Another little finish for Spring

Hello, I hope you all had a good weekend.  Mine was very quiet - DH had to work, but it gave me a chance to catch up on UK TV and stitch, which I don't usually do a lot of when we're together at the weekends.

I finally got around to making up this sweet pinkeep with little bunnies.  This is To Love And To Be Loved by Ellen Chester of With My Needle, from the booklet A Pinkeep Story, the Unicef fundraiser for 2010.  This is just one of the lovely designs from the 12 designers who participated.  Unfortunately the booklet is no longer available.

I've stitched it on 40ct Flax Newcastle Linen one over two - the wording is one over one.  Not having any of the listed Valdani threads I chose colours as close to the original from my Gentle Art Sampler Threads and Polstitches Dragon Floss.  I actually finished stitching it just over a year ago - it was one of the little projects that I kitted up to bring with me when I first moved here to Dubai.  We hadn't found the villa to move in to then, and my stash hadn't yet arrived from UK, which is why I never got around to making it up at the time.  It feels so good to actually get around to making up older pieces I've stitched, in between starting new projects.  I still have plenty more to finish yet though, some going back several years!

Thanks for visiting.  :o)

Eliza's Pyn Pillow

I can at last share a finish I've had for a couple of weeks, as today is the reveal day for the Monthly SAL Challenge on Jayne's forum. The challenge this month was to stitch Eliza's Pyn Pillow, a complimentary design from Ellen Chester (With My Needle), using our own choice of fabric, threads and finishing. I was really excited about this one as it's been on my 'to do' list forever! The chart for Eliza's Pyn Pillow can be found on the With My Needle website.

I chose to finish mine as a mattress pincushion using 32ct Belfast cream linen and substituting the listed silks for GAST Dungerees, Harvest Moon and Sable, for the letters, carnations vase and motifs and WDW Scuppermong for the stems. The date on the back was taken from Ellen Chester's Quaker Hornbook. I've also added the same little diamond motifs that are on the front of the pincushion to the back and again stitched the same motif around the edge of the pincushion.




The challenge was fun to do and all the ladies have done some wonderful finishes. I hope to be able to join the challenge again for next month. :o)