The Mystery is Beeeeees!

That's a quote for a children's cartoon we like and which my son says every time I get out the next project!

I've been stitching this piece for quite some time now and aim to finish it this Summer.  I was given the kit by a friend who had stopped stitching.  She passed me her stash and only requested that I stitch this piece for her.

By the end of 2016 I had completed all the centre and this top left corner:

As someone commented, it's not really obvious why it's called Gathering Honey.  It's more of An English Garden Sampler.

But now the piece looks like this:

The missing ingredient was bees!

I just loved stitching the honeycomb.  It is in 3 strands of cotton rather than 2 so it really stands out.

So far in May I have finished backstitching the bottom left corner bees and started on the leaves in the bottom right.  This corner will be as complex as the top left was.  Lots of backstitch too.

I also have to finish those two bushes in the centre section, there are about 100 French Knots to make the little flowers.

The large empty spaces will have words backstitched which won't take long.

After I finished my SALs this month I decided to support a friend and join her for a new start for Maynia.  CraftyCreativeClare is a FlossTuber who is also a FB friend.  When she showed her list of projects for Maynia I saw that she had a chart which I had just won in a Giveaway.  So the serendipity meant I just had to start that one with her!

It's funny because we didn't consult with each other apart from to say we'd start on Friday, but we both started in the middle although she went up and I went down!  I wanted to have a definite part of it completed.  Also, I used 35 count Country Mocha linen and she used 18 count aida so they will be almost the same small size.

Can you identify the chart?  It should be easy for Nora Corbett fans.

It's Gathering Eggs which I won from Carol of Stitching Dreams.  The title goes rather well with Gathering Honey too.

I've been making progress on my Ten-a-Day project.  This is another FB group where we each chose a project approximately 60x60 stitches which we could complete in a year doing just ten stitches each day.

Here is Just Nan's Spring in the Square, Day 131:

stitched on 32 count Light Mocha linen

I am currently stitching the dark purple in each of the corner pansies.  The fabric looks like a weird colour because I take a quick picture with my iPad each day and the light is coming through the window on the left.  I'm not going to get my camera out and mess around with the settings every single day of this project!

I am also stitching 30-a-Day as an advance start on Linda's So Many Stitches project for next year.  Back in March I started a bunch of Just Nan freebies for March Madness.  Now I am working my way through them, stitching 30 stitches per day with the goal of completing one per month.

Here's a much better photo:

stitched on 32 count Twilight Blue linen

The chart says add some gold eyelets and gold beads next but I think silver would look so much better so that's what I am going with.  One day for the eyelets, one day for beading and one day to finish as an ornie.  Once I get to the end of the cross stitching I drop the 30 a day and just do what needs doing to finish it.

Finally, I do intend to have a Blog Hop this Summer.  I'm thinking of doing another Friendship Hop where each participant is given the name of another participant and they have to make a blog post featuring something that they think the other person would like to see.  So if you got me, then you might show a dragon or something Hallowe'en themed!  So stay tuned for the sign-up post.