Gifted Gorgeousness June Link-Up Post

Welcome to the Gifted Gorgeousness link-up post!  The link-up date will continue to be the 15th of each month but I will keep the linky open until the end of each month so you have plenty of time to join in.

The format remains EXACTLY the same as last year so I'm sure you are all aware of what can be included - gifts to and from you; charts, fabric or threads; shoe-horns welcome!

Since my last GG post I have worked on a few gifted pieces:

Elizabeth Shephard by The Scarlet Letter - a gift from Nicola:

stitched on 30 count linen

Counting Bats by Just Nan - a gift from Epic Mel:

stitched on 32 count lilac linen

Little Snap Dragon by Kustom Krafts - a gift from Lesley:

stitched on 32 count Evening Sky Murano by Crafty Kitten

A finish for The Sweetheart Tree's Finger Fun 1 - a gift from Vickie:

stitched on 28 count Platinum linen

The chart for this cute design is going to be the prize for the GGG (Gifted Gorgeous Giveaway) this month.  All you have to do is link-up and leave a comment making it clear you would like to win this chart.  There is some over-one stitching and blackwork too.  You will have to source the teeny tiny buttons or use beads instead.

Here is the place for you to link up so we can see what Gifted Gorgeousness you have been stitching so far this year.  Please use your name or your blog name in the field NOT the words "June Update" so I can easily see who has linked up this month.

And link to the actual post, not just your blog.  It is easier if you copy and paste the link, rather than typing freehand.

Thank you.  I can amend links if you make a boo-boo though.

*

*

Finally, The Days of Jo's Life Big Birthday Blog Hop was been launched and is taking sign-ups.  The Hop will be on the 17th September.  To take part all you have to do is leave a comment or email me.  Nearer the date I will allocate you a Year of My Life and on the 17th September you do a blog post about that year or that life event in your life or what you were doing at that age (assuming you are that old!).  Also, post something you have stitched which you think I will like.  Lots of people have already signed up but there are still some spaces left if you'd like to be involved.

Serendipity Strikes Again!

Remember the name of my blog and the little sub-heading at the top?  Well, serendipity has struck again!  Last post I showed you the lovely pile of DMC Susan had sent me as an early Birthday present for stitching the Chatelaine Gardens of London Mandala.  It just so happens that Martina has been running a Daily Discount on FB.  Each day she chooses a few charts which have 20% off for one day only.  And I just so happened to spot this on the one day London was included!  So now it's mine.  Isn't that perfect?

I have the long list of speciality threads needed and a quote from Crafty Kitten to kit them up (approximately £150).  It would be cheaper to get them from European Cross Stitch (who are in the US ironically!) but then I would have a huge customs bill to pay.  So it's swings and roundabouts.  I do plan to look carefully at the chart and decide if I really need all the different threads, Waterlilies in particular are very expensive for what they are.  So if anyone wants to "sponsor a skein" I promise to write your name on the bag and think of you whenever I use it LOL

Last Friday was the second Friday of the month which means Christmas stitching.  The theme on the Christmas Ornie SAL blog is Animals or Pets.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to stitch some more Daffycat Reindeer.  Here is the first one:

stitched over one on 28 count sparkly evenweave

I also did a little scrapbooking of finishes:

The Sweetheart Tree - Finger Fun I

************************

The Little Stitcher - Winter Woods

*******************

And here is the most recent finish, mounted on a calendar page of one of Monet's Waterlilies paintings.

Just Nan - My Fair Ladybug

And a little close-up of the Ladybird charm I got from SewandSo:

Here's my progress on the next Just Nan piece I've been stitching:

Beehive Violets

Once I finish the pink smyrna stitches there is some gold and the beads and it's done.  I am in three minds what to stitch next in the evenings!  Either another Just Nan small, the Primitive Needle Sampler Susan sent me or an Ink Circles Spooky Mandala.  I just can't decide!  Daytime is easy, Little Snapdragon will come back once I have finished the Christmas Reindeer.

Finally, an apology if I haven't visited your blog recently.  I've got a little behind with reading and commenting.  Not sure why but I seem to have had less time to read them in the evenings than usual.  Maybe we should have our tea earlier so I get a longer evening!

Warning - This Post Contains Explosives!

As promised in my previous post here are some photos of my exploding book as inspired by Anna the Stitch Bitch.

And here's how you make one:

1. Take some squares of thick paper and fold them in quarters and one diagonal

2. Stick them together so the corner squares overlap

3. Cut up some patterned paper into squares just a little smaller than the quarters of the original squares

4. Stick some of the patterned squares onto the plain paper

5. Cut the rest of the patterned squares in half and stick the triangles on either side of the folded parts

(feet shown for scale)

6. Stick your cross stitched pieces onto the flat squares

7. The whole book, simply attach a front and back cover and some ribbon ties

Obviously they are not full instructions but if you Google "Exploding Book" you will find several tutorials in words and pictures or on YouTube depending which you prefer.

The designs in the book are by Just Nan, her Moon Riders and Crow Jackers minis.

This week I have continued with Little Snap Dragon by Kustom Krafts:

stitched on 32 count Murano Evening Sky by Crafty Kitten

I focused on his tail this week.

