Most important things first ...

the quilt top is finished. That is the top, you understand, not the whole quilt. And simple as it is it took some cursing, some minor errors and one major one and a lot of unpicking just to get this far. Now I just have the dreaded quilting to do.

This is the first quilting kit I have ever bought and I don't think I will buy another one as there wasn't enough fabric for me to make the design changes I wanted to make [or to put right the major mistake]. I did simplify the pattern a bit anyway.

When I bought the kit I thought it was single bed size - but it isn't. It's about 120 x 180 cm, so will probably make a topper for a single bed. I think it will be good for snuggling under while being read to, or as a wall hanging - although I don't think there is enough spare wall in Babybel's bedroom. I hope she likes it as much as she apparently likes her birthday DVD.

I have also been working on the landscapes that aren't. I am back into minimal embroidery with this one, couching and my favourite clusters of beads and French knots that I think of as encrustations. It also has a border of running stitch as, although I bonded it to the black fabric - it is coming unbonded.

I am less happy with this one. I like the couching but I am not sure about the brown straight stitches / Bokhara couching. I have begun to add running stitch in copper - but I am not sure about that either. I may unpick it and try a slightly thicker thread - unless you have a better idea. I was aiming for a sort of kantha but I'm not sure it will work. I do have some coppery beads in reserve if I decide to encrust it.

Speaking of Bokhara couching - having seen the suzanis in Glasgow last summer I enjoyed the article about them in 'Stitch', which answers a lot of the questions I had which the information in the Burrell didn't answer!

I am always a bit ambivalent about 'Stitch' - it usually has too many 'blind followers' patterns for me - but this month's has some interesting articles. And who knew Jan Mesent wrote for Mills and Boon?