Theme-a-licious June Update

Theme-a-licious is hosted by Heather of It's Geek to Me

Each month Heather thinks up a theme for us to stitch to, or in my case, a theme to somehow shoe-horn my existing stitching into, no matter how tenuous the link!

This is the theme for June:

Jumanji June 

Is it a jungle out there in your stash? Give some love to the projects with animals or birds.

I've made a good start to this theme, first up is the JBW Alphabet kitty.  June's kitty is a patriotic red, white and blue kitty to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday and also the 60th Anniversary of the Coronation.  The Queen's Diamond Jubilee was last year as she ascended to the throne in 1952 but it took a year to plan her coronation.

Kitty is stitched on some pale blue 28 count evenweave.  I drew an Union Jack pattern on graph paper using pencil then carefully inked in the letters in red, blue and yellow (so it would show up).  Then just stitched as usual.  The white isn't very clear and the alphabettiness isn't as obvious on this kitty but as part of the set it will look good.  I've just realised I haven't put June underneath him yet.  I have some Union Jack ribbon to back him with.

The second animal themed piece is the Dragon Dreams 12 Dragonlets of Christmas.  Alongside our dragon we have a very puzzled Goose for Six Geese a'Laying.  Who is this little cuckoo in the goose's nest?  I used a DMC light effects thread for the egg to give it a nice eggshell sheen.

The Dragonlets are only available through Dragon Dreams' page on Facebook.

My third piece is only just started, the Hallowe'en SAL ornie so photos will have to wait.

Finally, the photos are coming in for my Summer Blog Hop.  All I need is a photo of something you've stitched on a Home theme.  Click on the "There's No Place Like Home" picture to the right of the blog for more details.

Message for Meggie from Cross Stitch Cottage

I saw the post you made earlier about the giveaway but can't comment on it because you have set your comments so only Team Members can post on your blog.  You might be wondering why no one has commented lately...

You left a nice comment here earlier but you are a "no reply" blogger so I can't contact you that way either.

If you'd like some help, please drop me an email and I'll do my best!

Thank you!

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.

This month is an outdoor TUSAL, Joan Elliott's Wizard posing with Brooke's Books June cake.  The plan is to stitch all 12 of those monthly cake designs.  I’ve managed two!

The postman was busy again last month and has delivered all four of the parcels I sent out for my Easter Treasure Hunt and Blogaversary Giveaways.  Here is the Prize Pile before they went out:

Each person got a stitched item, some cotton fabric, some ribbon, some buttons and some fruit tea bags to drink or use to hand dye fabric.  I put some chocolate in the pouches and a Pooh bear chart for Emma who likes Disney.  Here is each stitched item on its own:

Margaret Sherry Cat in a Teacup card (from Cross Stitch Crazy mag)

Margaret Sherry Mice in a Teacup card (from Cross Stitch Crazy mag)

Quaker Bunny mini bag from Palko-Lap Blog 

Quaker Bunny mini bag from Palko-Lap Blog

This week I have been focused on the Mirabilia Shimmering Mermaid for the Round Robin in the evenings. For myself I have been stitching the monthly Alphabet Kitty, the Dragon Dreams design and Joan's June Wizard.  Pictures saved for another day!

Finally I have launched the sign-ups for my Summer Blog Hop.  This year the theme is "There's No Place Like".  All I need from you is a stitched picture on the Home theme.  Click on the nice bright green Home design on the top right of the blog for full details.

I Think We Need a Bigger Sampler

To celebrate my 400th Follower I showed a picture of my Millennium Sampler personalised with people I felt needed to be remembered for their contribution to life in the previous Millennium.  I decided to ask everyone who they would have included on their own version.  I was bowled over from the choices!  No-one had the top answer - me, but I guess my contribution to global happiness (ie this blog) only started in the 21st Century so was not eligible hahaha.

As promised, here is the full list of nominees plus links for those of you who'd like to learn more about them. There are certainly a few I had not heard of.  The English education system is quite neglectful of famous American civil rights activists.  Frankly we're not taught much beyond "You broke away from us and went downhill from there".

