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.