This morning I put the last few stitches in ‘December’ for the Anthea Calendar, this is the last one in the series of twelve beautiful flower designs by Faby Reilly. It’s been fun trying to guess what the seasonal flower would be each month (not very successfully!) and this month I got it three-quarters right!
I guessed hellebores, otherwise known as the Christmas rose, I have one in flower in the garden at the moment. I hoped there would be holly and mistletoe as I’ve stitched Faby’s holly and mistletoe humbugs so I know how nicely they come out. What I didn’t guess was poinsetta, these always remind me of my mum as she always bought one at Christmas, it never survived long into the New Year though! One year she bought a cream one and that was much prettier I thought, not quite so in your face as the red ones. Anyway, I digress…
So this month is a lovely colourful, Christmassy design with holly, mistletoe, Christmas roses and poinsettas. I remembered to take a photo half way through adding the back-stitch, it makes such a difference to the design…
Do you ever look at a word so many times you almost convince yourself you’ve spelled it wrong? I ended up showing my OH just to check the spelling of December!! I wasn’t too sure about the gold thread in the centre of the roses, but I trusted Faby’s design and as usual it works perfectly. I think it’s a beautiful design and very seasonal.
I’ve really enjoyed this stitch-a-long, the patterns are all still available on Faby’s website and they’re very reasonably priced too. Here’s the twelve months together…
Aren’t they gorgeous? I need to start stitching all these pages into a book with their correlating wordplay, then at the end of the month I just need to stitch a final wordplay and work out a front page then my book will be ready to finish.
thecraftycreek 
They are so beautiful, you have inspired me to give them a go for 2021. Thanks for sharing your progress and the finished product.
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Great Suzi, you’ll enjoy them 🙂
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I can’t wait to see your finished book. It will be outstanding.
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Yes, they are gorgeous! Job well done!
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Well done, I have enjoyed your word play pages too so putting them together in a book is a lovely idea.
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Those are just stunning all together!
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The Faby designs are, of course, beautiful, and you’re correct about the backstitch — her designs are about the only ones I’ll gladly use metallic threads on, as the results are worth it, as you say. But what has really made these designs for me are your wordplay pages. They are very like the woven diaries that tapestry weavers make, and totally individual. You’ve done a splendid job.
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such lovely projects each month, and yes they are all gorgeous! Well done you, for keeping up with this challenge for the full 12 months!
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Every one is so gorgeous!
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Lovely seeing them altogether like that.
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