More Paradigm Lost and a bit of STASH!

It was a bit of an anniversary for me and Paradigm Lost this week – I started it a year ago on Tuesday! Now, I am a slow stitcher to be sure, but to be quite fair to myself, I stitched one test skein’s worth back in March 2007, decided I liked the colour (Crescent Colours Bejeweled), and then ordered a whole batch of it (I think around 35 skeins) to make sure they were from the same dye lot – after a bit of an escapade, that didn’t arrive with me until late June. I guess that means that really I’ve only been stitching on it for just over 8 months. (8 MONTHS??!!!!) And, to celebrate my PL anniversary, I actually managed to stitch over the halfway point! (Just to clarify, that would be, the linen rests on my WIP pile folded in half widthways and so after a year has a bit of a crease in it, and I stitched below the crease! This is not in any way a statement that I have finished half of the project, which would be a blatant lie as you can see from my progress photo.)

My bit of stash arrived from Carol at Heirloom Embroideries – and I must just show you a photo of the chart – Embroiderer’s Huswif – which is so beautifully presented! The covers are laminated, the whole thing is bound, there are colour photos of each portion of the huswif, the charts are partly in colour, and there are two copies of the chart – one for keeping, one for working from. Yet another urgent thing to start, I have so many things I want to stitch! (Sorry for the flash glare in the photo.)



Hopefully I’ll have some exchanges to show you soon – I’m imminently going to send off my HOE Biscornu exchange and my SBEBB Quaker Exchange. I’m being held up by waiting for some goodies to arrive in the post. I really don’t want to have to send the exchanges off without some of the goodies, but I’m being foiled by…weather? postal delays? shipping delays? bad post karma? Something, anyway…

This weekend is Leena and my ornament mini-SAL this weekend - so I'm about to sit down with Just Nan's Noel ornament design. Hopefully I'll have photos for you at the end of the weekend.

And one quick celebration – H passed his driving theory test! Yes! He’s since booked his practical test (on my birthday – I’m hoping that’s a good omen) and now has just over 7 weeks of driving lessons to go… Fingers crossed for him!

Happy stitching!

A New Hobby! (Maybe)

After many years of being a confirmed non-sewer, I have decided, with a little encouragement from my mum, to try my hand at quilting. I’m not sure whether this is an inspired decision which will open up a whole new world to me, or whether this is just going to frustrate me and be a total disaster. My sewing machine and I are now on cautiously good terms, but that could change at any moment – typically it shows its disgust at my beginner’s antics by sewing lopsided seams, or by spewing up lots and lots of thread from the bobbin where it is not wanted. But more and more we’re getting on just fine – straight seams, good tension, even an occasional specialty stitch or two! So I’m thinking the time is right to take the plunge…

Now, I’m not going to do anything sensible like take a class. I’m just going to jump straight in – why not, after all? (Okay, there are many reasons why not, most of which I haven’t really thought about too carefully, but I work full time, and I spend a lot of time commuting, so classes are going to be difficult to fit in to my life.) My plan is to use my mum as my teacher and mentor – she’s only a few thousand miles away, but that’s why they invented telephones, digital cameras and instant messaging, right? Hmmm… :)

Mum, always keen to turn someone to the dark side happy to help, kindly sent me a very simple (so she claims) quilt pattern, which involves 9 blocks that look a bit like this:


And then a bit of sashing and a few borders (I love bandying about these terms, as if I have a good grasp of what they mean!). All very straightforward, right? We shall see :)

I’ve managed to find a colourway that I like, and bought all the fabric (hopefully – the design ‘recipe’ was based on a jelly roll, and I’m using fabric by the yard/metre). I bought them from Fabric Inspirations here in the UK (which has FABULOUS service, I could not recommend it highly enough) and the Fat Quarter Shop in the US. Here are the fabrics:


Thanks to computers and digital cameras, I can have even mocked up what I plan that the blocks will look like:



So now all I need to do is cut up a few bits of fabric and sew them all together. Couldn’t be easier?? I’ll let you know… I’m intending to start on this over the Easter weekend break, so look for an update in a few weeks’ time!

By the way, if you have any favourite shops for quilting fabric particularly in the UK, either near to Reading or on the internet, please do tip me off, I’d like to hear about them!

Happy stitching (and quilting!)

Exchanges, PL and whole bunch of other things!

