In early January I did a bit more work on the Celtic Bird Cross Stitch Scissors Keep. Then we went away for a family holiday. On return from that holiday, I went back to a very busy work schedule and the children started a Music Holiday program, then did a week's worth of acting, then had time at home with Dad, then school went back, and finally, after a long summer holiday, I find myself back in the school routine.
I'm conscious that I haven't posted to either of my blogs during this period. So, there will be catch-up posts here and on the gardening blog...sorry. I know from reading other blogs that I enjoy following along as people's ideas, creative projects and lives unfold. There is a sense that I'm sharing with these creative adventures as they are presented into the blog world. Well, given all the catch-up posts, you may get a sense that projects are on fast-forward around here...like David Attenborough's Life of Plants. Plants grow too slowly for standard television viewing and so their lives and growth patterns were filmed in real time and then ....fast forward and we could see that Blackberry vine tapping out a place to put down its next frond. Fascinating. Watching a plant move and make choices. Anyway...back to cross stitch. As I do so many projects (gulp and I've signed up to a couple more), and many of them are slow, labour-intensive projects, it probably wouldn't do any harm to present them on fast forward. 
I've finished the stitching and now just need to sew it up and put the tassel on.
Here's the little piece of Aida ironed. I felt a bit annoyed with myself on this tiny project. I didn't absorb the instructions very well and so missed the fact that the back stitching should have been done one square at a time. Instead, I did a more free-form back stitch. Some of them are long, some are short. I wouldn't do that again. I'd go for the neater, one square at a time stitch. But, time waits for no stitcher and so I'll live with this, sew it up and call it done.
Previous posts
Progress on the cross stitch (December 2011)
Cross stitch progress on the scissors keep (June 2011)
Celtic scissors keep - update (May 26, 2011)
My next Celtic scissors keep - new kit (May 13, 2011)
Celtic scissors keep - finished (May 3, 2011)