King Richard III - much maligned and misunderstood King of England
Diana, Princess of Wales - First wife of Prince Charles, keen charity promoter, Memorial Fund - now closed
Queen Alexandra - married to Edward VII, keen charity promoter, Alexandra Rose Day

Queen Elizabeth I - The Virgin Queen, reigned for 45 years, brought peace to England
Queen Elizabeth II - our current Queen, has reigned for over 60 years.

Harriet Tubman - African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War
Rosa Parks - African-American civil rights activist

Martin Luther King Jr - African-American civil rights activist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton - American social activist, abolitionist, and women's rights movement

Caroline Chisholm - helped young women in colonial times with housing and jobs, thus saving them from destitution

Helen Keller -  American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree 

Sir Keith Park -  New Zealand soldier, First World War flying ace and Second World War Royal Air Force commander. 
Nancy Wake - "The Grey Mouse" - an New Zealand woman who bravely worked with the French resistance during WWII
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Lutheran theologian who died fighting the Nazi regime

Albert Einstein - German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity
Ada Lovelace - English mathematician - see her day - Ada Lovelace Day

Nikola Tesla - Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu - English Aristocrat and campaigner for inoculation against smallpox
Lord Ernest Rutherford - Zealand-born physicist and chemist, known as the father of nuclear physics
Isaac Newton - English physicist and mathematician 
Jane Goodall - British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace
Alexander Graham Bell - Scottish scientist, inventor, engineer, credited with inventing the first practical telephone
John Logie Baird - Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system

Florence Nightingale - English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Fred Hollows - eye doctor who volunteered in 3rd world countries to save people's eyesight
Victor Chang  - pioneer heart surgeon who was tragically murdered in 1991

Frederick Banting - a Canadian medical scientist, doctor, painter and Nobel laureate noted as the primary discoverer of insulin

JRR Tolkien -  English writer and poet, best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
Barbara Walters - American broadcaster and journalist

Deanna Durbin - Canadian Singer and Actor
Margot Fonteyn - English Ballerina
Charles Dickens - Victorian English writer and social critic
Elvis Presley - American Singer and Actor
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa-  New Zealand/Māori soprano, her charitible foundation

Leonardo da Vinci -  Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. (etc etc etc)

Maria Callas - American-born Greek soprano

The Beatles - English rock band formed in Liverpool, in 1960
Edith Hamilton - German-American educator and author 
Leo Tolstoy - Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories.
Frédéric Chopin - Polish composer and virtuoso pianist
Jane Austen - English Novelist 
Coco Chanel - French fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand
Paulo Coelho - Brazilian lyricist and novelist
Mark Rothko - American painter of Latvian Jewish descent.

Captain Cook - British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy
Sir Edmund Hillary - New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist
Neil Armstrong - American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon.

George Washington -  First President of the United States
Thomas Jefferson - Third President of the United States
Dame Enid Lyons - the first Australian woman to sit in Parliament
John and Elizabeth Macarthur - early squatters who began the merino wool industry in Australia which helped create the nation's wealth in the 19th century
Betsy Ross - creator of the first American flag

Gary Hall, Jr.- swimmer and diabetic
Kris Freeman - cross-country skier and diabetic, see this story

Martin Luther - 16th Century German monk
Dalai Lama - the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, the 14th Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso
Mother Teresa - Roman Catholic Nun and Nobel Peace Prize winner

And finally, two men who would not have made the short list at the turn of the century, most of us would not have heard of them back then, but without them it is highly unlikely you would be reading this today.  Shows how much the world can change in a decade: 

Steve Jobs -  American entrepreneur and inventor, best known as the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc
Tim Berners-Lee - British computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web.


Phew!!  I don't know about you but I'm exhausted and I did that list in two shifts!


So Finally, the part you've been waiting for; the winner of the 400 Followers Giveaway.  Drum Roll.

The winner is - 

Sir Frederick Banting

Sir Frederick Grant Banting, KBE, MC, FRS, FRSC was a Canadian medical scientist, doctor, painter and Nobel laureate noted as the primary discoverer of insulin. In 1923 Banting and John James Rickard Macleod received the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Unfortunately Sir Frederick could not be with us this evening so I'd like to ask Shebafudge to step forward and receive the prize on his behalf.  Sharon had a personal reason for choosing Sir Frederick, without his discovery of insulin her daughter would not be with us today.  Congratulations to Sharon, a little something will be in the mail to you some time this year!

