In between finally decorating the tree and some last-minute gift wrapping I found some time to try out those pretty Tamar threads. I’m stitching four versions of my usual “thread trial motif”, and so far I have finished the Kloster blocks on all of them. Tonight I hope to be able to do some cutting and perhaps a few bars. If you’re looking for a small motif to use when you want to try out some new threads, feel free to use the one below – it has Kloster blocks, bars, a filling stitch (use whichever one you like) and some backstitch, which should suffice to test most thread combinations!

Now for the SAL message. No, not the fact that it’s only a week until January (exciting though that is) – but the rather worrying circumstance that some of the welcome emails have not got through to people joining the SAL. When you sign up, you should receive a welcome email with your username and the password for the SAL blog very soon afterwards; usually the same day. If you’ve signed up but haven’t received the email, please check that it hasn’t ended up in your spam folder; if it is nowhere to be found, contact us and we’ll re-send it.

And finally a very happy Christmas to everyone – with many stitchy presents under the tree, and the greatest present of all lying in the manger.