No, this has nothing to do with the festive season or the fact that I inexplicably tend to acquire a few extra pounds at this time of year. It’s all about frames and needles! (Digression – my husband asked how the finishing of plunged goldwork threads was assessed as it would be covered up. I explained that, as far as I knew, if the metal threads on the front didn’t wobble and there were no unsightly bulges the assessors would assume the securing had been done properly. “Ah yes” he said, looking meaningfully at the various Christmas treats lying around, “wobbles and unsightly bulges can be quite a problem.” I ignored him.)

Remember the two SAL Trees of Life that went off for framing? Well, they came back looking rather beautiful in their shared accommodation! One of the things I really like about the finished look is those curvaceous apertures. Because the design for the Tree is just a little taller than it is wide, I made things a bit difficult for our poor local framers by asking the mount to be cut not with two perfect circles, but with two not-quite-circles-but-just-slightly-ovals. I think they came up trumps, don’t you?

Over the weekend we finally got round to hanging them on the wall. They join a painting I brought with me from the Netherlands when I moved here, and appropriately hang right next to my craft room door. This also means I look at them whenever I’m working on my Certificate or other serious projects at the dining room table – ideal!

More curves entered my life this month, this time in the form of needles. I mentioned the ones I ordered from Creative Quilting, but I also found a set of six semi-circular and curved needles at Restore Products. Because the website didn’t mention the diameter I rang them and asked what sort of thickness they were, and the gentleman told me they were surgical needles which they themselves used for box making and mounting. I took the plunge and ordered a set, and they too arrived a little over a week ago. They were a bit of a surprise, being much smaller than I expected; I obviously hadn’t visualised the measurements on the website quite accurately enough. The smallest one, I suspect, will need an implement of some sort to manipulate it through the fabric, much like you see surgeons do in medical programmes. Perhaps the nifty little pliers I got for Christmas… but more about that some other time.

Back to needles. The Creative Quilting ones look the most promising, being more or less the size I’m used to but (as Becky had said) finer than the RSN kit needles and sturdier than the beading needles, so the Restore Products needles have been put away in my needle box for the time being. I’m sure they’ll come in handy at some point; tools and bits of equipment usually do, don’t they? The picture, by the way, shows both sizes of John James curved needles but I’ve only ever used the smaller of the two; I have no idea what I’ll ever use the larger one for, if anything. It doesn’t show a curved beading needle because I broke my last one while waiting for the new needles to arrive…

And here is the result of me plying one of my new Creative Quilting needles: Bruce’s back is properly and fairly neatly secured! I still managed to pick up a bit of the main fabric once, but fortunately I noticed before pulling the needle through so I could remedy that quite easily. In the not too distant future I’ll show you what the front of this tamed spaghetti looks like .