I also completed Just Nan's My Fair Ladybug and now my little brass ladybird charm has arrived I can attach that, scrapbook it and show you later.  I started another Just Nan small, this one is Beehive Violets:

stitched on 28 count evenweave

The whole centre of that piece will have a honeycomb stitched in gold metallic and a bee charm added so I'm leaving that until last.

Finally I received a lovely parcel earlier this week.  I was expecting my ladybird charm (and one or two other things to justify postage) so I wasn't surprised when the postman delivered a padded envelope.  But it was yellow, not white like SewandSo's usual envelopes.  And franked US with a customs slip.  Once I opened it I found a present from Susan Yellow Flower Meadow; some L*K charts she offered to me (which I had forgotten about), another cute 3D Nutmeg Cottage chart, some gorgeous purple linen and an awesome Hallowe'en sampler from Primitive Needle!

40 count Zweigart linen

And a floppy parcel wrapped in pretty tissue paper.  What could be inside?  Some more fabric?  A project bag?  Or half a shop of DMC?  Look at all these lovelies!  They are all the DMC needed for the Chatelaine Gardens of London which I intend to purchase for my Special Birthday!

Thank you Susan!  You are awesome!

June TUSAL

It's TUSAL time again!  For those of you new to blogging, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button on the right hand bar for more details.

Here is my ORTS jar posing with the current stitching projects:

The project on the left is Just Nan's Counting Bats which is the design I am stitching each month for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL.  Here is this month's band:

stitched on 32 count lilac linen

And here is the whole piece so far:

There's a skeleton charm to be added in the gap under the bat

The other design is my nearly-finish of My Fair Ladybug, also by Just Nan.  It would have been finished today but I discovered I don't have the little ladybird charm for the centre!

stitched on 28 count evenweave

So I popped over the SewandSo's website, ordered the charm, some beads I need and a couple more JNs fell into my basket!  oops.  Here's a close-up of the beaded part:

I spent some time cataloguing my Just Nans this morning.  I have 49 of the small designs, not including the Hallowe'en ones!  The majority were the annual freebies but some are "bought and paid for" designs.  I have stitched a grand total of 6 of them!  Time to get cracking on another one I think.  I chose Beehive Violets to go with my bee-themed RAK from Kim.

Finally, I completed my exploding book!  As seen in the Stitch Bitch's blog.  More photos to follow in the next post.

The Keen and Knowedgeable Alphabet Kindred

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.

K is for Kelpie from A Dark Alphabet designed by Julie and Becky's Note of Friendship blog.  A kelpie is a shape-shifting water demon who takes the form of a horse to lure people out to sea where it kills and eats them,  K was also for Kelim Stitch used in the mane.

a Kombination of two designs from alphabet books.

K is for Knitting as shown in the Brooke's Book's Stitcher's Alphabet piece I am stitching for the Alphabet Klub SAL:

K kompletes another page of the book I'm making out of these:

Not a hobby I have picked up.  Nothing will distract me from my stitching!

While I was komposing this post in my head I was struggling to think of things I'd stitched beginning with K.  Luckily my blog labels come into play here and I found a kouple of things.

Kingfisher from Anchor

Stitched for the Small Boy's klass in mainstream Primary School.  All the klasses were named after waterbirds.  I was lucky I didn't have to stitch a koot or a bittern.

Kokopelli from Southwest Designs

A blogging friend of mine mentioned that she was hoping to start a family that year so I did a little search and found this kute Kokopelli design.  He's a Native American fertility deity also associated with music (hence the pipe) and "an important conveyor of information and trinkets from afar, a Story Teller, par excellence".

I stitched him and made him into a little bag which I filled with jelly babies and mailed it off to her.  It worked!  Not that long afterwards she announced she was expecting and now has an adorable little toddler boy.  So if you'd like to start a family, why not stitch a kokopelli?

Kitten!

Max's Moon from Bucilla

Kitties!

Alphabet Kitties from JBW

More Kitties!

Spooky Kitties from Carand88

There aren't too many K designers in my stash but I do like some the Knotted Tree NeedleArt designs from Just Kross Stitch:

and this kute freebie from Kissy Cross

As luck would have it, my kurrent WIP is a K too.  But one I don't approve of!  Kustom Krafts.  Why the Ks?  How are we to teach people to spell when the alphabet is abused in this way?  Oh well, it gives me an exkuse to show the Little Snap Dragon again.

stitched on 32 count Evening Sky Murano from Crafty Kitten

I added some more kolours to his tail.  And discovered I made a slight error, I stitched the 3 kolumn overlap twice at the bottom of his tail.  Never mind, it just means the kurled up part is three stitches to the right of where it should be.  It won't affect anything else so I'm leaving it!

On to my blog roll.  Top of the list has to be one of my best online friends and double K:

Kaye from Kitten Stitching

Karoline's Corner

Kearnel's Korner

(gorgeous tulip photos in her latest post)

Keeble's World

Kiwi Stitching

Kris' Stitches

(recently returned to blogging)

Finally, a random act of Kindness appeared yesterday afternoon from the lovely Kim.  Just in time to be included in this post!  Kim is sending out a number of RAKs this year to celebrate a special Birthday.  Here's what she sent me:

I think this parcel is Karma's way of telling me that I need to stitch this design some time soon!

Bee Happy by Primitive Hare 

in Just Cross Stitch June 2016