I mentioned yesterday that I had two cross-stitch finishes to share, so this is the second one, stitched over the last few days.

A couple of weeks ago I finally got round to stitching November from the Joyful World SAL, I’d stitched the first ten months over a year ago. This was November…

Whilst I was on a roll I decided to crack on a stitch December, I had just enough time before the next release by Faby Reilly for my Anthea Calendar.

December is a pretty design with a stag on it. It also turned into a fudge from the very first stitch!!

I usually stitch from the centre outwards. I find the centre by folding the linen in half each way and making a gentle crease, so X marks the middle. I did this…and then started about half an inch away where a there was a fold in the fabric from how it was packed!! So the very first stitch was over half an inch too far to the left. I didn’t notice until I’d stitched the dove and some of the tree, too much to go back. I’d been a bit tight with the linen too as I was using up a scrap so it was becoming rapidly clear that it was going too near the edge. I decided to curve the tree inwards a bit, which meant rearranging some leaves etc, there was meant to be a big green leaf to the right of the red flowers, but that had to go as leaning the stem to the right left me with insufficient room, I added a little green square instead, like the ones above! So I ended up with a whole box of fudge!!!

Luckily the other side went without a hitch, though I did change a few of the colours. You can see on the photo above how near to the edge I was!

Yesterday evening I made it into a mini pillow. I used a pretty sage green cotton for the back and then made a cord with the DMC thread used for the red flowers, twisted with a DMC variegated thread with red, green and brown in, it seemed to contain all the colours of the design. I’m pleased with how the cord came out, it works!

As this will be on display over Christmas I decided to add a bit extra. I’d already stitched beads on the corners, next I shaped the cord ends into a bow, stitched a jingle bell in the middle and then added some tails of beads, I like it!

So I have finally stitched the complete set of the Joyful World SAL, it’s only taken about three years!! I can’t lay my hands on photos of August and September, but I did them, promise!