Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post to say.....

I hope that you all have a happy and healthy 2015 full of love, warmth and thousands of little stitches!

Please allow me to also take this opportunity to thank everyone who looks at and comments on my blog. It's a very humbling experience and never ceases to amaze me how people all over the world can follow my stitching progress and yet feel so close (I'd better stop there before I start blubbing!)

You are a lovely bunch who are very friendly, generous, warm, caring..... and a million more similar adjectives.

Boy, am I really looking forward to following you all through 2015!

Sleep well tonight - lots of SALs start tomorrow and your fingers need to be well rested!

Love and hugs,

Rachel x

New Start - OMG Tigger Is Out

Hello everyone!

I was really hoping to be able to squeeze this post in before the New Year when everything I'm currently doing gets put on hold for the beginning of a month of stitching madness!

This evening I finished the first 10 hours on my latest project. So without further ado, here's Tigger:

OMG TIgger is Out by UnconventionalX (etsy)
Stitched on 16ct Pewter aida 2 over 1
Stitch count 162 wide by 200 high
Started - 16th December 2014
Stitching hours to date - 10

I was concerned the background might be a bit dull but it has beautiful shading. The dark grey is the top of his left ear. It's a shame I'm having to put him away but no doubt he'll make a return in February.

That's all for now.

Until tomorrow,

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

2014 End Of Year Summary

Hello all!

I thought I would take a look back at 2014 and summarize my stitchy (and some of my non-stitchy) year:

MOST IMPORTANTLY - I STARTED THIS BLOG!!!
It's one of the best things I have done in my life! I love watching all of your projects grow, sharing mine with you, and conversing with new virtual friends. It has also opened my eyes to projects I would never have previously considered and introduced me to websites which have taken far too much of my money - ooops!

WIPs NOT TOUCHED (bad girl)

1)  QS Emerald Dragon

WIPs WORKED ON (a bit)

1)  SK The History of Chocolate (3 hours)

2)  QS Come Softly (20 hours)
3)  Mini Bookworm Fairy (18 hours)
4)  Mini The Owrd Lord (12 hours)
5)  QS Fairy with Butterly Mask (20 hours)

WIPs FINISHED (woo-hoo!)

1)  Hang In There (35 hours)
2)  Autumnal Abstract (125 hours)

NEW PROJECTS STARTED AND FINISHED (double woo-hoo!)

1)  Big Eyes Kitty (51 hours)

2)  A Taste of Tuscany (85 hours)
3)  Star Trek TNG (25 hours)

NEW PROJECTS STARTED (naughty girl!)

1)  Mini One (30 hours)

2)  Scarlet Macaw Preening version 1 (20 hours but now discarded and to be restarted in 2015)
3)  Dolphin Ruins (40 hours)

4)  OMG Tigger is Out (the magical 10 hour mark hasn't been reached so no post yet)

In NON-STITCHING NEWS, 2014 was a fairly uneventful year except that.....

Hubby finally got promoted after being previously twice refused.

Daughter Heather became a member a MENSA back in May with the maximum score of 162! Not bad for a 12 year old! And she became a teenager in October! Help! Where does the time go?

Son Toby took part in a few chess tournaments. He's good enough to play for the county but doesn't want the commitment, so just does the occasional competition for fun.

Both children continue to enjoy Scouts. We have a brilliant local troop who are always out and about doing various camps, activities and competitions. They are an Air Scout Troop but are also looking to affiliate themselves with the Army as one of their leaders is an Army Officer. As parents we certainly could not have given them the experiences they have had including climbing, caving, shooting, paragliding, canal boating and taking apart a car engine(!) to name just a few! Me? Jealous? Nah!!!

And as for me, I've just plodded along being a stay-at-home mum and sandwich carer. I think without my cross stitch and blog friends I would have gone mad!

So, thank you for being there and for keeping me sane!!!!!

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

Merry Christmas!

Dear all,

For those that celebrate,

No I'm not sitting here blogging on Christmas morning - I scheduled the post for 6amGMT!

I wanted to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and hope Santa and your families have been kind and bought you all the stitchy goodies from your Christmas wish lists. I look forward to seeing lots of posts about your new stash!