Gosh, doesn’t time fly?! Here I am thinking I’ve just posted a nice long entry, along with photos, and suddenly I have a million more things to tell you! Okay, well, maybe six or seven!

Firstly, I heard from Marg down in Melbourne that she received the squares I sent her for the Fair and Square Round 5 exchange. Marg, like me, is a big fan of Drawn Thread (check out their new look website if you haven’t already!), so the confluence of DT and February made me think immediately of An Open Heart. I adapted the top heart motifs and sent it off to her with a few things in her favourite colours. As per usual, I didn’t take any photos of the whole exchange, but here are the squares (main square and signature square) that I stitched fro Marg. I used the recommended NPI silks (they are a dream to stitch with, I really like them):



Secondly, I also heard from Janneke, who was my secret exchange partner for the Crazy Exchange (more on this below) Birthday Exchange. I stitched Janneke a little pattern from Nostalgic Needle called ‘Rose Ornament’ – this was my first ever go at bullion stitches, and I’m quite pleased (and extremely relieved) at the way they turned out. I finished it as a pincushion, and stitched her initials as well as mine and ‘gelukkige verjaardag’ which I’m trusting is an accurate translation from English to Dutch of ‘Happy Birthday’! Ths was stitched on 32ct Cream linen using Au Ver a Soie Soie d'Alger threads as charted.



Thirdly, I got a lovely message from Iris another Crazy Exchanger who had very kind things to say about the mattress pinkeep I sent her – this was a C Mon Monde design and seemed perfect for February and Valentine’s. It’s stitched on an unnamed bit of Silkweaver linen using Atalie threads (silk and cotton) as recommended on the chart. If you’ve never tried Atalie threads, I’d highly recommend them – their silk in particular is beautiful to stitch with. You can buy direct from the manufacturers (although they only process orders during the first 15 days of each month) or from the lovely Leena at her shop Violarium – Leena ships everywhere and really quickly. This was my first mattress pinkeep finish (with a little help from drooling over all your finishes out there, and from that special tutorial wizard, Vonna!)



So, the Crazy Exchange. You may remember me mentioning it – it is a group of assorted crafters based in Europe and the US, and the basic premise is: make something at any time, send it to anyone who is also in the Crazy Exchange, sit back and wait and within 30 days later your chosen partner will have made you something in return and posted it back to you. It’s a great little exchange, although slightly chaotic in nature (I think that’s intended, the clue’s in the name, ha ha). The group moderators have recently let us know that due to family considerations they are not going to be able to carry with the group. One of the exchangers, Jacqueline, has kindly stepped up and will take over the group, but I think I’ll hold off sending any further exchanges until things settle down a bit. I'm glad at any rate it isn't coming to an end.

Now, a Thursday has gone by since I last posted, so of course I’ve got my weekly update of Paradigm Lost which I’m stitching along with all the lovely ladies over at the Snowbird SAL. I was stitching with flying fingers this week, and I could definitely see the end was near (of the big motif I was stitching, not of the whole thing!) so I stayed up til gone midnight to finish up this motif – HURRAH! I’m so pleased with the fact that it’s now done!!


Now I’m on to page four, which is littered with little tiny and medium-sized motifs, so I should fly through that a little quicker than I got through page three!

Now, as you may remember from last month, Leena and I have a little ornament SAL between us, and this past weekend was our ornament weekend. I managed to stitch two small ornaments this month rather than one bigger one, so here is the second of Prairie Schooler’s 12 Days of Christmas, Two Turtle Doves:


And, on the scrappiest of small scraps of linen which I found in my stash, Lizzie*Kate’s ‘Joy’ ornament from the most recent JCS ornament issue.



I promised recently to show you the wonderful stacks of stash I treated myself to before Christmas and which have just arrived (long story – digressing, if you haven’t been to the LNS Report Card do go and visit, it’s a great resource for both online and bricks and mortar shops, and it gives you the low-down from other stitchers on just how good – or not – a shop is, and whether it is worth spending your hard-earned stash cash with them!). Here is the (not briliant) photo – too much to list, but essentially I treated myself to a large number of charts, some linen and some threads. Yum, I can’t wait to stitch it all! (Yes, I can hear you laughing in the background – what stitcher could ever hope to stitch everything in their hoard of stash!!)



Now this is getting to be a very long post, so just very quickly before I go, for those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, Periphaeria Designs is starting a Mystery Spanish Sampler which starts in mid-March. This could be quite fun… :)

Thanks for making it this far, I wish you a relaxing week and much happy stitching!

