Oh, wow! I have much more energy now that the dreaded virus has been beaten - a bit of a lingering cough but nothing like what it was like at the start of last week. It also amazing what a few nights of sleep without interruption can do for you.
I have started work on a little felt book - another gift for the impending new arrivals in the extended family. Two pages have evolved so far. One has a flower stitched onto it and the other a butterfly. Both of the pictures have been designed from scratch and I was very happy with the butterfly. What do you think?
I also practised a new stitch - a variation of blanket stitch called closed blanket stitch where two stitches are worked from the one hole to form a triangular pattern. The idea came from a book borrowed from the library called
"embroidery basics - all you need to know to start stitching" by Betty Barnden. My library cover actually says "start embroidery - all you need to know to start stitching" but the inside cover says "embroidery basics".
If you look closely at this one you can see where I had to unpick one of the feelers and have a second go at it. Lesson learnt - draw a faint pencil line for your stitching to follow.
One of the hardest things that I have found with our adventures into blogging is getting good colour reproduction in the photos that I take. Note the difference in the pink of the flower centre in the top and bottom photos.
I love my digital SLR that I was so lucky to get given at Christmas but find that I am still struggling with some of the settings. Lucky for me digital means you can take lots and lots of shots in varying positions in the garden. I have started investigating how to set up and indoor studio because with a day like today there was no hope of trying to take outdoor shots.
Whilst wandering the garden I took a few tree and flower shots as well. This one is my favourite.