Last week I received an unexpected package in the mail and inside I found these wonderful gifts from dear sweet Angela. A perfectly stitched and finished flat fold, one of her exquisite pin books and a monogrammed card, all in my favourite colour blue. Thank you Angela, I love them all.

If you are interested in one or more of Angela's pin books, email me and I will put you in touch with her. They are printed onto quality card stock which is then gently distressed for an aged look. Each one has a matching felt interior and three pearl headed pins with a decorative bow. They are absolutely lovely and make the perfect gift for your stitching friends - if you can bear to give them away!

Last Saturday morning seemed the perfect day with bright sunshine and blue skies, albeit extremely cold, so I thought we had missed the forecasted snow but it wasn't to be as it started snowing around mid-night. The garden pots look a little like snow-cones and can you see we also had a visit from Mr Fox? Click on the collage and you will see his tiny footprints.

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I finished stitching the gift I've been working on so today it will be the final finish and then back to the pre-stitching for my class in London in April.

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Meet Sew Blue Bear! My talented friend Valie decided to work her magic on Sew Bands and removed a few bands/motifs and replaced them with a delightful ceramic bear and some wording and she also stitched it in blue - my favourite colour. I received this in the post yesterday and was quite overcome with it's beauty and originality. My French friend knows me so well - my colour preferences and my collection of bears! Thank you dear friend for your thoughtfulness - it is much appreciated. There are more pictures on Valie's blog *here*

Sew Bands is available *here* or by clicking on the CHARTS button on the sidebar.

Valie gifted me with this very pretty glass frog for my French scissors (thank you Valie) but as there are spare holes I now need to buy more!

The bobbins, complete with the beautiful French lace, I purchased at the AEF although I am now thinking that I should have purchased more so next time I go I will make a list!

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This wonderful needlecase was gifted to me by the lovely Angela. Although I know it is beautifully stitched on 40ct linen, I do not know what threads she used, maybe she will tell us? She added our initials on the front and inside the year and l'AEF (L'aiguille en fête) a perfect reminder of our French trip. Thank you Angela - I love it!

Just recently Andrea of The Craft Room stitched and finished the Love freebie from iStitch Designs. It is stitched on 32ct light sand Belfast linen with Atalie's Passion. Andrea's stitching and finishing are amazing so please check out her blog. Thank you Andrea for turning this little freebie into a work of art and allowing me to post it.

And yet another 'Love', this time stitched and finished by Dora (no blog). It is stitched on 30ct R&R Brownstick Brown with DMC 613 and CC Secondhand Rose and finished as a floss tag. Such a pretty stitch and finish - thank you Dora for allowing me to post your picture.

Click on the pictures for a closeup view.

This delightful little flea market find was given to me by my dear friend and wonderful hostess/guide in Paris - she knows who she is - thank you so much for making our trip so memorable! This tiny little red sampler, given in an antique AVAS box, is a true delight and I am sure there are many envious people looking at this. I absolutely love it and maybe I will chart it for iStitch Designs?

I have yet more gifts to whet your appetite so please visit with me again.

And check out these antique bobbins - aren't they gorgeous? I had planned on using these to tidy up some ribbons but I cannot bear to remove the original threads or to untie the bow.

And more bobbins, one wound with delicate lace and one empty. I am sure I will find something to wind on this one.

And on my return from France I discovered that some of the Spring bulbs in my garden have started to flower. Tiny snowdrops, primroses and and crocuses to brighten up a dull garden and the daffodils are up but have yet to flower. I love Spring flowers!

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Just before the holiday I received a surprise package from Amy of Cross Stitch and Cupcakes containing two Quaker charts and a pair of Sullivan's Heirloom scissors! Thank you Amy it was so sweet of you to send me such a lovely gift.

Not much else to report. I am stitching the model for Sew Lavender which should be released shortly and stitching a surprise gift. I want to frame Thérésa Leparoux but I want to distress the frame slightly before I do this. I also need to photograph Jane Rees to show an updated WIP picture. Where does the time go?