Finally, finally, a huge Thank You to everyone who left a comment and nominated a person/persons for inclusion on our sampler.  I had a great time finding out all about the different people and I hope you did too.  Next week, there will be a short exam on what you have learned this week.

There's No Place Like Home..

Home is where the Heart is, Home Sweet Home etc.

There are so many Home-themed mottoes and they are the theme for this year's Summer Blog Hop.  Hurray!

Last year I asked for holiday postcard stitched pictures to be sent via me to various bloggers.  See the full list and links here.  This year we're having a "staycation" and I would like you to send me a photo of something you've stitched on the Home theme.  It can be a piece you already have in your collection or one you stitch especially for the blog hop.

It could be a traditional sampler, it could be a country cottage you'd love to live in, it might be a Michael Powell house that he is so well-known for.  Or maybe a view of your home town or something from your homeland, especially if they have a style of stitching associated with them.

Here are a couple of my home-themed stitches to give you some ideas:

Once you've chosen your piece just email it to me (my email is in my profile) along with a little message on the home-theme, maybe why you love your home or (if you're Shirlee) why you'd love to live anywhere other than the Devil's Playground.  Over the Summer I will send the pictures and messages to the other participants to display on their blog.  So keep your eyes open for your piece over the next three months.

You've got until the end of August to email me but please start sending them sooner if you have something already stitched.  Once I have a few I will start the Hop!!  Leave a comment if you think you'd like to join in so I can get a rough idea of numbers.

Finally I have decided to use Feedly for my blog following.  Anne recommended it as being very similar to Google Reader so I gave it a try.  The computer version is different to the iPad app version but both are very easy to use.  They work in tandem with Reader (while it exists) so if I read a blog in one it is marked as read in the other.  Useful for the changeover.  I just couldn't cope with the missing G from Bloglovin, not without an apostrophe at least!  I kept reading it as Blog Glove In.

Theme-a-licious Looking Backward and Forward V

Theme-a-licious is hosted by Heather of It's Geek to Me

Each month Heather thinks up a theme for us to stitch to, or in my case, a theme to somehow shoe-horn my existing stitching into, no matter how tenuous the link!

Monochrome May

Pick a colour, any colour, then stitch only on projects that contain that colour for the month!

My first monochrome project was Green Goddess which I worked on for the first half of the month.  I've posted this picture a couple of times already but one more won't hurt! 

The rest of the month was spent on my Round Robin mermaid which is not monochrome so no pic today.

During the daytime I stitched on two more monochromes, the first was my JBW alphabet kitty for May.  Thanks to everyone who gave their opinion on which backing fabric I should use.  I'm pleased that each of my choices had their fans, just proves I'm not totally colour blind!  You were clearly all channelling your inner Pioneer Woman and the gingham was an easy leader.  Always reminds me of the late great Bill Hicks "gonna get me some gingham, what's gingham?  Ah dunno but chicks dig it!"

The other monochrome is a card for a friend so watch your postboxes, friends! I actually forgot to photograph it before mailing so I'm hoping my friend will do the honours for me.

And the final photo is my "Anti-Theme" piece, the opposite of monochrome has to be multi-coloured and you don't get much more multi-coloured than a rainbow.  Here are the first eight hearts from the Thread Pickerz Hearts SAL on FB:

I'm using a De Havilland artificial silk in rainbow on 32 count white evenweave, the picture is a scanned one so not the best of the fabric but I'll take some nice ones once the SAL is over.

Looking forward, this is the theme for June:

Jumanji June 

Is it a jungle out there in your stash? Give some love to the projects with animals or birds.

This should be ok, a mermaid is a sort of fish... And she's on a round robin so that's a bird.  The next things on Green Goddess are the moths and dragonflies.  Alphabet Kitty is a cat, as is my choice for the Hallowe'en SAL.  So plenty to stitch there in theme.

Finally, I haven't forgotten the draw for 400 followers, I've been putting together the blog post along with links to all the wonderful people you chose so it'll be up some time next week.  Patience!

  

Ornament SAL May Update

This is the Ornament SAL hosted by Stitching Lotus

I have three different ornament challenges running this year, the JBW Alphabet Cat stitched in a different colour scheme each month, the Dragon Dreams 12 Dragonlets of Christmas, a FB exclusive and the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog.

