Smalls #5 - Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe + a giveaway

I know I know it is Tuesday and no Tuesday Extravaganza (to be fair there is almost no progress from the last picture). I am seriously behind in several other updates too and will try to catch up in the next week or so. I thought of posting this finish as it is inoffensively simple (only one photo pretty much).

This is an 'Alphabet Ornament Collection: A' by Nancy Turner of The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.

I have stitched this with 'the best orange' (hand dyed by Nancy) on evenweave (dyed by my lovely mum with red onion skin and aluminium mordant).

The green fabric is essentially a bit more green than what my camera took. It looks nice, I love the green and the threads (especially the blended effect from light to dark on A), it was a pleasure stitching! But I think I will be restitching this design again. As I feel there is too much of a military sense about it. Not sure why. Must be this shade of green. Maybe once I will make it into a proper finish it will feel less so. I wander what will happen if I stitch green on orange? maybe the second side to this ornament? what do you think? And have a cord in orange and green. I am also planning on stitching another A from the same set of charts. It has a bird in the pattern!

Would you like to stitch something in Nancy's threads, if so she is having another one of her generous giveaways:

click here

You have until 15th of June 2014. 

Till soon,

P.S. a sneak update for next month's finish ... the sheep are coming ... you can probably guess what I am stitching next

Stitch from Stash 2014 - post #1 or quite a bit of stash and still within budget ...

Dear all,

Thank you for your lovely comments on my previous post. If you are still curious about me and the party check out this post HERE. There is a giveaway I am doing as part of the party. So sorry I haven't got a photo up yet. But will do that as soon as I catch my breath. I will also need to visit all the party blogs. That hectic time of the month hit it seems. I will need to have 3 updates in a row. My to do list has grown with the things needing to be done.

The first of them ... Stitch from Stash 2014. Check out the tab for more info on the project.

I have managed to stay within limit and still have plenty of stash ...

My new stash:

I have won a thread giveaway over at Victorian Motto Sampler:

Is Nancy generous or what!? The threads are beautiful, and I have already started stitching with them.

Speaking of Nancy ... she is having another giveaway over on her blog. Click HERE to check it out before 14th February 2014. A hint ... there is a lot of red involved.

Next I will show you my Christmas present from my sister. I have only got it a few days ago (almost a week ago now) when my sister visited. She visited us here for a few days and then I went down to London/Brighton for a few days. And I only got back a few hours ago. Told you I was busy!

Hand dyed floss by Nina of Nina's Threads. The colour is Jingle Bells. 

Along with it I got the following chart with pre-sorted threads and fabric by Snowflower Diaries:

It was packed soooo lovely. Sadly I could not wait to start so you do not get the packed up picture.

packaging

It was my small project for the train. And I am making progress.

uniquely prepacked threads

Mostly Nina's hand dyed floss

The picture of the progress: 

Progress.

it is a bit of a wrong colour on here (happens when you take pictures after dark).

I bought myself a winder. (Not sure whether it is includable in the budget). The threads some wound some not were beginning to drag me up the wall.

Then my shopping from Anita's Little Stitches came. A blogging friend once recommended for me to buy from Anita ... as I was trying to find Little House Needleworks. I have ordered this back mid December and only now received. Anita and I agreed a slightly letter postage due to the insecurity of Christmas and New Year post.

35 count cocoa

I have never stitched on 35 count before. So this should be something new.

Cardinal Winter ornament chart

Specialised threads for the ornament

Little Sheep Virtue - No.1 Hope chart with button

Little Sheep Virtue - No.8 Wisdom chart with button

Little Sheep Virtue - No.5 Faith chart with buttons

Here are 3 sheep (and that is 9 to go) and 1 ornament (and not sure how many from previous series would I make.

What did I actually buy ...

A magazine ... with the Fizzy Moon. With student discount this was £4.50. And hence as I count $25 pretty much equivalent to £15 I have more that 2/3 carrying through to next month (£11.50). On second thought I will take the advised approach pretend $25 is equivalent to £25 (as Mel mentioned UK materials are expensive). Now I have 21.50 to carry through. This way when I order from the abroad it will be less confusing. Unless I need to include the winder. If yes I will update the sum and carrying would be a little bit less.

Also the project I started stitching from stash this month:

Lean on Me by Judy Rossouw (Anchor kit)

I am falling a sleep slightly at my desk now, so better wrap it up.

Till soon,

 
P.S. Will start making the party rounds tomorrow.