Theme-Tas-Stitch April link up

Hey friends,

I can't believe that April is 3 weeks through already. Next week is a totally crazy one for us as both kids have their birthdays. DS is turning 12 and is off Karting and having a sleepover with 2 mates. DD will be 7 and is having a jewellery making party with 6 friends. I doubt I'll stitch much next weekend as I'll be an exhausted mess!

So on to Theme-Tas-Stitch. This month's theme was:

April Showers - 

What pieces do you have that contain water? - It might be rain, river, sea or lake - see how many stitches you can make!

 As I said last month this was going be a job for the mighty shoehorn for me as couldn't think of anything in my WIP pile that had water in. I had a root in my Mouseloft pile and found a little seahorse. I have a seaside themed downstairs cloakroom so I shall FFO it for there. I was going to put it on one of the tiny easels & canvas you can get in the Works but the fabric is too small. I said to hubby I should have stitched on blue fabric, so I might stitch a second and do as above, maybe in purples. 

So next month we have...

Monochrome May -

Choose a colour and stitch on your projects that contain that one colour.

I have a plan!! I'm joining in with Maynia in Facebook's Stitch Maynia group, so to combine the both the plan is to stitch one colour from each of my 10 WIP's on the go from March Madness and kill two birds with one stone. 

Link up below and I look forward to seeing what you've been up to.

Happy Stitching 

Top 5 Tuesdays - Signs Spring is coming

Hi Folks

After many weeks of doing the top 5's in my head or sharing them in comments of the participants I've decided to join in properly and do my first top 5 list. This is a little weekly post hosted by Kate where we post on a different theme each Tuesday - some are stitchy others more general.

This week is Top 5 signs spring is coming"

1.

In our house Spring signals lots of birthdays, My Mum has her birthday at the end of March and both children have end of April birthdays. I stitched this for mum last month.

2.

Spring flowers - Most have gone over now but we still have a few tulips giving the garden cheer and DD spotted this morning that our apple tree has blossom on it too.

3.

Easter of course

4.

Lighter evenings making stitching easier - and also harder to persuade small people it really is bed time! I also love being able just to take a light jacket or gillet out rather than being bundled up in a big winter coat. 

5.

Changing my stitchy display on on the fireplace

I hope you enjoyed my first top 5. Kate has links to all the others joining in.

Happy stitching

Gifted Gorgeousness April.

Me again!

It's time for Gifted Gorgeousness hosted by Jo at Serendipitous stitching. Where each month we show our stitching made up from gifted items (chart, fabric, kit etc) or that will be a gift. 

So my main focus this month has been Blackwork Birdsong by DMC. This was a gift from Steph. Steph has just come back to blogging. Yay! 

 Here is where I got to at my last update - the collage shows days 1-8 work.

I've been stitching a length of thread or so a day. So this is 12 days work on it. I'm almost done with the black so just the gold after that. I think 7 days will see a finish. I hadn't meant to focus on it but with the kids getting older I don't often start stitching until getting on for 9pm.
I started writing this yesterday and I've just gone to photograph last nights work and found a hole in the middle of the fabric. I think someone aged around 6 may have been playing with it...

I'm hoping as there is a little blackwork motif in the spot I can sew a piece of fabric underneath and patch it. So here is  up to last night. 

I finished this little alphabet which will be an ornie for the travelling box when it comes. It's stitched in DMC Coloris 4507. The left picture shows where I'd gotten to during March madness and the right shows the finish! I'm not entirely sure how I'll FFO it yet but there is plenty of time. 

My final finish is the cactus embroidery kit which my daughter has decided is for her! It was loads of fun to stitch and was from Tiger. 

It's Theme-Tas-Stitch next week and I'm working on a little kit for that. April was always going to be the toughest month for me as I have nothing with water in it and the only piece with snow was done and dusted in February. Its only a small shoehorn but I'll leave that until the 21st.

Don't forget to do the Easter blog hop on Jo's blog too if you haven't already.

Kerry

The hippety hoppety Easter blog hop

Hello everyone

So today is the Easter blog hop hosted by Queen of the blog hop Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. 

The Easter blog hop will have you hopping all over the bloggersphere to find the mystery Easter phrase. I'm guessing a lot of you are here as I'm first on the list. Don't forget to hop back to Jo's blog to leave the mystery phrase at the end. (If you are here because you read my blog and have no idea what is going on - Jo has all the run down and why aren't you following Jo!)

So here is my Easter picture. I decided to stitch a little Spring design freebie from Lizzie Kate in the recommended DMC. threads and with pink buttons from my stash as shown on the chart, stitched on 28ct DMC Evenweave. I picked up the frame for a bargain in Clinton Cards for 99p! That was the day I got £34 worth of very nice small frames for less than £4. I wish I'd brought more!

Here it is with my little Spring/Easter display - the two cushions and spring book are from Steph, the felt sheep from the other Steph, I stitched the toadstool biscornu and Laura stitched the Easter and snail ones

and what you've all been waiting for....

My letter is...

And now you need to hop over to Ariadne's blog for the next letter. 

Have a lovely Easter and I'll be back for GG tomorrow. 

Happy stitching 

Kerry

WIP weekend and a couple of finishes.

As its been just over a week since I last posted I thought I'd show you what's been keeping me busy. 

I had a finish last Saturday. I love Gilmore Girls so I knew this wouldn't stay as a WIP long. It's by Wee Little Stitches and stitched on something green and sparkly from a Sew It All grab bag with the recommended DMC. 

I also finished February from the monthly series by Palko Lap. 

I've also been stitching Blackwork Birdsong daily, doing a 6 strand length of thread each day as coverage is 2 over 1 at the moment. When I do down to 1 strand for the infill and the metallics I'll only do a couple of strands. But it's coming along really nicely. The collage shows 8 days of work as the top middle was days 2 & 3. 

I've been using the JOD from March madness to pick my projects for this month and I've set myself a crazy challenge of 10 finishes in April, including some of the small starts from March Madness. It's probably do-able but does include 3 small new starts too. I blame the euphoria of a finish on April 1st for giving me the idea! 

I've also been watching floss tube for the first time this week. That's been lots of fun and I've seen some beautiful projects and gorgeous stash. I joined stitch maynia on FB too and that's just full of enabling too! I've signed up a couple of the designer of the month SAL's to use stuff I have in my stash. I really need to write it on my stitchy calendar though. 

I hope you've been enjoying the glorious spring sunshine if you're in the uk. We had a bike ride to the park this afternoon which was lovely.