I'm busy working on a secret at the moment - hoping to have it finished very soon. I've been taking a little break from my other blocks in order to get this completed in time. Here's a little sneaky peak...
Last Autumn I was fortunate to be able to take a class with Jeannette Douglas at Fobbles This was my first experience of any counted thread work other than cross stitch. It was an intense but enjoyable few days in the presence of a lovely and very talented lady. I decided to build up my skills before pressing on with the class project - a beautiful sampler full of different types of stitches and below is a small beginning on one of Jeannette's other designs.
This particular part of the design has only cross stitches in it and will be used to make a lavender bag when done - the finished design is a thistle. There are several other items to make in the set - scissor keep, pincushion and little pillows which all have stitches in them that are new to me. I've been itching to make a start on this project (on a cross stitch project in general really) since it arrived and I finally got going on it last week. I'm having a very hard time leaving it alone while I race to complete the secret stitching!
The colours don't show up too well in this picture, the larger crosses around the thistle are in a deep purple colour and are done over 2 threads, the smaller crosses in the lovely green are over 1 thread (another challenge for me...they are tiny compared to anything else I've made.)
I'm looking forward to stitching some more of this as soon as I've completed the 'secret' and I have plenty of other stitching lined up for this month as well - the new Henrietta Whiskers block, block 8 of My Garden, block 1 of Consider the Lilies and whatever else I can squeeze in!
I read my first book for the Transworld Crime Caper at the weekend - Mistress of the Art of Death by Arianna Franklin and am now pondering over the words for my review. How I've missed reading this lady's books before I do not know - historical detective stories are my favourite!
