Last time I posted about this project I thought I was going to have to take a break from it in order to do the birth sampler for my grandson, however I made such a good start on the Winnie the Pooh alphabet that I decided I could do both. I did need to get it finished though as I have another two projects waiting in the wings!!

Three weeks ago I had just stitched the thrush and the blackbird…

These designs are all from Featherstitch House, Rebecca, the designer, was doing a year long project of postcard sized embroideries releasing one design each week. I haven’t stitched many but they have all been a delight. One more on my to-do list was some forget-me-nots. This was stitched on a simple plain background. I enjoyed stitching this one, I used stem stitch, fishbone stitch for the leaves and another stitch for the petals which I can’t remember the name of but it was basically doing lots of straight stitches through the same holes but arranging them to each side. There’s a colonial knot in the middle of each one and I remembered too late that there’s meant to be a tiny black French knot in the middle of each colonial knot too! The buds are chunky French knots.

I decided that I had a good mix of designs with three birds, two insects, two flowers and one animal and although there was only eight, by the time they were backed, it would make a decent sized book.

My original plan was to have some writing opposite the picture but I couldn’t find poems or words for each one, I didn’t want to stitch the words either. I played with an alphabet stamp set without success, I even got a new ribbon for my daughter’s vintage typewriter. I tried typing on cotton paper from Sostrene Greene but it’s not quite A4 so it didn’t feed through easily. I also couldn’t master making a neat tear rather than cutting the paper.

In the end I abandoned that idea and decided to just choose a co-ordinating fabric. I’m pleased with that plan as it doesn’t distract from the stitching. I cut some pelmet vilene to size, pressed the back and front round it and slip-stitched them together. I’ve got a neat pile of pages finished…

The page on the top I stitched yesterday. I wanted a title page and couldn’t decide what to use. I then thought of a kit my friend gave me for my birthday. It had lots of strips of fabric and some calico with sky painted at the top with the idea that you made a landscape. I had a play with the strips, swopped some of my own in and then started stitching. I’ve kept it fairly simple with fly stitch, herringbone and feather-stitch mainly. I embroidered the title with a tiny chain stitch using one thread of DMC. I’m happy with it though I still can’t decide if it looks like a hedge bottom with the layers of flowers (which was my idea) or a hedge at the bottom of a field of flowers! Either way, I’m happy with it.

The last piece of stitching I needed was my initials and the date. I chose some oak-leaf fabric from my scrap box, I love this fabric, you know you get some fabrics which if you saw again, you’d buy lots, this is one of mine! I wrote my initials and the date with a Frixion pen, added two circles around it and chose a soft green thread for the letters and a variegated thread for the ring. I stitched the letters and numbers with chain-stitch again, I do like chain stitch for letters, it creates nice curves and you can do them surprisingly small. To give you an idea of size these are about 3/8th” tall and stitched with a single DMC thread. The outer circle is feather stitch, having a double ring drawn helped me keep it neat.

I’ve chosen my fabrics for the cover. I’m planning to do an exposed spine, maybe with some beads on. Come back in three weeks time to find out!

Please visit the other blogs that are also taking part in this SAL. There are so many different projects to enjoy. The participants live all over the world so you may need to allow for time differences. We’re posting today at local time. Click the links to their blogs below and see what they’re up to.

Our next updates will be published on 1st March 2026.

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen