Temperature SAL and March Round up

My winter band for my Temperature SAL now has 12 flowers.  Although March ends today (Thursday) I will include tomorrow in my flower and then start the summer band from Saturday. 

This band will be restarted on Saturday 3rd September. 

You can see the unusual warmth this week and I think when I stitch this Sunday the final flower will be colder colours again. 

I have stitched/made 16 items this month. Some items are letters I have received from others but I have made up and some items are made on the sewing machine so no actual cross stitch. 

My full list is on my 2022 Finishes page at the top of my blog. I use a 🙂 when I have stitched an item and a 🤗 when an item is fully made. This month I have fully finished nine items, I'll be having a finishing day early April so these items can be blogged in April's FFO. 

Although I don't record how long I stitch for or the number of stitches on each item I do keep a record of when an item is stitched and finished and which month it has been included in either FFO, GG or Smalls blog posts, it can be quite confusing at times. 

As it is the last flower this week of my winter Temperature SAL and next week starts my summer band I'll leave you with a few photos of our spring bulbs and my gorgeous orchid Hubby gave me on Mother's Day.

March Smalls

 

Mary at Mary's Thread is the lovely host of the Smalls SAL. On the last Friday of the month we share our small stitching items that we have completed but not necessarily fully finished. I'm a day behind as I have felt a little off colour the last few days.

Mary has a link up post on her blog so we can pop over to see everyone's work, it's super to see all the lovely stitching. Thank you Mary for hosting this great SAL. 

My first small is Little House Needlework's Baked Goods. This is the Travelling Chart for 2022 with the lovely members of Needlecraft Haven. The chart began with Mary and I passed it on to Julie who has passed it on to Christine. It's such fun to see everyone's stitching and so lovely to share a design. 

I have stitched mine using slightly different colours, I used DMC E745 sparkling yellow instead of white. I'll be using it to cover a box, no surprise there

I have been busy stitching letters too. I've done my initials, Clare Frances, using the DMC Alphabet as well as my parents initials, Janet and Ronald. 

I have also stitched another J and R this time using the Assisi Alphabet. These represent my father-in-law who was also called Ronald and my mother-in-law's partner John. My letters are tinged with sadness stitching the initials as my Hubby's dad passed away 32 years ago, my dad 10 years ago and mother-in-law's partner 3 years ago.

My next initials to stitch are for my stepdad, my mother-in-law and then our grandparents. Doing these letters has made me realise how the important men in my life share the same name - it's quite quaint really, if a bit spooky, as these men did not know each other until joined through a relationship.

Both my grandfathers were named Ernest

My father and father-in-law were named Ronald

Our son and our daughter's partner are both named Michael

My final small is my summer ornament for the Topsy Turvy SAL. It is finished and I did include it in my TTSAL post but for my Smalls post I'll show the stitched photo as I'll be included the finished piece in my April FFO blog. As this Lizzie Kate design had free colour choice I used my threads left over from kits ... it hardly dented the bag, I should really see if I can match the colours (of course I don't have the codes anymore hee hee) and use them in other projects, maybe the alphabets. 

I feel my stitching has been a little slower of late, probably due to the lovely weather we have been enjoying and our week in Edinburgh. We had a super time, I have written four posts about our visit (which probably accounts for less stitching time too). Pop over to Aimetu's - wine, food and travel if you'd like to see the photos and read about our adventures. 

TTSAL March - Summer

The Topsy Turvy theme for February and March has been Summer. I really wanted to do more on my tablecloth but time has beaten me. Still I have two sides done, to be honest the plotting out takes more time than stitching. At least once the edges are done I can just stitch as the pattern follows itself. 

I did however stitch this super Lizzie Kate summer freebie and decided to use my old threads, they are ones left over from various kits.

I enjoyed selecting the colours but after a while I began to think it looked more autumn than summer. Reading everyone's comments the colours were ok but once the niggle starts ....

So after a little bit of frogging and restitching my summer ornament looks a little more summery.

I used some foam felt as backing and folded my stitching fabric instead of mounting on card. After the faff I am pleased with my summer ornament. It won't be long before I can display it as the months are certainly passing by with speed, today is Spring Equinox when daylight hours are now longer than night hours.

