June TUSAL

It's TUSAL time again!  For those of you new to blogging, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button on the right hand bar for more details.

This month is an outdoor TUSAL, Joan Elliott's Wizard posing with Brooke's Books June cake.  The plan is to stitch all 12 of those monthly cake designs.  I’ve managed two!

The postman was busy again last month and has delivered all four of the parcels I sent out for my Easter Treasure Hunt and Blogaversary Giveaways.  Here is the Prize Pile before they went out:

Each person got a stitched item, some cotton fabric, some ribbon, some buttons and some fruit tea bags to drink or use to hand dye fabric.  I put some chocolate in the pouches and a Pooh bear chart for Emma who likes Disney.  Here is each stitched item on its own:

Margaret Sherry Cat in a Teacup card (from Cross Stitch Crazy mag)

Margaret Sherry Mice in a Teacup card (from Cross Stitch Crazy mag)

Quaker Bunny mini bag from Palko-Lap Blog 

Quaker Bunny mini bag from Palko-Lap Blog

This week I have been focused on the Mirabilia Shimmering Mermaid for the Round Robin in the evenings. For myself I have been stitching the monthly Alphabet Kitty, the Dragon Dreams design and Joan's June Wizard.  Pictures saved for another day!

Finally I have launched the sign-ups for my Summer Blog Hop.  This year the theme is "There's No Place Like".  All I need from you is a stitched picture on the Home theme.  Click on the nice bright green Home design on the top right of the blog for full details.

Theme-a-licious Looking Back and Forward plus another Secret Surprise Giveaway

The Theme for January was Jardin Janvier, so I stitched Green Goddess.  She is all leaves and flowers so most appropriate for the theme.  I haven’t stitched on her since my update on the 23^rd so the pic on the right hand sidebar of this blog is the latest one.

The Theme for February is Fan Girl February.  So of course Joan Elliott's Green Goddess will be top of the list!  I also have a Just Nan Round Robin to stitch on and there's a Teresa Wentzler Dragon SAL on FB to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.  I'm thinking of stitching one of the small freebies for that one.  I really should stitch a Nora Corbett just to complete my quartet of Favourites.  Trick or Treat is on my 12 in '12 list and I have the fabric.  Maybe just one little weekend.  What a shame February is such a short month!

For Jardin I also stitched a Birthday card from WOCS for a member of the Needlecraft Haven featuring a February violet.  I can’t show that one until the Birthday Gal has received it.

Speaking of Birthday Gals, it was Mouse’s Birthday this month so I stitched her a little Margaret Sherry design featuring, what else, but two little mice stitching a picture.  I used my delicious fruit tea dyed evenweave.  I used two bags of Echinacea and Raspberry tea and soaked the fabric for quite some time.  That is a technical term for “I’ve forgotten how long but it was a while”.  The smell while I stitched was amazing!  I don’t know if it lasted until Mouse received the card, I hope so.  I used some lovely De Havilland silk for the purple and an Oliver Twist for the pink.  This was slightly variegated and lovely to stitch with.  The needle is, of course, a gold needle.  Only the best for these mice.

The design is a freebie from the Cross Stitcher website found here.  Please note, that link takes you to the magazine freebie page but the Margaret Sherry designs are ONLY available to subscribers via the special Craft Circle pages.  Sorry!  There are some lovely freebies on the page I've linked to make up for it.

Here’s another delayed gratification finish:

This was the January Monthly Freebie Challenge chosen by Christine on the Needlecraft Haven board.  The original blog Les Chroniques de Frimousse showed several difference colourways but all three of the finishes so far chose the blue and yellow.  Great minds stitch alike!  I used some scraps to make some extra snowflakes and scrapbooked it with some silver snowflakes too.  It is currently on display in my box frame but will go into the book when I complete the February Challenge.  I added the Russian for Happy New Year myself.  At least I hope that's what it says and not "Potato Soup".  The Large Boy's Russian classmate was on holiday that week so I couldn't even check with her.

The more eagle-eyed of you may have spotted my followers have multiplied to over 200 now!  I decided to have another Secret Giveaway for the monumentous event.  I went through the last 200 comments on my Dashboard and tallied up how many times each person had commented.  (Fun Things Statisticians Do In Their Free Time No 95).

77 different people commented in all.  I’m so pleased with that because it means a lot of my followers are still here and still talking to me!  There were 4 people out in front with 9 or 10 comments each.  Out of those 4 –

Christine

is the lucky winner of the Secret Surprise Giveaway!

If you pop over to Christine's blog using the above link you will see her version of the Russian Doll.  I'll be sending a little something to you very soon Christine, so look out for an email asking for your address.

I just spotted this in my Blog Roll - you'll love it!  A little something from Stitchin' Kat and what a surprise - you can make it into a biscornu!!  Fortunately it's a full size one not the dinky tinies she stitched last year.  If you don't know what I'm talking about then read her blog and marvel at all the tiny biscornu (biscorni? biscornues?)

Finally, don’t forget the Secret Stitching Sweetheart activity for Valentines Day.  Email me your stitched pics by 10^th February to join in the fun.  More details here.

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WOCS, GOS and RAK

WOCS is World of Cross Stitch the popular magazine and here is the cover kit from Issue 181, a lovely Margaret Sherry Christmas design.  Stitched exactly as it said in the mag with the supplied material - hard aida and non-specific threads.  Margaret's designs are very popular so I will be putting the chart and leftover thread into my 1st giveaway.

GOS is Gift of Stitching, another very popular magazine, but a virtual one this time.  I've had my 3 issues for $3 and have now subscribed for a year.  I made sure I did this in plenty of time and saved 5%, then 2 days to go until the end of the month I got a "Save 25%" offer from them.  aaaaaghhhh, so much for being organised.  Oh well.  The new issue is great, two whole samplers and a partworks one too which I will be stitching.  There's another Treasure Hunt later this month and more stitching competitions on the way.  If you do decide to sign-up then mention "joanne p" in the Tell-a-friend bit and I get a free month's sub.

RAK relates to the Travelling Pattern (which has safely reached the Mousehouse).  You may recall I asked you who your stitching blessing was which made very interesting reading.  I wrote down all the names of individual people (not groups or "everyone on the internet"!) and we put them in Chaffy's nest for the large boy to select one from.  Who is Chaffy?  I hear you ask.  Chaffy is a small fluffy creature who hides in various places around the Chaffy-verse.  A cuter version of Wally.  The large boy and his Uncle (my little bro) are obsessed with Chaffy.  If you look on Deviant Art you will find some of bro's plushies.  He made 10 different ones.  Strange things, boys.  In case you are worried, Deviant Art is alternative culture not something to do with BDSM!  If you don't know what BDSM is, don't Google it, you'll get a shock.

Here is Chaffy sitting on the scraps of paper:

 Here is the large boy removing one piece of paper:

 This is the name of the person whose Stitching Blessing will be receiving a little something from me (in the not too distant future, definitely before Christmas!):

Notice the one space in the large boy's room we found to do this.  The rest is covered in toys.  This space is by the door.

Finally two more framed pieces, the first is The Travelling Pattern itself, I added the names of the stitchers so far to the sides.  That was fun.  I carefully charted the names making sure the four on each side would be the same length when stitched (pair longest with shortest).  Then started stitching.  Then remembered the weird count which made the letters very wide, so I had to freehand them which is why they're not the same length but still look okay.

nb Charity shop frame - £1

The final picture is the September Challenge freebie from The Needlecraft Haven.  Each month they choose a freebie and we stitch it but have to save it for the Big Reveal in the last weekend.

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