Last year I took part in a stitch-a-long called Lizzie SAL by Faby Reilly, it was a beautiful sewing wallet with lisianthus flowers decorating it inside and out. This years SAL is called the Zoe SAL, I still haven’t worked out where Zoe comes in but I’m sure it will become apparent! This time we’re making a box.

Our prep work included stitching the outlines in back-stitch with markers every 10 stitches to help with counting. I use this technique a lot now as it is so much easier if, for example, a line of 200 stitches is required! I’ve manged to stitch the box sides and I’m half way through the lid sides, but I’ve plenty of time to catch up.

The project is stitched on platinum linen, I’ve no idea why it’s called platinum, I was expecting a silvery grey, it’s actually more of an oatmeal! The designs are released every two weeks, this time we’ve got quite a light fortnight, supposedly to help us catch up with outlining, in practice I think I’ll will be more trying to get ahead with other projects, maybe finish one or two!

We’ve started on the side of the box, I can already make out a very pretty robin, at least I think it’s a robin! There’s also several patches of white and green which will probably make more sense in the next set of instructions! I’m just hoping I’ve placed these OK as counting has never been my strong point! I even tacked down the 50 stitch line (the edge of the side) every two stitches, unfortunately I picked a grey thread that was hanging around and I can hardly see it!

So there’s not a lot to show at the moment, but with a fortnightly pattern release that should change pretty soon!