D - Deer and Grapes

4th April "D" Post

"Deer and Grapes" Mystery Sampler

Welcome to 4th April and Day 4 of the "Blogging from A to Z April 2015 Challenge".   

Day 4 is "D" day....  As soon as I started planning my A-Z inspired stitching the "Deer and Grapes Mystery Sampler" was the first WIP I thought of stitching on for "D" day.

"Bambi and Thumper"
Disney web image

No, Bambi and Thumper have nothing whatsoever to do with my Deer and Grapes stitching... I just thought they looked cute ♥

"D" - Deer and Grapes......

Deer: The word "deer" was originally broader in meaning, but became more specific over time.  In Middle English, der (Old English dēor) meant a wild animal of any kind.

Grapes: A fruiting berry of the deciduous woody vines of the botanical genus Vitis.  Commonly enjoyed by the glass...or even by the bottle!  My personal favourite grape is the one that has bubbles and has a French name!

The "Deer and Grapes Mystery Sampler SAL" is designed by Jean Farish.  It is being run as a Mystery SAL (Stitch a Long) however, I am way behind some of the stitchers who have already finished it!!  But I won't let that put me off... I stitch at my own pace - snail's pace most of the time!!

I have had a couple of stitching sessions with this sampler now, the last one being for the IHSW in March.  At the end of that marathon effort my sampler looked like this:

Do you like my little paw needle minder?

Now after stitching on this again on Thursday night and most of Friday, we have a little bit more progress and here is what it looks like now:

If you are interested in stitching any of Jean's designs, she has an Etsy store that you can purchase her delightful designs from, including the Mystery SAL (I think it's still available).  She has also set up a FB page for those of us that have purchased the Mystery Sampler so that we can post our progress and keep in touch with her and the others that are stitching this lovely sampler.  A source of inspiration to keep stitching on this lovely design.

So that's it for today's "D" post...  Tomorrow is a non-posting day for the challenge, so my next post will be on Monday when it is all about the fifth letter of the alphabet - "E".

Til next time.... Happy Stitching and Happy Blogging!
Hugs xx

Who wants to go on a Treasure Hunt?

Welcome to the 2015 Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop

2015 brings us another lovely Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop hosted by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching

As part of this blog hop, all the participants will be posting a picture of their Spring / Easter inspired stitching.  My picture (above) is a Margaret Sherry design that I stitched a couple of years ago for an Easter Exchange.  There are more pics on my post which is linked here....

The second part of the blog hop is the Treasure Hunt:

As you can see my letter is "N"

All you have to do is visit each of the blogs that are participating in order (Jo will have the full list on her blog) and note down the letter and remember the short phrase they make up.    Once you have all the letters head back to Jo's blog for the last letter and leave a comment saying what the phrase is.

The next step on the blog hop trail is:  Karamino - link to her blog is here

Good Luck everyone and Happy Easter!

Til next time, "Hoppy" Stitching

Hugs xx

C - Christmas something....

3rd April "C" Post

Christmas Mouse #1

Welcome to 3rd April and Day 3 of the "Blogging from A to Z April 2015 Challenge".   

Day 3 is "C" day....  Of course the first thing I thought of for a "C' Day post was Christmas!  So here we go:

"C" - Christmas......

Christmas: Christmas or Christmas Day (Old English: meaning "Christ's Mass") is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed most commonly on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.

Christmas is also one of the cutest event to stitch for and probably one of the most common stitching themes around!!

And I could not go past a chance to post some lovely Christmas stitching!  For those that have seen my Crazy January starts this year you will know that I have a one of two Christmas WIP's on the go to choose from!!


So which one to choose to showcase for "C" day....  After fiddling around for a bit I finally decided to stitch on the trio of Margaret Sherry Christmas Mice.

Mouse #1 was the final choice and back in January when I last had him out of the stitching basket he looked like this:

After an hour or two of stitching on Wednesday night he now looks like this:

Some progress has been made - he has a bit more of a noticeable body shape now.  Of course, as with all MS designs, the back stitch will actually make this brown and white blob look like a mouse when it's all finished!

Hopefully he and his mouse cousins will be finished over the next couple of visits to the stitching pile!  Once I have stitched all three I will probably turn this into a small hanging for Christmas... note that I didn't say which Christmas!!!

So that's it for today's "C" post...  I do hope that you are enjoying seeing my stitching updates so far.  I do have more to come and fingers crossed I can keep up with the everyday posting!!

Til tomorrow.... Happy Stitching and Happy Blogging!
Hugs xx

B - Bonsai and Buddha

2nd April "B" Post

Bonsai and Buddha

Welcome to 2nd April and Day 2 of the "Blogging from A to Z April 2015 Challenge".   

Day 2 is "B" day.  When I was thinking about what to post for "B", my first thought was "Bees" - I just adore cute looking "Bees"...

web image

.... but at the moment I am not stitching any bees... so instead my post today is:

"B" - Bonsai and Buddha

Bonsai: is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers
Buddha: Born in Nepal in the 6th century B.C., Buddha was a spiritual leader and teacher whose life serves as the foundation of the Buddhist religion

"Bonsai and Buddha" is a Dimensions kit that I started a number of years ago, and put away (as you do) for some long forgotten reason!

I then picked this up again in January 2015 as it had been staring at me from it's corner of the craft room for long enough!

This is what it looked like after a little bit of love and attention in January.

And after some more love and attention on Tuesday night it now looks like this:

Not a lot of progress but at least the grassy mound looks like it is growing now!

Hopefully one day when I get it finished it will look like the one in the picture below:

Dimensions Kit: Bonsai and Buddha
Picture from 123 Stitch Website

So that's it for today's "B" post... I will "B" off now to prepare for my next post!

Til tomorrow.... Happy Stitching and Happy Blogging!
Hugs xx

A - Autumn Fab Fob

1st April "A" Post

Autumn Fab Fob (Designer: Lizzie Kate)

Hello, welcome to April.... and welcome to April Fool's Day!

As most of us are probably aware... today is the 1st April....  and that means this is my first post for the "Blogging from A to Z April 2015 Challenge".

Today's post is all about "A" - Autumn Fab Fob

So what is an Autumn Fab Fob?  Well....

Autumn: interchangeably known as fall in North America, is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter.  Australia is currently experiencing Autumn!

Fab Fob: short for fabulous scissor fob...

Which in this case translates to an Autumn inspired scissor fob that I am currently stitching...

This is a Lizzie Kate design that I won in a giveaway a few years ago.  It had been languishing in my stash since then... until I decided to take part in a couple of Crazy January Stitching Challenges earlier this year.  Regular readers of my blog will also see this design pop up occasionally in my monthly posts for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.

I last stitched on this sweet design in early March and it looked like this when I posted that update:

After Monday night's stitching effort, it now looks like this:

I am stitching this on the fabric that came with the chart and using the good ole' DMC threads... Won't be long now before this will be marked up as a "Finish"!

So that's it for today's "A" post... short and sweet!

Til tomorrow.... Happy Stitching and Happy Blogging!
Hugs xx