A Couple of New Starts

Last week I was feeling in need of a change from "Their Song", so made a couple of new starts. The first one was daffodils taken from Prairie Schooler's "A Prairie Garden" (now discontinued). I'm stitching it on an oddment of 28ct evenweave. I'm not sure of the colour but would hazzard a guess that it's antique white. I wasn't happy with the colour of the DMC threads given on the chart, I felt they were a bit on the dull side, so I decided to experiment with DMC's Variations threads. I'm using 4045 for the stems and leaves, 4128 for the flower petals and 4090 for the trumpet. These colours work for me, but I'd be interested to know what you think. When it's finished I shall be making this into a pin keep.



Last Friday I finally gave in to another new start. I had two of the Country Cottage/Crescent Colours thread packs for Christmas from Keith, they are Rose and Peony, and I added the Violet one myself. I'm going to stitch them one under the other and then frame them....eventually. I shall flip the Peony cottage over to the other side so as to have a pleasing arrangement of the cottages. Anyway, for now I have started on the Rose cottage. I'm stitching on a 32ct Oyster linen from M.C.G. fabrics, a Belgian made linen. I bought this ages ago in Hobbycraft, I've never heard of it before. Obviously the threads are Crescent Colours. I'm really enjoying this, it's such a lovely relaxing design to stitch.


Now I just thought I'd show you some new stash that arrived yesterday. I posted before that I had "When Barnabee Met Bella" on pre-order from Down Sunshine Lane. Well when Amy told me it was ready to ship and would I like to add anything else to the order, I just couldn't resist adding "Daffodils", one of the new Prairie Schooler charts that I saw mentioned on Nicki's blog. Oh dear, I just know that I shouldn't click on links! (LOL) Thanks Nicki! The fabric pictured with the charts is a fat quarter of Permin's 32ct Lambswool linen that I bought in order to kit up LHN's "Garden Pleasures", another Christmas present, that I'll be taking to stitch while I'm away on holiday in Thwaite, in the Yorkshire Dales, in May. ( Yes, we're back there again, just can't get enough of the place! Going again in October too!) I also bought, though not shown, some Piecemaker needles and another skein of WDW's Moss floss for "Their Song".

I finally got round to joining the Fair and Square Exchange round 6. I've drawn a great partner, who is so easy to please that I managed to find a design for her of the required size straight away. I have already started stitch it and am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm sure I'll be signing up for more! I'm also going to do a personal biscornu exchange with Clare of Mrs. Sew and Sew. This is to be exchanged when we meet up while I'm in the Dales in May, something that I'm looking forward to very much.

Thank you so much for all your comments on "Their Song", I shall be going back to working on it soon.

Oh yes, and the new header photo is of the junction of the Trent and Mersey and Staffordshire and Worcestershire canals here in the village. I thought it was time that my header reflected the area in which I live.