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

Gifted Gorgeousness February

If you still aren't sure what Gifted Gorgeousness is all about hop over to Jo's Blog for an explanation, but basically once a month we post about our gift related crafting.
Yesterday was opening day for the Needlecraft Haven Valentine Exchange, Tjis was a non-stitched exchange - we had to send our partners a pair of Valentine-ish socks and some matching threads.
I had a daft moment and forgot to photograph the parcel I sent to Julie but here is the lovely gift I received from Clare.

Fabulous socks and threads and I'm really looking forward to trying the chocolate.
Speaking of Clare, she was the winner in my New Year Competition, so I stitched her this little pillow.

The Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop

Hi, and welcome to the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop. This is a blog hop organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. We all sent her a picture of something Valentine related that we'd made, and she mixed them all up and sent them out again. If you pop over to her blog you'll find a list of everyone taking part.
This is the Valentine I received.

Thank you Secret Stitcher, it's so pretty.
Please comment and let me know who you are.
I wonder who got mine...

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

IHSW January

I'm going to try and do an IHSW post every month this year. Try. No promises, especially in the summer when I work pretty much all weekends. The reason I want to try and keep up with it is to keep me motivated with the "Alice" SAL being run in CrossStitcher Magazine.
The first installment was the individual motif frames and the border. The rest of the year will be a motif a month to drop into them.
Already behind as I've only done about a quarter of the frames/border motifs and the next magazine arrived today, but here is my progress so far.

Wish me luck!

Gifted Gorgeousness January 2020

Welcome to my January 20220 Gifted Gorgeousness Post. If you don't already know, Gifted Gorgeousness is a SAL devised by Jo, which allows us to show off pretty much anything that we can describe in a sentence using the words gift and craft. For full details see Jo's blog here.

Kicking off the Gifted Gorgeousness Year is always the easy post because of  Christmas. I already posted about all the wonderful craft related gifts I received in my Happy New Year post, so this post will be about various things that I made for other people.

Lets see... I knitted the girls a hat each. Pattern is "Head Sock" from The Purl Bug. Here is Eloise wearing hers on Christmas Day at the beach. 

I forgot to get a picture of Naomi's hat, but here she is wearing a little devore velvet slip dress I made her. 

The pattern is New Look 6347. Double GG points on this project as I was gifted the fabric by Minerva

I also made them a silver necklace each, (it's just the lighting that makes them look gold)

I made some of these star shaped fabric mats in a variety of colours and patterns for a few of my friends. 

And finally, a little Year of the Rat ornament I made Naomi for her Chinese Zodiac collection

First Finish of 2020

My Temperature SAL

Design by Hetti of Stitches in Blue

Stitched on Crafty Kitten 32 count Oatmeal Murano

using DMC and Finca variegated threads