My August "monthly freebie challenge" piece is ready to be revealed

This month was a choice of designs to stitch, either "Meow spoken here" or "Woof spoken here". As I currently have a cat I chose the meow one. Here's my completed design:

• Name of the design is "Meow spoken here"
• Chart is a freebie from Stitch Kitty 
• Fabric is an offcut of lightly mottled pink and white evenweave
• Thread is DMC #105 - a cotton variegated thread for the cat face, and a slightly darker solid cotton for the whiskers, mouth and eyes. The rest was stitched using silk thread from Carries Creation Threads. The blue for "meow" is Electric Blue, the mauve for the paw is Boysenberry, the orange for the word "spoken" is Orange Zing, the ball of wool is Love Always, the border is Bubble Gum, and the word "here" is Aquamarine
• Stitch count is 50 x 50
• Started on August 14th 2013
• Completed on August 17th 2013 using some soft pink fabric for the edges and background, then finished off as a mini pillow/stuffed wall hanging, with a strand of pink beads around the edges. 

Killing two birds with one stone

...so to speak. I have another finish that ticks two boxes. It was Honeybee's chosen free design for July in the monthly freebie challenge over at 123 stitch. It was also a free choice month on the "Christmas all year 'round" blog challenge so I decided the above-mentioned design would fit the bill. Here it is. Note that I actually "finished" it too! :

* Name of the design is Cozy Christmas Wishes - Cozy with a Z that is

* Chart is a freebie from Lizzie Kate

* Fabric is an off cut of lightly mottled lemon evenweave

* Thread is "Turkish Red" Weeks Dye Works for the wording, border and trim on the mug. DMC cotton for the rest

* Stitch count is 49 x 48 plus the border which I added

* Started on July 21st 2013

* Completed on July 24th 2013, using brads and braid to finish it into a mini pillow

I have still been crafting!

But I don't have much to show for it. The first thing I have been working on is an exchange piece for the "Birds, Bees and Butterflies" exchange I joined a while back. The international mailing date has been and gone, but domestic items need to be mailed by tomorrow so I can't post a pic yet, nor tell you much about it for fear of blowing my cover - it's a secret exchange.

The next thing is the hibiscus flower cross stitch, I have been working on it here and there between other things but don't have much progress to show. It will be put on the back-burner for a while as I have one last hand towel I need to finish - um, and start! - and have committed to a quilt square for a woman on the 123 message board  who sadly lost her husband to Creutzfeldt Jakob disease within 2 months of his first symptoms. He was only 40-ish. So very sad and heartbreaking - especially as he had 2 children. (who are similar ages to mine)

I've also started a new mini project today that will double as my free choice design on the Christmas-all-year-long blog, as well as it being the selected design to stitch for the monthly freebie challenge over on the 123 message board. I figure it's only a quickie - I might even finish it today - and there's not much of July left to complete it. It is "Cozy Christmas Wishes" from Lizzie Kate. Not usually a designer I choose to stitch, but this one I don't mind.

I've also been sequining a leotard for calisthenics. This one is a design I came up with last year and Robin, our trusty seamstress, whipped up a set of them which I sequined. A new one was required this year, so I'm finishing that off too. Here it is:

So you see I have still been crafting - bear with me and I'll post pics when I can.

Hand towel is finished

Here's what I've been working on when I've had time over the last week. Again it was a quickie as it was just a repeat pattern. I did make a mistake but I'm not frogging it as I just can't be bothered and I don't think it's all that noticable. Do you?

• Name of the design is well, I don't read what I think is Polish, but it may be "motyw" ?? I did cut some of the pattern off the top to fit the stitching area
• Chart is yet another freebie, this time from cross stitch patterns 
• Fabric is a sage green pre-finished hand towel
• Thread is DMC variegated cotton, #4030. It has shades of blue, green and mauve throughout
• Stitch count is 30 x however long the hand towel is. No, I'm not going to count out the threads! :-)
• Started on April 26th 2013
• Completed on May 3rd 2013

Next up will either be my own choice of Christmas design for the "Christmas all year long" SAL, the May "freebie challenge" design over at 123stitch, or another hand towel. I think I'm going to make a hand towel for all the state team managers at karate who give up so much time to make sure things run smoothly each week.

February freebie challenge reveal

OK, so this was stitched way back in early February but I am the great procrastinator when it comes to finishing designs. I'm only about a week late for the big reveal over at 123stitch. Here's what I turned the pattern into:

• Name of the design is "Spring"
• Chart is a freebie from The Stitcherhood
• Fabric is a random offcut of yellow and green opalescent 28 count fabric
• Thread is a yellow and green variegated thread that came from a friend who had a business at one stage, can't recall the name of the thread or business right now. I've had it for years. I used the thread to make a cord to hang the pillow. I also added scrapbooking brads, sequins, seed beads and bugle beads
• Stitch count is 66 x 27
• Started February 3rd 2013
• Completed February 7th-ish 2013

Reindeer is finished!

But I'm searching for a pom pom for the hat before posting a pic. I swear I have white pom poms around here *somewhere* but do you think I can find them, or even buy them at the local shops? I really should wait until the end of the month too, but I may be cheeky and post the pic here before sharing on the SAL blog, no-one will see it, right?
I'm now working on the February freebie design for the challenge over at 123 stitch. The design is the word "Spring" with a few basic flowers. It will be interesting to see how everyone changes such a basic design to make it their own.

Let it snow is finished

The "big reveal" has occured on the message board, so I can now show this finish. It was a quick one, only taking 3 days. Here are the details:

• Name of the design is "Let it snow"
• Chart is a freebie, chosen as the January design for the monthly freebie challenge at the 123 stitch message board which I am participating in. It is a Barbara Ana design, available here
• Fabric is 28 count monaco - my favourite - in "sea swirls" by now defunct company Enchanted Fabrics. My favourite hand dyed company too :-(
• Thread is DMC. I switched a few of the called for colours to suit me. Stitched with 2 over 2.
• Stitch count is 33 x 48
• Started on January 15th 2013
• Completed on January 17th 2013

The changes I made were not stitching the eyes, I swapped them for googly eye buttons. I also stitched the word snow entirely in blue instead of the "o" in white (I just realised I wasn't meant to do that now!). I only stitched every second stitch in the border to give it a different look and added some mini star buttons instead of stitching a snowflake in the bottom right corner.