April finish and yet another cover kit!

Hello all, I hope this post finds you well. I seem to have got into a real groove with my stitching again and it's nice. I have one evening a week where I spend a good three to four hours with my latest project, and then I sometimes sneak an extra hour or two at the weekend, depending on what we're doing. 

Now that I've got into a good stitching routine, Autumn Bird came together very quickly. Here is a picture of my latest finish:

I'm really pleased with this one, I just love the colours in it. I look forward to stitching more pieces from Satsuma Street Designs. 

I haven't picked up Highland Walkies in awhile. It's a chart that's spread over a couple of pages, so requires a fair amount of concentration to make sure the matching is correct. Sometimes I don't fancy it in the evenings, but I should hopefully pick it up again soon. 

I really like receiving my copy of CrossStitcher through the door every month. It keeps me connected to my hobby and I've been enjoying the cover kits they've released this year. I didn't think much of the phone cover idea in this issue, so I've stashed the fabric and found a piece of linen in my stash to use instead. I love the bright colours in the flamingo design, it's so fun! Here's where I'm up to so far:

I think I'll get this one finished this week and then comes the fun bit - stash diving for my next project! I think I'm in the mood for ornament making, but you never know what take my fancy when I actually go looking. 

I hope you've enjoyed a lovely weekend. I went to the cinema with friends to see Avengers: Infinity War and thought it was absolutely fantastic.

Best wishes,

Bekca

xxx

A Fresh New Year

Hello friends and Happy New Year to you all! Thank you for being so patient with me during my little break from blogging over the holiday season. 

I'm glad to report that my surgery was successful. The surgeon found endometriosis, but it was mild and they were able to remove it through key hole surgery. I have three little scars that I'm sure will be almost invisible in the not too distant future. I got to come home the same day as the operation, which I was really grateful for, it's much more comfortable being in your own bed. I was very slow and a bit weak in the days following, but my recovery has gone well, and I went back to work at the beginning of January. During my recovery time, I got to do plenty of stitching, which was a wonderful distraction to my swollen tummy. 

I've been really enjoying editing the magazine projects to suit my own tastes. I've been working on two pieces lately, one wintery and one Christmas themed. The first one is adapted from card designs by Durene Jones in Issue 326 of CrossStitcher. I liked the modern designs, but not the orange pallette, so I whipped out my thread boxes and started making my own combinations! This one just needs a little more backstitching and it will be complete. Do you think it's too big to be an ornament? The characters remind me of us, so it would be nice to have it up on the tree.

My other project is definitely too big for an ornament! This is Christmas is Coming from Little Dove Designs that was in Issue 324 of CrossStitcher. This was my big project I was working on during recovery, as it was an easy stitch on 14ct ice blue aida and block colours, with very little backstitching. I'm choosing my own colours again for this one, which has meant I could add little bits of metallic here and there for extra Christmas glitz. I've still got quite a few components left to add to this piece, and then I've got to make my mind up about adding the border or not.

I was lucky enough to receive a Sew and So voucher for Christmas and I stocked up on some lovely stash, I'll have to post the picture next time. I got a couple of kits too, one of which I think will be my next project. It will be a lovely introduction to Spring :)

I hope you've all had a wonderful start to the year and had plenty of stitching time this weekend. 

Best wishes,

Bekca

xxx