Even More Stash

Firstly, I must apologise to everyone - I've been quite distracted and busy, so haven't been reading your blogs - but I should be back on track and catching up very shortly!

Another lovely parcel arrived in the post last night from Countrystitch, in New Zealand. I wanted to try their fabrics, so ordered several different 32ct fabrics - they do a sort of 'grab bag' based on the colours of the seasons, so I chose Autumn, as well as a small piece of their Kiwi Illusions Acorn, and this is what arrived:

L-R: Acorn, Rustic Glow, Bourbon 'n' Cola, Pirongia Mist, Feijoa

The Acorn isn't nearly so dark IRL. I can't wait to use them!

I didn't do any stitching on Monday night - I was feeling tired rather than inspired, so Northern Lights will have to sit patiently until next week. Tuesday is Silver Needle, so I carried on with the v e r y s l o w smyrna stitches in the final flower band - it felt like I really didn't get much done, although I am now nearly finished with these small, time-consuming stitches. Also, to be fair, I wasn't concentrating 100% on my stitching as we received the first 2 DVDs from series 5 of 24 in the post yesterday, so H would hear of nothing else but putting it straight on and watching all 4 episodes!

Happy Independence Day to our American friends, and happy stitching all!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Happy Canada Day all! There won't be much in the way of fireworks or celebrations here in Berkshire, but nevermind, we'll celebrate ourselves :)

Friday night I worked on Love is Patient - I'm really enjoying this as it's the first time I've stitched on a higher count fabric (36ct) and it looks really delicate doing stitching 1 over 2. I love the threads as well - Crescent Colours - they are deep, rich colours, which I love. Here is the progress:

Saturday morning brought Chris, our friendly postman, and his bag full of goodies for me - yes, the spoils of my recent stash-buying. Today it was a parcel from Naomi at Stitches and Spice in Australia, which included, from L-R below: 32ct Spice Blend Heritage; 36ct Spice Blend Sugar Cane Crunch; Mulberry Hand-dyed cotton; 32ct Spice Blend Tundra. I'm really pleased with them all, they are just gorgeous, and I can't recommend these guys enough :)

Saturday we had a very lazy day in front of the telly watching films one after the other - there was (yet again) drenching rain all day, so we just couldn't bring ourselves to get off the couch. It's a recurring theme for our weekends! I worked on Paradigm Lost, finally finishing the alphabet and going on to some of the smaller motifs.

And, finally, a goals update from June and for July

JUNE:

finish biscornu - check

finish scissor fob - check

finish Their Song - check

continue Silver Needle - check

continue Northern Lights - check

continue Paradigm Lost - check

continue Love Is Patient - check

start Spanish Wine - check

I think maybe I gave myself a too-easy task, seeing as I managed to achieve all my goals! So, for JULY:

finish pincushion

finish a second small

start a third small

finish Silver Needle, and start another project

continue Northern Lights

finish entire page 1 and page 2 of Paradigm Lost

continue Love Is Patient - finish outer border and heart border

continue Spanish Wine

Happy Canada Day and happy stitching all!

Pincushion

My lovely big parcel of stash arrived, but I didn't get around to taking any photos - maybe later in the week. It was mostly linen, which is fantastic as hand-dyed linen tends to be the hardest thing to come by over here in the UK - it can take months to get a particular one! (Maybe we are not alone in this?)

So after carefully packing away all my lovely new purchases, I got out my current small project - the assisi pincushion from June's The Gift of Stitching - I'm nearly done, just need to finish off the backstitching, and then of course the finish-finishing. How lucky that I've only just received a large quantity of cotton quilting fabric, as it turns out that one of them is a perfect match! Once I've got some coordinating thread at the weekend, I'll get busy finishing that and will post some photos.

Assisi Pincushion

32ct Stitches and Spice Antique Rose Linen

Dinky Dye #91 Jarrah

(apologies for the slightly blurry photo)

Tonight, Thursday, a new project - I'll probably post some photos tomorrow, although there might be little to show LOL

Happy stitching!

Wet Weekend

We spent this very wet weekend in Dublin, doing some shopping (me) and some working (H), and going to a 30th birthday party (both of us). We had a great time - it's always lovely to see H's parents and sisters - although I didn't have much time for stitching. I started a pincushion from the June issue of The Gift of Stitching, but didn't take any photos as there isn't really much to see. It looks as if H's bid to move us back to Dublin may well come off as he had a very successful day with the company that seems to be interested in hiring him, and I think we are now waiting for them to start to talk figures, so it's possible that we could make a decision by the end of next month. Things happen fast sometimes!

