Welcome to my New Home

No, I haven't moved house, I've just built myself a new one!  It's a little "bijou" as the estate agents would say and the roof needed some work too.  I am also wondering how I will fit all my stash into it, or indeed anything larger than a petite needle!  Without further ado, here is my detached des res - Sugared Almond Cottage:

This little beauty designed by The Nutmeg Company was a gift from Susan Yellow Flower Meadow.  Here are the sides prior to making up:

The roof is stitched on 28 count pink evenweave and the walls are stitched on 36 count white evenweave.  The beads are all Mill Hill gold petites.

And here are some Work In Progress photos:

Sewing the four walls together.  

This was quite simple, I just whipstitched through the back stitched outlines.

I knew the roof would be tricky because it overhangs the walls rather than fitting flush.

So I decided to make a false inner roof using some scrap linen:

Stitching the false roof using my new curved needle:

Curved needles are epic!  They make things like this so much easier, with a straight needle I was getting it stuck on the beads and in the fabric.

Once I'd finished the false roof I attempted to fix the real roof using double sided tape.  Unfortunately it started to lift away at the edges.  Because the roof is one piece it wants to lie flat rather than be bent in the middle.  So I had to stitch it in place after all.  However, having the false roof to hold it in place made this much easier so I would use this technique again.

The finished property!

Now who would live in a house like this?

Finally, for puzzle lovers and Teresa Wentzler fans, I am hosting a competition to win a TW chart over on the TW blog.  Please do tell your friends and invite them to join in.  Clsoing date is 17th September.  If you already have the chart or are not a fan please feel free to nominate a friend to receive it.  Here's the link - Teresa Wentzler Competition Time

The Brilliant and Beautiful Alphabet Band

It's the first Saturday of the month, so it's time for detention!

"They only met online, but it changed their lives forever"

I think most of you know the lovely enigmatic Chiara who blogs at The Grey Tail?  We were chatting via email a while back and between us came up with the idea of an A-Z language challenge.  We batted some ideas around and are calling it the The Alphabet Club.  Chiara has the full details on that link but basically she will post a link-up post on the first Saturday of each month (Saturday being detention day in the film) reminding us of the month's letter and we will all link up with themed things, from stitching to designers and local customs.

This month's letter is B for brilliant and beautiful (that's me and Chiara!) and also Bargello, the lovely flamestitch in the photo above, taken from A Dark Alphabet by A Note of Friendship.  B is also for buttons and beading and butterfly as shown in my current Alphabet Club project; A Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books Publishing (more Bs) there.

The little blue button is proof that the destashing of your wardrobe by clearing out anything not worn in the previous season is a silly idea.  That little button was the spare button from one of my old work shirts which has not been worn for at least 13 years (Large Boy is 13 this month).  I have a collection of very similar styled shirts waiting for my return to office work.  Which may or may not happen in the next 20 years.  But they will be ready if I do!

Anyway, I didn't quite finish A last month due to the lack of tiny white beads, so here is A pushing it's way into a B post:

And here they are together:

I am stitching this series on a piece of 28count afghan which will then be made into a book by sewing the panels back-to-back.  There is room for four letters on each block plus a title on the first page and my initials and the dates on the final page.

More beading on today's project, The Sugared Almond Cottage by The Nutmeg Company:

There's another one of these for the other side!

That is a petite 28 needle shown for scale.  Now I can start sewing them together.  The special curved needles I ordered arrived today and I bought some mounting board yesterday in preparation.  Watch this space!

Of course the Champion of Beading has to be Mill Hill.  I always use their beads because they come in so many colours, nearly every chart gives their numbers and they are easy to get hold of.  They also do some lovely heavily beaded designs of their own:

Hallowe'en by Mill Hill

Winter Wonderland by Mill Hill.

Frosted Heather Rose by Mill Hill

Which brings us nicely to my next B - Band Samplers.  I do love a band sampler and have taken part in three different Round Robins to stitch them as well as several of my own working.  Here are four seasonal favourites:

Seasons by Just Nan

My "B" WIP will be Book of Spells by The Goode Huswif:

I've already mentioned Brooke's Books as a B designer, other designers I enjoy stitching include Blue Ribbon Designs and Blackbird Designs.  You can read my post about Blue Ribbon here and see my BBD finishes here.

