Returning From An Unscheduled Blogging Break

I really did not mean to take a blogging break, let alone such a long one. So where have I been? Well we were on holiday for the third week in March. We had a lovely time in the Yorkshire Dales despite the English weather. I have to say that since we started going there in 2005 this year was the worst week weather wise. We had all four seasons weather in the one week I think. Mind you it's still beautiful whatever the weather. Four days after returning home we set off for London to help our son move flat. He has moved in with his girlfriend and hopefully this will be the last time we have to help him move. We had a good couple of days with him, his girlfriend was sensible and was on holiday coming home after the flat was more or less straight.

During this time very little stitching took place, just about an hours worth on Gourmet Garden whilst at Paul's. However, later in April I needed to stitch a wedding card for my friends daughter who got married at the end of April. As it was to be a registry office wedding I chose to stitch an old favourite of mine, Roses from Cross Stitch Gallery issue 5. The design comes in three colour-ways and I chose to stitch the red one as Rebecca's flowers were in red. I used DMC 32ct linen in white and DMC threads.  I've updated my editor window to the new one so I hope you'll still be able to click on all the photos to enlarge them.

I then stitched a birthday gift for Julianne with whom I'm doing a personal birthday exchange. Now, my finishing skills are somewhat limited so I chose to make Julianne a biscornu, a finish the I'm happy to do. I made Carol Tinson's Peachy biscornu, but made a few changes. I had been given the kit as a present and as I had not yet made it for myself  did not want to use the fabric and threads. I therefore, switched the fabric from antique ivory 28ct jobelan to antique white 32ct jobelan. I swapped ecru perle thread to white and the cream beads to white also. I like this combination so much that I might in fact stitch it this way for myself at a later date. I also included one of Just Nans Garden Charmer pins, the bee, to sit in the biscornu.

I have also got on a bit more with Gourmet Garden since I last posted and here's what it looks like now.

I have also acquired some more stash. I bought the PS and Just Nan charts and the fabric myself, and my good friend Clare, who we see whilst we're on holiday very kindly gave me the other bits and pieces. The printed fabric was bought in a small sewing shop in Settle one rainy afternoon while we were on holiday.

This week I'm working on Hetty Child, the chart that Edgar very kindly sent me. I had made a small start on this a while back and then put it down, but I decided to get going on it again last Friday. Hopefully I'll have something worth showing you next week.

Many thanks for visiting my blog.

Nicola