TUSAL and TUPOST - Blogger won't let me post any writing other than the title of this post. I can't add pictures either. How frustrating is that? Hopefully it will come back soon. Happy Stitching Jo who has the longest post title ever!

Thursday 23rd February 18.40 - after 2 solid days of trying to post:

Hooray it's working!!

Here is my TUSAL photo:

TUSAL is posing with Madame Muriel, my page-every-other-day calendar and my framed Periphaeria Star SAL.

I used a nice big frame to show off the lovely Sparklies' fabric.  It is Purpleberry Spludge and the design is stitched over 1 on 28 count.  The frame was a dirt-cheap raw pine one which I coloured with my purple felt tip pen.

Here's another picture to show the purple of the frame (I've had to tweak the brightness to show the frame colour:

And here's a close-up of the bottom part:

It's funny how the density of the stitches affects the colour.  All the purple is the same skein of DMC 333 but where there is a single line of stitches it looks much paler than where there is solid stitching.  I've only noticed this effect on this piece of work.

A Final Happy Dance for 2012 and some International Mail

The final Happy Dance for 2012 is the Star SAL from Periphaeria.  I became aware of this one about halfway through on Mouse's blog and just had to join in.  I also filched the colour scheme from Mouse, she used purples on another sampler and they looked so good I had to steal!

The fabric is Purpleberry Spludge from Sparklies, gorgeous name for a gorgeous fabric.  It's a 28count evenweave which I stitched over 1.  I've used Purple 333 and Yellow 973 throughout but the purple looks lighter when there's only one row of stitches, on the alphabet and the bottom symbol.

Here's a closer pic with my scissors for scale:

I'm going to get an A4 frame to show off the fabric.  After payday, so it'll be a little while!

ps all that border over 1 was interminable!  The centre stitched up very quickly but the border went on and on and on and on.....

The International Mail part of this post refers to the three packages I received today.  Yes, three international parcels, Hubby and the postman must think I am an international jewel thief or something!

The first one is a prize from Shirlee of Farmhouse Ponderings.  She had a Giveaway and I got a runners-up prize of these cute pins.  Sweet, aren't they?  I haven't used pins before but I'm sure I'll find a good way next year.

The second package came all the way from Cucki-land.  Isn't it just so sweet and Cucki-like?  I saw a post on her blog where she said she loved material bags.  The bookshop where I work has a nice selection including one with a Quentin Blake design on I thought she'd like.  When I bought it I found a donation from the sale goes to a Book Charity in Africa which seemed appropriate.  So off it went to South Africa with some bookplates which match a picture on her blog.  I have had the bookplates since 2 surnames ago and had a few left.  They have a Maloo style cat looking at a pile of books!

What a lovely selection of cards, bookmarks, wooden ornaments and a little letter.  The only thing that gave me a fright was the black tassle.  Why?  Well you imagine opening a letter from South Africa and the first thing you see is something black moving!!   It's a very small African Spider was my first thought!!  Luckily it wasn't.

The final package was some threads from Janie (no blog).  She's a friend from the Yuku boards who loves Joan Elliott.  Unfortunately it is difficult to get the UK magazines where she lives so I sent her the recent pullout chart of the Madonna and Child design and she sent me some DMC in exchange.  Bearing in mind that DMC costs 90p a skein in the shops here or 40-65p online this was a good deal for us both!

I just had to include the photo as the colours look so lovely together!  I don't want to put them in my floss bags just yet, they really need to be stitched into a sampler first!  I didn't ask for any particular colour because I have less than one skein of any colour so anything is a bonus frankly!

And finally, when I went to Sparklies' website to get the link, I saw that she's having a New Year Sale on 1st January for 24 hours GMT only.  So get over there if you want 20% off her lovely fabrics.

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.

IHSW

I have to share this poem from Anne at Feather Stitching, the first three lines are:

"I’m completely addicted, to this I confess,
The ironing needs doing
and the house is a mess"

Follow this link for the rest, and hands up who recognises themselves?


And here is one of the projects I worked on for IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend for the uninitiated).  This is the Periphaeria Star SAL which is a part-work and therefore permissible as a new start!

The alphabet is actually Part 6 but as I've come to it late and I prefer to start in the middle that's what I've done.  The fabric is 28 count Purpleberry Spludge from Sparklies, the purple is DMC 333 and the yellow is DMC 973 (as chosen by the large boy).  And yes, I am stitching over 1, it's so delicate and pretty, like little spring crocuses (crocii?).  And the fabric was only £3.50 because it's 9x13 inches.

I also stitched on Bluebeard's Mermaid and a Joan Elliot flower.  The weather was foul so I got lots of stitching done while "supervising" the boys' playing.

Oh yes, if you want to be initiated into the hermithood of IHSW have a look at Joyze's blog.