The next SAL project is in full swing and I’ve already finished two of the six designs. The designs stitch up nice and (amazingly!) quick. After looking at the charts from all sorts of angles and inspecting the symbols up close I  finally figured out the symbols for those pesky little half stitches that share a block (beak area) – what a relief!

Pay It Forward 

I recently joined a PIF on Harmien’s blog so have to, of course, pay it forward. Here is how it works:

The first 5 people who leave a comment requesting to join this PIF exchange will receive a handmade gift from me. You will receive the gift within 365 days - that’s a promise! The only thing you have to do in return is to pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog (or in your life, if you don’t have a blog).

My blog isn’t exactly a hive of activity concerning comments and readers so I’m not quite sure whether I will get five participants. But hey, I’m an optimist!

Yesterday I had quite a nice mail day, and even though I was really excited about the stash that came, nothing could beat the letter my friend Karen sent me.  Beside the fact that I love receiving letters, this letter had two skeins of DMC 3364 included!  

 So after the ‘miraculous’ appearance of the so badly needed colour, I finished the last bit of the sampler and here it is:

I started on the SAL this morning and have made very good progress on the first chickadee.  Even though the designs are so small, it uses a lot of colours so the birds look very lifelike. I’m having a bit of trouble distinguishing the symbols for the half stitches where two half stitches share a block and in some cases even looking at the picture doesn’t help either. Never mind, I’m pretty sure I’ll figure it out eventually!

Want to know what I got in the line of stash? Faith by My Big Toe Designs, Seaside Welcome by Diane Arthurs, the Mulberry and Oatmeal thread I need for the second Snowman stocking and last but not least, LHN Wisdom thread pack & finishing kit.

Today is the official start of the next SAL project, but yours truly didn’t make a start. In fact, I have yet to sort the thread and prepare the fabric. I did however have a close look at the charts this morning and I think that’s the mistake I made. How can there be so many half stitches in the designs when each is smaller than 40 x 40 stitches!

Funny thing is that a couple of years ago half, quarter and three-quarter stitches didn’t bother me in the least, and that was when I stitched solely on Aida. They were as natural to me as a ‘full’ cross stitch.  Since those days I mastered evenweave and by all that is right and holy, I shouldn’t be bothered by them now that they’re so much easier to do fabric wise. 

I made very little progress on the Snowman stocking since my last post, but it’s steadily coming along and that’s the main thing!

I bought this fabric on Saturday and if you’re thinking ‘Ouch, that’s bright!’ you’d be so, so right! A lot of people I know either have a thing for tortoises or for frogs so when I saw the fabric I just knew that I had to buy some.  I couldn’t make up my mind which matching fabby I liked best so to be on the safe side I took both. The only idea I had when I saw the fabric was that I can make my mum (tortoise fan) and her friend (frog fan) a library bag each and a shopping bag for a friend (frog fan) of mine.  After making the bags about half the fabric should be left and then I can make some goodies for the other tortoise and frog lovers I know. Well, I always have fabulous plans for fabric that never materialise so let’s wait and see if the bags ever get made… 

Thanks for everyone’s comments  – I love reading them!

The heading on tonight’s post was supposed to be ‘CCN Sunflower Sampler Finished’.   Ahem… – the sampler isn’t finished because I ran into a little problem. A green, six stranded, 8 meter problem.  I ran out of the colour I’m using for the alphabet! I have spares (1 or more) of every single colour of DMC so I didn’t worry about thread running low. As a matter of fact, I even had a quick look on my check-list and it said 3364 x 3. That means I have one on the stitchbow and three spares.  So after finishing the thread I toddled over to my box of spare DMC and looked for 3364. After not finding it with the first rummage I was thinking that I should really have it all a bit more organised instead  of having them jumbled like that.  After the second rummage I was starting to use words my mother would definately not approve of. Back to the check-list. DMC 3363 x 3, DMC3364… No spare! That’s where I spat out words that can strip paint off a wall at fifty paces. Oh well, that’s life, isn’t it? I’ll just have to be patient and wait till I can get hold of the colour.

After the threat of having no paint on the hobby room walls, I decided that instead of sulking over not being able to finish the Sunflower to start on the second stocking for the Good Husband.  Thank heavens I already ordered the extra Weeks and GAST I need for it or there would have been more paint stripping words in a couple of days!

Look what went overhead last night. We see this balloon quite often during summers but this was the first time that it was so close that one could actually see the flame! Cooooool!!

I’m really enjoying stitching these little flower samplers and am sort of sorry that I don’t have a bunch of them to stitch one after the other. There are only two more designs like this – Holly&Ivy Sampler and the new Daisy Sampler.  Even though I like the new design, I doubt I’ll buy it as I don’t like the format.  Holly & Ivy already went on my shopping list so you’ll be seeing it on the blog in the not too distant future. Now I’m keeping everything crossed that one day either LHN or CCN will bring out a Pansy Sample.  A girl can dream, can’t she?

The next project in the SAL with my friend in the UK is Valerie Pfeiffer’s Chickadee Coaster set. After that it’s mailart with a Summer theme and I already found some charts for it, marked out the fabby, got the lining fabric and buttons so all I need to do is stitch it! Wish I was this organised with all my projects!!

Since I started blogging and describing my stitching and how I feel about it, I have noticed that I often say that I enjoy stitching this or am having fun stitching that.  That’s the whole point of stitching, isn’t it? To have fun and enjoy seeing a project flow from your needle, otherwise it’s as much fun as eating white-hot coals… I love seeing other stitchers progress as much as I enjoy seeing my own pieces grow and I think that is something special amongst stitchers – there is no jealousy of another’s work, just inspiration and (let’s not forget) enabling!