A Dozen Years of Hard Blogging!

 

Today is my 12th Blogaversary, a dozen years of blogging fun and hops around our community.

So, here are the stats:

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12 years

1298 posts

707 followers

22,956 comments

1,611,435 pageviews

WOW

This time last year I was focusing on my Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow project as I am continuing to do this year.

It went from here:

to here:

The current block has these three cute ghosts!

Chatelaine Gardens of London went from here last April:

to here:

One guardsman and quite a lot of border!

My Spooky conversion of CCN's Main Street went from here:

to here:

Three shops added, three more for this year hopefully

Mirabilia's Fairy Idyll grew from here:

to here:

I am hoping to focus on her once I finish Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow

Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas went from here:

and gained one and a bit more days to here:

Finally, a Happy Birthday to my Blog's twin - Susan from Yellow Flower Meadow!

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2023

Welcome to the Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop for 2023.  I am sure you all know how it works now - hop around the list of blogs and collect the letter each one has for you.  They spell out a message which you can leave in a comment here for me.  I have moderated comments so no-one will see them until 14th April.  Just to give everyone a chance to play along.

Sewing After Seven

Jocondine

Aimetu's Stitching
Le Couer Celtique

Tales of a Stitching Mouse

An Arizona Stitcher

Elfin Stitches

Needle, Pen & Sword

A Patchwork of Crafts

Mary's Thread

Tickled Pink in Stitches

BAP Attack

Guava Gems

Life Outside the Washing Basket

Tiff Stitches a Blog

Yellow Flower Meadown

Stitching Grandma

Dragon Stitches and Stuff by Astrid

and back to me for this letter:

I don't have a current Easter or Spring stitch at the moment, but here is the seasonal display in the corner of our living room with some previous finishes:

And here is my trio of framed pieces

 

Finally, don't forget to leave an encouraging comment on each blog you visit.  There wouldn't be a Hop without all the lovely participants.

The People Chose Subversive

  

This SAL is all about what you want to see on the blog.  I asked for suggestions for themes from followers of my blog and then put them up to the members of the IHSW Group on FB to vote for their choice.  We are currently working our way through the choices.  This is what was chosen:

April - Subversive

May - Embellishments

June - Rainbow

Subversive - seeking or intended to subvert an established system or institution.

Subvert - undermine the power and authority of (an established system or institution)

Pretty radical stuff, eh?  There is a lovely article here - Nursing Clio - Subversive Samplers which talks about a sampler stitched by a young girl called Patty Polk in the early 19th Century.  Patty's sampler looked very traditional but contained the words “Patty Polk did this and she hated every stitch she did in it. She loves to read much more.”

Another early example is this one from the V&A Museum's collection.  I was lucky enough to see this in person back in 2014.  Elizabeth Parker stitched this long essay on a bedsheet.  It is described as "a very moving act of repentance sewed by a young girl who was badly abused by her employer, suffered from depression and found salvation in the Bible."

More information  - here

These days "subversive" can mean anything from swearing to political commentary to craftivism.

This is a piece I stitched back in 2011 for a Railway Protest:

This is one of my favourite pieces, stitched for a challenge back in 2013.  Anna the Stitch Bitch challenged us to do something with a Plum Street Sampler design of a bird atop a tall flower and the motto "To Thine Own Self Be True".  I decided to be true to mine own self and added a tattoo themed design which co-ordinated beautifully with the bird.

If you're looking for some humerous snarky subversiveness, then this is a great Etsy shop - Cross Stitch Traveler.  Here are just three of my favourites:

Now it's over to you.  All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Subversive, mention The People's Choice SAL (you can copy the picture I used at the top of this post and in my side bar) and my blog. Please link up using the URL of the actual blog post, not the home page of your blog.   I look forward to seeing what you all post.

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Finally, I need your suggestions for the next poll.  Anything, no matter how obscure, weird or random will go into the poll.  Keep the theme suggestions to a single word or two - so you could have Cats, or Green, or Holidays, or Warmth etc.   Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

March Stitch from Stash and Pie

 It's time for Pie!

I spent my usual fortnight working on Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow. Here's where I started the month:

Here's where I finished Block 10:

And one day on Block 11:

The whole piece:

stitched over 1 on 25 count Cassia Rose from Chromatic Alchemy

So far the number of days is:

Block 7 - 13 days

Block 6 - 16 days

Block 2 - 19 days

Block 3 - 20 days

Block 4 - 15 days

Block 1 - 19 days

Block 5 - 25 days

Block 8 - 15 days

Block 9 - 27 days

Block 10 - 31 days

Block 11 - 1 day and counting

The blocks are taking longer because of the full coverage sections, but also because I had a bad flu-bug in February and a few days where I probably only stitched for 30 minutes.

The other pieces you have seen in previous posts so it's over to the evening pie:

The Amanda Butler's Houses were both completed before the end of the month.  

stitched on 28 count grey evenweave

So I continued with the Temperature SAL which is a little bit behind.  March ended with a peek into the yellow zone with 17 degrees on the 30th!