And a designer I haven't stitched yet, although I have one of their charts is Brightneedle:

Ezmeralda's House

And now on to the Blog Roll, blogs I love to follow beginning with B:

Being Grammy

Butterfly Wings

Brigitte's Place

By the Babbling Brooke

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop and the penultimate card was sent today:

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
Ninth card from Jocondine goes to Cheryl at Today I Found
Tenth card from Bea goes to Leonore at Needle, Pen & Sword (sent today)

August WIPocalypse Stitching Journey

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings

The focus of my WIPocalypse will be my "15 in '15"which are 15 charts I want to stitch in 2015 (following on from my "11 in '11", "12 in '12", "13 in '13" and "14 in '14" - imaginative, eh?)

Over the last month I have stitched on 3 of my 15 designs and completed one.

Here is the finish which I showed last post:

JBW - Hobby Horse

stitched on 32 count Antique White linen with DMC 115

Another one you've seen before is the ongoing Hallowe'en Cube project by Primitive Hare:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen.

The third project from my 15 is this adorable little cottage from The Nutmeg Company.  The lovely Susan from Yellow Flower Meadow sent me the charts and leftover threads for three of these cottages.  The link goes to the page on her blog where this one is finished.

This is the Sugared Almond Cottage by The Nutmeg Company.  I started it back in January for the DUCJC and managed a good chunk of very boring white snow on the roof.  Well in just two days I have finished the roof (including beading), outlined the four walls and stitched everything except the fiddly little diamond almonds and the gold thread.  Mind you, they were two very long days with not much else happening!

Close up of roof and beading: 

The roof is stitched on 28 count pink evenweave and the walls are stitched on 36 count white evenweave.  The beads are all Mill Hill gold petites.  I have even ordered a special curved needle for sewing up the walls because everyone says it makes life so much easier.

Measi always sets us a topic for discussion and this month we have:

August – Pick one of the WIP pieces you’ve stitched on this month, and tell us about your stitching journey with the piece.

Those three are all quite small so there's not really much of a journey so instead I will show my journey on a larger piece which is always very popular; Goode Huswif's Book of Spells:

January, April and May:

 June, July, August:

And today:

I do hope to finish this piece by the end of the year.  Several people have asked me how I intend to finish it.  The chart suggests making it into a book cover but I would be concerned about wear and tear.  Then I had the idea of printing off a photograph of it and using that as a book cover!  If it gets worn or ripped, just print off another one.  Brilliant!  So that's my new plan.

Finally, we are approaching the end of the Summer Postcard Blog Hop, there are only a couple more cards to be sent:

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
Ninth card from Jocondine goes to Cheryl at Today I Found (sent today)

Days 6 to 9 of the DUCJC 2015

The DUCJC is being held this year in memory of SoCal Debbie and I am attempting to stitch on 31 different projects throughout January.  A mixture of WIPs and new starts.

Day 6 - Joan Elliott - February Cherub

Stitched on 28 count evenweave dyed with fruit tea

I stitched the cherub's hair.

Day 7 - The Sampler House - Strawberry Sampler

Stitched on 32 count Antique White linen

This chart was part of a giveaway from Lee Under the Mountain.  It is a very old hand-drawn chart from 1990 and I love it.  There is a certain charm to hand-drawn charts.

Day 8 - Frosted Pumpkins Stitchery - Hallowe'en Town

Stitched on 28count Moondust evenweave by Crafty Kitten

I filled in some windows and a little bit of fence.

Day 9 - The Nutmeg Company - Sugared Almond Cottage

Roof stitched on 28 count Honeysuckle Pink evenweave.

This was a gift from Susan Yellow Flower Meadow.  She has sent me three of these cute cottages charts and leftover threads.  I hope mine will look as good as her's!

I'm actually getting into the swing of this challenge now.  It was hard the first two days because I just wanted to carry on with the same project and not put it away knowing it would be a month until I could see it again.  But now I am back at work and stitching on WIPs those days it is easier because I have an exciting new start to look forward to the next day!

Finally, three of these count for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL I am running this year.  And all of them count towards Stitch from Stash which I am also taking part in.  So goals are being met!