And back onto Stitchery again.........

I spotted a beautiful cross stitch pattern on Kate's blog the other day and particularly loved the alphabet part of it.

So as I don't seem to have the patience for cross stitch these days I decided to create my own version in stitchery instead using her design for inspiration.

I drew this up while the 'toad in the hole' was cooking for tea yesterday evening and traced it onto the reverse side of some 'cream on cream' fabric ready to make a start on stitching it in front of the tv during the evening.

I'd picked up some variegated DMC stranded embroidery floss in town last week in several colours and chose the russet one to work this in. The colour changes are quite subtle and I love the effect it gives.

It went together so quickly I was putting the final stitches in whilst watching Liverpool's five goals against Luton in the FA Cup match on Match of the Day just before we turned it in for the night.

Mind you kids are a great leveller aren't they - my youngest, who at 10 is heading off to University now while she still knows absolutely everything, asked me why I had mixed upper and lower case letters in the design - Miss Precise!

So what's next for this little piece of nonsense?

After all the shirt cutting I had done over the Christmas break I think it might just be the centrepiece I need for a mini plaid quilt, maybe with some school houses on it somewhere.

I'm thinking of a fine sawtooth border round it for starters but I'm afraid, as my previous efforts at tiny triangle piecing have been less than successful (to say the least), I will probably draw up a paper pattern to foundation piece the first borders.

Now.......... do I have time before I shoot off to work to dig out some shirting plaids ready for the next stage.....................