Three SAL's

Hi everyone, I love the start of a new year when I can think about the projects I want to work on during the year. Right now I'm involved in three SAL's one of which will probably take me well over a year, one which will be finished around September and the other should be finished in a matter of weeks. I signed up for Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year Challenge and I started my sampler on December 26th. I've managed to get the top border done. I'm stitching on 36ct Lakeside linen Vintage Light Exemplar with DMC threads. Hard to get a good photograph of this. I think you should be able to click on it for a better picture if you wish.

It's a long time since I've tackled such a big cross stitch project but I'm enjoying it and hope to have at least some progress to share each month. The second SAL I'm involved in is Chookyblue's Stitch-a-Long 2013 This will involve making a variety of small projects from three books. These are just the kind of things I love to sew so I jumped right in. The project for January was either a shoe bag or a thread basket. I chose to do the thread basket.

A few years ago I was trying to teach myself Redwork and I still had this little block lying around from that time so I made use of it. The design was a freebie from Bird Brain Designs The third SAL I'm doing is 1905 JHA SAL which is currently free on this blog but only for a limited time so if you want to do it at some point you need to get it now. I'm stitching mine on 36ct Antique White Zweigart linen with Vikki Clayton silk. Here is my progress so far

I didn't manage to do a blog post in December but there are a couple of Christmas things left to show. This is a Shepherd's Bush design Sadie's Pocket. I think this was a kit with a pre-finished pocket but friend Angela sent me her pattern and the fabric to make my own pocket. My mum was called Sadie so I thought of her often while I stitched this.

Next is a little pillow using the free Christmas Robin design from here

Another small pillow from a design by The Primitive Hare which was in Gift of Stitching magazine issue 64

Now for some lovely gifts that I have received. This pretty pillow was stitched for me by sweet blogging friend Michelle for my birthday and she also sent me this Cath Kidston address book, handbag mirror and card of buttons for Christmas. Thank you Michelle you really spoiled me :)

A few weeks before Christmas I was the lucky winner of a giveaway on the Green Rabbit Designs blog Vivienne makes the most delightful little crochet bunny rabbits and beautiful crochet flower corsages to sell in her Etsy shop I was delighted to receive a pretty corsage, a gorgeous little tin bird tree decoration and a handbag size diary as my gift. Thank you Vivienne I love it all!

I think that's it for this time but hopefully there will be lots to share in my next post. As always a big thank you to everyone for visiting my blog and welcome to the new followers. Margaret