Last year (back when I wrote a grand total of one blog post), I mentioned that I was becoming an aunt, and was going to be making a baby sampler as a record of his birth.

Well, I’ve since finished that one months ago and given it to the parents, but I’ve never written about it.

It took me around three months to do the whole thing – luckily it had quite a bit of block colour, as this was essentially the first cross stitch in ten years I’d tackled! I was working to a deadline, though, so that kept me motivated. Much stitching was done on the train, and I got a number of people asking me about it. Eventually I finished it, except for the centre, and just had to wait for baby Dylan to be born to get the birth details.

The pattern didn’t really look as nice with the weight in metric, so after consulting a number of sites (god forbid I get the weight wrong, this thing was getting framed!), I converted it to imperial, and added in the final details.

The final product, after washing. I just love how bright this is. Now, I just had to get it framed.

I absolutely adore how this has been framed. I cannot recommend The Framer’s Gallery in Seaford enough – not only did they help pick out the border and the frame, but haven’t they done a fantastic job?? It’s a bit of a drive for me, but it’s well worth it.

We gave the sampler at Dylan’s Christening, and I could finally put a picture up on Facebook to share – before then, I wanted to keep it quiet. It’s nice having a surprise, but it’s painful when you want to show everyone your progress!

Dylan, a couple of months ago. He’s pretty damn adorable, hey?