Theme-Tas-Stitch April Showers

What is Theme-Tas-Stitch, you ask? Kerry was inspired by the Theme-a-licious SAL I used to run and asked to continue the theme-ing tradition, and she's doing brilliantly! There's a theme every month that you can build your stitching plans around. Click on the picture above for more details!

This month's theme is..."April Showers...What pieces do you have that contain water? - It might be rain, river, sea or lake - see how many stitches you can make!"

It was an easy job for me to find WIPs that fit in this category. In fact, I didn't even get to stitch on all of them. But I did make good progress on one of them:

The reason there are words floating in the water is that this is going to (eventually) be an EGA nametag and that is the name of my chapter. In case you are Googling, yes, that is a chapter in Florida, and, yes, I live in Atlanta. A friend is a member of that chapter and a while ago they needed members to help build the chapter back up, so I joined. Now the chapter is doing great! I hope to one day actually travel down to a meeting. Maybe once this nametag is done. ;)

My second "watery WIP" is Prancer.

Now, WAIT, I hear you say. (Well, I don't actually hear you; that would be weird. But I have my copious and active imagination going for me.) WAIT, I hear you say, That WIP has a DEER in it, but no water.

Ah...there's where you're wrong...on BOTH counts.

There is no deer in this WIP, but if there were, it would be standing on sparkly, sparkly ice, which, as we all know, is frozen WATER. #stillnodeer

And now, here comes the shoehorn. Tiffstitch and I are doing a stitch-along on Nora Corbett's letter "H". The fabric that is called for is "WATERlilly", but I am stitching it on "Squall", which is also a fine, watery-sounding fabric.

I am very, very slow, so I am not even done with my dress of a different color.

Next month's theme is Monochrome May, where we are supposed to only stitch with one color all month, and if you have been around here for very long, you can probably guess what color I will choose: Blue!

Well, I am, now, finally out of commas, so I will sign off for this month!

April 2017 Gifted Gorgeousness

What is Gifted Gorgeousness, you may ask? It's the brainchild of the lovely and talented Jo at Serendipitous Stitching, who invites us to celebrate gifts we've been given that we are stitching on (or gifts we're stitching for others). If you're up for seeing more eye candy, click on the graphic above and visit Jo's link up post!

As I'm posting this on Easter (a few days late as usual), the first gift I have to show you is very appropriate...a friend gave me these counting pins for my birthday:

Aren't they too cute? I used them to start Nora Corbet's letter "H", which I am stitching along with Tiffstitch on Wednesdays. Of course I completely forgot this past Wednesday, so I don't have any progress to show!

Next were a couple of kits I bought with birthday money (and, *ahem*, maybe a little extra)...I just subscribed digitally to Inspirations magazine. In the very first issue I got, there was a bird by Nicola Jarvis. The last time I was in England (2014 I think), we visited the William Morris Gallery, and there was an exhibition of many of these stitched birds. I was over the moon for them, but they were out of most of the kits, so I didn't get a chance to bring one home. When I saw the bird from Strawberry Thief was in Inspirations, I had to get the kit.

I love how the needles are on a big page with every other possible needle size so you can see which is which (on the right). The fabric this is stitched on is very interesting; it's a heavy woven fabric with almost a plastic/rubber backing.

Since I was ordering all the way from Australia, I had to order two kits to justify the shipping, right?

Actually, the shipping was not too bad. I considered kitting this one up myself, but the beads and crochet cotton were getting close to the cost of the kit, and I wasn't sure what kind of fabric they were talking about in the magazine directions. Of course, if I had kitted it, I would have bought full tubes of beads...but at this point I'm not unhappy at the prospect of not having leftover beads! This one will be a lot of fun, since there are many needlelace and darning patterns in it!

Well, that's it for this month's Gifted Gorgeousness...tune in next month, when I might have actually stitched something that was gifted to me!!

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2017

Hello beautiful people! It's Spring, it's Easter (well, Good Friday, anyway), so it's time for Jo's annual Easter Blog Hop!

My mom made me some beautiful ceramics when I was little, and I love being able to put them out each year. I added a little bunny of my own to the display this year.

This is a freebie bunny you can find here. There are two other Quaker pattern bunnies as well! I think my bunny needs some friends for next year. =) This bunny is stitched on perforated paper in DMC 335 for the outline and DMC 4120 for the pattern. I'm not sure what that thread color is named, but it should be named strawberry lemonade!!

Now, I know why you're really here...you want your letter so you can complete the phrase Jo has come up with and enter to win her prize draw which hopefully includes delicious British chocolate!! So here is the letter, rendered in our pale American imitation of said chocolate:

In case you can't see the picture, L is the letter! Have fun hopping, and remember, Christ is risen!!!

Please continue hopping to the next blog, which is
http://familybusinessgroverc.blogspot.com! In case you showed up here without visiting Jo's blog first, start at the beginning by visiting over there.

Smalls SAL March and a Small Start

Click now for JiffNotes

No idea what the Smalls SAL is all about? Click the graphic above to learn more (and see lovely smalls from others!)

I'm squeaking in under the deadline this month, but I did manage to finish the stitching for a small!

Keep a Secret by Just Nan

I just need to finish the edge and then sew the wool on the back of this, then it will fit nicely in the pretty peacock tin. This is one of the pieces that the Sparkly Compote of Decree gave me for March Madness, and after working on it for a day, I thought, "Now that there is more sun with Daylight Saving Time, I can totally finish this tiny over-one piece!" So I did. =)

I also have a small start on a medium piece; Tiffstitch and I are doing a Wednesday SAL on Nora Corbet's letter "H". Here's my start, just a couple hours of stitching (you know, after stressing out about whether I was "really" starting in the center or not):

Wherever Tiffstitch decides to start, I know hers will not look like mine, because I changed the color of her dress! That blob you see is the bottom hem of it. It's a funky shape because when I stitch with overdyes (especially ones that are as variegated as this one), I complete one X at a time, and I do not stitch in rows. This avoids what Leon Conrad once called the "stripey bacon" effect. Of course, sometimes you want that effect, but I want her dress to look like it's made of flower petals. The floss I'm using is called "Morning Glory" (which is a very ironic choice for stitching my fairy namesake, since mornings and I are not on friendly terms).

Click the graphic at the top of this post if you'd like to see what smalls others have stitched in the past month!

JiffNotes
Thanks to Theme-Tas-Stitch's March Madness, I was inspired to finish a small I started a long time ago!