77 - Cross Stitcher mag gift tags

These are from Cross Stitcher mag issue 247, the cover kit.  I won't go into long details about how much this magazine has disappointed me this last year (again!) but they slightly redeemed themselves with these designs by Angela Poole.

76 - Periphaeria Star SAL

The penultimate 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.

75 - Tralala Cat for Sam

  

This is the Tralala cat I have stitched before, available free from Socreastitch  I used the same DMC 4215 as before.

Dawn from Crafty Kitten found out she was expecting a baby due in January.  As she would be on maternity leave in January I decided to order my fabric just before Christmas so she could dye it over the holiday period.  I got an email on Boxing Day from her hospital bed saying "Baby came early, don't worry about your fabric, hubby is getting it ready to send to you"  That is the sort of customer service you get from Crafty Kitten, beautiful fabrics come Hell, High Water and Newborn Babies!

Anway, Nic, Hannah and myself collaborated on a Round Robin afghan for baby Sam.

Here is the whole piece in all it's glory:

This was a lovely afghan from Sewandso,  reasonably priced and very soft.  It specified "18 count evenweave" on the website so my brain said "that mean 36count which is equivalent to 18count aida".  When it arrived it really was 18count evenweave and a very loose evenweave too.  So the choice was to stitch over 2 and get 9count equivalent or stitch over 1.  Which I did.  Moral - read and believe the website.

Dawn was thrilled to bits with the present which arrived this week.  She sent us a lovely photo of Sam with it, I forgot to ask permission to post it here, so I won't just yet.  But his expression is priceless - he's got his arms stretched out wide going "how big is my blanket?"!!

74 - Little Dragon for Sam

  

Dawn from Crafty Kitten found out she was expecting a baby due in January.  As she would be on maternity leave in January I decided to order my fabric just before Christmas so she could dye it over the holiday period.  I got an email on Boxing Day from her hospital bed saying "Baby came early, don't worry about your fabric, hubby is getting it ready to send to you"  That is the sort of customer service you get from Crafty Kitten, beautiful fabrics come Hell, High Water and Newborn Babies!

Anway, Nic, Hannah and myself collaborated on a Round Robin afghan for baby Sam.  This cute little dragon comes from here - Free Cross Stitch Charts

I changed the colour of the dragon to blue and simplified the colours used ALOT.  There were 26 different colours used originally which I reduced to about 10!

Here is the whole piece in all it's glory:

This was a lovely afghan from Sewandso,  reasonably priced and very soft.  It specified "18 count evenweave" on the website so my brain said "that mean 36count which is equivalent to 18count aida".  When it arrived it really was 18count evenweave and a very loose evenweave too.  So the choice was to stitch over 2 and get 9count equivalent or stitch over 1.  Which I did.  Moral - read and believe the website.

Dawn was thrilled to bits with the present which arrived this week.  She sent us a lovely photo of Sam with it, I forgot to ask permission to post it here, so I won't just yet.  But his expression is priceless - he's got his arms stretched out wide going "how big is my blanket?"!!

73 - Gazette 94 Christmas

Here's a little something I stitched up over Christmas.  It's a new design from Gazette 94 (aka Claire).  She has taken a break from blogging but did gift her followers with two new designs for Christmas.

I used another piece of the tea dyed evenweave and some Christmassy DMC colours chosen by me.  I think the two reds are a little close in colour, maybe I should have used 815 instead of 304 but there you go!

72 - WOCS January Carnation

It was stitched for a Birthday Card Exchange for the Needlecraft Haven.  We received the list of Birthdays on 20th December and the first one was on January 1st!!  So I had to work extra quick to get this one out on time.  It's a method I've used before, just stitch the backstitch then colour in the shading with felt-tipped pens.  The design is from WOCS, part of their Year of Flowers.  I've used aida because it's easy to colour.

The plan is to stitch all 12 designs and send as Birthday cards to stitching friends.

71 - WOCS Guinea Pig card

This is from WOCS, we changed the colours so it looks more like my son's "pet" guinea-pig.

Stitched on pale blue evenweave.

70 - Fireplace card

This is one of my own designs.

It is stitched on some "unevenweave" fabric for my friend Hannah.

