An R and some goodies

A Regal R

Here is my final Christmas (ahem) monogram. I did do a previous R for this, but it just didn't work very well, so I decided to go for something different second time around.

Its in a similar sytle to the J I first did - long and short stitch, padded satin stitch and stem stitches, but with a very different colour scheme and a wider range on the shading. I'm very pleased with it, although I still need improvement on circles.

I've had a very lovely Christmas and New Year back in the UK with my family and received a beautiful gift from my sister and brother in-law - a red leather sewing case. It's absolutely lovely and is already full of stitching stuff.

I also went into London to go to Liberty's haberdashery department. In hindsight we should have gone to the V&A for the Opus Anglicanum exhibition. The haberdashery department is still a good size, but the vast majority of stitching items there are kits rather than equipment, threads and notions. Now I like a good kit as much as the next person, and it was great to see lots of different stitch designers getting sales space somewhere so prominent, but to have only that was a disappointment compared to how I remember it. I did pick up a few nice V.V. Roulaux ribbons though.

Next I took advantage of being in the UK for quick delivery on a few items on my Amazon wish list - some drawing tools, a sketch pad, a book on the history of embroidery, and a light box for transferring designs.

Last but not least I went for a trip to Hobbycraft with my Mum and sister - and raided the clearance they had on beads as well as picking up another new book (as well as a couple I've liberated from my Mum's bookshelf). Oh and my Hazel Blomkamp kit arrrived.

So all in all, I've had a great stitchers holiday.