I'm parking my needle

and loosening the frame. Here's a pic of HAED Jolly Old Fellow, as at the end of tonight's stitching session. It's taken me 240 stitching hours to get this far, over a 6 week period. I'm about two-thirds of the way through page 3. JOF will be 'resting' for the next 10 days or so, so I'll be working on him next around mid-March.

We're heading off tomorrow on a camping (campervan) adventure. Just a tiny one this time, about a 3 hr drive north to a lovely coastal town. We're taking our two dogs (Bichon and Maltese) and meeting friends who'll be travelling with their two dogs (standard poodle and chihuaha). It should be a fun time for all of us. The holiday park has a lovely name - Christmas Cove. We've not stayed there before, but we like the area. I don't take a computer with me in the van, so I probably won't get a chance to post while we're away.

I'm taking some small projects with me. I'm hoping to stitch two quilt squares. One is for a fundraiser quilt for the Victorian bushfire relief effort, the other is for a quilt to be given to the parents of an Aussie cross-stitcher. They lost their farm in the bushfires on Feb 7. I'm going to stitch a bird on each quilt square, one red-back wren and one blue-faced finch. The charts are from Graham Ross's garden Birds leaflet. I'd also like to make a couple of Christmas ornaments, if I can find the time.