August WIPocalypse Number 1

Here's the round-up for the progress since the last Full Moon.


Part 1 - My 12 in '12


Stonkin' progress this month!


I completed not one but THREE of the projects on my list of 12 which actually quadruples the number of finishes!  I have started five more and only have three which haven't got any further than buying fabric.


Here are this month's three finishes:

This is a Blackbird Designs chart called Bluebirds which Margaret sent to me along with Madame Muriel.  I tea-dyed a piece of 28 count evenweave and used the DMC conversion provided.  Mostly.  I blended the hill then used one green for the leaves and the other green for between the flowers.  I also used 931 for the birds rather than 930 which was a little dark.  They look quite bright in this photo because it was taken in the conservatory rather than our lounge.  The colours are a little more muted in real life.

And here are the two baby samplers you've already seen:

Cross Stitcher Mag Elissa Hudson

JBW Designs Noah's Ark

The chart for the Noah's Ark is off to Cucki as she admired it so much and said her son loved it too.  It's Cucki's Birthday this month so it'll go off to the Stitching Cove with a card.


Part 2 - Just Nan-a-thon


Not so good, in fact nothing again!


Part 3 - Theme-a-licious Jolly July


See yesterday's post for my single holiday themed finish, BRD Woodsy Winter.


Finally, back on this post I asked if you ever send pictures of your work to the designers.  This is something I've started doing this year and I'm so pleased I did.  I got a lovely email from Belinda the Blue Ribbon Girl who is now a follower.  She's even posted my Woodsy Winter on her FB page she liked it so much.  So if you've loved stitching a design, let the designer know, they love feedback and photos.  And guess what, they love stitching and blogging too LOL.

Happy Baby Dance and a small start

I finished and framed the ABC Sampler for my friend's baby this week and here it is:

The design was in Cross Stitcher magazine issue 249.  The original design was by an illustrator Elissa Hudson and was charted by an anonymous person for the magazine (I couldn't see a credit anyway!).  I stitched it on 32count white evenweave using the recommended DMC.  I moved several of the letters and motifs around so I could fit in the baby's name and that of his big sister.  This was a lovely quirky stitch, being able to do one or two letters a session made progress seem rather fast.  There was a thick plain turquoise border all around but it would have taken at least a week to stitch if not more and frankly - life's too short to stitch straight lines in one colour!

I have given the sampler to baby's Mum and she loved it, as did Big Sis.  Baby not so sure LOL.  But he is only 17 weeks old. 

This is the new start:

When Madame Muriel arrived she came bearing gifts, one of which was this delightful Blackbird Designs chart.  I'm stitching it on 28count evenweave which I've tea-dyed.  I'm using the DMC conversion they gave but may change the colours of some of the scattered flowers so they show up more on this fabric.

I also stitched another one of my back-stitch only flower cards.  This is July's Delphinium or Larkspur:

Question - which name would you use?  Delphinium or Larkspur?  Either name is right but which is more widely used?  Delphiniums always remind me of the AA Milne poem about the Dormouse and the Doctor.

Finally, another postcard was sent out in the Summer Postcard Blog Hop.  Julie's card went to Julie!!  Julie Bagpuss to Julie and Yes Dear that is.

Here's a full list of links so far:

First Postcard sent to Grasp the Stars
Jennifer's postcard sent to Tales of a Stitching Mouse
Mouse's card sent to The Southpaw Stitcher
Southpaw's card sent to Julie's Stitchy Knitter Journal
Julie's card sent to Julie and Yes Dear
Julie (and Yes Dear)'s card to go where......?

There are plenty more postcards to go out and still lots of time to join in.  Just click on the link to the right and read the rules first!

July WIPocalypse

Here's the round-up for the progress since the last Full Moon.

Part 1 - My 12 in '12


8. Turquoise Baby Sampler - Stitched several more letters, O, P, Q, T and U.

11. Papillon Around the World in 80 Stitches.  Started Part 2, stitched the top tulip.  Added the metallics to the hearts.

