Sheep in the Meadow - Shepherd's Bush

Design: Sheep in the Meadow (freebie)
Designer: Shepherd's Bush
Threads: DMC as charted
Fabric: 28 count evenweave, unknown colour

I stitched this for the Hooked on Exchanges bookmark exchange. It's a design I've stitched before - and lost, the Round Robin I did it for never returned home - and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I didn't have the called for buttons and charm, but found substitutes in my stash.

And here's a picture of the entire exchange I sent to Maria:

Bookmark Exchange Photos

I'm not going to apologise for the number of posts I've made today, catching up with my blogging, because this really deserves to be seen - I'm going to show you all the wonderful exchange Irmeli sent me all the way from Finland!

Although she has no blog of her own, she's obviously been reading mine, because my bookmark featured not only one of my favourite motifs - a beehive - but was stitched in my favourite colours!

Here is the whole exchange - with the bookmark, a sweet postcard, cute buttons, ribbon, fabric in my favourite colours - and a piece with sheep on!, and chocolate (very yummy!)

Here's a close up of the front - isn't it pretty?

And there's the back, personalised too. The piece is beautifully stitched and finished, and way too precious to go into a book, so it sits in a basket on one of my bookcases, where I can admire it without the risk of losing it!

Thank you so much for this gorgeous exchange!

Fredde's Bookmark

Design: from an alphabet in Alphabets and Borders
Designer: not given, book publisher is Better Homes and Gardens
Threads: DMC 310
Fabric: 14 count aida banding from Textile Heritage

This bookmark was stitched for a cute little boy who was one this month. No, he's not a precocious reader ... yet! His parents were putting together a 'time capsule' for Fredde to open on his tenth birthday, and I thought a personalised bookmark would be a nice timeless gift. The Spot book was for now though :o)

Buzz - Bent Creek

This has actually been finished for a while, but I re-visited it to replace the original buttons I'd used. When I first made this, I used ordinary shirt buttons - they didn't look bad but they weren't quite right. So, once I had buttons of the right size and colour, they got replaced. And yet I say I'm not a perfectionist LOL!

I stitched this design on aida band which I tea dyed prior to stitching. I think it's such a nice design I might break my own rule and re-stitch it - probably on a bigger count so I can either frame it or make it into a pillow.