A Blessing Counted

Remember way back when I stitched my first Travelling Pattern?  It was Shakespeare's Peddlar's Count Your Blessings and I asked people to tell me who their Stitching Blessing was.  Freddy's Mama (aka Kirsten) told me about her friend Irene and as Kirsten's name was pulled out of the hat I decided to make a little something to thank her "blessing".

The design and stitching was simple.  I like the quote "Stitching Friends are Friends who Count", it's a nice pun and a lovely sentiment.  I laid out the quote on graph paper in an invented font and added the symbols from the Travelling Pattern (anyone know the name for those 8 leaved symbols?).  Then I decided to make it into a padded ornament.  I stitched round three sides inside out then turned it the right way out, so far so good.  I stuffed it and slip stitched the final side.  Now I have two nice corners and two different corners.  So I decided to put cord around the edges, but I should have buried the cord ends inside the ornie before sewing it up.  So I was left with two ends.  Which I sewed together and tried to hide with some gold braid wrapped round them!!

I sent the ornie off to Irene with an explanation that this is my first and probably only ornie!  It arrived yesterday and as I remembered to take a photo before it went off to the USA I can show you all, here it is:

The back is made from one of the fabric samples I got earlier this year.  They make lovely ornament backings so I will include them with any giveaways I do so people who actually like making the things can do so!!  The thread is a variegated DMC.

I hope you're all enjoying the Advent Calendar and hopping over to the blogs to see what people have to say.  Isn't it funny how similar Day 2 and 3 are, and also that Joysze and I both chose the "hutch" designs to show?  We stitchers have so much in common.

For I must be travelling on, now....

For I must be travelling on, now,
'Cause there's too many places I've got to see....

Yes, it is time for the Travelling Pattern to be travelling on (bonus points for first person to identify song lyrics).

This TP was started off by Daffycat (aka Sharon) who is having a giveaway at the moment, she is nearly upto 800 followers (WOW!) so pop along, see the home of the Travelling Pattern, enter her giveaway and follow her if you don't already (cannot believe that there are people who don't already follow her, she's like the matriach of stitching blogs!).

The TP is by Shakespeare's Peddlar and is called "Count Your Blessings".  I stitched it on the weird fabric I talked about before using random threads from my scraps bag.  The red brick for the house is the same red used on my Doll's House project (which is nice).  I added a fanlight to the door and a beak to the bird.  I also removed a row from the house so all the windows are the same height and changed the vine so the bird came down by two rows.  This was to stop the design falling off the edge of the fabric which I cut thinking it was 32 count not 26!

The rules of the TP are as follows:

1. Comment on this post, saying you would like to be part of the Stitcherhood.

2. By leaving this comment, you agree (if you are chosen) to stitch the design and send it along to the next person in a timely manner. If this means dropping everything in your rotation to concentrate on this project...so be it. If you can't bring yourself to do this ~ don't sign up.

3. You must have an active blog to participate. If you have a blog but never post to it ~ you won't be chosen to be the next stitcher.

4. This is a giveaway-type Traveling Pattern. That means you must follow it from blogger to blogger to enter each time it is ready to send along. Commenting on this post doesn't make you a guaranteed part of the Stitcherhood.

The Traveling Pattern has been stitched by:

1. Sharon of It's Daffycat, Oklahoma, USA

2. Karen of Karen's Handiwork, South Carolina, USA

3. Patty of Hanging On By A Thread, Florida, USA

4. Terri of Chocolates for Breakfast, Stitching for Lunch, USA
5. Lynda of A Cozy Little Place for Stitching, Oregon, USA
6. Nataly of Nataly's Needle Creations, Massachusetts, USA
7. Erin of Fairy Tales & French Knots, NY, USA
8. Jo of Serendipititous Stitching, Suffolk, UK

The links above are all for the posts where the TP appears in all it's glory so you don't have to rummage through the blogs to find them.  Aren't I good to you?

As the rules state, to be the next member you just need to comment on THIS POST only.  Just for fun I'd like to know "who is your stitching blessing?"  OK not a very grammatical question!  We all have much the same blessings in life - our partners, our kids, our grandkids, our furbabies, our health and the fact that we live in countries where we can indulge ourselves with this amazing hobby rather than spending 8 hours a day looking for clean water: SO - who do you count as your biggest stitching blessing?  For me it'd be Erin who passed the TP on to me!  If your stitching blessing has a blog please include a link.  I need to follow more blogs (hahaha).

Here's my progress on Periphaeria's Star SAL, I have nearly done all of Parts 1 and 2 and most of the middle so I'm quite pleased.  The fabric is 28 count Purpleberry Spludge from Sparklies who will be having a sale on the Bank Holiday Weekend.

Other news - it is one month exactly to my Sapphire Birthday and I currently have 88 followers.  I will be doing my first giveaway at either 100 followers or on my Birthday.  I need half a follower per day to reach 100 before the big day, so if you are half a follower please sign up and bring the giveaway forward!

Edited to say:
I will be choosing the next person on Monday 22nd August, so make sure you post by midnight Sunday.  And don't forget to tell me who your stitching blessing is.

Sarah's Giveaway and the Travelling Pattern

The lovely Sarah at CraftyMoo is having a giveaway.  I love Sarah because she appears to be wearing a pink feather boa in her profile pic which always makes me smile.

This is my progress on the Travelling Pattern after 2 days of stitching:

I chose a piece of rustic fabric I bought when my LNS was closing earlier this year.  It appeared to be 32 count.  But I discovered it is only 32 count horizontally, vertically it is 26 count.  How random is that?  So the design is coming out much taller than expected!

The red and blue threads are DMC variegated but there doesn't seem to be much varience apart from the paler blue at the beginning.  The brown fence is a tweeded pair from my scraps bag.  I do like a bit of tweeding!

It seems from the comments on my last post that I am the only stitcher in touch with her inner-6-year old who marks her chart nicely with lots of pretty colours.  Next post I will show you my scraps bag and see if I'm a minority of one in that too!

Edited to add - a friend wants to learn how to make cushions, small decorative pillows and ornaments, things that involve sewing.  Does anyone have a tutorial page on their blog or can recommend a good one?  Thanks!