Part 2 - Just Nan-a-thon


Nothing at all for Nan this month.   But I did frame Summer and got it up on the wall.  This was actually completed all except a dozen beads about 10 years ago!

Part 3 - Theme-a-licious: Jumanji June (birds and animals)

I stitched on two different Round Robins and did some guinea-pig stitching for an online friend.

Other news:
Regular readers will know I join in with the Needlecraft Haven Freebie Challenge each month.  Christine chooses a chart for us all to stitch.  June's choice was a rose in an unusual style.  The original was nice but I thought of a conversation I'd had with Karen where we'd been planning our Giant Mirabilia RR for 2013.  I wanted each person to stitch their birth month fairy but it turned out that three out of four of us were September!  So I said we should each stitch her but in different colours for an Andy Warhol effect.

Anyway, I thought this would be the perfect design for that treatment.  So here it is, for my 15 Minutes of Fame - Rose a la Warhol:

I stitched this on 16 count aida, hand-coloured with my trusty fabric pens.  I chose some vibrant colours and went for it!  That yellow is actually fluorescent.  Here's the link for the original design by Marie-Thérèse Saint-Aubin.

Finally, the obligatory Summer Postcard Blog Hop mention.  LOL.  Click the Sunset picture to the right of my blog to find out more.

May WIPocalypse and Manka's Hungarian SAL

Here's the round-up for the progress since the last Full Moon.

Part 1 - My 12 in '12

1. Completed all the letters on the Dark Alphabet, charted the title and signoff block, stitching an "A" for Alphabet.

I'll do a complete blog post dedicated to this design very soon.

2. No progress on Green Goddess.  Oh dear, poor old GG.

3. Stitched a couple of days on My Lovely Sewing Tools.

4. Home of a Needleworker - not started

5. Blackbird Designs - I tea-dyed a piece of fabric for this!

6. Ed Hardy Skull and Roses - not started

7. I chose the design for my friend's wedding.  This chart was a prize from Minnie of All XXs.

Isn't this lovely (and hopefully quite quick to stitch!).  I plan to put the Bride and Groom's initials and date in the centre rather than the verse.

8. Baby Sampler.  Have stitched A - N on this one.

9. Baby design for my cousin - baby due this month, gender currently unknown.  Not started

10. Yiotas Coffee Fairy - have made a start on this one (only 2 evenings but it's a start!)

11. Papillon Around the World in 80 Stitches (this "bounced" Castles in the Air off the 12, one of my "rules" is that I'm only allowed to bounce a design in favour of another design by the same designer).  Have started (see separate page for progress pic).  If you're stitching this too then let me know and I'll add you to my list.

12. Nora Corbett Trick or Treat Fairy - I did look at the fabric for this when I was sorting my stash out!

Part 2 - Just Nan-a-thon

Nothing at all for Nan this month.

Part 3 - Theme-a-licious: Amazon April

I worked on my BAPs - Big Alphabet Projects.  My Lovely Sewing Tools, Dark Alphabet and Baby Alphabet.  All of which featured in the Theme-a-licious update here.

I did sign up for a Mini Mystery SAL with Manka and a few others.  This is Part 1, stitched on 28count green evenweave using the current favourite DMC 4045.  I used this on Life's a Stitch, CCN Cherry Hill and the Needlecraft Haven monthly challenge (not pictured yet).  Here it is used again:

Now I can email this to Manka and get Part 2!

Be sure to look at her album on Pinterest for all the versions of this.

 

Finally, Yiota who makes the Coffee Fairy (see above) and all these lovely cross stitch kits has offered to sponsor my 250 followers giveaway.  Only problem is - I've stalled at 243!  Hopefully I'll pick up a few people through the WIPocalypse post on Measi's blog.  So if you're just drifting past looking at the projects, consider clicking on the "follow" button!

Theme-a-licious Looking Backward and Forward IV

You do know that Theme-a-licious is a "It's Geek to Me" activity, don't you? 
Click the above pic to find out more.

