Behind and in front

I have finally finished my Joyful World .... no not September but February!!

I am so behind with this piece but hopefully it will catch up as the year goes on - it will probably be my holiday stitching for our trips away starting with this coming weekend in Wales.

My fabric is 27 count Linda light taupe stitched over one with DMC thread.

Joyful World - February

So that's my behind - my in front has left me quite overwhelmed. It's not a stitching piece but my regular blog readers, both here and Aimetu's, will know I set myself a Challenge last year on my 50th birthday.

I set up a blog just for this challenge - Clare's Challenge 50. You'll need a cuppa if you pop over as there's quite a lot of photos.

I have nearly finished so that's not my 'in front' - it's my fundraising target !!

Initially I didn't set a target as any money raised was a bonus, the Challenge is a personal one. As donations came in I decided to set £1000 as a goal ..... and last weekend my target was not only reached but has now raised even more !!!

Thank to everyone who has helped me reach this amazing amount

Thank you to everyone who has donated - my final 'leg' is on my 51st birthday - 10th September !!

Thanks for popping by 😘

An exchange and a SAL

Monday was Opening Day for one of Needlecraft Haven's exchanges. Twice a year members meet up in Nuneaton and at these get togethers we randomly choice our partner and decide on the item to stitch.

At our April event we chose to stitch a coaster on the theme of our partner's birthday month; flower, gemstone, weather, wording; anything really. Everyone wrote their name and address on a postcard along with their birthday month and favourite chocolate, the cards are shuffled and held so no detail can be seen and we each pick one to find out who our partner is.

I picked Gill's card and her birthday is in January. I know Gill likes flowers and as carnations are the flower for January I stitched this lovely design by Ellen Maurer-Stroh. It was a free design from her Flower of the Month series.

As Gill had put buttons for her chocolate choice I included two little bags of treats.

Carnation coaster for Gill

Exchange goodies (Gill's photo)

Julie picked my postcard and has stitched me a beautiful coaster, my parcel also contained a bag of my favourite chocolates; Revels. I'm not showing my coaster from Julie just yet as I'm saving it for a special and very appropriate post.

My other stitching is also for a Needlecraft Haven activity - Four Season's SAL. Throughout the year we have three months to stitch any design for a season with the Gallery opening in the final month.

Spring - 1st January to 30th March - Gallery 1st March.

Summer - 1st April to 29th June - Gallery 1st June.

Autumn - 1st July to 29th September - Gallery 1st September.

Winter - 1st October to 30th December - Gallery 1st December.

It is now time to stitch autumn but I had not quite finished summer. It was all stitched but not made up so the other evening before even looking at threads for my autumn piece I sat and made up my summer mini pillow.

Four Season SAL - summer 

I'm making all my seasons into mini pillows so I can display each one at the appropriate time of year. Now I have finished summer I can put spring away.

Four Season's SAL - spring

Thanks for calling by - I hope you've enjoyed reading my bit of stitching news. I have added a little more to my travel blog about the two cities we visited in France this summer - pop along to Aimetu's if you'd like to see the photos.