New Mothers' Day

Happy Mothers' Day to all Mums, Grandmas, Nannas, etc. I hope it has  been a special one. I spent the day with my hubby and kids, which was just lovely, despite everyone being just not quite well. Unfortunately, my own Mum was in bed with the flu, so we had to cancel our visit to her :(

I found some time in the last couple days to complete some little cross stitch bibs for the new bubba girls born to friends and family in the last few weeks. I am counting on the new Mummies to be too busy with their tiny bundles of sweetness to see this post. 

In the past, when I have done counted cross stitched, I have worked very much to a pattern, meticulously counted to get placement right, and generally been too scared to branch out. This time, I knew that would put me off even starting, so I just got right in and stitched the girls' names first, then worked out what else I was going to put on the bib with what space I had left. 

I took the general pattern for the girl with balloon from an odd ringbinder full of collectable cross stitch and embroidery patterns from the 1980s that someone had given me. I tweaked the design and the colours to suit me, and I think it turned out quite well. 

Are you a stickler for patterns, or do you like to wing it? Or are you somewhere in between?

Oh, and aren't these names just gorgeous?