69 - Log Cabin Needleworks Noel

Here are my finished Noel and Merry Christmas stitched as part of the Needlecraft Haven Freebie of the Month.   I've done a few months now, Christine chooses a free chart for the month and we stitch it up with a Big Reveal on the final weekend.  These two are by Log Cabin Needleworks.

These are stitched on 28 count evenweave tea-dyed (after my family had drunk the tea I reused the bags!).  I added the border to Noel so they would match, it's my current favourite DMC 115.  I also added beads for the holly berries.

68 - Log Cabin Needleworks Merry Christmas

Here are my finished Noel and Merry Christmas stitched as part of the Needlecraft Haven Freebie of the Month.   I've done a few months now, Christine chooses a free chart for the month and we stitch it up with a Big Reveal on the final weekend.  These two are by Log Cabin Needleworks.

These are stitched on 28 count evenweave tea-dyed (after my family had drunk the tea I reused the bags!).  I added the border to Noel so they would match, it's my current favourite DMC 115.  I also added beads for the holly berries.

67 - Lizzie*Kate Life's a Stitch Travelling Pattern

Finally I have a finish I can show you - the latest Lizzie*Kate Travelling Pattern.  This came to me via Kate and here it is with Madame Muriel.

The card came with the pattern, it's great isn't it?  I decided to stitch the pattern in vaguely Christmassy colours and used variegated DMC 115 (red) and 92 (green).  I changed the flowers to bright red with yellow centres so they were a little like poinsettias.  But not much!

What I want to know is - how come I can do the most complicated TW and Mira's with nary a frog in sight but a simple little simple thing like this and they come along in pairs?  First of all I stitched the entire satin stitch top border 2 threads to the left and had to frog it.  Then I found I had stitched the "L" 2 threads too high so the red border was too high and the side satin stitches were out by 2 threads.  I was not going to frog two whole sides so I jiggled the bottom two corners adding in extra stitches and no-one will know.  Except 159 of you and you're not telling!!

It has travelled well and had visited 8 homes before mine ~ you can check out all the gorgeous finishes at the following blogs:

Hooked On Stitches
Old Ragged Threads

Loretta Stitching Blog
Reflections In The Pond
Erica's Places
My New Perspective
Buttons & Stitches
Kate's Floss Box

66 - Stitching Friends Ornie

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.

65 - London Skyline from WOCS

No picture - oops

Stitched on navy aida and sent as a card

64 - Christmas Card from WOCS

Bottom Right - Tree Ornie from WOCS magazine.

Stitched 2 over 2 on 36count evenweave.

63 - Christmas Card from WOCS

Top Left - Coventry Skyline

The winner of my mini-competition was drawn at random by the large boy from a pile of scraps of paper.  The person who will receive a Christmas card stitched with the skyline of her choice is.......

Kaisievic aka Kaye

Kaye's comment on Coventry was very long!  She gave a complete history lesson on Lady Godiva (from memory).  I googled the story to check her facts and apart from being one century out she was spot on!  If you are interested in learning more about Coventry, here is a very interesting website: Historic Coventry.  HAED do a gorgeous Lady Godiva design too.

62 - Christmas Card from WOCS

Here is the card I stitched for Rachael for winning the Doll's House 100 Followers' Giveaway.

  The motif is from World of Cross Stitching magazine and is stitched on 40 count Newcastle over 1.  The coin is a 2p piece and shows the stitched area is only an inch wide.  As the Giveaway prize was the Doll's House chart I wanted something small scale to send but baulked at the 48 count silk gauze (this year).  

61 - Christmas card from WOCS

Stitched on 36 count linen over 2

Design from WOCS

60 - San Man Original Spooky SAL

San Man Designs
Stitched on 28 count Burnt Orange Jazlyn

59 - iStitch Mystery SAL

The more eagle-eyed of you (and those that have stitched the design) may have noticed the slight difference in my finished piece.  The final block was for a Sajou initial and Carol gave us a whole alphabet to choose from.  Unfortunately the letter "J" is an awkward one.  It is not symmetrical at all and often looks unbalanced to my eyes.  I waited until other J people had stitched the piece but I still wasn't feeling the letter at all.  I tentatively emailed Carol asking for help, would she mind sending me the bonus chart so maybe I could use that?  Bless her, Carol sent me a rose!  I don't know if it comes from one of her other designs (which are all lovely BTW) or she charted it especially for awkward people but it's lovely.