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The latter part of my heading refers to this gorgeous pillow. This pillow was originally a tea towel given to me by Sue (one of my Stitch-n-Bitch group) as part of my birthday present last December. As this tea towel, with the embroidered hearts and lettering, was much too nice to use for drying dishes, June (another Stitch-n-Bitcher) suggested that it would make a nice pillow and offered to do it for me. I passed the tea towel to her and forgot about it until, at our last meeting, she handed me a bag and inside I found this beautiful pillow! Now I find that this pillow is much too nice to let anyone sit on/against it, so it's new home is on my bed away from bottoms, elbows and sticky fingers! Thank you Sue for the tea towel and a big thank you to June for turning the tea towel into such a stunning pillow.

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The Dutch Band sampler is progressing although I do have to unpick some of it later today. When I originally started stitching this I altered the threads from those recommended to AVAS and had all the colours hanging from a ring but I must have changed the colours as I was stitching because when I came to stitch with the pink it was an entirely different shade to that already stitched! I thought maybe I had removed the original pink from the ring for something else so I spent ages searching through my AVAS threads but without success. I then checked the ziplock bag the project had been stored in and found, not only the correct pink thread but also a gold thread on a MOP ring. This led me to checking on the gold stitches to find that I have used the wrong thread - hence the unpicking later today. I had hoped to be putting a few more stitches into Jane this weekend but I guess not!

My two eldest grand-children, Kirby and Jack, are at the V Festival in Cheltenham this weekend and I hope they are having a great time. I can't imagine Kirby in a tent - where will she plug in her hair straighteners?

Thanks for visiting and enjoy what's left of the weekend

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On the reverse of the pillow is my name. My friend tells me there was much cursing and muttering on finishing this pillow as the joining stitches were so tiny and the silk threads were difficult to catch. Thank you my dear friend for such a wonderful gift. I enjoyed your trip immensely but please could you return the sun that has disappeared since your departure? There are more pictures on Valie's blog *here*

There was no stitching done during my friend's visit but I did put a few stitches into Sew Seasons last night - I made a start on Summer. I have chosen fabric and threads for Sew Sew and will probably make a start on this one sometime today. 

It's May Bank Holiday here in the UK and, as usual on a Bank Holiday, it's raining. In fact it hasn't stopped raining since it started on Saturday morning. It's a great excuse for curling up on the sofa plugged into my latest book on my iPod and with a needle and thread in hand but first a few chores ...

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Today I received the scissors that I had ordered from Yuko. I ordered type A and Yuko also enclosed type B. She is such a sweet generous girl - thank you Yuko. She has recently started to sell the most unusual types of scissors so a visit to her 'Be Happy Scissors' *here* is a must. She has four types of scissors for sale and her service is fast so, if you are a scissors fanatic (and what stitcher isn't?), do have a look and see if you can resist!

A while ago I won a giveaway on Patti's Tapestry of Dreams. She showed a piece of stitching and gave the winner a choice of finishing and, as I was happy just to win, I told Patti that any type of finishing was fine by me. Unfortunately poor Patti later informed me that she 'messed up' on the finishing of the original stitching and that she had decided to stitch something different. This beautiful stitched and finished Hearts pillow with both our initials on the reverse was her choice. As you know I love hearts so I was happy to receive both this and the pretty beaded scissor fob with a sunshine yellow tassel. Thank you Patti.

More recently I won a giveaway of threads on Danielle's blog which threads arrived this morning. I certainly was not expecting the large amount of threads which arrived - a selection of WDW, Dinky Dyes and Crescent Colours. These threads are not widely available here and certainly not at my LNS so it will be great to try out these threads. Thank you Danielle.

And a few more photos of Canterbury. Click on the picture and check out 'Ye Olde Ducking Stool' in the top left hand picture - I don't think I would like being 'ducked' in that cold wet river!

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Take care