Happy Dance! - B is for Blackbird

Design: B is for Blackbird (from A*B*C)

Designer: Prairie Schooler

Threads: DMC as charted, modification noted below.

Fabric: 28 count evenweave, cream

Stitches: Half cross stitch

This is my final stitching happy dance for 2009. I finished it on the 28th, and I'd hoped to have had "A is for Anchor" done too, but work commitments have got in the way... sigh. It's not very flat, as I laid it out on my fluffy duvet...

I loved working on this, despite a visit from the frog. I only made one modification from the design as it was charted, and that was to turn the red eyes of the blackbirds into one of the gold colours, as blackbirds over here have yellow rims to their eyes. It was nice working on this to think of the nesting pair of blackbirds my parents' garden hosted - they used to make their nest in an old honeysuckle bush.

And is is how it looks with the first letter I did.

I'm so enjoying this, I'm not sure I'm going to want to knuckle down to my Year of the UFO project, but I must...

Prairie Schooler SAL

Day 1

Day 2(under artificial light)

Day 3

The combination of a peaceful Christmas with no travelling and Test Match Special on the radio, with live coverage of England's cricketers taking on South Africa has given me plenty of stitching time until I start work again tomorrow (boo, hiss!).

So my Prairie Schooler SAL is growing apace ... of course, when talking about over one, 'growing' is a relative term ... but hopefully, I will finish it later today. I've had a visit from the frog, I miscounted the vine border and was one stitch out by the time I got to the top ... I've reworked the horizontal row at the top, but the leaves and berries I've left alone, it can be our little secret :o)