Stitch from Stash June Update

Stitch from Stash is hosted by Mel from Epic Stitching

Essentially the idea behind Stitch from Stash is that we are limited to spending US$25 (or £15) per month.  There are various exemptions (Birthday money, existing mag subs, clubs etc) but the idea is not to try and pervert the rules and to stitch some of that stash!  I will be posting on or around the 20th of each month because that is when I get paid!

Money from Christmas 2013	£ 40.00
January Budget	£ 15.00
January Spend	£ 25.84-
February Budget	£ 15.00
February Spend	£ 18.99-
March Budget	£ 15.00
March Spend	£   8.42-
April Budget	£ 15.00
April Spend	£ 16.19-
May Budget	£ 15.00
May Spend	£   0.00
Balance	£ 45.56

Crafty Kitten Layaway scheme (25/05)	£ 11.00-
Crafty Kitten Layaway scheme (10/06)	£ 40.00-

Balance	£   5.44-
June Budget	£ 15.00
Available to carry forward to July	£   9.56

Allowed purchases:

Jodyri Threads of Month Club : £ 5.54

New Starts from Stash: Joan Elliott Faces SAL (technically only the fabric was in my stash!)

WIPs and UFOs worked on: A Mon Ami Pierre Noel Blanc, Primitive Hare Spooky Countdown, The Little Stitcher 12 Days of Christmas, Just Nan Winter Typography

So I spent quite alot this month without having very much to show for it!  Crafty Kitten do a layaway scheme where you ask Dawn to put things aside for you and then you  pay into your account until everything is paid for and she mails it out to you.  I'm saving up for the JCS DVD 1991-2000, the Hallowe'en ornie issue and the 16 new DMC thread packs.  I also want some fabric for the Frosted Pumpkin SAL.  I sold a whole batch of duplicate Anchor threads I had inherited and put the whole proceeds onto my CK account.

I did get the issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine that has the new Nora Corbett mermaid in it.  I rather liked the magazine, there was a wide range of designs in it.  Some not to my taste but quite a few that I did like.

I might look into subscribing to this one instead of the UK Cross Stitch Collection.

Anyway, back to actual stitching!  Here is the slow and steady Noel Blanc:

A Mon Ami Pierre

The other three can all be seen in my WIPocalypse post and I have not stitched on them since.

I have been working very hard on the Joan Elliot Faces SAL.  All we have so far is the border framework and you all know how boring I find borders!  So I have been concentrating on the centre block.  I used three butterflies from Joan's Butterfly Fairy and stitched them over 1 so they would fit:

The fabric is Crafty Kitten Snapdragon

Here's a close-up of the butterflies:

I don't want to add anything else to this block until I see the rest of the squares.  I will probably add my initials and the date in here at the end.

I also took part in a mini-challenge this week on Facebook.  I recently became a big fan of the Paper Panda, who makes the most lovely paper cut artwork. She posted this image on her FB page with the challenge "These are tiny mice made from paper that's been cut with my own fair paw with a scalpel. I invite all my lovely fellow artists and crafters to post a photo of a miniature mouse made from the medium that you usually work in, so crochet, paper, paint, buttons, wood, chewing gum - anything! How small can you go??  It must be recognisable as a mouse and as teeny tiny as you can possibly make it with your own fair hands."  

Photo copyright Paper Panda

So today is Show and Tell today and there are some lovely tiny mice on the page, everything from paper to crochet via drawings, felt and even blu-tac creations!  Here are my tiny mouses running around a penny:

And for my American followers, here they are running around a one cent coin

And a centime for my French fans:

Except I guess you have Euros now and I don't have any of those.  I did have some Pfennigs and Drachma but I don't think I have any German or Greek followers.

The mice are stitched from a design by Brenda Keyes and are just eight stitches long, plus tails.  I used a (very small) piece of 40 count linen to stitch these.  Paper Panda added this little poem to my photo:

I think mice are rather nice, 

and with mice the size 

of grains of rice, 

I had to look twice!

Finally, I will be sending the first Summer Postcard out this weekend so keep your eyes open for it appearing on a blog somewhere near you.  It is not too late to enter this Blog Hop, just click on the nice garden photo at the top right of the side bar for more details.