I can't believe that I actually managed to finish this! I've been back and forth from Somerset to Yorkshire and stitched this in both places, it seemed to be taking forever. I'm back in Somerset now as we have no-one to look after Small if I'm up in Yorkshire with my Gran.

Each section of this seemed to get longer every time, the pond itself was a nightmare and then when I hit the tree it was like hitting mud. I think the finished result is amazing but I'm not sure I would do another Derwentwater, too many blended/half stitches for my liking.

Wow time does fly when you're not so much having fun as being incredibly stressed out. I recently found out that my Gran who lives up in Yorkshire, has cancer, so I packed up some bags, left Somerset and came up. We had planned to come back down for a few days to spend time with my daughter but plans for a relative to look after said daughter while her Dad was working fell through, so I'm back down in Somerset worrying.

My Village Pond is STILL going, I finished the bottom and I'm now battling a large tree on the side. I have started a little of my next project to ease the sheer boredom but I'm really determined to finish the pond as I just treated myself to 3 brand new kits for my birthday that I'm really excited about receiving. I've also done a little bit of embroidery, my first piece! It was pretty popular on the Embroidery subreddit which was a nice surprise. 

Hopefully my next update will have a finally finished Village Pond!

Vee x

I've hit the boring part of my Village Pond cross stitch, lots of lines of blue. So I thought that I'd make a colourful toucan pattern to cheer me up! I didn't get round to it until our electric cut the other day (we have a meter and no memory) but I'm really pleased with how he turned out - and I hope you love him too!

Here's the pattern, just right click and save - or there should be buttons somewhere to share to Facebook, Pinterest, whatever you wish. I chose to stitch him on (I think) 28 count belfast linen which was an actual pain, none of my stitches wanted to sit right. If you like a lot of coverage I recommend stitching three strands of black on 14 count aida or stitch the whole thing as two strands on 18 count. There's only a small amount of backstitch here too!

Vee x

I've been so busy stitching this Village Pond that I completely forgot to update my blog! It's going really, really well so far. The bushes can be a pain due to all the different colour but the result is worth the effort. I'm going to finish the house and the wall in front of it next, before moving on to a giant tree on the right.

I've subscribed to the Cotton And Twine boxes by The Historical Sampler company, so look out for an unboxing later this month - I've seen a slight spoiler that the theme is beach huts, I'm really excited! Also at the end of this month I'm going on holiday to the seaside, so I'm hopeful that my box will turn up before I go.

Vee x

This week, after a disastrous attempt at Charlie's Ark I decided to start a Christmas present. Basically, it was going really, really well, I had the head finished and was starting the shoulders. The kit was difficult to work with as there was lots of very similar colours and the chart was so tiny but I'd worked it out. Until I took it off the frame and realised that I'd been stitching it landscape the entire time and it was meant to be portrait! I have dumped it in a box and written a large T on my next project so I don't make the same mistake again.

Despite being a good 30 colours, teeny 18 count stitches and switching between 2 strands, 1 strand, blended and half stitches I'm really enjoying stitching this little house and it shows - this is a photo from a couple of days ago and I've stitched even more since then, the roof is taking shape and I have even more bushes in. I even found a frame for it last Saturday - we went to Taunton for a festival and I couldn't help but stop in Tiger "just for a look". Which always ends up with a heavy bag of random notebooks, fun kitchen items and the odd felt coaster!

Vee x

Mr Pickwick and Mary are done! Mary only took me half a day, she was super easy to stitch. I think I'm going to take a break from Dickens to stitch the Charlie's Ark picture you can see on the right before coming back to Dickens.

Vee x

Now that I've finished the first row of my Dickens sampler I can stitch a few more patterns inbetween the second row! The first free pattern is a little rainbow cloud design, because I can't resist anything with an adorable face. Or rainbows. I spent more time picking the rainbow colours than actually stitching, I'm sure of it!

This pattern is whole stitches only, no backstitch, no half stitches, so perfect for a beginner. The pattern is free to use and share but please don't sell the pattern. Feel free to show me your finished work on Instagram @witchstitchwhich

Vee x

Row 1 is FINISHED. I did originally start this months ago but only got as far as Dickens and Oliver before I got bored apparently. I'm determined to finish it this time - if I can finish Kings And Queens I can finish anything!

'Dodger, Dodger, try this.' Fagin said, brandishing the pan at him. 'It's from this new recipe book I got off that rum duke on Drury Lane, Green Eggs And Ham.'

'Oliver, literally what the fuck.'

I'm stitching inbetween this piece, so stop buy soon for a new free chart of a rainbow cloud! I spent a long time last night working out the perfect rainbow colours and it's looking really good.

Vee x

I live in the UK, the glorious home of cross stitch magazines. I often buy 3 a month - Cross Stitch Crazy, Cross Stitcher and The World of Cross Stitch. While having access to so many amazing patterns is a great thing, piles and piles of magazines are not. Here's 5 things I do to try and keep on top of them:

1. I tear them apart. Yep, I don't think many stitchers here keep all of their magazines in tact and that's basically proven by the amount of charts on eBay that are just charts pulled from magazines. I do this too, seperating the big charts and the little charts.


Spot the dummy. #momlife

2. Boxing. There's so many ways to store these charts but I personally love a box. Folders are fine but wallets can be expensive - and if you tip them the wrong way by accident you have a large clean up. I tape my sheets together with sticky tape turned into tabs (might be a post for another day!) and pile them all in a box. I did try a box file in the shop but the button broke when I pressed it...

3. A fat A5 notebook. This is down to preference but I like having all my small charts in one place, so I cut them all out and get gluing using a DoCrafts glue stick. You have to be careful that the glue doesn't get onto the page too much as it can stick the pages together and don't forget the key! I cut out just the DMC section of each key as I know I'll never use the other brands.

4. Issue numbers. I make sure I know where my charts came from by writing down the issue in the book or on the chart for later. If someone wants to know where the chart came from later I can easily inform them.

5. Back to front. Do you know what my pet peeve is? After August until December, most of the magazines are Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. You can expect nothing but Christmas themed charts for half of the year which is pretty excessive. I don't often like Christmas charts but I've stuck the ones I do like in the back of my book, working towards the front. That way I don't have to dig through the whole book trying to find the Christmas charts inbetween.

How do you organise your charts and magazines?

Vee x

It's hot and I'm ill. Never a good combination. I've been stitching the first row of Bothy Thread's Charles Dickens sampler but since this heat kicked in I've chosen to just sit as close to the door as possible instead, it's impossible to want to stitch in this heat. Just Artful Dodger and Fagin left to finish though and I'll have a whole row done!

Vee x