Have a great day (with some stitching perhaps?!) and not too much Christmas pud!

If you don't celebrate Christmas then Happy Holidays! Enjoy the break!

Rachel x

Stitch From Stash 2015

Good morning everybody!

Well, I've done it and signed up to Stitch From Stash 2015 run by Mel of Epic Stitching! I really can't believe I am going to try to stick to a limited budget, although I desperately need to as I've got enough stash to keep me going for at least three lifetimes!

For those not familiar with Stitch From Stash the full rules can be found here but in very basic terms:

1) you have a limited budget of $25 to spend on new stash each month, rolling over any excess to the following month(s)

2) you can earn bonus money by completing projects

3) you have to be very honest and report your spending each month, along with the stash you have worked on

The rules are much longer and detailed than I have provided above but I hope to have given you a basic idea of what's involved if you're interested.

I'm number 58 out of 120 so there's still plenty of spaces available if you're feeling keen and/or up for a challenge. Go on, you know you want to!

Wish me luck!!

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x
.

Final New Stash of the Year!

Hello one and all!

I intend to join in with Stitch From Stash next year, so as I still have some birthday money left over (and I know my mum wants to buy me some stash for Christmas) I decided to have a final splurge on charts before being tied down to a budget. Also I have a stinking cold and feel awful so the retail therapy has been good medicine for my recovery!!!

I naughtily bought:

Rabnann (ebay)

Elephant Herd

Stitch count 248 wide by 174 high

theworldinstitches (etsy)

The Four Harry Potter Houses

Stitch counts 95-97 wide by 117-118 high

UAHomeMadeStudio (etsy)

Winter Owl

Stitch count 88 wide by 87 high

UnconventionalX (etsy)

OMG Tigger is Out

Stitch count 162 wide by 200 hig

This is the most expensive single chart I have ever bought. I just love the realistic-looking raindrops and the sadness of the cat so it had to be MINE! It is definitely going to be started once I have completed my latest stint on Dolphin Ruins and it already has a WIP progress bar waiting to be filled!

Gloria and Pat

Young'uns

Stitch counts 71-149 wide by 73-124 high

How cute are these?! They are not as small as I thought they would be, measuring about 100 x 100 but I don't care. I love and want to stitch them all!

Love Thy Thread
Lyx
Stitch count 170 wide by 170 high

So that's it! I certainly don't NEED any more charts. I just have to force myself not to look ever ever ever ever ever ever again!

I hope all of your Christmas preparations are going well. We've still got the tree and a few more decorations to put up but there's plenty of time yet. We tend to do a little bit each day rather than all at once as it gives the children something to look forward to when they come home from school.

Until next time.....

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

Dolphin Ruins - 40 hours

Hello all!

First of all a big thank you (I think!) to everybody who left comments about stitching on linen. I'm more confused than ever now as apparently linen is best stitched by hand, in a hoop, in q-snaps or on the Millennium frame! Looks like it'll just have to be trial and error to see which is best suited to me. Whatever the case, Sherlock will be started very soon.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to plod along on Dolphin Ruins, trying to fill in some of the gaps and complete the top of the arch.

After 30 hours

After 40 hours

I'm going to continue for another 10 hours and then put it away for a while as I desperately need a change from 10 different shades of blue!

Stitching-wise I've got lots of things planned for the New Year which will be revealed shortly - although the more eagle-eyed among you may have already noticed a new page tab at the top of my blog.....

I'll be back soon with more news.

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Autumnal Abstract - winner!

Hello bloggers!

Just a short post (which I was supposed to do yesterday - sorry!) to announce that the winner of my precious Autumnal Abstract chart is.....

Miamina!

Congratulations Miamina and commiserations to Linda and Cinzia who I know both desperately wanted the chart. Perhaps if you are lucky, it may get passed on to you afterwards.....

So, Miamina, if you would like to email me with an address to post it to I shall send it off forthwith.

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Project Restart - help and advice please!

Hello all!

WARNING: V-E-R-Y  L-O-N-G post alert!

A few months ago I mentioned that I would be restarting one of my current WIPs when the time was right. Well, that time is now and the project is..... *drum roll please* .....Sherlock aka Scarlet Macaw Preening.

