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.

Gifted Gorgeousness - The March Shoehorn Edit

Hello, and welcome to my March Gifted Gorgeousness Post. For a full explanation of Gifted Gorgeousness, the monthly blog hop where we celebrate the generosity of the crafting community by showing off our gift related makes. For a full explanation please see Jo's Blog
To be honest I've really struggled to find anything that fits the criteria this month, so in best shoehorn tradition here is a dress I made myself.

The beautiful vintage rose print fabric was gifted from Minerva in exchange for a review, which will appear on their blog soon.
And here is my finished Sugar Bowl Crafts scrap-busting sewalong quilt top. A couple of the scraps I used were gifted to me by sewing friends so I can just about manage to squeeze it in here.

That's it for this month. Hopefully I'll have more to show next time around.

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!