Saturday - Sunshine, Blue but oh so Freeeezing!

In the Bleak Mid-Winter, Frosty Winds May Moan .....

I am so exciting that I have had some wonderful comments from you all, my dear crafting friends! I am so pleased you have joined me at my Blog, your feedback is great - I now understand why people enjoy blogging so much :-) Its cool!

Today is a bright and sunny Saturday in Southern England but bbrrrrrr, it is so cold outside (see our garden photo for proof :-) I put some seedbread out on our bird table to keep our feathered friends alive, and it has already gone, so they were hungry! I feel quite liberated with a weekend ahead, and no worries about having to study - in fact, I would say it feels rather strange, as if I ought to be working, but I am getting over that worry very quickly :-) It is just so nice to spend some time doing tidying up around the house and then, what I have been eagerly awaiting ... Stitching!

I was very interested to read your postings on yesterday's entry and meet up with old friends and new! Yes, Isabel, I remember how you love lavender - those oils are wonderfully calming I agree - my DH normally buys me something Lavender-themed for Christmas ... so what will it be this year, I wonder ..... For those who like traditional samplers, you might like to see my latest WIP, which is a Welsh historic sampler by a wonderful designer called Brenda Keyes. She has to be one of my top favourites for Samplers. I love the fact that her designs are based on authentic historic patterns dating back to the 18th and 19th Centuries - the one you see here today was originally created by a young girl called Mary Elizabeth Nicholson in 1892 - Brenda suggests personalising it, hence I have put my name where her's was. Mary will have stitched it on canvas with wool as apparently the wool colours were far more vibrant than cottons or silks in those times.

As you can see, I am currently working on the border, which is 3371 DMC (very dark brown). I think the border will take some time to complete because a double width of 3371 traces round the edge of the work, with small blocks of deep orange 301 and pink beige 407 in between the tracing. I think I may take some breaks and do some of the alphabet which will be above my name (otherwise I may get a bit bored of single lines!).

I also wanted to show you a very contrasting style - its just a little card I made for Chloe who is shortly going to be enjoying her very first Christmas with her Mum and Dad, so I wanted to commemorate the special occasion with a card which was a Lucie Heaton special - all her designs are totally adorable and I really was undecided whether to do the Angel, the Snowman or the baby crib - but decided on the Snowman because I loved his cute rosey cheeks and carrot nose! Unfortunately there was a printing error and the symbols were transposed on the chart between the light blue and the mid-blue which Lucie uses to indicate the shadow effect on "Snowie's" head and body etc, which I only realised half way through. I half panic-ed then did a bit of improvising on some of the colour mixing - I hope it does not show ....

I have a special e-mail account now so that you are welcome to contact me outside the Blog if you wish - the address is alibcreations@hotmail.co.uk.