Thought I'd gotten lost, eh?! *wink*

I apologise for my lack of posting over the last few *ahem* months.  They've been a bit hard, a bit frustrating, and gone VERY quickly!!! It's hard to get my head around the fact that it's already the beginning of April!!  Seriously!! Where has time gone?!!!

I have been joining in with Friday Night with Friends with Cheryll, and Friday Night Sew In with Wendy ... I've just been lazy about blogging about it - saw-ry!!!

This last week I've been working on my first ever doily, and on Friday night I finished the final row.  The design is one from the booklet "Masterpiece Doilies" (1997, Leisure Arts Inc.) by Patricia Kristoffersen, that my mother has had sitting in her draw for all these years *grin*.  I've often flicked through it and thought that I really should give one of these designs a go, but it wasn't until late last week that I decided to finally give it a go.  It seems I crochet quite tight, so of this design I decided to go with a thicker thread, and a bigger needle.  It's come out just over 1in larger than the book indicates, but after giving it a nice steam with my new Oliso Pro iron (LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!), it has turned out really quite lovely!!

"Majestic", over 17in" diameter.
Milford Satin 2Ply, Perle No. 5 thread; 2.0 crochet hook

Before I tackled the doily though, I made the two crocheted crosses below (plus another with tails & tassels on both ends) a go.  This design is by Lyubava Crochet on Craftsy - you can find the pattern HERE.  I've added the smaller to my keys, though the larger one isn't quite big enough to use as a bookmark - my books are too tall for this beauty.

Another recent finish was this gorgeous shopping companion, designed by Marilyn Duncan, the pattern for which we received at the Lets Get Stitched retreat in Melbourne last month.  It's hard to believe that this time last month we were all getting ready to head down for this fabulous long holiday!!

I will try to make an effort to post some more updates on the projects I've been working on over the last 5 or so months, though most everything was shared in my instagram feed.  Also, if I've been quiet with regards to commenting on your blogs these past few months, it's been because I really haven't gotten on as much as I used to - I realised that following my blogs was taking up SOOO much of my time, so now I'm giving myself a small window of time to read - and so I'm often just reading, rather than commenting unless I feel an intense urge.  I am hoping to catch up, but it may take me some time.

And for now, I must leave :) ... I've started another doily from the same book, and I'd like to get a few more rows on it before my need for sleep overtakes my concentration (was up quite late last night, then quite early this morning).