Ten Years of Blogging - Year seven, 2011/12

Whoops! Nearly went to bed and forgot to publish today's post!

It's year seven now and my first real tutorial appeared on blog this year in August 2011 - how to create simple ribbonwork flowers.

Actually, I'm absolutely no expert on ribbon work, I just know a few simple techniques and this was just me photographing every stage of working a kit!

This October I finally finished stitching up the goldwork viola I'd started on back in Taiwan about 18 months before.  It's still waiting for a mount and/or frame, but has been on display in my blog header for a few years, so I can't say it hasn't been seen.=)

November 2011 started with me conducting a sort of reader survey to see what people liked and wanted more of.  I also finished up the cross stitch narrowboat which was also started in Taiwan and I'd been working on ever since in fits and starts.

It wasn't until this month that i got around to putting needles in that hardanger case I'd stitched in Taiwan and then I began a dog rose needlepainting that ran from November to January. Part-way through project this my blog got splogged!  That meant that someone had copied pretty much the whole blog onto another site.  Strange thing was that splogs are normally trying to get hold of advertising revenue etc, but as I'd never had any, I really couldn't see the point to it.  Anyway, I soon got it shut down and, so far as I know, it hasn't happened since (except a certain site recently pinching all the photos to three tutorials, but more on that soon...)

From January onwards, I joined in with TAST 2012 on a fairly irregular basis.  I suppose I'm no different from most people in getting off to a great start, then falling quickly behind.  Some I managed to keep up to OK and even did a little picture made almost entirely out of versions of fly stitch for the first one, but resorted to a bit of cheating later on, esp. for satin stitch, stem stitch, couching and French knots as I just re-posted sections of a few old projects!

As the above screenshor from my Google Analytics account shows, January also saw an enormous leap in blog visit stats, and also subscribers. This was mostly down to the Wired Needlelace Elements for Stumpwork tutorial, which was featured on Pintangle, Craft Gossip and Jules' former blog. I quickly folowed that one up with one on assembling stumpwork flowers and there'd been another one on making a simple raised beetle a while before.

In February I created an 'About' page on this blog and this month also saw me starting on a stumpwork rabbit (which would get shelved for a while) and posting the first of a couple of tutorials for stumpwork berries using different methods.  The second one happened along in March.

In early April I broke ground on the sampler design I'd been planning to do for my mum for the previous two or three years.  I kept up with it for a few months, then let it lie fallow for a few. I also had a thread storage reorganising session that month and finally got around to sewing up the dog rose needlepainting into a manicure case for my old friend, Rosie.

June was quite a full month.  I stitched a little globe for my hubby's anniversary card (the one that's been in the blog header more or less ever since), and made him a tie out of some of the oriental fabric stash I'd bought in Taiwan, getting both done in the nick of time.

I reorganised my little room in early June, having got some shelves put up on the blank wall section and bought two different sizes of plastic four-drawer units.  I posted lots of before and after photos, including the contents of all eight drawers.  I do so love looking at others' collections of thread, fabrics and trimmings on their blogs, so I always hope my blog readers like it here too.=)

About the same time, I began to make wedding gifts for my old friend Caleb (the one you saw me dancing with in the first year's review post).  I completed the card and started on another hardanger scatter cushion cover.  Catch the finish of that one tomorrow in year 8)

The last feature in this blogging year, was a stumpwork ladybird tutorial, originally requested for the 'Crazy Quilt Gatherings' magazine and then published on my blog after a decent interval of time.  Here are the models, with plenty of variations.  (All tutorials and articles that I haven't put links in for can be found on the Tutorials and Features blog pages respectively.)

Almost there now, only three more years to go.  Year eight will be along early next week - I need a break!  I hope you're all continuing to enjoy the series. =)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015