Bluebeard's Mermaid

This was started as part of the Mirabilia Yuku board Mermaid SAL but I've thrown the rotation schedule in the bin and intend to keep stitching til she's done now!

I have stitched the top and the conch shell but it doesn't all fit on my scanner!  You can see how much bling there will be from the gaps.  I am currently stitching both seahorses then the border.  After that it'll be the metallic and the beads to finish.

The fabric is a 32 count Murano from The Crafty Kitten.

There are progress photos on a special page on my blog.

Happy Dance for Nimue's Baby Swing

Without flash to show the true colours:

 With flash to show the details, metallics, beads and bells:

I have posted at great length about this one on my blog, so hop over there to find out more.  It's stitched on some 32 count Murano hand dyed specially for me by The Crafty Kitten.  The fabric is currently June's Ltd Edition.  It's a nice green with a hint of paler yellow, I wanted dappled sunlight through trees but not to bright and garish.  I tend to the subtle in hand dyeds so far.  The design is called "The Baby Swing" by Nimue although I bought the chart from Violarium as I didn't know about the Nimue site until after I'd bought the chart!  I can recommend Violarium, I ordered two Nimue charts from them, they were delivered quickly from Europe and came with half a dozen free small charts from companies I'd not seen before.

Fairy Celebration

Here's my finished Fairy Celebration, she's a freebie from Passione Ricamo.  Stitched on 14count raspberry aid with DMC white and Madeira Metallic Silver.  I'm not keen on the Madeira Metallics, they don't seperate easily and are very thin.  There's also the problem of what to do with the piece you cut off from the long thin packet.  With DMC I use Floss-a-way bags and put the cut-off piece back in the bag (with standard threads I tie it through a piece of card cut from a thread sorter and put it back in the bag.)

She is a gift for my niece who has just had a baby girl.

For those who aren't aware, I have a feature on my blog where I post the contents page of each magazine I buy.  This is to help people decide if they want to look for the mag themselves (I don't post the charts).  The new edition of Cross Stitch Collection has been added today.  Come and have a peek at Serendipitous Stitching!

Enabling people to comment on blogs

The wonderful Daffycat has given this advice to bloggers whose followers are having problems commenting:

 

 

"Change your comment form to the pop-up window type.

 

Go to:

Dashboard

Settings

Comments

Comment Form Placement

Choose POP-UP WINDOW
Save"

Terry - If we do this on this Blog then Bernice and I can comment again, and anyone else who has been strangely silent.  Thank you so much.

Meanwhile I have been stitching for babies - Nimue's Baby Swing and a Passione Ricamo freebie fairy.  For progress pics you'll have to check my blog as Blogger won't let me post pics this evening.  Yesterday was fine.  Now not.

Jo's Rotation

Hey!  This is my post that went AWOL during the Friday 13th outage.  I found it lurking as a draft.  So here belatedly is my take on rotational stitching:

Okay just to be awkward - I do a rotation by the time of day!



Daytime is a simple project I can pick up and put down.  At the moment it's the Dark Alphabet.



Supervising small boy's bathtime I am currently stitching JE's Oriental Waving Cat from the WOCS free booklet.  (finished this now, doing PR Celebration Fairy)



Evening when boys are in bed is a big project.  Currently Mira's Bluebeard's Mermaid for one metric week (10 days) then a "can you tell what it is yet" project which I won't name as it'll spoil the guessing fun!

Have done two more letters since then but can't show a pic yet due to Blogger's temper tantrums.

Comment on the JE SAL

Today's Blogger problem - I can't make comments on certain blogs!  I also can't add photos but I can make posts.  I've had to post links to my WIPS on my blog rather than insert the pictures and now I can't make comments here.  How long is this going to go on for?  It's ridiculous.  At least my blog is for fun not for work or college like some people.

Anyway this is my comment:

"Great start!  I couldn't face making another new start last night.  I'm usually a OAAT stitcher and I currently have 5 WIPS.
I'm going to focus on the Baby Swing until she's finished then alternate between my Mermaid and my 11 project.  The Dark Alphabet and my PR Fairy are daytime projects but I have found I don't like having more than one or two larger evening projects on the go at once."

Flower Fairy Framed

As Riona was talking about framing I thought I'd share my flower fairy framed:

I photographed her without the glass, when I replaced it I stuck another larger butterfly onto the glass so it's hovering about the picture.  My friend is expecting a baby boy so this will be an "anti-jealousy" present for her older daughter when baby arrives.  I was lucky enough to get the matching Birthday card for her too. Serendipity strikes again!

I need some decision making help over at my blog - Dilemma - please pop over and leave a comment.  I am terrible at making decisions on fabric and threads!

Introduction to Jo

My post on rotational stitching seems to have vanished during Blogger's tizzy fit on Friday 13th so I thought I'd do my Introduction instead.

I'm Jo from the East of England.  I've been into the whole fantasy genre since I out-grew Enid Blyton books.  Back in the 70's there wasn't much for the pre-teen market so I started reading Science Fiction instead.  Asimov and Andre Norton to start with then moving onto the Anne McCaffrey Dragonriders of Pern books.  I played D&D as a teenager (my female elf Helena Henna was a pun on Kerrang's Pandora Peroxide!) and drew endless pictures of dragons.  During the late 80s and 90s the Fantasy genre exploded and I read every series going from Marion Zimmer Bradley to Terry Pratchett via the Shannara books and the Belgariad.

So it seemed logicial when I started stitching in 1993 to stitch fantasy designs.  My first large design was Teresa Wentzler The Castle - a rite of passage for any fantasy fan!

If you go into my Picasa photo album you can see all my finished TW's after The Castle (I try to be organised!).

I veer between fantasy and traditional samplers now usually alternating between the two genres.  I now have an 8 year old son who shares my love of dragons and fantasy (cross stitch not so much although he does show an interest in what I'm stitching).  Together we are reading all my favourite books and some new ones.  We have just finished our second reading of the entire How to Train Your Dragon saga by Cressida Cowell.  We read The Hobbit earlier this year and are debating whether to dedicate an entire year to Lord of the Rings (that's how long it took my Dad to read it to us!).  Right now it's Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.  We love Greek Mythology too!

That's enough about me now.  If you want to know more then read my blog - http://www.serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com/