Busy times...

Wow!  Where did that week go?  

I seem to have had a very busy week with one thing and another, and now there is just a short lull before visitors arrive and we get caught up in a whirlwind again!

The visitors are coming down to stay with us prior to a family christening tomorrow.  Most of Mr U-t-B's family live in Lancashire and Yorkshire, with only him out of a brood of five having headed into the regions that get him labelled a 'soft southerner'. 

{I am 'soft southerner' born and bred, so I am allowed to use the phrase...} 

His niece, however, has also ended up in the south, so with the christening of her daughter tomorrow, we are not so very far away and have been able to take the 'overspill' of rellies requiring a bed!

Anyway, I digress.  

Whilst I was at The Maltings last Saturday I thought I would try to find something unique for a christening gift, and Betty next door to me, with her antiques stall, provided the ideal hunting ground.  I came away with something very charming and individual, something I know the baby won't end up with two of, and something that should appreciate in value over the years.

It is a little silver brooch.

I wanted to present it other than in a little box, so decided to make a brooch cushion.

I decided to do a bit of cross-stitch to personalise it, but didn't want to use even-weave fabric or (strangely for me) linen.  Luckily I have recently discovered soluble canvas.

Armed with a small square of soluble canvas, a scrap of Cabbages and Roses fabric and a French cross-stitch magazine, I set to work last night.  This is probably not the best time to work on soluble canvas, as good light makes it far easier to use, but I was pushed for time, so I plonked myself under the light of a bendy Ikea lamp and got on with it.

You tack the soluble canvas onto your fabric, then stitch away!

I had chosen the 'H' from this sampler...

Rather late in the evening, I had completed the initial...

...which does not photograph well in the light of the midnight oil!

This morning I attached another bit of soluble canvas to a piece of linen salvaged from a damaged hand-towel and stitched something to commemorate the day...

After soaking the soluble canvas away, drying and ironing, I had these two pieces...

Then I stitched them together with a bit of ric-rac sandwiched in between, added a lace loop and bow, plus a vintage button and ta-dah!  Here it is...

Hope they'll like it!

Have a good weekend - I know I will!