You may recall that I was not happy with the hand-dyed fabric and after 20 hours of stitching I was hating it more and more. The fabric had also obviously stretched during the dyeing process and was measuring 15ct making the project even bigger than I had anticipated and the thread coverage poorer! So I put dear old Sherlock away and started searching for an alternative fabric, regardless of expense.

I had a successful find at The Crafty Kitten. Dawn was SO helpful and obliging that I can't thank her enough! She sent sample pictures of how various fabrics would take the dyes and cut the piece of fabric to my specified size. So, thank you, thank you, thank you Dawn! You're a star!

As a reminder, here's Sherlock on the original fabric:

 16ct (15ct!) hand dyed Buttered Almond by Silkweaver Fabrics (boring, dull and hardly mottled)

And this is him alongside his new fabric:

32ct hand-dyed Autumn Woodland Belfast Linen by The Crafty Kitten (mottled and colourful)

The fabric pictured is the full size 30" x 40" so that's exactly how Sherlock will transfer to the finished piece (I'm not stitching the background). The blue is slightly more subtle than in the photo and the whole fabric has more of a khaki feel but even with colour adjusting the photograph this was the best match I could get. What do you think? In my mind there's just no comparison and I am absolutely over the moon with my replacement choice. It's definitely going to give the project that forest-type feeling I was looking for.

But.....

In order to get the colour I wanted there had to be not one but TWO HUGE compromises. Not only did I have to resort to evenweave to get the desired dye effect, but to linen too! Throughout my whole stitching life I have never ever stitched on anything but Aida! Ulp!

Although I'm definitely jumping out of the proverbial frying pan and into the raging fire I'll hopefully grow to love the linen and not feel too daunted or frustrated about this rather large and unique task I have set myself. At the moment I'm quite excited as I feel I'm giving Sherlock the background he deserves. And I also know that if I want a really good result I'm going to have to put in the effort of 700+ hours!

However, this is where I need your help and advice please.

The linen is very soft so I cannot get good tension on the millennium frame without the fear of stretching it. Nor does the weave lie fully straight (although it's not actually that far off). So, should I resort to using a large hoop to get even and straight tension? or perhaps Q-snaps? or just try to get the linen as straight as possible on a looser tension?

I'm not a fan of hoops or Q-snaps as I'm very frightened of damaging the stitches and/or fabric and worried about the mass of excess fabric picking up dirt.

If I do use the millennium frame will I be able to manipulate the linen to straighten the stitches as much as possible as I go along and/or once the whole piece is completed? I know with Aida adjusting the stitching is virtually impossible to correct, but as this linen is so soft, might it be possible? I just don't know!

I realize that stitching preferences are very personal but would appreciate any insight you can give me. I've already trawled through various Google searches but haven't really found any helpful answers. Can my virtual blogosphere friends help? I hope so!!!

I'm confused and really just don't know what to do.

In the words of The Beatles - Can you please, please help me, help me, help me...ooooh!!!

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Dolphin Ruins - 30 hours

Good evening one and all!

Another 10 hours bites the dust so the next progress picture is due:

After 20 hours

After 30 hours

Not having specific little sections, like Autumnal Abstract, I didn't realize how much I'd stitched until I compared photos. This project is really relaxing to work on, even though the majority so far has been black and umpteen shades of dark blue!

My next post will be asking for luck and advice - I've set myself a daunting challenge and need opinions from those who have had experience in such matters. I'll say no more now!!

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Dolphin Ruins - 20 hours

Hello all!

First of all a massive THANK YOU to everyone who left such kind comments regarding my choice of frame and mounts for Autumnal Abstract. I'm overwhelmed by your kindness. You are such a fantastic bunch of virtual friends and I'm glad you enjoyed my updates and finished piece. I will get around to replying to you all but in the meantime, thank you again!

Dolphin Ruins is growing quite quickly at the moment due to it still being mostly black and dark blue. I've never been one for stitching methodically so keep jumping around the top row of four pages as the mood takes me.

Here's where I'm up to:

After 10 hours

After 20 hours

You can just make out the tops of the columns on the left and right and the roof arches above them.

