Tuesday 7th February

The first of my on-line purchases dropped through the letterbox today. If you have been reading the monthly 'print and post' newsletter, you will know that my small self-indulgence for this month is a small vase of fresh flowers.

The bunch of daffodils I was given at the beginning of the month have all gone over now, and are now in the compost bin - I was so sad to see them go. They have been replaced by this sweet little posy which came is a small box designed to go through the letterbox.

I always save the bits and pieces left over from arranging flowers, not that these took much arranging, and put them in this little pebble vase I bought years ago, back in the 1970s from a little pottery shop near where we lived when we were first married;

The information on the website, flowerbe.co.uk, suggests that the flowers can be dried so I shall see what happens.

I have spent most of today on the first of the Cross-Country-Collaborations. So far I om on version 3 of the final chart, but version 4 is in progress as several rows of holes have mysteriously relocated themselves from near the top of the chart to near the bottom. I can't make out how this happened, as it is all plotted onto a photocopy of the actual fabric. Ah well. Improvisation is the necessity of invention. r something. I think I can shuffle the elements around so that no-one will know. Wait... ah. Well, just don't tell, ok?

I had no idea until I started trying to chart a design quite how difficult it is to figure it all out. My final design is relatively simple after my initial plans proved beyond my skill. 

I'm also completely confused as to whether I am left-handed or right-handed for sewing any more. I thought I was totally left-handed - I certainly was all last year! This piece of fabric is too big and vulnerable to distortion for me to be happy to clamp it in a hoop. After some trial and plenty of error, I seem to have settled on resting the fabric on the work table, with the area I am stitching overhanging the edge. I then poke the needle down through the holes with my right hand and push it back up with the left. Except when for some unknown reason I swap hands. It seems to work reasonably well for me either way. Bizarre.     

No pictures yet...