Here it is:

The completed 'Welcome' which went down very well with the bride and groom when I gave it to them just a short while ago.=) Looks much better complete than it did in progress and, it's true that you're often your own worst critic, so..... Still wish the lettering had been more even, but you can't have it all ways. They liked it and that's the main thing, right?

Here's the latest status on the bookmarks:

'Welcome' - The Home Stretch

Ugh! I've hated this goldwork and I'm not very pleased with it as it's not very even. It was such a relief to finish it on Monday though. I would have posted an update on Tuesday, but we've been away for a few days this week - Youth Hostelling in Derbyshire.=)

So, here's the 'Welcome' sign as photographed about 10 minutes ago:

The lily will be fully finished today and I'll post the complete thing tomorrow. I'll have DH take the photo of that one as he's much better at that than I am and I'd like to catch all the light effects, with it being on silk and all.

Here's what I was stitching whilst away, the card to go with the wedding present. We decided that, as it was far too late to get the picture framed, we'd slip a £20 note into the card and let them pick the mount and frame they like instead. It's a good excuse for having dragged my heels with it for so long!!! The card design is simplified slightly from Just Nan's 'Promises'. I thought that it could do OK without all the extra beading and that also meant I could finish it sooner and get on with the other stuff that's nagging me....

Tomorrow I'll post the completed 'Welcome', the progress so far on the hardanger bookmarks, (yes, I've been back on those too), and a review of how I did on my goals for March etc.

Photos Galore!

Lots of photos to share today! The first one is a card that my friend, Yang Liu, gave me the other day. I thought it was absolutely delightful. Here it is:

Next up is the stitching complete on the L*K piece. As anyone whose familiar with the original pattern will know, I've changed it a bit. As it will eventually be framed and hang outside our flat, I just put 'Welcome' on and centralised it rather than the whole 'Welcome all Seasons' bit. I changed a few colours too. For the lettering I just used GAST's 'Fragrant Cloves' as that had a lot of colour variation in it and I thought orange would be a nice change and stand out from the rest of the piece. I also made the strawberries dark red, (used GAST 'Buckeye Scarlet' in the end as the KK thread was really too bright for the whole tone of this piece), and the yellow flower 'Daffodil' instead of the duller shade prescribed. Anyway, we're pleased with the finished result and look forward to having a bit of cash to spare for framing! Here it is un-framed for the time being:

Last is the new WIP, another hardanger cushion/pillow cover. This one is a bit 'bittier' than the last one as the satin stitch blocks are a fair way apart and so there's a lot of stopping and starting. A few colour changes again in that the pink the designer used is being done in Anchor Multi-colour Blue Hawaii, one of my favourites and the bead work won't be yellow/gold, but will be that nice iridescent lilacy shade you can just make out in this photo:

Updates soon....

An Ickle Bit More....

....on the 'Welcome' sign. Not too much more to do now. Just the basket of strawberries, a few other bits to fill in and the lettering. I've decided to change the colour of the strawbs, 'cos L*K has specified WDW's 'Romance', but that's way too pink for strawbs, so I'm gonna use Kate's Kloths 'Strawberry Dream' instead! Apt name, huh?

Anyway, now that I've got my book-keeping job out of the way for this session, I can stitch with a clear conscience!!!

Latest on the Lizzie*Kate



Haven't done much stitching this week what with one disaster or another, but here's the current status on 'Welcome All Seasons'. More soon, I hope!

Cushion is done and 'Welcome all seasons' is started.

So, the embroidery on the cushion or pillow cover (depending on which side of the Atlantic you speak!!!!!!) is done and it's just waiting now to be made up into a cushion proper. Might buy the fabric today, but I'm not sure that Saturday afternoon is the best time for it!!!! Perhaps next week sometime will do just as well.

I've already sorted out the next 5 projects, (yes - FIVE), got them 'kitted up', fabric pressed etc. Two are already in the working frames, but only one started. Here it is, Lizzie*Kate's 'Welcome all seasons'. I've been meaning to stitch this up as a little 'welcome' sign for outside our home for ages, so I've now started it! I'm going to insert 'in' in the wording so it makes more sense and I want a bright yellow flower on it too!!

The other things are another hardanger cushion cover which will be my kid bro's wedding pressie, (not until April, but may as well get on with it now anyway), a small ribbon embroidery kit which I'll make into a card for my mum, (that's the other one in a hoop so far), a Helen M Stevens' floral 'poppies and mallow' piece from her 'Embroidered Flowers' book and a something something for Sir, whose not to know what it is until he gets it complete, so there'll be no WIP photos there! It's tiny anyway, so wouldn't be worth it!!!! Curious? Well, you'll have to wait and see......