Reveal Day

It's Reveal Day for the Monthly Challenge over at the JA/S&S Forum. I so love Reveal Day and looking through the album at all the lovely pieces all the participants have stitched and finished - really inspiring.

We were given quite a choice, as we could choose any of the Papillon Creations freebies. I chose the blackwork Celtic design and this is how I finished it:

Hearts and Flowers by Papillon Creations;

Fabric: Polstitches 32ct Stormy Skies;

Thread: Carrie's Creation Twinkle;

Finished as a hanging pinkeep.

Unfortunately this just wouldn't photograph crisply enough so I took a closer view, in the hopes it will show the detail a bit better:

On the back I used a cotton fabric from the Leafy Glade Autumn range that I bought some time ago from The Cotton Patch:

Round the edge I twisted a sparkly silver and a lavender ribbon together and pinned it with cream pins. This piece is so me, as there are many aspects behind the choices I made: it incorporates two of my needlework loves - blackwork and Celtic designs; the design greatly appeals to me as a Pagan, with it's four sides and four "corners" - the four directions; because it's an interwoven design it has no beginning and no end, so makes me think of the eternal cycle (life, death, rebirth); the Celts were a very Nature orientated peoples and their Druids/Druidesses worshipped in the open air, in sacred groves - which decided the choice of the leafy glade backing fabric - which also continues the Nature theme of the stylistic flowers in the design - and silver is sacred to the Goddess, hence the silver ribbon. The hearts need no explanation. :0) It's now on display in our living room, hanging on the wrought ironwork fire "guard" that you can see in two of the pics.

Enjoyed this Challenge and am now looking forward to seeing what Karen has in store for us next month. Thanks Karen. :0)

Meantime I have joined Elisa's Challenge for a Finish blog. Each month Elisa will nominate a finish for us to do which I thought would be a good way of making me try a style of finishing that I haven't done yet....... or that I've been avoiding doing because it's a bit more involved than I've fancied tackling. Like the JA/S&S Challenge, there's no pressure either: if you can't fit it in it's OK, which I think is pretty good, and was the final decider for me. February's Challenge is a redwork heart shape finish. The one I did last year for the JA/S&S Challenge was my first such finish and it was a bit of a steep learning curve which left me wanting to do another one - mostly in the hopes that something was actually learnt from it and that a better job would be made of it second time round....... but I never got around to it. So now's my chance. LOL I shall start looking for a suitable design on Monday as I've been busy with other things today and we're out visiting my DSis tomorrow.

Am hoping to do a catch up post next week with some pics of recent card makes, another NW update and a pic of the ornie finish for the JA/S&S Monthly Christmas Ornie SAL (though I reckon quite a few folks will have seen that already LOL). There isn't another SS update though: I just haven't managed to stitch on it again yet, unfortunately.

Thank you for all those lovely, kind comments and for taking the time to visit. Hope you're all enjoying the weekend. :0)