So much to catch up on!

Last month I had high hopes of getting all caught up with things I wanted to post and then some... and then I got floored by the flu ugh...  there went my plans.

So... back to *trying* to catch up on what I haven't posted yet, and posting the things I made after my last post here. One day I may even succeed hehe.



This edition of trying to catch up:

• Stitch for Syria
• Prizes I made for a Stitching Pirates prize over on deviantArt
• A new series of monthly patterns!

Still to come in separate posts, in no particular order:

• A delicious recipe
• Another princess pattern
• The missing needle book pattern from my joining the dots series.
• A pattern for a BB-8 fob that was planned for last December.
• Winter biscornu pattern.

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but I'm bound to remember eventually, in which case I'll make a post with it.

First up:  Stitch for Syria!
I found out about the Stitch for Syria project a while ago and kept on meaning to stitch up the pattern for it but life has been keeping me busy in many ways recently so it wasn't till last weekend that I finally finished making them. I made two, which you can see at the top of this post, as I couldn't choose which colour to do so decided to just do both. On the left you can see DMC colour variations 4069 and on the right you can see Tentakulum "Van Gogh"

Stitch for Syria is a project anyone in the world can join in with, you can sign up to join in here: Stitch Syria Help Refugees Our Cross Stitch Challenge after which you can download the pattern, which was made by MrXStich himself btw, and stitch it and send it in to be included in a wall hanging. It would be brilliant if they were sent so many squares that there turns out to be enough for more than just the one wall hanging!

Next: Prizes for the deviantArt group stitching pirates.

If you are on deviantArt and cross stitch you really should be a member of the group Stitching Pirates, contrary to the name we don't pirate anything but do like to collect booty in the form of pictures of your WIP's and finished projects in the group gallery. Some time ago I offered a cross stitched prize for one of the competitions, life did it's usual thing of getting in the way, and then they had become hidden in the Drawer of Doom and I forgot I had not sent them yet, let alone completed them. *yikes*

Since I found them in the Drawer of Doom in January I have finished them, mailed them off and they have arrived, so now I can share what I made without spoiling the surprise.

For the first prize, which was for AslaskanAsh, I made a turtle journal cover, with an A5 sized journal and a turtle pincushion. The journal cover I designed myself and uses 90 colours of DMC and was made using a turtle stock photo by photowizard on deviantArt. The turtle pincushion was made using a CrossStitcher magazine turtle pattern (originally in bright colours) that I adjusted to "real" colours and then stitched 3 times.

The second prize was for pinkythepink who loves pink and roses, so I made the journal cover with roses and a needlebook with her initial and more roses, all with lots of pink Hoffmans Bali batik and a pretty rose fabric inside.

The 3rd prize was made for princessmoodypants and was really fun to make, despite it being purple as I really liked the subject matter: a Tardis done in purple variegated thread, all of it backstitching which I don't normally enjoy but somehow it was fun this time. This too was a journal cover. I designed the pattern myself.

Last of all: The new series of patterns I'm doing.

Over on deviantArt (yes today does seem to be dA day here doesn't it?) in the Stitching Pirates group Carla and I are hosting the Neglected Threads SAL - a stitch along for all those threads lurking waiting to be used, or those leftover bits from other projects. As part of the SAL I will be creating a new pattern each month and posting it exclusively to deviantArt and only to the stitching pirates group. This is the only SAL I'll be creating patterns for this year. The patterns can be any size but will be no bigger than 50x50 as we want to keep the projects small and doable every month.

This was the March pattern, slightly blotchy as I was ill when I made it and without thinking dunked it in water before pressing for the photo... not wise when using non colour fast threads funnily enough.

Have a good Monday and see you soonish if all goes well.