31. Dragon Dreams Fourth Dragonlet of Christmas

On the Fourth Day of Christmas my True Love sent to me - 

A Dragonlet and Four Calling Collie Birds on the telephone

The fourth in a series designed by Dragon Dreams exclusively for their Facebook page

Stitched in DMC on 28 count green evenweave.

A collie bird is the traditional name for a blackbird but over the years the word has changed to "calling".  Dragon Dreams have gone for both meanings ancient and modern; four blackbirds calling on the telephone!

30. Quaker Bunny

Quaker Bunny mini bag from Palko-Lap Blog

Stitched on 28 count pale green evenweave.

Sent as part of a giveaway

29. Margaret Sherry Mice in Teacup

Cover Gift from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine

I subbed the aida for evenweave.
I sent the card as part of a giveaway.

28. Margaret Sherry Cat in Teacup

Cover Gift from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine

I subbed the aida for evenweave.
I sent the card as part of a giveaway.

27. Lizzie*Kate Spring Sampler Snippet

This is a Lizzie*Kate design called Spring.  I received it in a giveaway from Sarah Crafty Moo.  I changed alot of the colours as the original is very dark for a Spring design.  I used the same threads as the San Man Easter design I recently stitched because they are on the same fabric and will be scrap booked together.

The little bunny charm comes from Ang's Attic, a great online store based only a few miles from where I live.  You can get a small bag of 6-10 charms for only £1 and there are loads of different designs.  They mainly sell beads for jewellery making and have a good FB page for their beading fans.  They also have a forum on the website for those of you that don't FB.

The piece is stitched over 1 on 28 count which I really enjoy.  I was not looking forward to all the green in the hill so guess what I did?  Have a closer look at this photo:

Yes, I coloured it in using a fabric pen!  I stitched the house first then had the idea.  I counted the number of threads needed for the hill and marked it on the fabric then just coloured it in.  Then I stitched the path, carrots and flowers on top.  Saved me hours of boring stitching.

Autumn can be seen here.

26. Mirabilia Round Robin for Julie

Julie chose Angels as her theme and designed this incredible layout herself.  The fabric is PTP Heather Lugana and is really soft and lovely to stitch on.  Archangel Michael is one of the less stitched Mirabilia designs which is one of the reasons I jumped at the chance to stitch him.  I don't think I'd ever do the full piece for myself but it is nice to stitch something different.

There is a ton of metallics, beads and treasures even in this small piece of the design, 12 of those little topaz diamonds for a start.

Finally finished piece:

25. La Contesse Haunted Castle

This is a freebie from LaContesse's blog.  

I changed it slightly to make it square and added a little witch charm instead of the charted stitched bats.  It is stitched over 1 on 28count burnt orange Jazlyn.  

24. JBW Alphabet Cat April

Chocolate Kitty for Easter!!

I couldn't find any chocolate themed fabric but this one has tea and cakes on it.

23. San Man Originals Easter

I stitched it on yellow 28 count evenweave, over 2 using the recommended DMC but changing the words and border to variegated DMC.  Aren't the little buttons cute?  This was going to be mounted along with the other Easter / Spring pieces in my scrapbook once they're all finished, but the buttons proved too large so I made it into a cube instead:

22. Blackbird Designs Eiffel Tower

This is the Needlecraft Haven March Challenge, a Blackbird Designs piece called Souvenir de France.

When I was deciding how to finish the piece I remembered that Giovanna had recently spent some time in Paris.  She is a great stitcher and blogger who always leaves nice comments and very kindly sent me the charity charts from last year's earthquake fundraiser.  So I thought I should send her a special "Just because we're friends" card.

I stitched this on pale blue 28 count evenweave using a DMC variegated blue.  Seems like blue was a popular choice if you look on the forum!  I mounted it on some nice Eiffel Tower card (the back has sepia schematics on it) and made a simple card, popped it in an envelope and off it went.  Then I returned home, plugged my camera into the computer and realised... no photos!  So this is one that Giovanna kindly sent me.

21. Chatelaine Bunny

This is a limited edition freebie from Chatelaine Designs from 2011.

I stitched it on 28count pale green evenweave and made it into a little pocket to fill with chocolate as a prize for Christine winning the 2012 Easter Treasure Hunt.

Unfortunately, not all the chocolate could fit into the pocket.

So we ate some!

Backing fabric.

20. Dragon Dreams Third Dragonlet of Christmas

On the Third Day of Christmas my True Love sent to me - 

A French Dragonlet and Three French Hens - oo la la!

The third in a series designed by Dragon Dreams exclusively for their Facebook page

Stitched in DMC on 28 count green evenweave.

19. Danika's Birth Sampler

Danika is my friend's new grand-daughter.  The little characters are from the Mamas and Papas Millie and Boris nursery range that the new parents have chosen for their daughter.  The frame co-ordinates with the white gloss in the room.  I charted the characters from some images I downloaded from the M&P website and found a lovely Slavic font through Google Images which I also converted to cross stitch.

"Danika" means "Our Morning Star"

18. JBW Alphabet Cat March

Green on Green for St.Patrick's Day and the green shoots which would usually be visible this time of year!

17. Jaunty Fox Fence Cat

It's a freebie from Jaunty Fox Designs found here.

Never heard of them?  I'm not surprised, they did this one freebie then vanished!

I stitched it on my favourite Burnt Orange Jazlyn 28count fabric.  1 over 1 using Anchor Black and a touch of DMC 728.  I experimented with the Anchor to see if it covered better than DMC Black.  It doesn't, but it's no worse either!

I'm not sure how I'll finish this one.  It's very small so would make a nice little sausage pillow.

16. Threadwork Primitives Valentine

Freebie found on Threadwork Primitives blog.

Needlecraft Haven Freebie Challenge for February.

Stitched over 1 on 28 count evenweave and finished as a sausage pillow.

Mailed to Linda as a present for being my 3000th commenter.

The original design had 2 pairs of initials which I changed to this quote, my favourite stitching quote, I like the play on the word "count". 

15. JBW Alphabet Cat February

JBW cat for February's ornie.  I dyed some fabric using fruit teas, 2 bags of blackcurrant tea make a lovely strong pink.  Here is the cat on the backing fabric I used.

14. Dragon Dreams Second Dragonlet of Christmas

On the Second Day of Christmas my True Love sent to me -

A Dragonlet and Two Turtle - Doves!

The second in a series designed by Dragon Dreams exclusively for their Facebook page.

Stitched in DMC on 28 count green evenweave.

13. Nicola's Birthday Card

A freebie from this French website Broderie.  They offer 2 charts a week free then they can be purchased for 1Euro.  It's worth checking the site once a week to grab the freebies.  I have the whole alphabet, a lovely calendar and a set of 12 Zodiac Signs.  The N is stitched over 1 on 32 count evenweave.  I sent Nicola a little parcel of redness for her Red Letter Birthday!  Various red things including some cute scissors and a JBW Monogram chart, all wrapped in some red fabric with a red ribbon.

12. Joan Elliott January Snow Queen

Joan Elliott January design from the 2013 Diary.

I already had this nice page for my scrapbook and bought some snowflake trim yesterday to finish it off.  I stitched this on 28 count sparkly evenweave over 2.  I used the recommended colours except for the robins' breasts.  There were a few little transcription errors made by the magazine and Joan herself has been helping put them right on the FB group.  They used the incorrect red and not enough of it for the robins!  I also changed the green in the trees to one strand rather than 2 like the rest of the design.