Gifted Gorgeousness for March

 

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted each month by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. GG, on the 15th of each month, is when we share our latest gifts. These can be gifts given or received, or any item made using fabric, threads, buttons, ribbon, chart, backing fabric that has been gifted. If you visit Jo's blog you'll find the links to everyone's Gifted Gorgeousness posts.

My first photo is of the bookmark I made for Elfie, I did put it in my Fully Finished Objects post but as it was a gift I've shown it again. I love the design by Faby Reilly, I'll probably stitch it again someday.

My second photo was also in my FFO post, these two Coffee Koozies I made for our daughter for her birthday. I'm not sure if she has used them yet. I'm hoping to make Hubby one, a simpler design though without any cross stitch. 

I was the lucky winner of Carol's giveaway. It was a surprise when she messaged me as although I'd read her post I totally missed it was me who won. It's a lovely sampler that I hope to do soon, I especially liked the Scottish thistle as we had a super holiday in Scotland last year with our friends. In fact I'm in Edinburgh now as I type this, a little holiday with Hubby as part of his 60th (last December) birthday gift.

I've received some more super letters for the Alphabet Tree. My friends Gill and Julie from Needlecraft Haven sent these: Gill stitched her initials and NH for the forum (they are also my Hubby's initials) and Julie stitched a Christmassy J and P which are her and her Hubby's letters. Gill also made this beautiful letters card.

I also received this summary S from June along with a little chart. I love the little bee but I'm wondering which way round it goes. I like it either way, but I'm sure June will let me know.

It's been another super GG month both given and received, thank you Jo for hosting this great blogging idea.

Fully Finished Objects in March

 

Rachel, Ten Hour Stitcher, hosts Fully Finished Objects, a super chance for us to show and tell about the crafty items we have completely finished. Thanks Rachel, your FFO prompt each month really helps me finish my projects instead of them still in my project folders. It also helps spur me on to finishing my Alphabet Tree letters as I stitch them which means I will not have a huge finishing task at later in the year.

This bookmark is a design by Faby Reilly and I actually finished it last month but I could not share it. It now lives in Australia with Elfie, thank you Postie for a safe delivery.

This is another FFO that I actually made in February. Using my new sewing machine I made our daughter two Coffee Koozies for her birthday. I have no idea why they are slightly different in size as I used the same pattern although I made them a few weeks apart. 

My next finish is my new sewing box for my travelling bag. As I posted in my February Smalls my current sewing box is a little too big to fit nicely in my new bag so I made a new one out of an old watch box. This one is deeper so hopefully my threads for any holiday project will fit in too.  I did the top smaller and not to the edge so the cording will not catch in the bag. The pin cushion/needle holder is a small jam jar that I made a padded top for, I'll use it for my holiday orts. 

This stitch was for Jo's Facebook group JCS Stitch Along. It was February's choice, A Friendly Snowman by Durene Jones. He's lovely isn't he. I backed my bookmark with foam felt and trimmed the fringing. 

I have made up my four letters for the Alphabet Tree. These are our immediate family initials, Hubby, our son, our daughter and her partner. I am busy stitching my initials and our parents initials now, I'm noticing we have many names of the same initial but not name. I will make sure there is at least one ornament for every letter when the tree is put up but I may not stitch all 26 of both designs.

Aren't these letters beautiful! Suzanne stitched these for the tree, she sent them in a card and I have made them up to match the others. I love the little Christmas motifs on each one, thank you so much Suzanne. 

Another month of good finishes, I hope I can continue to finish as I stitch as it certainly stops things sitting in a drawer unfinished. It's nice too to have a day for finishing, especially if it's raining as I still feel as if I've done something.

Happy finishing! 

Topsy Turvy SAL - Summer (month two)

 

The theme of summer is for February and March so plenty of summer stitching. Last month I worked on my tablecloth and managed to do the edging up to summer. 

This month I have started to stitch Lizzie Kate's summer challenge. I have a bag of threads left over from kits so am using those up, it's great fun deciding which colour to use where.

It's great fun deciding which colour to use for which symbol of the chart. It doesn't seem to be reducing my threads bag though so I might start using these threads for other projects. I have the DMC colour chart so maybe I can work out which numbers they are, although I think one card is Anchor thread. 

This is my stitching so far, I can share my photo as because it's a double month stitch the Summer Gallery is already open in the Facebook group and at Needlecraft Haven. 

I'll be making this into an ornament ready to hang on my tree for summer celebrations. Happy summer stitching.