D-Day

Or should that be J-Day? The cake is baked, the weather is bright and peaceful and I have bread ready for Punky Duck and his pals. Purple is not finished - about half the beading is done, but it takes a long time to do. Still, you can get a really good idea of how it'll look when it's complete. Will post a pic as soon as I'm done, but I'll be switching to the RR tonight so it could be a couple of weeks now. I'll be so glad to see the back of it - I don't think I've worked so intensely on a piece before; even the wedding sampler was more laid-back. I really do find it so hard to complete a piece of work; I get very very bored when the end's in sight. Which goes some way to explaining my UFO box, I suppose.

I got the RR out over the weekend and did a night's stitching on it to estimate how long it would take. I don't think it'll be long - I should probably be switching back to Purple within ten days or less because I got most of the detail/twiddly bits done that night, there's a large space of area with hardly any stitching, and the rest is background colour. It looks lovely already, but the backstitch really makes this piece. Expect photos within the next week.

As an aside during K's naps this week I've been making a few Valentine's cards for PostPals, a wonderful little charity which sends mail to children coping with long-term illness and disability. I've been involved with them off and on for the last year or so - I remember all too well how depressing the children's ward was when K was poorly, even though that was just for a week. So it's nice to be able to give something back. I only wish I was better/more inspired at cardmaking!