I hate confetti stitching and really have to be in the mood for it so am leaving any colours where less than 10 stitches are required, hence the gaps. I get much more satisfaction out of stitching the big blocks of colours first!

My hoped-for champagne dinner over the weekend did not go quite according to plan. Instead hubby treated me to a Burger King whilst we were Christmas shopping in Basingstoke. Nice to know what I'm worth to him - I'll bear the value of the meal in mind when buying his present!!

Take care everyone.

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

PS As much as you liked watching my progress there are only two followers who wish to win the chart of Autumnal Abstract. There's still a week left if you want to enter the draw. See 19th November posting for details.

Autumnal Abstract - framed!

Me again fellow bloggers!

I was so excited yesterday - the frame arrived from the wonderfully efficient ezeframe.co.uk. It was hastily unpacked and drooled over before being set aside until I could assemble it all after dinner,

So, here's what you've been waiting for. Drum roll please.....

As usual, the photo doesn't quite do the finished piece justice, but you get the general idea.

And here's a close-up of the stunning frame:

The frame is 26mm Gold Leaf with a 40mm Damascus Green top mount, a 7mm Omar Brown bottom mount and anti-reflective acrylic glazing. The opening is 36cm x 26cm with the full framed piece measuring 46cm x 36cm. The total cost was £31 (bargain!) plus £6 for postage (boo!)

The mounts were quite easy to choose with the wide brown drawing the eye into the project whilst balancing the ornate frame, and the green complimenting the colours in the design.

The frame itself was a very bold decision. It was the first one I chose, although I did try out other more sensible ones for comparison. Hubby said this one looked like something you would buy at a car boot sale or find hanging in a tacky pub but my instinct told me from the start that this was the right one, despite his "support"!

I absolutely love it, but what do you think?

I appreciate that some of you will not like it and I will not take offence if you tell me so. Framing, like choosing a project to stitch, is a very personal decision and I would certainly appreciate your honesty.

The only thing I didn't do was sign and date the piece before it was framed, although I'm not sure I could have put that information anywhere that would have looked right, so I'm not that bothered really.

This weekend the children are away with their Scout Troop again so hopefully hubby and I will get some Christmas shopping done. We may even go out for a champagne dinner (a girl can wish...) Just a thought - has anyone out there tried stitching whilst squiffy? Maybe I'll do a test piece to see what it's like!!!

All the best and

Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

PS there's still time to enter if you want to win the chart. See my 19th November posting for the rules. And sorry, Linda, you can enter as many times as you like but your name will actually only be entered once - cheeky!

New Start - Dolphin Ruins by Rabnann

Good morning all!

With Autumnal Abstract finished (the frame is being delivered this morning) I am now free to work on something else which is - surprise surprise - Dolphin Ruins. I know I've got a lot of WIPs that desperately need attention but I just couldn't wait any longer to start this one:

Dolphin Ruins by Rabnann (ebay)

Stitched on 16ct Light Blue aida 2 over 1

Stitch count 223 wide by 288 high

Started - 16th November 2014

Stitching hours to date - 10

So far it's mostly black (310) and very dark blue (823) with a splash of lighter blues thrown in for variation (and sanity!)

Progress on this chart will be a bit slower than you have been witnessing lately - partly because I am having to use the old grey matter and count more and partly because it's a much bigger project. The blues are lovely to work with after the autumnal colours so I'll carry on until I feel like I need another colour-palette change.

Until next time,

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

PS don't forget, you can still leave a comment indicating your interest in winning the Autumnal Abstract chart. I know it's not to everybody's taste, and I actually don't have that many followers, but there's only one entrant so far!!

Chart Giveaway - Autumnal Abstract by Vervaco

Hello fellow stitch-a-holics!

True to my word I am having a Giveaway!

It really truly honestly breaks my heart to give away the original chart of Autumnal Abstract now that I have finished it but I have so many more projects I would like to do that the realistic chances of me actually stitching this project again are minimal.

So, here are the rules for your chance to win:

1. you must be a follower of my blog
2. you must actually want to stitch this project (and not just add it to your stash pile!)
3. you must leave a comment indicating that you would like to win it

Simples!

