ES SAL: Yvonne's Stitching Finish!

Wow, it's so hard to believe that this is the last day of July already!!! I don't know where this summer has gone. Mostly it went with me wishing for snow, LOL! And *that* is something I'd never thought I'd say :P The last few weeks have been unreal, although thankfully nothing like the severe heatwaves elsewhere in the world.

A nice, warm summer day here in Newfoundland is usually 22 to 25 degrees Celsius, with the humidity making it feel two or three degrees warmer. But lately we've had high twenties/low thirties temps with the humidex often up to *ten* degrees higher! So it feels like high thirties/low forties. Ugh. Yesterday was a nice break (11 degrees!) and today isn't too bad but the weekend is going to be yet another scorcher. *sigh*

For most people, the unexpected heat has been a great treat, but unfortunately I just find it really uncomfortable, so I haven't been able to do much except sit in front of the stand fan! I've not been around much online either because my poor little laptop is older and suffers from the humidity too - it keeps trying to overheat! So I'm sorry I'm so behind in my blog reading but hopefully this warm weather will break soon :)

In very happy news, Yvonne sent me a lovely photo of her *beautiful* bookmark:

Isn't it GORGEOUS?! She used two strands of floss for her impeccably neat stitching, and it really lends a crispier look to the design (I used three strands). You can see her basted outline in this photo too, which I think is incredibly clever! A very neat trick I'm definitely going to try in the future :) I'm forever accidentally skipping or adding one stitch here or there and find keeping track a bit of a chore, so this would help!

Wonderfully, Yvonne told me that she is intending to stitch Spring Garden *again* in black now! So she will be the second, after Emma, to make two bookmarks and the first to stitch both colour and monotone versions :) I can't wait to see them finished!

Important Information About The SAL Pattern:

After a great deal of thought, I have decided to retire the SAL design (Blackwork Spring Garden) after the last finishes of the SAL Participants come in, whenever that may be (since everyone is stitching and/or finishing at their own pace now), or on the Autumnal Equinox on September 21st (the end of Summer), whichever comes first.

Since this wasn't a competitive SAL and there were no prizes (although I did really want to send everyone a little something, it's just wasn't possible), making the pattern a limited edition is my way of thanking the SAL Participants for stitching with me :)

That said, I have recently gotten several lovely e-mails from people who wanted to stitch Spring Garden, and I have sent them the patterns since they took the time to inquire. I realize that there were those who were interested but couldn't participate for a variety of reasons, and so if you send me an e-mail before I retire the pattern, I will send it to you; I'd also be happy to post any photos you'd like to send here on ES!

Although I haven't been able to do much stitching in the heat, I have been working on some small projects I hope to be able to share soon! And there is one good thing about sunshine - like this freebie says, at least you don't have to shovel it, LOL!

P.S. A really HUGE "Welcome Back!" to Karyn, of the awesome video-game themed A Riot Patch of Pixels, who has returned to blogging after nearly a year away!!!