I was going to keep this project for my SAL posts and pause the hedgerow postcards, but I’ve made such good progress I think I can manage both!

I promised I would make my youngest grandson a birth sampler for his first birthday in March. I made a Beatrix Potter one for Hugo and ideally would have stitched the other one in the set, but these went out of print about 30 years ago. I think I was lucky to find this pattern on Etsy.

I thought I’d found something suitable with the Beatrix Potter Storytime Sampler, but having bought the pattern on Etsy, I realised it was a lot bigger than I anticipated. It would be a lot of stitching but also big to frame and for the parents to find a home for it. I messaged mum with some other ideas from Etsy, she sent this Winnie the Pooh one and I think it’s delightful. I started it just before we went to Cyprus and I’m already half way through-ish

I had to make a bit of an alteration to the design. The letters are all in blue apart from my grandson’s initial. At the bottom it will then say ‘ …is for Frankie’. Of course the letter F was the smallest of the alphabet, with a big G next to it. I redrew the F and G and I think it works OK, the gap above the G will have some little star stitches as fillers so it won’t be left empty.

I’ve just started Winnie the Pooh at the bottom, he’s sitting with a jar of honey. Hopefully it won’t take me too long to finish.