Spring has finally put in an appearance here in Gloucestershire, but a very wet and thundery appearance!  Bluebells have sprung up, carpeting the edges of my garden and the woods that surround my house.  If I stand outside when the wind drops, the perfume is so powerful it makes me feel almost dizzy! 

Plum, cherry and apple trees have burst into blossom, and the birds have been busy nesting and courting.  A pair of buzzards have returned to nest nearby for the fourth year running, and their voices can be heard echoing over the treetops as they soar far above.  I have seen robins, goldfinches, woodpeckers, bluetits, great-tits, coal-tits, marsh tits, long-tailed tits, greenfinches, chaffinches, dunnocks and siskins on the feeders - and several cheeky squirrels!   Song thrushes, blackbirds, jays and woodpigeons bob around on the lawn along with baby wild rabbits, and our 'resident' pheasant (known as 'The Parson' because of his startlingly white eyebrows!) is turning up without his wife in tow, indicating she is sitting on eggs somewhere.   The local bat population has come out from hibernation and on dry evenings be seen zooming about in the garden, busily catching early insects (these are the tiny pipistrell bats, not remotely scary - they are rather endearing little creatures). 

My needle has been buzzzzzzy!
I completed a bookmark from a kit; it was fiddly as it entailed putting backstitch over other backstitch and the only reference was the photo on the kit!

I also completed the Traditional Band Sampler that was worked as a SAL on Friendly Stitchers, designed by the supremely talented Nancy Taplin.  It's too big to be scanned all at once!

I think I will finish this one as a bell-pull, if I can find the right kind of bell-pull hardware to compliment the design. 
Thanks for this one, Nancy - it was an absolute pleasure to stitch!

Finally I have been working on Jane Greenoff's Secret Garden band sampler;

The scan doesn't show very clearly, but there is a row of couched Japan gold thread above and below the waterlillies band.  The flowers of the waterlillies are worked in bullion stitches.  There were four drawn-thread bands in this section, but the top one actually involves withdrawing 6 threads, leaving four, and then withdrawing another six!
Just two more bands to go on this one!

Well, that's me caught up at last!  I am currently working on Part 4 of Papillon Creation's mystery sampler, and then I hope to do some more on The Drawn Thread's Sampler of Stitches, for which the penultimate chart has just arrived! :-)  In addition I have a mini-bell-pull RR to add a band to! 

Happy stitching everyone!
Bzz, bzz,
Abi
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