I will take your interest on this posting, or any future postings, up until the end of November and pick the winner on 2nd December 2014.

Good luck to all who enter!

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

Autumnal Abstract - finished!

Good morning all!

And what a good morning it is! At 1.34 this morning after 177.25 hours of stitching, many late nights/early mornings and the constant disapproval of my husband, I cast off my final thread on Autumnal Abstract. So it's Happy Dance time again - woohoo!!! I really didn't think it would be so soon after recommencing this project back at the beginning of October.

Here are the final pictures and the project information:

After 170 hours

Autumnal Abstract by Vervaco

Stitched on 16ct Antique White Aida 2 over 1
Stitch Count 226 x 151

Started - 12th October 2005

Suspended 25th July 2006 after 52 hours

Restarted - 5th October 2014
Finished - 16th November 2014
Total stitching time - 177 hours 15 minutes

Thanks to my sleep-limiting regime (which is mostly working well) and a few naughty weekends, I've averaged just under 3 hours per day for the last six weeks. It's such a cliche to say this, but every stitch of Autumnal Abstract (all 29,609 of them) has been a joy and I'm really quite sad that this project is now finished.

The frame hasn't arrived yet, so today the piece will be washed and ironed and given plenty of time to dry thoroughly before being stretched and framed.

So, it's now on to something else which is..... you'll have to wait and see! Suffice to say it has been screaming at me to start it (there's a hint) since I received it last month (there's a bigger hint) and has a completely different colour palette to Autumnal Abstract (how many more hints do you want???)

I also said that I would be giving away the chart for Autumnal Abstract once I had completed the project. That will be in a separate post so keep watching for a chance to win!

I'll be back soon, but will it be with Autumnal Abstract framed or the first stint on my New Start?

Until then,

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Autumnal Abstract - 170 hour update

Hello all!

.....and now the end is near and so I face the final curtain stitching.....!

Oooooh, I'm getting so excited! I'm on the final section of the chart and then this project will be complete! It will definitely take less than 10 hours so..... my next post will be a finish! Go me!!!

Here are the final progress pictures:

After 160 hours

After 170 hours

I've already ordered the frame from ezeframe.co.uk but will not divulge any information about it - you'll have to wait until the next and final post to see it in all its glory!

Right, that's enough waffling. I can't wait to sit down tonight to start the final push!

Be back soon.....

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

Autumnal Abstract - 160 hour update

Good afternoon all!

I'm back with another progress report! Thank you again for all of the wonderfully kind comments you have been leaving about Autumnal Abstract. I'm glad you enjoy watching my progress and are as eager and excited as me to see a finish!

As usual, this latest 10 hours of stitching has flown by, aided by a straight-through four hour session Sunday night into Monday morning - thank goodness for being able to pack the children off to bed earlier on Sundays!!

So here are the piccies:

After 150 hours

After 160 hours

I've already looked at mounts and frames from ezeframe.co.uk and experimented with various combinations. I think I've made my decision but as it's quite a bold choice I'm taking my time before ordering. That's the beauty of internet framing - there's simply no rush.

Until next time then.

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Autumnal Abstract - 150 hour update

Hello all!

The light at the end of the tunnel is definitely getting brighter as I am ploughing through the remainder of this project. I'm still not getting bored though!

Here are the latest pictures:

After 140 hours

After 150 hours

I hope you're still enjoying my updates - not many more to go before you can rid yourselves of this project and I can bore you to death with something else!

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Autumnal Abstract - 140 hour update

Good evening all!

I still can't pull myself away from this project and have become even more obsessed with stitching it this last week. Don't tell anyone, but I stitched until 2am Saturday morning! Very naughty but I just wasn't tired and even when I went to bed I still couldn't sleep. Guess I could/should have stitched all night!!

Here are the usual progress pictures:

After 130 hours

After 140 hours

With the school half-term holidays over, I'm now going to try to get back into a proper routine and prove to hubby that I am aware there is more to life than stitching! Boo :(

See you soon.

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Autumnal Abstract - 130 hour update

Hello again!

