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Saturday 26 May 2012

Joan Elliott Round Robin and a row of cats (minus the frog)

I finished my block just in time, mailing day is Tuesday!  Karen's theme is Fairies.  I had thought of Winter Fairy or Poppy Fairy but when I saw the two designs already stitched I knew I had to choose one with more wing showing.  So I went for Butterfly Fairy from the cover of the latest Joan Elliott book Fairy Enchantment (available from Waterstones for only £9.99).

Here is my block:


And some close-ups:



And the whole piece:




I used the recommended DMC and Kreinik from the book but subbed the Kreinik french knots for beads.  C'mon - Kreinik AND french knots, who is Joan kidding?!!

The difficulty was remembering which squares to leave empty for a bead as the charted knots went inbetween stitches but I wanted beads to replace stitches.

This is such a great Round Robin so far.  My design is slowly growing, Daffodil was added this turn.  Of course I only get to see photos until the end of the year.  I've signed up for a Giant Mira RR for next year, blocks will be 5,000 stitches rather than the usual 2,500 but we'll get 12 weeks to stitch rather than the usual 6.  I'm going for the Calendar or Birth Month Fairies for my choice.

I can now show your Rachael's Birthday Card.  I stitched this as part of the Needlecraft Haven Birthday Exchange but as Diane shares Rachael's Birthday I stitched her the WOCS Flower of the Month and chose Rachael's favourite cats for her card.




The original design came from this French blog, Novalee Point de Croix.  She has lots of freebies, several featuring cats.

This card was stitched over 1 on 25 count using DMC 69.  The moon is my own addition to cover up the frog's mess!  When you frog red thread from white fabric you can see the red left behind!  So there is a nice little moon now.

Finally, a Big Thank You to everyone who commented on The Danse Macabre post about my completed Dark Alphabet.   After posting Wednesday evening I was up half the night with a Small Boy who decided 3am to 6am was Play Time.  So when I got the the computer Thursday afternoon I was feeling rather tired to say the least!  Reading all your comments really buoyed me up again.  It's so great that you all shared my excitement at finishing this project and getting the lovely gifts.  I'm also pleased that people appreciated the individual pictures as they took ages to load on!


21 comments:

gracie said...

I do not want to even think about Kreinik and french knots!

dulcinella said...

Beautiful stitching! The round robin piece is great. You're right there should be a law that forbids to use some words in one sentence ( like kreinik and french knot, there is also enough and stash frog, red flos and white fabric:-)). Beautiful card you made. Thanks for the link!

dulcinella said...

Must read: enough and stash; frog,red floss and white fabric of course!

Linda said...

Your pieces are stunning. RR are a wonderful stitching gift. I would love to do one, but sadly I only stitch on 14ct so I will just enjoy yours.

Linda

Yana Hanim said...

georgeous! I love her eyes, closed but alive!

Shirlee said...

Absolutely breathtaking work on that fairy Jo! What an amazing round robin you are participating in! The cats are very cute : )

Thoeria said...

The round robin piece looks stunning! really gorgeous! Thanks for the link too! And I agree - what *was* Joan thinking about! :)

Julie said...

Stunning RR, spectacular charts for this one.
Rather you than me with the bigger one.
I love Rachael's card, you would never know the moon shouldn't be there.
I was once given a tip by an experienced stitcher to roll cello tape around my hand and dab the back of the fabric, then the front to remove any odd dark coloured thread that was left after frogging, even in a small space you can just use the end of your finger with it wrapped round the end - of course you have the sticky side to the fabric and not on your finger lol

Susan said...

Your block is beautiful. The finished one s going to be amazing. French knots with Kreinik? Not in a million years!! The card is really cute and you'd never know the moon wasn't a part of the original chart.

Giovanna said...

That's a lovely RR, and the card is so pretty too.

The Crafty Princess said...

OMG Kreinik and french knots it sounds like some kind of torture!! Good choice I would have gone with the beads too. I always sub beads for knots (mostly cos I am crap at doing knots) as I think that beads look stunning!! Your fairy is so beautiful and it goes so well with the rest of the piece. Congratulations awesome job!!!
P.S. It has to be mentioned again the dark alphabet is amazing!

Veronica said...

Beautiful RR! You did a wonderful job with your block. Can't imagine making French knots with Kreink :/

I saw that cat birthday card on Rachel's blog. Gotta say it's so cute!

Hugs,
Veronica.

Toni said...

Lovely colors! and your stitching is so neat :-)

Christine said...

The RR looks wonderful. I quite agree, Kreinik is not really the stuff you want to be doing French Knots in, you need quite a slippery fibre for them to work properly

Maureen said...

Such a gorgeous RR - and such a cute birthday card!

♥ Nia said...

Beautiful block!! Such a gorgeous RR :)

Ehren said...

Awesome RR. The dark alphabet project was just super

Jenny said...

What a wonderful birthday-card, Jo. Again, love the colors.
The JE fairy RR is fabulous! They are so pretty - can't wait to see how it will turn out. And yeah - French knots with Kreinik - puhleeeze! That is so a bead-switch-out!

Karen said...

Thank you so much for the beautiful Butterfly Fairy! I love my RR and can't wait to see it done.

I did French knots in Kreinik on Melva's naughty little angel. I'm afraid they look terrible. :( Gack! Never again.

I'm looking forward to stitching June on your big RR next year. yea!

Caitlin @ Naughts Cross Stitches said...

gorgeous stitching :D

Nylarim said...

Love the RR! y'all talented stitchers... beautiful stitching.