Spring Hath Sprung!

And though technically, by clock time, it is no longer the first day of Spring, if you go by astronomical time, it IS still the first day of Spring, so I'm not late, so there!

It seems fitting that I should be informed on this day that my Challenge Exchange piece was received by Rolande, and I can therefore finally post the pictures of it! I regret that there is no coin or ruler to indicate scale, but I took the pics for gallery purposes on the EMS board, where such things "aren't done", don't ask me why. Suffice it to say that the piece, in finished and closed form, is a 3" square. It's stitched on very pale (think early Spring early morning sky) blue, 32 ct. Lugana, using 2 strands of regular DMC floss.



Here's the stitching part, completed, and ready to be finished into the needlebook.



The inside and outside of the finished book:




For some strange reason, I couldn't get a decent picture of the lining fabric, but you can get a hint of it under the blue felt "pages". It's a swirly scrolly design in shades of gold, with a touch of metallic gold accents.





And in somewhat different format, the front and back of the finished book:







And yes, it's completely hand-sewn from start to finish, not one machine stitch in it. I'm a little braggy about the initials on the back bottom right corner. On the diagonal, and only two threads high!


Happy Spring, y'all!






P.S. I discovered a way to make the pics a little bit bigger, anyway - just click on them, then use your 'back' button to return to this page.