There was a lovely package waiting for me on our return - Quilter's Cloth is a wonderful online fabric shop based IRL in Cambridge, and they have an amazing range of fabrics. And so quick - the package arrived only a day after I'd placed the order! There isn't really much in the way of nifty fabric shops near me, so I've stocked up on fabrics that I can use for finishing. Now all I need is a sewing machine LOL.

Happy stitching!

More Rain, More Stitching

The weather is proving to be quite unseasonably changeable, although I suppose with Wimbledon now upon us, the showers are to be expected. So with a partly gloomy, partly sunny weekend in prospect, we didn't make too many plans and mostly did household chores and shopping for the weekend. Such is life, these things always need to be done!

Friday night I worked on Love Is Patient, and have managed to get a large portion of the border done. No more words, but lots more border and further outline of the heart.

Also, on Friday night - yess! - more stash arrived on my doorstep. This time from Wye Needlework - the 3 Shepherd's Bush charts - and from Lekker Threads and the very nice Tina, the linen - 36ct Lakeside Linen in Bittersweet (the pinker one) and Strawflower (the creamier one).

This was immediately followed on Saturday morning (isn't Saturday morning delivery a great old thing? And unfortunately they are thinking of taking it away...) - the wonderful Karen from Millennia Designs sent through some beautiful threads, and a package from Naomi at Stitches and Spice in Australia arrived containing the fabrics for this month's Gift of Stitching antique pincushions - the fabric is Antique Rose and Hannah's Rose (the darker). Both are absolutely gorgeous.

My Saturday stitching was on Paradigm Lost. I'm finding this difficult to photograph effectively, and the variegation of the thread doesn't really show up. So here is what the thread should look like (courtesy of Crescent Colours):

Bejeweled

Anyway, here is my progress thus far...so NEARLY done the whole alphabet!

On Saturday afternoon, we were going to walk up to a plant sale being held at the local manor house - but it started raining again, so we drove. There are definitely some things I do love about England, such as driving half a mile out of the village and finding yourself here:

We came away with a single canna, which I'll pot on this afternoon.

Sunday was a great day, because I finished my very first biscornu!! Here it is in all it's glory:

Biscornu - freebie design here from Better Homes and Gardens

Stitched on 28ct Permin/Wichelt in Lambswool

Fibers: Needle Necessities Island Butterfly (#1343)

We spent the afternoon on the sofa, half watching the England/West Indies cricket test, half watching the F1 race from Indianapolis, and I was also half paying attention to stitching on Silver Needle - luckily no harm done from the lack of total concentration.

And phew, that's about it. I really must remember to bring my camera lead home so that I can try and blog over the weekend, otherwise my Monday posts end up being VERY LONG!

Happy stitching!

Stash-tastic!

Oh, it was a WONDERFUL evening when I got home from work last night, as there was a plethora of beautiful padded envelopes waiting for me on the doormat! I even took a moment to record my happiness in song (to Jingle Bells):

stash, stash, stash

stash, stash, stash

how i love the post

full of all the things i love

in a big padded envelope - HEY!

Okay, enough foolishness :) Here is what came:

From the lovely Kate at Thread Bear: Loose Feathers #25 - Awake the Dawning Day, plus 28ct R&R Iced Cappucino fabric for same. Also Little House Needleworks - Home of a Needleworker.

Then, from the wonderful Janice at Traditional Stitches, my monthly SEP (Stash Enhancement Programme) pack, which this month included a skein of Gloriana Petit Princess (similar to perle, only in silk), some 28ct Cashel linen in Golden Sand - which is going to be perfect for all the small projects that are scudding around in my brain - a couple of freebie charts, and a beaded chatelaine, which has currently been attached to my stitching drawer.

AND THEN! Also from Janice, half of the big order that I put in just after we got paid our annual bonus (credit card abuse? never!), which included several skeins of Au Ver a Soie and one of WDW Louisiana Hot Sauce, a cut of Glenshee Cottonfields for Celtic Banner, and the three remaining charts from Examplar Dames - the limited edition Quaker series - Humility, Peace and Faith (Prosperity came last month, and it was so beautiful, I couldn't resist ordering the other 3 in the set).

