Quick Alice Update

I'm about a month behind on the Alice SAL, but I just finished up block six - the Dormouse and the Hare.

Next up, Painting the Roses Red.

Slightly Late ISHW Post

Still trying to keep up with my Alice SAL. This is where I've got to now:-

Really enjoyed this month's block. I wonder who we'll get next month, I'd rather like to see the caterpillar.

March Already? Late February IHSW

I did actually stitch it in February, I just didn't get round to blogging it. Here is the current progress on Cross Stitcher Magazine's Alice SAL

I've also been doing a Scrap-busting challenge with Sugar Bowl Crafts, I'm hopelessly behind on it, but here are the first four squares laid out together.

And Finally, the March page in the subversive calendar the girl's made for me

The caption reads "The best things in life are actually very expensive - you know like truffle oil ... or cocaine

Let The People Choose - Penguins

Let The People Choose is a SAL organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching, with a different theme each month. This month it's penguins! It can't have escaped your notice that I am fond of penguins. I have a lot of penguin related crafting to show.
Here we go:-

This New Year Penguin is a free design from Aliolka

I made this cuddly felt penguin from a kit from House of Zandra

Here is a silk scarf I block printed

and a little knitted penguin - pattern in 20 to Knit - Tiny Christmas Toys

bought the whole book for that pattern

A penguin Christmas Ornament (design by Cthulu Crochet)

A penguin in a Jayne Cobb hat!

Penguin walks down the street in that hat, you know he's not afraid of anything.

and this is a mixed stitch penguin sampler I designed for Stitch Magazine, many years ago.

And finally, not penguin related, but here is the February page from the subversive calendar the girls designed for me

Happy New Year

A Very Happy and Healthy New Year to you all.

I'd like to share just a few of the Christmas gifts I received this year.

Thank you to Barb for the lovely felted robin and holly wreath, to Karan for the pretty violet hand dyed evenweave, and to Clare for the Christmas print fabric and DMC threads.

Thank you to Julie for the very useful folding mat/bag, and to Robbin for the gorgeous hand-loomed scarf and handy travelling scissors.
And here are just a couple of the things I got from my girls

My Little Cthulhu!!!!!! Isn't he adorable? Look at his little tentacles!
They also made me a calendar. This is the cover.

You might be forgiven for thinking it was both up-lifting and life-affirming.
Until you open it and see January

I'll share the other months throughout the year.
And finally, my round up of 2019. The final total was 73 finishes, 41 books read, and 12 pairs of shoes bought, and the nearest guess was Clare with 74, 47 and 11. I'll get some sort of little prize in the post to you in the next few weeks Clare.
I've reset the counter, so if anyone wants to try and guess at the 2020 total just pop your answer in a comment on this post.

A Bit of Sewing, A Bit of Knitting

As you may know David and I are photographers, so when I found this wonderful indigo-dyed, block-printed Indian cotton on-line I knew I had to make us a shirt each (yes, I know his and hers matching outfits are cheesy, but I kind of like cheese)

The pattern is New Look 6197, which I've already used to make the Sloth Shirt in this post, so as you can see it's an extremely versatile and very good value pattern.
I've also been doing a spot of knitting, and here are my new fingerless mitts

Knitted in Cascade  Heritage Print (colour - Tut), pattern "Bristlecone Mitts" - yarn and pattern available from LoveKnitting
A step or two outside the old comfort zone for me, as they are :-
a) 4 ply
b) Knitted in the round on double pointed needles.
I'm really pleased with how they came out though, and there was enough of the wool left that I'm knitting a pair of matching boot cuffs too.

February's GG

Here is my February post for Gifted Gorgeousness - Jo's Blog Hop, where we get a chance to show off our gift related crafting every month.
I've got a few things this month. First is the Valentine's Exchange at Needlecraft Haven. We had to send a stitched card, a skein of thread and some sweet treats to our partners.
Here are the goodies I received from Gill

I love the card, and will have to figure out a way to frame it so it can stay on display
And here is the card I sent to Julie.

The stitched section detaches to form an ornament. The design was one I found online, but I've forgotten where. I also forgot to take a picture of the other bits, but I sent a skein of  WDW "Ladybug" and some chocolate ladybirds/
Next is a little "plant" I made from buttons for Barb's birthday

And here is the prize I made for Jo, for winning my guess the number of finishes/books/shoes competition last year.

It says "Mae Govannen", which is Sindarin for "Well met". It's stitched in a Kate's Kloths overdyed green floss on Crafty Kitten's 32 ct Murano in Faded Olive
And finally, not stitch or craft related at all unless you count cooking, but I won  a caption competition on Ainsley Harriott's Instagram, and got this fantatsic goody-box with one of every Ainsly Foods product (there's a load more than you can see in the picture) and  best of all, a signed photo of the man himself (which is up on the kitchen wall now)

Snow and Stitching

Yes, we had snow. Not too exciting for some people, but it's quite unusual around here.

You can see the small patch of blue stitching showing the colder few days in my Temperature SAL

and if you look carefully you'll see that I indicated the snow by filling in the background of the relevant squares with white.

I've also stitched a Valentine's Exchange piece, which I can't show yet as it's a secret, and this little Year of the Pig ornament to add to Naomi's Chinese Zodiac collection.

He's stitched in GAST Schoolhouse Red on Crafty Kitten Just Peachy. I couldn't find a chart I liked so I charted him myself. I drew the Chinese character by looking at various New Year greetings online, I hope it does indeed say "Pig", and not one of the more colourful Chinese expressions from Firefly.

