After a few days away I’ve stitched a fair bit on my ‘stitching on the move’ project. We’ve been to Cyprus visiting family so we had two flights of nearly five hours and train journeys to get to the airport, so lots of stitching time. When I posted a few days ago we were just waiting for the flight home, of course it was delayed for an hour after we boarded. That’s more stitching time but it would be nice to have a flight run to time just once 🙂

I started this project about a month ago, but since retiring I don’t have quite as much regular stitching time when I’m out and about. I do find it’s a handy little project for coffee times though! It’s a biscornu design by Faby Reilly, I’ve done quite a few of her designs and they’re always beautiful. A biscornu is one of those funny shaped pin cushions made from two squares stitched point to middle of side. I’ve fancied these designs for a while but I really don’t need anymore pincushions. Then I had the idea to put them in a book. The plan at the moment is to stitch the front and back design into one page of a concertina book, maybe joining the pages with beads. It’s certainly going to have a crisper finish than my last concertina book, ‘Stitched with Love’

When I set off on holiday I think I had one iris pretty much finished, when I shared it the other day I had made good progress…

I always stitch on long journeys, usually cross-stitch. I put my threads on a DMC card holder, I’ve a tiny pair of scissors which Kate Chiconi kindly sent me and I always have a Clover thread cutter worn as a pendant. I’ve never had any problems with security with this set-up. This time we just had carry-on luggage so I risked a cheap pair of embroidery scissors in my suitcase. They didn’t question it, this was Jet2, I have had similar embroidery scissors confiscated by other airlines so I usually pack scissors I’m not precious about.

After two flights and two train journeys, I’m not far off finishing the cross-stitch, then I need to do the back-stitching and add the beads which is when Faby’s designs come alive.

I have to admit I knew very little about Cyprus beforehand, I think all I knew is that there was a Greek side and a Turkish side with a UN buffer zone in between. We stayed in Larnaca where it was a bit warmer than the UK. It’s a lovely city with an interesting old town, I visited the church of St Lazarus which was built in the 9th century. A highlight of the trip for me was when we walked to the salt lakes and saw flamingos. Apparently they over-winter there.

We were then staying for a couple of nights in Nicosia. We drove up via Lefkara which is a pretty, traditional village to wander round. The villagers specialise in traditional embroidery and lace. The village is full of lace shops. Whilst I was not convinced that the goods in the shops were all handmade and local, I did manage to find a shop where the lady obviously knew what she was talking about. The traditional embroidery is cut work, but whereas with hardanger the embroidery is done first and then the threads are cut, with this embroidery the threads are cut first – very brave I thought! I bought a pretty little lace doily which the lady had made. It looks a bit like tatting, but sounds like what I think is called needle lace. I’m planning a book of lace so it will be going in there.

Nicosia is an interesting city, it’s one of the few remaining divided cities in the world. The UN buffer zone goes right through the capital city. We crossed the buffer zone to the Turkish side a couple of times through the only ‘on foot’ checkpoint, it’s quite eerie to see as everything is derelict in between the lines. We wandered round the markets on the Turkish side and saw lots of beautiful buildings.

One day we travelled up through the mountains to a monastery, it was freezing up there, literally! We hit the snow line, I didn’t think Cyprus would have a ski resort but it does! The villages cling to the sides of the mountain and the roads just zig-zagged up the mountain. I found it interesting as here in the UK rural villages tend to be at the valley bottom and roads just go over passes, the lowest point that will get you to the other side.

Anyway, I’m on a bit of a roll now with this cross-stitch, so hopefully it won’t be that long before it’s finished.