April - End of Month Round Up

Dear friends and fellow bloggers,

How are you all? Good I hope. Last week we had a few days of lovely warm weather - t-shirts, suncream, sandals - but now we are back in the midst of cloud, rain showers and below average temperatures. Where is Spring? The seasons are certainly testing us so far this year here in the UK at least.

 

Just before I get on with the stitching post I wanted to say a big thank you for all of your comments. I love reading them. Please know that I do reply to your comments but unfortunately now and again a few do keep bouncing back and are undeliverable. I have tried to look and I think it must be something to do with the settings. I suspect it has happened during an update. So sincere apologies until I sort it out.

 

-oOo-

I'm trying to have at least one piece fully finished a month whether it be out of the finishing pile or one that has just been stitched. Well I have one of each this month. I finished off the last of A Trio of Stitched Blessings by Plum Street Sampler. It is finished just as the other two which you can find on these posts here and here.

 

 

-oOo-

 

As soon as one of my ONS received their order of Market goodies I sent for this one... amongst others ... oops. I think it is ideal piece for Spring / Easter, Hen and Chicks by With Thy Needle & Thread. I did change some of the colours due to either not having them or they didn't work colour-wise. You will be able to see the full colour changes with the project info under the photo. The WDW Light Khaki is used in it's own right mainly for the hens but I also used it instead of GAST Buttermilk. It seemed such a close match and my skein of WDW Light Khaki has shadings of light yellow anyway. Although I did use the colours that were charted for the hens I did swap the colours around so I think I had 2 that were in DMC 3782 instead of just the one. For the handmade cording I used WDW Teal Frost so it would be an exact match to the dress.

 

 

Hen and Chicks - With Thy Needle & Thread.

36ct Mushroom/Light Mocha Edinburgh.

(Fabric colour looks a bit washed out in photo)

 

Used the recommended threads except:

 

DMC 645 instead of WDW Pelican Grey.

GAST Pomegranate instead of GAST Ruby Slippers.

CC Pea Pod instead of CC Mossy.

DMC 920 instead of Valdini Cinnamon Swirl.

WDW Light Khaki instead of GAST Buttermilk.

 

Handmade cording in WDW Teal Frost.

  

-oOo-

 

I have also had some stitching finishes. Welcome Spring by The Drawn Thread was finished at the end of March but didn't make my end of March round up. This is a beautiful piece especially in the silks which gives it a lovely lustre. Having stitched a lot of The Drawn Thread I have built up quite a collection of silks and Cynthia Zittel does tend to use the same colours throughout her pieces. Although I love the bunny, the basket of eggs is my favourite motif on this one.

  

 

 

Welcome Spring - The Drawn Thread.

32ct Antique Lambswool Permin/Wichelt Linen.

Used recommended NPI, Dinky Dyes, Threadgather/Silk'n'Colors silks.

 

-oOo-

 

I have no excuse for stitching this next piece except I couldn't wait until May ... although it's not too far away now. I had planned to start this in May but it was in my stitching basket and  .... well ... I fancied a change. This is the Simply Summer by The Drawn Thread. I'm stitching the seasons all on one piece of fabric. I think the bees took me as long to stitch as all of the rest of the piece put together. I'm not making any prediction this time about when I'm going to start Autumn!

 

Simply Summer - The Drawn Thread.

32ct Dirty Belfast Linen.

Used recommended GAST threads.

 

Simply Spring - The Drawn Thread.

Simply Summer - The Drawn Thread.

 

-oOo-

 

Needless to say I haven't stitched an awful lot on Parchment Tapestry. Another couple of motifs have been added and some outlining of them so I will leave that until next time.

 

-oOo-

 

Until next time ........