Here comes the sun!

I am sitting here on a lovely warm sunny Bank Holiday Monday evening, hoping that all of you have had lovely weather too.  I know that I'm a day late with this post, but I was on babysitting duty last night and didn't get in until just around midnight.

I am delighted to be able to report that Blogger has finally allowed me to add pictures to last week's post so please do pop back and have a look.

And now for the stitching ...

Following a concerted effort, the top of Enchanted Garden is complete as of yesterday.  The picture is as of first thing this morning and I have since started the back stitching.  There was one particular clover leaf which caused me much aggravation as it had to be frogged twice - firstly for being one stitch too low and secondly for being one stitch too far to the right.  However I persevered and reached the end before I had to toddle off to deal with small people.

Speaking of small people, I am so tempted by this new piece by Peter Underhill of Heritage Crafts.  There was a picture but it vanished. It would be just the thing for my sister and brother in law as they have three Peking bantams (with feathery feet) laying eggs in their back garden, in addition to my two small nieces.  

And this is Turkish Challenge in its final form.  I still can't bear the fabric but I don't think it looks too bad, do you?  Many thanks to Mum for doing the finishing off and for finding the bell pull hanger (Framecraft, 5.5 inch, available in Hobbycraft).  The idea is that we all hang our Challenge piece on one of these and they can either be exhibited or if we give them to Z, then she can hang them up easily.

I've come to a bit of a decision about my stitching.  I love doing it, but all this working to deadline, even if self-imposed, is taking the joy out of it.  So once Enchanted Garden is finished, I'm planning on taking a breather, taking a month off to rest my wrist and basically clearing my mind and doing other things, with the aim of coming back to it refreshed and eager to move on.  I won't stop blogging - I'll just have to find other things to write about.  But that's for the future - I have to get the rabbit finished first.

Well, I need my tea now so may the sun continue to shine on you all and your fingers stay nimble to stitch.