I’ve realised I have a hole in my smalls! That is, I have a gap in the designs, I have nothing that’s autumn themed! I have spring in abundance, lots of summery ones, Christmas ones, Valentine ones, but no autumn and as we’re well into September already I can’t see me having much time to correct it this year…

I don’t really do Halloween, and we’re not that into pumpkins, so I’ll just have to keep my eye open for suitable little cross-stitches.

In the meantime I decided to go for more autumn colours, with a few variations as there is still a fair bit of colour around in September…

…so my favourite bumble bee came out. I’ve made him twice already and have requests for another two more!

The September small is from Snowflower diaries, I love the two barn owls. They are hauntingly beautiful birds, I’ve been lucky enough to see them in the wild on a couple of occasions. At the moment I’m trying to quickly stitch October as this is as far as I got last year!

The creamy white cat is a very fine cross-stitch from over 20 years ago, it sat in my worksbox all that time as it wasn’t quite square enough to frame – such things don’t matter as much in a small.

The purple and green abstract one at the front is one of those QR codes you see on all sorts of things. If you scan it it says ‘Love is patient, Love is kind.’

The little house is another one from years ago, it was a pattern in Inspirations magasine, it’s a thimble case. The little bead you can see under the front door is the catch for the hinged bottom.

Never give up is a Lizzie Kate design, I love the colours and the saying.

…and I’ve turned my Tall Year Square etui box round to the autumn colours;

I’m not sure what I’m going to do for October’s display, we shall see!