Phew! It was all very exciting. So by the time I'd unpacked, admired, forced H to admire, and put everything away, there wasn't much stitching time last night. I dedicated what there was to finishing off my inaugural biscornu. Or, working towards finishing it off. After a false start and a bit of ripping (I realised that I really needed to start the backstitching an even number of threads away from the stitching, rather than an uneven number, so that the corners worked out properly and there was a proper 'middle' to the design), I merrily backstitched my way around and began to put the whole thing together - I've finished about 3 sides out of 8, and here is my progress thus far - hopefully to be finished off in style on Sunday.

Happy stitching!

Camera Safely Returned

My camera is safely back in my hands, and thus I can update you on stitching progress from Tuesday night, although there isn't truly much to show you! Silver Needle is progressing slowly at the moment - this band (about midway through the design) is a bit time-consuming, so I've already spent a couple of sessions on it and still am only partly done it. I may use my Sunday catch up session this week to press on...

And here is Monday's progress on Northern Lights - the band beneath the eagles is a 'design using colours common in Inuit art', and uses Thread Gatherer Silk 'n' Colours Granite, which is perfect for this and runs the gamut of smoky dark colours from gold to purple to green to navy. Sorry for the poor photo - I may have my camera back, but that doesn't mean I've worked out the best way to use it!

And - on a happy stash note! - the lovely Kate from Thread Bear sent me an email to let me know that the next Loose Feathers chart is in the post along with fabric, and Little House Needleworks' 'Home of a Needleworker' which I'm looking forward to receiving! And I have a sneaky feeling that an order which I put in with Wyndham Needleworks over a month ago is finally being shipped - hurrah! (May I just point out, no fault of theirs, as I had ordered a few things that ended up on back order, thus the long wait.)

Happy stitching!

An Upside-down Tulip. Or a Red Snowdrop?

Actually I'm not really sure what type of flower this is on the lower left-hand side of Their Song, any suggestions? Maybe it's a bleeding heart, anyway, it's lovely as is the rest of this design, which I am getting very nearly done! I am running out of WDW Moss though, so I've ordered another skein and hopefully it will arrive before I continue on this next week.




I went a bit stash-crazy today - I ordered threads and fabric for a couple of projects in the latest Gift of Stitching (and wasn't that an amazing issue???) - for Double Dutch and for the pincushions. I also ordered a bit of ribbon and some charms for a couple of charts I unearthed from my stash and am thinking of starting. Now just to wait until it all arrives in!


A very short post for those of you strapped for time :) Happy stitching!

A Busy Weekend

Phew. What a busy weekend we've just had!

First, on Friday, I came home after a busy day of work to find 2 wonderful packages on the doorstep - having just got a nice little bonus from work, I had decided to treat myself to a bit of stash shopping - so there are a few more packages soon on the way :) Friday's post included these lovely fabrics from Sew & So:

L-R 40ct cream, 36ct Antique White, 32ct Antique White, 32ct Confederate Grey, 32ct Misty Blue, 28ct Raw, 28ct Light Sand, 28ct Light Mocha, 28ct Confederate Grey, 28ct Sage (not from memory, I may add)

After the fun of opening this parcel, I carried on with Paradigm Lost, and managed an H, an I, a J and half a K - I think I might try and stitch this on a Saturday or a Sunday, as doing an hour here or an hour there just seems to get me nowhere. This is more likely due to my slow stitching than any design flaw!

Saturday morning I spent with the second of Friday's packages - some beautiful scissors from the wonderful Leena and her shop Violarium. I've used these to finish the Heart Throb scissor fob - my first ever attempt at such a thing - and I'm immensely pleased with the results:

Front is stitched on 32ct cream with recommended DMC fibres, back is stitched on 32ct Permin/Wichelt English Rose with Silk 'n' Colours Pink Elephant

The rest of Saturday was spent in finally building the BBQ - which took a surprising amount of time, but is done done done! I picked up Love Is Patient that evening, and carried on with that. Previously it had just been one straight line, and now it's several. Plus a large red area which, believe it or not, will be the top left part of a big red heart, but currently looks more like a looming eyebrow. So I've added a photo below, but it isn't really much to look at yet:

And then on Sunday, after a wonderful round of golf (ok, actually half a round of wonderful golf followed by half a round with quite a bit of swearing and tantrum-throwing by my good self, having lost several balls and found a really irritating creek which insisted on meandering through the fairway exactly where my ball kept landing - yes on 3 holes in a row), H manfully fired up the new BBQ and cooked us a delicious dinner. And I sat down to my final stitching session of the weekend, and carried on with Their Song. I just love this design and am really looking forward to the next Loose Feathers instalment!