Rounding Up 2018, A Winner, and a Tree Explained

Happy New Year!

Here is my annual round-up post. The official total for 2018 stands at:-

Finishes - 78
Including these two last minute ones.

The tattoo heart brooch cover kit from the January 2019 issue of Cross Stitcher, which I couldn't resist starting when the magazine popped through my door 3 or 4 days ago. It is now gracing Naomi's new laptop bag
And this little chap.

I bought a whole book to get this pattern (It was only a small book, but still)
As you can imagine the really tough part was eating the two choc-ices to get the sticks for his skis. I am a martyr to my crafting.

Books read - 46
A bit down on previous years, but in my defence some of them were pretty long books

Shoes bought - 8
Yes, I was very restrained this year wasn't I?

So, that makes a total of 132, and the closest with a guess of 73, 54 and 12, was, for the 2nd year running

Jo!

Well done Jo, a prize will be on it's way. 

Please comment  on this post with your guesses for 2019 if you want to be in the competition next year.

Finally a tree explained. In my last post I showed you my Geekmas Tree - I've got so many geeky decorations that we decided they merited a tree of their own and so the concept of the Geekmas Tree was born. (we also have a much more traditional tree in the living room). I challenged you to spot the fandoms and other geekiness represented. It would have been hard to get them all as they aren't all clearly visible in the photo, but here goes.

The angel on the top is Castiel from Supernatural and then reading from the top of the tree down we have:-

An ornament made from Scrabble tiles

A Golden Snitch (Harry Potter)

An ornament made from Lego bricks

A stitched penguin wearing a Jayne Cobb hat (Firefly)

Winnie the Pooh

Iron Man 

Batman

A Chemistry bauble with an organic molecule on it (the one that gives Christmas trees their smell)

Thor

Deadpool

Donald Duck

A bauble that says "Shiny" (Serenity/Firefly quote)

A glass Dalek (Doctor Who)

A stitched Hello Kitty

Ghostbusters

Tigger

A Winchester Brothers bauble (Supernatural)

Captain America

A stitched Lieutenant Worf (Star Trek TNG)

A glass TARDIS (Doctor Who) also a gingerbread TARDIS and a stitched TARDIS

A stitched Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek TNG)

The Incredible Hulk

and an undead fairy

Online Advent Calendar - 22nd

Welcome to day 22 of the on-line advent calendar, as organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching
For your advent picture I'm sharing this lino-printed poinsettia card I made

Also a picture of my "Geek-mas" tree. Extra brownie points for anyone who can identify all the fandoms. 

Jo also asked us to share our favourite Christmas song. Lots of my favourite songs have already been chosen, but I thougfht you might enjoy this - the Sans Day Carol, a traditional Cornish Christmas Carol.

Happy Christmas to you all

Gifted Gorgeousness for November

Gifted Gorgousness time has rolled around again (See Jo's blog for a full explanation, but basically it is a monthly blog hop showcasing gift-related crafting/craft-related gifting).
I've got a couple of things I can show this month. The first is this skirt I made Naomi for her birthday, using a chiffon panel printed with Boticelli's Primavera, which just happens to be one of her favourite Italian Renaissance paintings.

And the second is this Christmas card hanger I made for Eloise. There is actually a full metre drop of the hanging strip, I just zoomed in to show the cross-stitch part.

The cross stitch design is by Whispered by the Wind, stitched in various orphan threads on Crafty Kitten's Belfast linen in Moondust. The finishing is done as you would for any hanging ornament, except that the top edge of a roll of sequin waste is sandwiched between the front and back of the bottom edge as it is sewn up.  (The sparkly "button" was part of the packaging on a fancy bar of soap from a couple of Christmases ago. Sequin waste and teeny clothes pegs from EvilBay)

August's Gifted Gorgeousness - Warning: Picture Heavy

It's time for Gifted Gorgeousness again - when we show our gift related crafting - for a full explanation see Jo's blog here.
This month I'm showing the gifts  sent and received in the VSCyberstitchers July exchange.
Here is the gorgeous sheep design pincushion I received from Margaret.

Isn't it beautiful? I just love everything about it - the design, the ruffly ribbon edging, that sweet little button...
And here is the little pillow I made for Linda.

I didn't have a pattern for this one, I saw a photograph of a similar design on Pinterest and sort of made my own version up.
Also in gift related stitching, a little something I made for Eloise's new kitchen.

And not gift-related at all, it was the Village Show yesterday, so here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Some of the flowers

 and pot plants.

Look at these stunning fuchsias.

Cookery Section: "Picnic for Two" and cakes,

jams, bread and children's cookery section

and some of the floral art,

and children's floral displays.

We did quite well, with quite a few individual class wins.

I got a 2nd prize with the little basket of peppers and aubergines front left in the picture, and a first with my cherry tomatoes, which you can see in the background.

Naomi got a first place with this flower arrangement. The theme was "Good Enough to Eat",  and lots of prizes for her baking, and art.

 Naomi's decorated cupcakes

One of her drawings

The overall prizes were a close run thing this year; Naomi was one point off winning the Most Points in Cookery Trophy, whilst luck swung the other way for me and I took the Most Points in Handicraft Trophy by a single point. I also won the trophy for Best in Show Art with this pastel picture

.
Bonus blog points if you can tell who it is.