Finally, Stitch from Stash:

I needed some DMC from Lakeside as I was running low on a couple of colours.  I tend to have one master set that I pull from unless a project has a lot of one colour.  In that case I keep a skein with the project to make sure I don't change dyelots half way through.

 

March WIPGO

 

I thought I'd do a little recap of my WIPGO progress so far this year.  WIPGO is basically Bingo for WIPs.  Each person makes their own board of 25 squares with various WIPs and goals for each number.
Two numbers are called each month and we work on those projects.
The centre square is a bonus, if 13 is called then another number is called in addition so you could have three projects that month.  I use 13 for my Longest Day marathon.

Here's my board at the start of the year:

And here it is now:

My focus piece for 2023 is Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow so that features 10 times.  I have paired it with Fairy Idyll because I am hoping to complete it before the end of the year and move on to Fairy Idyll.

Each of my other projects appear once, twice or thrice depending on how much time I want to spend on them,

It would be nice if H@HRH came out once a month with one other project but of course it doesn't work like that!  It either comes out twice or not at all.

There are three possible combinations:

A. H@HRH x 2 - stitch H@HRH for 2 weeks then stitch whatever I want for 2 weeks
B. H@HRH x 1 plus 1 other project - stitch H@HRH for 2 weeks and the other project for 2 weeks
C. Other projects x 2 - stitch H@HRH for 2 weeks then the other projects for one week each.

So far it seems to be working,

In January I worked on my Faces SAL and Little Snapdragon, both older WIPs I would like to see finished soon.

In February H@HRH was called twice so I used the rest of the month to finish the block on the Faces SAL.

For March, I got a new start I'd been really looking forward to - Taurus by Nora Corbett and then my Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas.

I absolutely love Taurus!   I have all 12 of the Zodiac Girls and want to stitch them all on the corresponding fabrics from Sparklies.  So Taurus is being stitched on Taurus fabric!  My long-term plan is one per year but I may escalate that time frame!

At the rate I am stitching the Bothy Threads, that's also going to take 12 years!  The linen is so floppy but the colours are gorgeous.  Especially this red in the Five Gold Rings block.

Next month, the numbers called are for 2 weeks on H@HRH so once I have done those, I will return to Little Snapdragon and see how much progress I can make on him.

🐇 Good Friday - Friday 7th April 🐇

Finally, it's time to sign up for the Annual Easter Treasure Hunt.    If you would like to take part this year, just leave a comment here.  The week before Easter I will send you a letter of the alphabet which will form part of the mystery phrase.  On Good Friday you will post that letter along with a photo of something seasonal that you have stitched (could be Easter or Spring or just something cheerful and sunny or floral).  We all hop around like little bunnies to find the Mystery Phrase!

Here's a link to last year's hop so you can see how it all works - Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2022

March Smalls

  

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

Because I am focusing on my BAPs again, I won't have so many smalls this year but I do have a couple of series with small components so I will share them this month.

The first is the Blackwork Tarot by Circle Cross.  I am still working on Fire:

stitched on 28 count sky blue evenweave from Silkweavers

My next collection of tiny items is the Potion Bottle Temperature SAL from Stitch It Picasso.  

stitched over 1 on 25 count tea-dyed evenweave

I popped it into the evening slot for a couple of days to try catch up a bit.

The next series is from Amanda Butler in Cross Stitcher magazine.  I completed the London Houses at the start of the month:

And moved straight onto the Belfast Houses and got them done in 27 days:

stitched on 28 pale grey evenweave

Finally, following on from Noteworthy Needle's exciting release from last month, here's another moveable seasonal design, released for the Jingle Ball last year:

On her Facebook page she has a video showing how this works and the reason I am excited is because I have made one of these before.  They are not difficult at all so I just need to find some nice seasonal designs and I can make one.

Facebook Noteworthy Needle

Here's the one I made.  The big difference is the I cut the corners off which makes it easier to turn.  You can see the wear on the corners in the above video already because they are square.

March WIPocalypse Stitching Supplies

      

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings

Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World.  Since 2011 I have chosen a number of projects to focus on that year, starting with my "11 in '11" and increasing to "23 in '23" for this year.  This month I stitched on 7 of them and had 1 finish.

5. Carriage House Samplings Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow

11. Nora Corbett Taurus

13. Mani di Donna Halloween Stitching Basket

17. Stitch it Picasso Temperature SAL

18. Circle Cross Blackwork Tarot

20. Amanda Butler London Houses - Finish

21. Amanda Butler Belfast Houses 

The full list can be seen here - WIPocalypse and "23 in '23"

Finally, Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too.

March - Tell us about your favourite places to buy stitching supplies

I use a mixture of online stores trying to use places run by enthusiasts.  Lakeside Needlecraft is one of the first places I look, Kate is very helpful.   If she hasn't got what I need then Peakside or Patchwork Rabbit are the next ports of call.  For hand-dyed fabrics, it's Sparklies or Chromatic Alchemy.  There is a small needlework shop about 10 miles away who supplies me with the latest Just Nan designs.

Two places I will never shop - Hobbycraft and Amazon.

Of course Etsy is fabulous for PDFs from international designers too.