Gifted gorgeousness April!

Hello hello, 

GG time again, I'm sure by now you all know what it's all about. Thanks to Jo at serendipitous stitching for being our lovely and talented host. 

I know you've seen them all before but finally the recipients have them. 

Sun hanging for Jo

Camper van bookmark for (yup you've guessed it) Liz - design from Hancocks house of happy. 

Joan's biscornu from crazy 212. That's all the PIF's done, although I plan to give Liz and Jo their favourite flowers when I see them next as I posted the stitching. 

I also completed my stitch for Syria piece, stitched using anchor 1345 Iris. 

I won Sarah's giveaway a while back. She sent me all this lovely stuff. I have plans for some of the cotton reels and the baby footprints will be stitched for one of the Ministers at church and his wife who are expecting in the summer. 

Here's a close up of the larger chart. I'm not sure I could do the quilting the larger design has, but I do like the band sampler on the right. 

Sarah also stitched a sweet humbug and sent a lovely pearl bracelet too. 

So that's it! May will be a bit quieter as I've been stitching the small ABC SAL and 12 days and it will take a mighty big shoehorn to get those in... Although they are freebie charts and stitched with DMC threads (and hubby did buy me over half of them so chances are at least one came from that set!)

The travelling box is due in July too so I need to start making for that as I usually end up with 8-10 makes. I have my list of potential projects and all are stitched or embroidered so plenty to keep me busy even if there won't be lots to show. 

Have a great weekend, looking forward to seeing what gorgeousness you've all been gifted or are gifting to others. xx 

Smalls SAL and Easter break.

Hey folks,

Smalls SAL is upon us hosted by Heather at Stitching Lotus. The challenge is to stitch and finish a small of our choice each month. You can find my stitching later on in the post, but here's a bit about our Easter break. 

We spent Easter weekend in Durham visiting friends and the rain didn't stop us from getting out and about including a trip to the botanical gardens. 

We had a wet afternoon at Roker beach whilst Lot did her school project. 

You can just about see a rainbow in the brief moment of sunshine! 

We also visited Wallington - a lovely National Trust property in Northumbria and went over to the parents of our friends and the children had an Easter egg hunt and we did egg rolling which was something we had never done before. We stayed for a lovely roast lamb dinner and the most amazing pavlova I have ever tasted. 

Here are some of the kids searching for eggs in the field as Rosie looks on wondering what on earth is going on in her field. 

Tuesday we visited the Oriental museum which was interesting and throw in a cinema trip to see the Charlie Brown movie, church on Sunday morning - quite different to go to an Anglican Church from our usual Baptist one. It was a busy few days.  We also had a stop off in York on the way up to see my sister in law and have a mooch round the city, including the Jorvik shop for Tom's project (the Viking centre was flooded during the York floods at new year so we couldn't visit). It was a lovely way to spend Easter. 

Right on to the stitching. I've been doing the tiny ABC sal designed by Ele. Last month I showed you the first 3 parts and over the month I've done part 4 and most of 5 with 6 sat waiting to stitch. I did take it to Durham but didn't get a stitch in. 

So we have K is for key...

And N is for (not quite) needle...

And all together...

I think it's looking great. It's definitely a fun one to stitch. 

Until next time.