Considering these designs come out weekly, I’ve not done as much as I anticipated! However I love what I’ve done so far. This is a SAL from Featherstitch House, it’s only £6 a month for all the designs and very good videos.

I’ve finished my first one, a wren, he was almost finished last time..

…I just had the ground to embroider. I decided to use fly stitch to do lots of leaves. I love this one, it’s a good start to my collection of postcards.

The next one I initially chose to do was a winter scene of a hare. The background involved splattering cotton with melted wax and then painting it with watercolours. To start with I tried melting the stump of a good quality candle, despite quite a few minutes in the microwave it showed no sign of melting! I then tried a cheap tea light, that melted straight away and splattered nicely. I couldn’t find my watercolours so I thought I’d use my silk paints instead. I wasn’t really happy with the colours I used and when I came to iron the wax away with brown paper it didn’t leave the starry effect it was meant to. I think because I used a heavier cotton the wax stayed on the surface whereas the silk paint went round the back. I’ve splattered a thinner, smoother cotton but still not found my watercolours. I was tempted to buy another small set but I know it was on my list of present ideas for my birthday later this week, so the hare is on a temporary pause!

Instead I decided to do one of a bee, the pattern was only released a couple of weeks ago. The background has lots of lazy-daisy flowers and French knots. I still have a few French knots to do and then some running stitch ‘bee trails’. The pattern of the bee gives you an idea of the scale…

Despite not having quite finished the background, I’ve already started the bee! This is embroidered on black or dark grey cotton and then appliqued on. I found a dark grey quilting cotton as my base. Marking a design on very dark fabric is always an issue, I’ve used a silver marking pencil to draw round the bee, the markings have just about lasted long enough to stitch it. Once I’ve finished stitching the body, I can applique it onto the background, then add the legs and the organza wings.

I think for this project I possibly need to spend a day prepping a few designs so I have everything ready to stitch as they’re nice little projects to work on in an evening. I could get the backgrounds done and the threads chosen. I need to be a bit more organised!

This SAL is organised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea, we each post about our progress every three weeks, please follow the links to see what everyone else is stitching;

Avis, Claire, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,  

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie, 

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen