Last weekend we were in Rome, enjoying a bit of sunshine and culture. Of course this involved a 2.5 hour flight and the subsequent hanging round in airports, so of course I had my little bag of sewing!

For those who’ve not tried sewing on an aeroplane yet, here’s my experience of both long and short haul flights…sewing needles are not a problem, it’s the scissors that are an issue. I have stopped trying to take embroidery scissors on board, whatever the blade length and however rounded the ends are, they always end up being confiscated. I usually use a clover thread cutter which is like a round blade enclosed in a metal case with little notches to cut your thread in. I wear it as a pendant, security has never taken a second glance at it and it does have the advantage that you can’t drop it down the side of your seat! Another option which I used at the hotel is some mini scissors, Kate Chiconi kindly sent me these a few years ago and they’re great, when I say mini, they’re just over an inch long including the handle!

I decided to stitch another one in a similar style to the wildflower bee, similar but different! This one uses different stitches and patterns to make the bee shape. The pattern is by Nest Embroidery, again it’s on Etsy.

The actual pattern just uses black yellow and white which I felt was a little harsh, I decided to use DMC 4000 instead of black, I find this variegated thread very useful, it’s not stocked by many shops which is a shame, it’s dark brown and grey. I used DMC 90 for the yellow, which is another variegated one, I was a bit selective when I used this one, using the darker shades for the stripes and the lightest for it’s bottom. I used a white for the wings but outlined it in grey rather than the DMC 4000.

I haven’t any in progress photos unfortunately, but here’s the finished embroidery…