As you can see, I'm back with Autumnal Abstract. Dolphin Ruins may be calling me - loudly - but I just can't tear myself away from this project. The right half is completely finished so I'm on the home straight working down to the bottom left corner. Here's my progress over the last couple of days:

After 120 hours

After 130 hours

The school half-term holiday has allowed me to stitch during the day as well as at night, hence quicker progress for this ten hour stint. It's a bit naughty but the children don't mind me disappearing for a couple of hours here and there as long as I'm on call and they get fed at the appropriate times!

Back soon(ish) with another update.....

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

PS for those that celebrate (we don't!) Happy Halloween!

Autumnal Abstract - 120 hour update

Good evening all!

First of all I would like to say a very warm welcome to my new followers over the last month or so. I hope you are enjoying my blog and accompanying ramblings. :)

Secondly, thank you for all the lovely comments about my birthday stash. When I was updating my Current Stash pages I realized just how many charts I had. So from now on the purchasing of (or asking for) any more cross stitch charts is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (yeah right!!!) Perhaps that could be a challenge for 2015 - just how long can you survive into the year without purchasing any new charts or kits? I don't think I'd last a month and I'm not sure some of you folks could even last a week!!!

But I digress, so, on to Autumnal Abstract. My enthusiasm for this project has still not waned one bit. This is probably the longest time I have stitched on one project without needing or wanting a change of colour pallet. I'm so proud and believe that finishing it before the end of the year is now a strong possibility, although I'm not going to rush to get it done. So, here it is:

After 110 hours

After 120 hours

I know what you're going to say - I've done a lot in 10 hours. But, remember, there are large blocks of colours!

I've just about resisted the temptation of starting Dolphin Ruins because I'm enjoying this one so much. But, the threads are in their box, the fabric is on the scroll bars and the place of the first stitch has been counted and marked! I don't know how much longer can I hold out though - it's still calling to me!

So, when I return next time will it be with Autumnal Abstract or Dolphin Ruins I wonder?

Until then,

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

New Stash - well, it is my birthday!

Hello fellow bloggers!

I've been a very naughty girl and, as the title states, received some new stash for my birthday. Note I said received, not bought, as these were presents from my mum, daughter and son (bless 'em!). So all of the following, which I just had to share with you, can be justified, can't they?? Of course they can!!

Lizzie Kate 

Monthly Flip-It Stamps (2005)
Stitch counts 47 wide by 47 high

I've noticed a lot of stitchers do Lizzie Kate projects so had to look at the website to find out what all the fuss was about. I'm not into samplers but fell in love with their 2005 Flip-It Stamps set. They will definitely be one of my 2015 WIPs. No offence to all American bloggers out there, but I am going to substitute the November Thanksgiving design for fireworks as that's much more English!

Satsuma Street (etsy)

Pretty Little London and Pretty Little Paris
Stitch counts 123 wide by 110 high and 111 wide by 104 high

All of Satsuma Street's city designs as on my wish list but as London and Paris are the most relevant to me those are the ones I decided to ask for first. The unusual colours should make them fun to stitch.

FluffyFuzzyPatterns (etsy)

Owls In Love
Stitch count 250 wide by 152 high

Oh my goodness... how cute is this??? There are only three shades of grey in the whole design and lots of unstitched areas so it should be really easy to do! Gorgeous.

EvasDesignsBg (etsy)

Dragon Eye
Stitch count 180 wide by 135 high 

This is a fantastic representation of a dragon's eye and I immediately knew that it was hypnotizing me to 'buy me or else'! So I did! There are only 11 colours in this design so would be easy to convert to a different hue if I wanted. Hmm... thinks firey reds/oranges perhaps?

Rabnann (ebay)

Dolphin Ruins
Stitch count 223 wide by 288 high

This design not only jumped out at me when I saw it but has also jumped to the very top of my to-do list. I don't know how long I will be able to resist the temptation of a new start but I doubt it will be long! I love the underwater mysterious lost City of Atlantis effect and the rippling on the dolphins' backs and marble columns. I hope the stitched picture is true to its mock up. Oooh, my fingers are itching already!!!


So that's 17 more projects to add to my to do lists - but in my justification, most of them are small. Anyway, aren't birthdays and Christmases specifically made as a reason/excuse to further increase our stash piles?? Good. I'm glad you all agree!!

As always,

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x