Moved!

And finally, after a month-long holiday back home with the family, I'm back in my student house down in Southampton, where it is absolutely freezing as ever, and not helped by the fact that our boiler was turned off while the workmen redid the kitchen (which, on a completely different note, looks fabulous). I'm sitting here at my nicely rearranged workstation-desk-thing-cum-stitching-space and freezing my tits off (I'd ask you to pardon the expression, but really, I'm so cold that my boobs *are* freezing, which gives you an idea of the kind of stuff that comes with studenthood :P)

There is some good, though. Over Easter, I left some stash down here, knowing I wouldn't touch it because I had a tonne of stuff waiting for me back at home, and plenty of stuff to take with me. Well, turns out I also had a bunch of thread waiting for me! Not only was there a stitchbow of thread that I'd left here by mistake, but, thanks to the pile of stuff my mother gave me, I now also have a load of excess threads from old Winnie the Pooh kits, and - even better - they're DMC so I can use them with pretty nearly anything I need to. I love it when that happens.

The piece on the left is entitled Swan Lake and will be made up into a card. The two on the right are called Eeyore's Butterfly Days and Piglet's Butterfly Days, which are the final two of the four-part Winnie the Pooh set from Designer Stitches I have - or at least, it's four-part as I'll make it, since they've gone out of print, so if there are more in the set, I don't really have much of a choice. I'm looking forward to having them all done.

Even better-er is the fact that my housemate is the best. Turns out he moved house over Easter, and, while his family were clearing out, they found some stitching books and he said I could have them! So now I have three more books I will likely not do anything from but instead ogle and think about doing things from.

Victorian Needlepoint by Beth Russell, Traditional Samplers by Brenda Keyes and Making Samplers from The Embroiderers' Guild, which will all be joining my library once I'm back home. I can't justify starting anything that's not already kitted out right now, because I have too many WIPs, so they'll likely remain untouched for a while.

Until then, though, I've put one of my secret projects into my Q Snaps - which I literally just got from my mother, who had them sitting around being unused in a cupboard - and I'm going to try my new stitching method with these, which is gridded, working in columns with parking. I'm not sure if I'll update until it's done and gifted, since this is the one that's destined to be a present for someone who might well read this blog. Either way, I look forward to showing you all the finished product, because I think it'll be amazing when it's done.

Happy stitching!

Heather x