April's Theme was Amazon April or your biggest projects.  I decided that BAP stands for Big Alphabet Project and worked on both Dark Alphabet and my Turquoise Baby Alphabet.  I also worked on My Lovely Sewing Tools (which actually has an alphabet in it, scattered around the piece) and had a completely unexpected start in Papillon's Around the World in 80 Stitches.

ATW80S is certainly an enormous piece of fabric for me and it's a full two years project so that will definitely count as a BAP.

Pictures:

Papillon Around the World

My Lovely Sewing Tools (includes an alphabet!)

Turquoise Baby Alphabet

Please come and follow The Stitching Gift blog.  There are a group of us who love the Gift of Stitching magazine and are going to be showcasing our WIPS and finishes from the magazine.  The final issue came out this weekend and it's a great finale.  Kirsten will still be involved in designing and sending out her newsletter.  She will also continue to offer the old issues to buy as bundles or individually.  There is currently a sale on, where everything is half-price!  You can get a whole year's bundle for only US$12.  Amazing.

May Memories -

Remember when you took that class? Or decided to commemorate that event? And then abandoned your poor WIP? Take a stroll down memory lane by working on it again.

Green Goddess is becoming a distant memory!  So maybe I should give her some love.  I also have an old Autumn sampler in my stash chest I could dig out.  Or I could decide to make some new memories - stitching things which relate to my blogging friends, charts they have sent me or recommended the designer.

I have signed up for a couple of small partwork SALs.  No, ATW80S is not counted as one of them.  First was a Hungarian Mini Mystery SAL from Manka's Blog which I found via Blu's SAL Directory Blog.  Manka blogs in Hungarian, English, and other languages too.  I do love multi-lingual bloggers, as Google Translate should be renamed Giggle Translate due to the weird translations it comes up with.

(edit to add - when you go to Manka's blog, the cursor turns into a little rose!  Even cuter than falling things!)

The 2nd small SAL I found via Dulcinella's blog.  It's from a French blog Voyage sur Toile.  You need to sign up for the newsletter and you will get Parts 1-3 with Part 4 due soon (Dimanche is Sunday, right?).  There is a Translate button at the top but for some reason my brain thinks it can read French although it can't.  Saying the words with a fake French accent is not the same as understanding what they say!

Finally, I have switched to Photobucket for my photo storage, my Picasa album was nearly full due to the fact I don't make my photos smaller before loading them on!  I could not be bothered to resize every photo in my blog so I've switched.  Sheila said she has trouble seeing the photos last post, so here is a link to the album.  If anyone else has difficulty seeing them on the blog, please let me know and I'll think again.

edit July2017 - switching to Photobucket was a huge mistake!  They decided to start charging for storage at no notice whatsoever and are holding our photos to ransom.  I can't even download my own photos from my folder there, so I'm having to photograph my screen to get them!

Do You Do Voodoo Too?

I'd gotten a little behind with The Dark Alphabet, partly because of stitching on the Joan Elliott Round Robin and partly because Julie is banging out the letters this year!!

So I'll be putting the hours into it this month to try catch up.  V was for Voodoo and as usual The Note of Friendship blog is full of information about the letter and plenty of useful links if you want to know more.

This wasn't the most exciting block to stitch, the lettering was great but the little figure got a bit tedious!  When I stitch over 1 in rows I get a ridge between every other line, which is great for some of the pieces but for this one I stitched diagonal rows which made it a little more interesting.  I dangled the carrot of "Wyvern" to get me through it.  I'm using a variegated for Wyvern and it's so much more fun!

The green scarf is stitched in the Van Dyke Stitch, quite fiddly over 1 but a nice little effect.

The next piece is my current daytime project, Cherry Hill by CCN.  This was a giveaway from Crafty Rahenna and I'm loving it.  I'm using DMC on 40 count Newcastle linen, over 2, a mixture of 2 strands or 1 strand depending on the effect needed.  I'm using two different variegateds for the green and there'll be a variegated red coming soon.

