SAL Garden of Life Part 1

At the moment I don't really have alot of photos to show as I have been busy working on my SAL and exchange finishing. I have now done some more on this SAL piece since these pictures, it is Blackbird Designs 'Garden of Life' a Loose Feathers chart. This SAL is with Eva and 20 other ladies from around the world, my Mum (Veronica) and sister (Su) are both doing this as well :)) It started on 10th January, Eva has divided the design into 6 sections, each to be done over a 2 week period... so my picture shows mine with the first section done which I was well on time with...infact I was early :-)))

We have an album which we are all putting our pictures to chart the progress which can be found here




I did get the recommended 30ct Alabaster linen and had made a start on that, doing this 1/1 but really didn't like the feel of it (the linen) ...you know when something makes you cringe, it was rough and scratchy!! Then I tried my 40ct Vintage Bittersweet but decided against that as I'm not sure if I would want a pinkish (cos my cut is very pink toned ) picture on my wall, should I decide to frame it. So, I am using something I have had in my stash for ages (years) to stitch this on...a 32ct hand-dyed linen with the colour aptly called 'Spring Glow' from Dyeing4U, it is a Lugana linen which I have never ever stitched on before but I like how the stitches are looking and love the feel of the fabric. As I thought it would take me ages to catch up after my 2 false starts, I decided to go with the 2/2 option but infact it does stitch up pretty quickly :-)

I have shown this close-up to show the 'Smyrna Stitches' I have used for the flower blossoms on the trees, I just fancied to have them stand out a bit more and to give a little bit more interest to stitching it.




Onto my other stitching... I have finished and sent my exchange pieces for the 'Stitching Smalls' and 'Valentine' for the SBEBB which hopefully won't take too long to arrive and I can share the pictures soon :-) I have stitched myself a small thing and have the back to do then the finishing, for this I am going to try something new for me in the way I finish it :) I have stitched a tiny Birthday gift for my Mum... which shame on me I have not had time to do the finish yet and her Birthday was yesterday! I did however give her this book and the tiny Knitting Needles to go with it as one of her gifts. It is a lovely book with lots of patterns in it... but good luck to anybody with those knitting needles as they are like 2 strips of wire not even 1mm thick and you use embroidery thread as the yarn !! I have got some new stash which has arrived so when I stop gazing at it all I might get something else stitched ;-)





Thats about it for now, I will be back soon when my exchanges arrive and I have done my other finishing :-))

Have a great weekend and 'Thank-You' so much for the comments you have all left and 'Hello' to my new visitors it is so nice to see you here :-))