Happy Dancing

Last weekend I finished and washed Gaelic Banner, and I pressed it in the week. I wanted to wait to take a photo until I could use natural light, and here it is:

Edited to add: Terri of Rosy Stitches rightly asked who the designer of Gaelic Banner is - it's a Dracolair design.

If you remember I was worried that it had been stretched out of shape on my scroll frame, but washing it allowed it to spring back - so much so that I needed to take out and then tighten the long stitches outlining the tip of the sword. I am really chuffed with this piece, and thrilled to bits that it's my first happy dance of 2014.

Once I finished it I felt like a complete change, and a quick stitch - digging through my stash I decided on Rose Garden by Blackbird Designs - all stitched in the lovely muted pink 'Jakey Brown'. I decided to use my mum's initials and date on this piece, and I hope to finish finish it tomorrow (along with a few other things - my finishing pile is rather huge!). It's stitched on a piece of us identified hand dyed fabric - I did finally check the thread count, and it's 38 count. No wonder some late evenings my eyes found it difficult!

This weekend I have very little planned. I need to pop into town as two books I ordered have come into the book store - I've decided to re-read the musketeers saga, after starting to watch the (frankly OK but not fabulous) BBC adaptation of the three musketeers. I was amazed to realise that I don't own a copy of Twenty Years After or Louise de la Valliere. But I will by this evening!

Other than that all I have planned is stitching in front of the TV - probably a mixture of rugby, the Winter Olympics and some Scandi-noir. I hope you all have a fun weekend planned.

Happy stitching folks xx