are interested then send me and email and I'll pass your details on to Nicola.  More information about the collection can be found on Needleprint's blog.

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop.  Four cards have been sent and posted online so far with a fifth today.  You can see them all here:

First postcard from Cheryl goes to Noni at Fireflies and Cats in the Garden

Second postcard from Vickie goes to Katie at Jeremiah's Mom

Third postcard from Noni goes to Julie at Julie's Stitchyknitter Journal

Fourth postcard from Katie goes to Anna at Stitch Bitch

Fifth postcard from Julie goes to Bea at Thoughts and Musings

A Belated April Finish

The problem with running blogs is that you really have to make the effort to do the stitching too!

I agree to take over running the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog this year because I love Hallowe'en stitching and last year I flaked out half way through the year on the themed stitching.  This year I am doing much better.

I have a good excuse for April being late; I didn't like the recommended conversion colour for the alphabet.  So having stitched the whole thing I then had to frog and re-stitch which led to it being put aside for a while.

This is The Little Owl Sampler by Knotted Tree Needleart from the Just Cross Stitch Hallowe'en Ornie Special 2012.

I used the recommended DMC conversion, subbed 930 for 327 and used a blend of 930 and 931 for the border.  The fabric is 32 count Twilight Blue Linen.  I intend to scrapbook this one along with the companion piece which features a pumpkin.

I have been making slow progress on Noel Blanc by A Mon Ami Pierre.  I stitch this while the Small Boy is in the bath and apparently short baths are the order of the day at the moment.  Never mind, every stitch is another stitch closer to the end.

Since I last posted I have stitched all that vertical border to the left of the reindeer's butt.

Finally, I have opened up the sign-ups for the Summer Postcard Blog Hop.  All you have to do is send me a photo of something you have stitched on this year's theme which is Gardens.  I will then send you a photo from another participant which you must display on your blog.  Please include a message with your photo, about why your garden is important to you, or what you love about your garden, or why you don't have one but what you would like in your ideal garden.  Anything with the word "garden" in it really!

Smalls SAL and Theme-a-licious April Updates

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

I chose three different monthly themes to follow this year:

Hallowe'en Ornie SAL - 12 different themes
Little Stitcher Fairy Tale 12 Days of Christmas - one per month
Primitive Hare Spooky Countdown - one per week starting 31st January

This is my choice for April's Owl theme, not quite finished.  I used the DMC conversion which said 327 for the alphabet but I really didn't like it on this blue fabric I'm using.  So I asked advice and Mouse suggested 930.  I'd looked at 939 (too dark) and the high 700s (too Royal Blue) and this was perfect.  So I'm frogging and restitching as I go:

You can see how much better the blue looks.

Here's my Little Stitcher for April, Day of Trees:

And here are the latest 6 blocks on Spooky Countdown:

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! 

April Showers

What pieces can you find in your flood of WIPs that include water? Rivers, lakes, oceans, or rain (and anything that lives within).

This was a really tricky one, until Heather pointed out that snow is frozen water (so I could have The Little Stitcher 12 Days of Christmas included (see above for picture).

I also decided to include a piece which may not feature water but did produce water - tears!

Here it is:

This is the sampler I stitched for my friend's wedding last weekend.  The motifs come from various places.  The hearts are from Carton-Marie (I stitched the whole piece for my cousin's wedding last year).  "Love" is from Happiness is Cross Stitching.  M and D (their initials) are from iStitch's Mystery SAL and the butterfly is from a random download I've had in the file for ages (sadly no originating website on it).

This is the process to making something like this:

Remove the mount and cut out the blocks.

Use this as the template to place your stitching,

Finished stitching.

Lay the mount over the finished stitching.

Lay the frame over the mount and finished stitching.

Realise that the mount is so much smaller than the frame that it moves around and it is almost impossible to get all seven pictures centred and straight.  Cut the fabric up into smaller individual piece and mount each one separately.  Wonder why you didn't do that the first time!

ps the frame comes from QD - well-known discount homeware store in the UK.

Finally, here is something else which caused water this month, more tears of happiness:

I entered Justine's Giveaway because one of the prizes was a cute ladybird pillow she had stitched.  She sent me a parcel of silvery wrapped goodies.

The card is silver-grey too.  The booklet has some nice designs and I don't have this one because it came out after I stopped subscribing.  But look at the chart - Nora Corbett's Jo is for Jo (and Justine!).  I love this design and it was on my wish-list too.  So now to choose a fabric.  I asked my friends on FB whether I should go for a green or lilac colour.

One person said "contrast"

One person said "how about lilac & green (& a bit of blue)"

One person said "a solid colour"

One person said "a neutral cream"

and one person said "a pale blue or lilac"

Can you see why this is hard? LOL  I think an entire evening with The Viewer is called for.

Close-up of my lovely Ladybird pillow.