Carol is my New Best Friend and Favourite Designer now, how many other designers would not only not be offended by whinging about their design but also send a replacement chart idea?  If you missed out on the SAL the chart is now available here for a very reasonable price.

The box was a Christmas present last year, it's from RUCraft and came filled with a selection of DMC threads.  It's been quite popular as one of the magazines gave it away with new subscriptions this year.
The fabric is 36 count evenweave and the thread is a blue from De Havilland threads many moons ago.  It is silky and smooth, one strand is fine for 36 count so I have loads left!

58 - Lizzie*Kate Love is Best Travelling Pattern

Love is Best by Lizzie*Kate.  A Travelling Pattern from Cucki.

What do you think of the fabric?   The original is stitched in Sampler threads so I pulled the DMC threads as charted and thought they were rather austere.  This is a Cucki pattern and needed a kooky look.  So I got my piece of 16 count white aida and coloured it in with my fabric pens!  I've done this a couple of times before and have always been pleased with the result.  It's a nice cheap and easy way of getting coloured fabric especially when you only want a small piece..

I changed the colour of the bottom heart to the heather (778) used in the middle heart on the chart as it would have clashed with the stripes in the fabric.  Then I used 115 variegated to stitch the middle heart.  I do like the colours in 115 but it doesn't change enough for many designs.  I like a variegated to change several times in a length and this only changes once every length.

57 - Drawn Thread Round Robin

This is Linda's Drawn Thread Band Sampler from the WWRR Yuku Board.  I chose three bands from Toccata No 1 and used colours from their palette although not the exact ones for each band.  I wanted my bands to blend with the other bands on the sampler.

56 - Mill Hill Beaded Hallowe'en

I finished this little stitch, another PIF from Erica this time.  Erica's Places.  It's been quite hard getting a decent picture of it as it's stitched on black aida with LOADS of beads.  Probably 50% of the design is beads but that's Mill Hill for you!

Erica sent me the chart, the leftover beads and the threads.  There was plenty of thread and almost enough beads.  I had some of the purple and magenta but not the green so I subbed a slightly different green for the "O".  There was just enough orange and plenty of ice.  I didn't have a tiny star but I did have a witch!  This is one of the charms I got from Ang's Attic

55 - Gazette 94 Autumn Patchwork

Gazette 94 Autumn Patchwork Square

September Needlecraft Haven Freebie Challenge

54 - Owl from Cross Stitcher mag

Designs from Cross Stitcher magazine.
Posing with Madame Muriel the Travelling Granny
(see main blog for her story)

53 - Owl from Cross Stitcher Mag

Designs from Cross Stitcher magazine.
Posing with Madame Muriel the Travelling Granny
(see main blog for her story)

52 - Gazette 94 Autumn Heart

First in a series of seasonal hearts by Gazette 94.

Stitched on 36 count white evenweave.

51 - Bronny's Bits Sheepie Farm

Happy Dance down on Sheepie Farm!  This cute little design is a freebie fromBronny's Bits.  She is having a sheep year.  Have a look at her blog if you want to see lots of cute sheep.  Last year was Snowmen, who knows what next year will bring!

Her entry for 7th August tells you how to get the chart.

I have changed the colours and one of the sheep into a piggie.  The reason is the book under the photo.  The small boy has 4 favourite books which we read every bedtime.  They are all published by Barefoot Books and written by Clare Beaton.  The illustrations are all photos of fabric collages and are lovely.  I really recommend them for pre-schoolers.  The theme of How Big is a Pig is opposites, each animal is shown representing a pair of opposites - so "some cows are thin; some cows are fat", "some dogs are quick; some dogs are slow" with the same refrain "but how big is a pig," then a rhyming question "can you answer that?" "Do you think you know?"  Slightly less repetitive than many books!