Not a brilliant pic because I'm using my scanner.  It's quicker and easier than using the camera for WIPS.

The third project is my alphabet sampler for my friend's new baby boy.  I shifted the letters around to include his name... 

I'm so pleased with the wobbly lower case letters!  I charted them myself on a piece of graph paper and they looked a little upright and straight so I kind of free-styled them on the fabric.  I'll be adding Big Sis's name further down.  This chart was published in Cross Stitcher magazine this year.

There's also a charting project called "I Blame Karen" after Stitchy Woman.  She makes these throwaway comments on stitching forums which set my mind ticking and before I know where I am, I'm surrounded by pieces of sketch paper, graph paper, charts and being accused of being a "Manus-o-phile".  Non-Latin speakers will have to wait to see if this ever comes to anything other than an in-joke and a moment of madness on paper.

Finally, the Easter Treasure Hunt was a HUGE success, it was so much fun blog-hopping to see the letters.  There was only one Picture Poster who couldn't make it, she was away for the weekend but everyone managed to guess the missing letter!!  I'll keep the entries secret until the Friday deadline just in case anyone is behind in their blog-reading.  I used the Easter weekend to catch up on mine, I only have today's posts outstanding and have been commenting all over the place which I love to do.

April WIPocalypse

April WIPocalypse

Here's the round-up for the progress since the last Full Moon.

Part 1 - My 12 in '12

1. No progress on Green Goddess.  But she will come back for Amazon April.

2. Completed "U" on the Dark Alphabet, started "V" for Voodoo.

3. Stitched a couple of days on My Lovely Sewing Tools, and joined the new blog "The Stitching Gift" to display my progress.  Gillie has set up this blog so we can post our WIPS and completed projects from the magazine so everyone can see them as well as the members of the Yahoo Group.  Every poster is including the issue the design appeared in so if you want you can go and buy the relevant back issue.  These will be on sale for the foreseeable future.  I used my subs money to get all of 2010 so now I have 12 back issues to read through and drool over the designs!

8. Baby Sampler.  Baby Boy arrived last month, sampler started.

This is a nice quick stitch, I can do one or two letters each evening.  I'm planning on adding baby's name and his big sister's name next to their relevant letter which will involve a little tweaking of the design.  I've moved the elephant over to save 3 squares and will move the apple too when I come to it.

Part 2 - Just Nan-a-thon

Started "Dewdrop" a little Easter rabbit.  Rather different to all the samplers in my collection.  Picture to follow.

Part 3 - Theme-a-licious: March Madness and Amazon April

For March Madness I planned to stitch as many different designers as fit in my schedule and managed 12!!  Not too shabby for a former OAATer.  See this post for all the pics.

As the Full Moon rises earlier each month there will be less and less on the 2nd month's Theme.  In other words I haven't stitched anything Amazon for April yet!

I also finished my block for Jacqui's Joan Elliott Round Robin:

Angled shot to show the beads:

Close-up to show the single bead of a different colour.  I decided to buy a whole pack rather than subbing on the grounds that it is sure to be needed later on in this RR.  Or I might stitch the whole lady one day and there are plenty needed in the rest of the design.

 The whole thing:

Jacqui's theme is "Your Favourite JE design".

I love Joan's Oriental pictures and thought it would make a nice change to stitch one for this piece.  The design came from Cross Stitch Collection magazine issue 186.  Also in the RR are two fairies, one fantasy, one Xmas and one small fairies plus my Flower Fairies where I stitched the centre piece of all six flowers.

Recently while I've been stitching I've been listening to audio books from the library.  Most appropriately, this week's choice was Empress Orchid by Anchee Min read by Pik-Sen Lim.  Audio books are great for stitching time as they are much less distracting than the TV.  They also keep my mind on something other than worrying about the world!  Plus I'll be helping my local library which is still under threat of closure despite increasing their lendings this last year.

Finally, watch out for the Easter Treasure Hunt this Sunday.  I have 14 Picture Posters taking part and there will be a prize for one lucky person who finds the Mystery Phrase!