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Saturday 31 May 2014

Theme-a-licious May Update

Theme-a-licious is hosted by Heather of It's Geek to Me

Each month Heather thinks up a theme for us to stitch to, or in my case, a theme to somehow shoe-horn my existing stitching into, no matter how tenuous the link!

Menagerie May
Is it a zoo in your stack of WIPs? How many projects can you find that include animals or birds? 

Relatively easy this month.  Lots of my projects contain animals or birds in one shape or another.  Let's start at the beginning of the month:

A bird:
The Little Owl Sampler by Knotted Tree Needleart 
from the Just Cross Stitch Hallowe'en Ornie Special 2012.

One re-animated animal:

Franken-Kitty from Carand88

One arachnid and one animal:

Spooky Countdown by Primitive Hare

Three birds:

Twelve Days of Christmas by The Little Stitcher

Edit to add this little animal!!

Squirrel!!


One amphibian:

Noel Blanc by A Mon Ami Pierre

What do you mean, you can't see the amphibian?  There's one huge great frog sitting in the middle of the piece!!

After stitched the border to the left of the reindeer I moved onto this border and reached the bottom of the left hand piece (I started from the same level as the right hand part to give you an idea of how much I stitched).  When I reached the bottom I was about to turn left when I noticed the bottom motif was the wrong size.  Oops, unpick.  Then I noticed that the five times it occurs (ringed in red) it is charted in different sizes!!  Four stitches wide at the top and bottom and five stitches wide for the other three.  Whereas mine were 4,4,4,5,5 which resulted in being one stitch too short at the end.  Unfortunately the corner design at the bottom echoes the corner design at the top so there was no way I could rechart or somehow fudge it.  And believe me, I tried!


So, an hour of frogging and we've got a few evenings of restitching to do.  Bearing in mind I only manage one or two lengths on this an evening it's very frustrating to say the least!  Maybe I'll do it tomorrow afternoon while we're watching our Sunday film.  I really ought to give those little birdies their beaks too.

Finally, don't forget the Summer Postcard Blog Hop.  This year's theme is Gardens, click on the picture of the garden to the top right of the blog for more details.

21 comments:

Linda said...

Love all the critters you stitched Jo. Sorry about the frogs still keeping you company.

Linda

Barb said...

All the pieces are cute. I love animals. Don't like frogs though so hope it goes away for you.

Chris said...

You did a great job with this month's theme..except for the frog..ugh! I am looking forward to seeing your gardens.

KimM said...

These are so cute - great progress - keep up the good work!
xxx

Christine said...

How annoying!It is looking gorgeous though

Pull the other thread said...

Stunning stitching. So sorry you were visited by the dreaded frogs :(

Mary - Lecoeurceltique said...

How frustrating having to unstitch all that work! Noel Blanc is in my 'To Do' pile, so I must remember to double check that section when I get to it ... someday.

Susan said...

Love all the animals but definitely NOT the frog! I hate when things vary like that within a piece. I've done something similar more times I care to think.

SoCal Debbie said...

The kitty and squirrel and birds are so cute, but not the frog! So sorry you had to rip-it rip-it rippit ribbit out! No fun at all. :-(

Clare-Aimetu said...

Such cute creatures - what fun :-)

Thoeria said...

I bet you could have done without the frog creeping in to be a part of your stitching!! But...a frog is a critter too :) Love all the bits you did!

Julie said...

You definitely fulfilled last months topic.
Shame the frog came to stay....it is gorgeous though.

Lili said...

Nice collection of stitching animals.

Sorry about Noel Blanc :(

That squirrel is so cute!!

Hugs,
Lili

Giovanna said...

it's amazing how many animals sneak into our stitching - including the unwelcome frogs... Great stitching on everything.

Dani - tkdchick said...

Great job on the May theme!!!

Brigitte said...

It was such a lot of fun to see the May theme on various blogs. All sorts of animals, but your frog is unique, lol. And quite obviously he loves staying with you. But let's hope that he'll soon disappear in a pond.

geeky Heather said...

SQUIRREL!!!

I think this may be your record for actual themed pieces (not counting March Madness)! I also had a few frogs show up, but I beat them into submission and there is no photographic evidence...I don't want to reward their bad behavior by giving them a photo shoot. =)

The Crafty Princess said...

OMG I was looking for the bloody amphibian for ages, I should have kept reading LOL! You got me good stunner.

They all look great, sorry about the frog though!
xo Alicia

Karoline said...

Sorry to hear about you problems with the frog :(. All your projects are looking lovely

jocondine said...

This may theme was specially pleasant to stitch, feeling surrounded with those sweet animals (except fr... of course). ;)

♥ Nia said...

So many works :D twelve days of christmas looks so simple and so lovely! Charming :)