50 - Autumn Round Robin

Michelle's Autumn Themed Round Robin

49 - Margaret Sherry Christmas Robin and Mouse WOCS 181

WOCS is World of Cross Stitch the popular magazine and here is the cover kit from Issue 181, a lovely Margaret Sherry Christmas design.  Stitched exactly as it said in the mag with the supplied material - hard aida and non-specific threads.

48 - Mirabilia Bluebeard's Mermaid

She is Mirabilia's Bluebeard's Mermaid stitched on 32 count Murano hand-dyed by Dawn from The Crafty Kitten, colour is Waterfall.  I used the recommended DMC and my LNS subbed the Carons for DMC and Just Threads.  I changed the mermaid's bs to turquoise and the seahorses to 500, the crown is in one strand of 3371 not 2.  I moved the border out by 5 stitches top and sides (as recommended on the Mirabilia Yuku forum!) and didn't bs it.

47 - Shakespear's Peddlar Travelling Pattern

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 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 Travelling 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

 Astrid lists the progress of the pattern as at August 2013 

here

46 - The Stitcherhood Love

This is how I finished my two Loves from The Stitcherhood.  I wanted some red/black ribbon with hearts on it but could only find red with white hearts.  I tried using various pens to colour the white and it just didn't look right.  But I did find these heart buttons in my LNS which look good.  The design is posing with a statue which represents our family (I think it's called Circle of Love).  I bought one of a couple with one child when hubby and I moved in together to represent me, him and the large boy, then I bought one of a man holding a woman in a wedding dress when we got married (although we'd already done the whole carrying me over the threshold thing).  This one I bought when the small boy arrived on the scene and we became 4.

The carved love spoon was a wedding gift hand-made by a close friend.  She is a very talented craftswoman, as well as carving wood she makes stained glass pieces and has tried her hand at cross stitch too.

45 - Teresa Wentzler Band Sampler Round Robin

This is for the Round Robin I'm in on the WWRR Yuku Board.  This is Sophia's RR, she has sent it round the world once in 2008 and now it's travelling again.  The theme is the great Teresa Wentzler and I was very excited to be stitching on this piece as I love TW's designs.

I chose a floral band from The English Cottage Sampler partly because there is one other UK stitcher on this piece and she chose from The English Garden Sampler and I thought they made a nice pair.  It is a more freeform band than some of the others but happily fitted into the 80 squares wide allowed in this sampler.  I stitched it exactly as the pattern except for the top 4 rows which I mirrored the bottom four for symmetry.  I also changed the edge leaves to single stitches where they would have gone over the edge.

44 - Cherry Ripe Bird

July Challenge freebie from The Needlecraft Haven.

From Les Chalet des Perelles.

43 - Tralala Cat

This is a little piece I mailed off to Rachael to help raise money for the Cats Protection League.  Hopefully it will be added to a quilt or cushion.  The design is by Tralala from SoCreaStitch and I stitched it in DMC 4215 a lovely variegated blue/lilac and pink.

And for those who like a more artistic photo –

The two cats were bought with the money I got for serving 15 years with my old company.  I also got my stash chest and a jacket (total spend £250) plus a party at the pub shared with a fellow "lifer" for 50 people.  We were supposed to have a nice genteel buffet in the boardroom for 30 but the senior management wanted it too and as we refused to change our date they had no choice but to give us the money and send us to the pub instead!

42 - Joan Elliott Pink Flower in Pot

I finished off a Joan Elliot flower in a pot to match the previous JE flower in a pot.  The frames were cover gifts from Cross Stitch Collection mag but I didn't like the pictures suggested so stitched these two JE designs from the free WOCS booklet - the best free gift EVER.  Hand coloured aida.

41 - Joan Elliott Celtic Coaster

This is the final teacher end of term gift.  The large boy has had this teacher on Fridays for the last two years.  Last year she got a sampler with a Celtic dog (she loves dogs and is quite "celticy" in her dress) and the school name and dates like the other two I stitched this year.  I decided not to do another in the same format but did have a little plastic coaster from SewandSo in my basket.  The design is a Joan Elliot from her card book and fits perfectly.  I used the same mint green pearlescent aida I stitched First Snow on and swapped the beads for petite beads so they fit under the coaster better.   The large boy will be making a back with her name and the dates on.  He will.  I have told him he will!