I suspect I may even have the same book that the Australian alphabet came out of. It's one of the ones that I can't get to, but it sounds very familiar. I used a different alphabet (the one with the birds) for the cushions I made for my parents.

I have so many books it's not funny!

If I hadn't already stitched a birth sampler for Sam (unframed, but I ran across it earlier and may just take a picture and add it to the collection some time soon) I'd be tempted to throw in something like that on the square. I know if I was talking about this with my MIL, she'd suggest I design my own thing - I don't have that skill!

I may just have to hassle my DH to get my bookshelf finished so I can get at my other books... or just move a few boxes around so I can get at some of them to have a sticky beak at the other designs I have.

But yeah, I'm also thinking option 2 - I think having it all spread out sideways, but squished up and down would look odd. I was leaning towards option 1 before I started working with measurements, but now that I've done some number crunching, it really does have to be option 2.

BW