Season's Greetings and 2015 reflections

Well, this year has just flown by.  There have been mini cushion designs galore, magazine commissions and some surprises along the way!  My 'colour-in and cross stitch' designs were a particular highlight of the year for me, as they gave me the chance to just hang loose with my designing and create whatever took my fancy, experimenting with different colour variations within the black outlines.

The year has seen the end of the popular TV drama series Downton Abbey, so what more fitting way of a send off was there than to design a few mini cushions of the characters.  Cross Stitch Collection commissioned a Lady Mary design from me to accompany my Mr Carson mini bust, both of which were published in the magazine.  I'm looking forward to further exciting magazine commissions in 2016 too.

This year I've built up my Etsy shop by adding more of my products to it, so there are more avenues for customers to choose from as I have my main website, this Etsy shop and also listings on ebay.

Christmas is always my favourite occasion to create mini cushion designs for and I produce at least one design each year.  But this year, I designed three mini cushions plus two hanging decorations - I just couldn't stop myself!  As my Christmas Village design was so popular from the previous year, I revisited the village theme and produced a new scene, titled Christmas Eve.  Then I found some Christmas berries in a gift shop and they inspired my 2nd design of Festive Flowers.

The latter part of 2015 also saw the launch of the first issue of my 'Cross Stitch Consort' magazine.  It takes the form of an electronic PDF file, containing a mixture of charts for designs that don't really fit my kit collections.  In addition to releasing even more mini cushion designs in 2016, I'm also planning to release more of these 'magazines' too as I have quite a selection of random designs to choose from.

Finally, all that's left for me to say this year is to thank you for your continued support and friendship, and I wish you and your families a very Merry and Peaceful Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

See you in 2016.