I hope you all had wonderful weekends and enjoyed the weather as much as we did - happy stitching!

!!!!!

I'm skipping about in happiness! Or, rather, I'm inwardly skipping about in happiness, as that sort of behaviour doesn't go down well in an office environment. Yesterday, when I got home from work, there was a parcel for me, and yes yes yes, it was the thread I'd ordered weeks ago from Attic Needlework!! So after running out of thread on 25th March, finally I can continue on Paradigm Lost! I'm all in a tither, I'm so excited! I did briefly get out PL last night, but we'd been to the pub, and I didn't want to risk lots of frogging, so I only stitched a few stitches before prudently setting it aside. More on it imminently!

Half a Finish

Yippee, I finished the first half of my first biscornu last night! I did, however, forget to take a photo this morning in the rush to get out of the house and to the train, so apologies that no photographic evidence accompanies this post. I will post a photo this weekend if the hookup thingy for H's laptop is delivered today as it is supposed to be. Otherwise I will be silent until next week - and we've a Bank Holiday weekend this weekend, so I'm very much looking forward to that! Golfing, stitching, gardening, stitching, assembling the new BBQ, stitching, using the new BBQ, stitching - we have lots of relaxing plans!

Oh, I also started the next band on Silver Needle last night, but there isn't much to show yet so I'll post that once I get somewhere more tangible on it.

Great news came through yesterday - Jean from Attic Needlework has confirmed that she is going to re-send the large order of Crescent Colours 'Bejeweled' that has seemingly disappeared into thin air earlier in the spring, which is WONDERFUL news as means I can soon carry on with Paradigm Lost. And Kate from Thread Bear has confirmed that the new Loose Feathers chart is on the way. And I've also ordered the 'Home of a Needleworker' chart by LHN from Kate, so a bit of stash on the way - hurrah!

Happy stitching and have a wonderful weekend to everyone!

Stash Heaven

Wow. I had SUCH fun yesterday! First we went to Broadmead Gallery in Saanich with Titania to get her framed up to finish off T's Christmas present. It transpires that framing is a bit more expensive than I thought, so Titania is now set to be T's Christmas and birthday present for at least the next 4 years. At least that'll give me a chance to finish a matching one for her :) I don't have any photos of the piece, as it will take a couple of weeks to frame up, and by then we'll have made it back to the UK (best not think about that), so hopefully Mum and Dad will take some photos and email them over when they pick it up.

Then we went to the Button and Needlework shop in View Street. What an amazing place - and the people were so helpful and wonderful. I could have spent hours there, in fact we probably spent at least two. I sadly don't have an LNS near me which is anywhere near this quality, so to see a shop where I can wander in and find an endless supply of really interesting charts, amazing linens, including lots of hand dyed ones, more threads than I could find in 6 shops together back home, not to mention a multitude of fancy buttons and lengths of ribbon, well, I did go somewhat nuts. Here is the photo of what I brought away with me, and it contains: The Token by Long Dog Samplers, Scarlet Berries by Carriage House Samplings, 32ct Pearled Barley linen from Lakeside Linen, 36ct Vintage Exemplar linen from Lakeside Linen, 34ct Cafe au Lait from Legacy Linen, and then one skein of Caron Waterlilies, 2 skeins of Needlepoint Inc Silks, 12 skeins of GAST threads, and 11 skeins of WDW threads. Phew. I had such a great time!

Oh, and yes, the reason I went there in the first place was to pick up a small charm for Northern Lights that Kim from the shop had ordered and put by for me. It was the least expensive thing I bought :)

A special note for anyone who is planning to go to Victoria or lives locally and hasn't seen this shop (although I can't imagine there are any local stitchers who have not!) - check out the walls, which are packed tightly from side to side and working up towards the top of the two-storey room with amazing examples of stitched pieces. It was the icing on the cake, and the work was BEAUTIFUL. It was really inspiring, especially as I found so many examples of things I wanted to do myself. I kept pointing pieces out to H commenting - I've started that one; or, Oh, look how beautiful that is; or, That's in my stash. I think he sort of glazed over halfway through :) I wish I had taken some photos, for it is truly wonderful. Check out their website at http://www.buttonedup.com as I think there are some photos of the shop in there.