I wanted a spring blossom feel for the Alphabet Cat and chose green thread on pink fabric.  I'm not 100% certain about this colour scheme and am still wondering whether to stitch it again in pink on green.  I also can't decide which backing fabric to choose either!  So which do you prefer?  Option 1, 2 or 3?

Option 1 - Gingham

Option 2 - Random Floral

Option 3 - Geometric Floral

Here is the fifth Dragon Dreams FB exclusive Dragonlet of Christmas, Five Gold Rings:

The choice for May's Hallowe'en Ornie was Ghosts.  This is a sweet little design from JCS 2012 Hallowe'en Ornie Special issue.  A new designer for me, Val's Stuff:

And here he is with the backing fabric I'm planning to use:

Boo is stitched on 32count twilight blue linen, it is very stiff!  The stars are little smyrna crosses.

Finally, I've told a couple of people that the theme for the Summer Blog Hop is "No Place Like Home" as suggested by the Needlecraft Haven choice for last month.  I'll do a proper official announcement at the beginning of June.  I'm saving it for a day when there's not much stitching to show.

ps don't forget to chose your favourite backing fabric, leave a comment.  Thank you.

Weekend Stitching

It's a Bank Holiday Weekend here in England and hubby has been working 20 hour days so it's just me and the boys and some stitching!

The first piece to be finished is Joan Elliott's April design for the 2013 diary.  This was the cover gift with World of Cross Stitching magazine last year and there are a group of us stitching-a-long on Facebook.  So far I have completed January and April and most of February.  I'm starting June's Wizard next and would like to complete him actually in June!

Here are my dragons:

The fabric is a piece from a Crafty Kitten grab bag, a sort of blue sky effect.  I used all the recommended colours but added backstitch in metallic purple to the purple fronds and also metallic silver bs to the wings.  The Large Boy is dropping heavy hints about needing this one in his room!

I have also been stitching away on the Mirabilia Round Robin, this is Shimmering Mermaid for Karen:

The bling arrived from SewandSo this week so it's all ready when I reach those parts.

Here's a finish from Thursday, the Needlecraft Haven Freebie Challenge for May.  A great design from The Little Stitcher called "There's no place like Home":

I stitched this on a piece of Emerald Green aida using DMC threads and a thick Madeira metallic red for the shoes.  I got the Maderia threads free from a magazine and I'm not a fan but it was good for this design.

I found a great scrapbooking website that had alot of Wizard of Oz themed papers so I'll be ordering some soon and mounting this for my book.

Also on the schedule was the next part of the Thread Pickerz Heartz SAL and the Hallowe'en ornie, pictures to follow.

Finally, I have been reading blogs and attempting to comment but the list keeps on growing so I never seem to reach the end!  Maybe I'll use the move to Bloglovin reader to trim my subscriptions and only follow the ones I comment on the most.  Maybe...

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May WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi of Measi's Musings.

The main focus of my WIPocalypse this year will be my "13 in '13" a list of 13 projects I want to complete in 2013, click on top tab for the list.

I have been stitching Green Goddess as much as possible this month.  I really wanted to complete her face before I started the next Round Robin piece.  And I did!  Here she is as I left her:

I was hoping to start item 7 on my list, April's Word Play by With My Needle but that didn't happen.  So the next piece I'm looking at is Hear the Sea Call by Stitchers Hideaway.  I have the fabric, the threads and the little shells and stones to attach so it's looking good!

I am inches away from completing Joan Elliott's April Dragons and have the perfect fabric for the June Wizard so that's another one lined up for next month.

The Needlecraft Haven Freebie Challenge is all stitched up and ready to be emailed to Christine, I can show that one after this Sunday.

I still have to make a start on the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL piece so I think it will be the smaller ghost design. On the plus side, two of my giveaway prizes have arrived (the UK two) but I won't show them until the two overseas parcels have reached their destinations.

Finally, I am really enjoying all the answers left for my 400 followers giveaway last post.  I have replied to everyone except three "no-reply" people.  There are some great suggestions for names to include, some very well known and others new to me who certainly deserve to be better known.  I'll make a full list on the Winners Announcement page.  Don't forget, you have until Wednesday 29th May to enter, leave a comment on the previous post.