An embroidered Spring bouquet

 It feels rather lighter, brighter & spring like at the moment. I have been enjoying my half term break from tutoring. I always love to have  a project to finish over this break & saw an embroidery project in a group I follow. 

I downloaded the pdf, printed it off (unfortunately at 89% size as I did not increase the printing size) then traced it on to my hooped fabric with a frixion heat pen. 

I had invested in a hoop stand last year & it is so useful for embroidery as you have your hands free to perfect the stitches. 

It was 2 one hour long stitch along sessions & what a pleasure to be able to come back to the recordings & to do it as time allowed. I used fabric & threads I already had which is always good. 

I have not done a stitch along session in a long time & it is very useful to learn new stitches (wheat stitch) and perfect some of the others (loop stitch) 

I did it at the start & end of the week, fortunately just leaving it all on the conservatory table so I could come back to it. 

The colours were largely what was suggested by our brilliant tutor & I used the closest matches I had. I prefer to keep the threads I am using on a tray near me & I also use several needles all threaded at the same time - personal preference. I love using long sashiko needles because the eye of the needle is large & it is the same size as the needle so it glides through the fabric easier. 

My hoop stand with the small clipboard was prefect to have the diagram clipped on & I had to work next to my laptop to follow the recording. The Frixion pen is perfect because the ink disappears as soon as heat is applied. I usually iron the back but the tutor used a hair drier & it works perfectly & so quickly - a great tip from her. 

I am pleased to have finished it & will probably add it to my 100 day sewing roll now that it is finished. 

I am always so thankful to the generous people who run these workshops & who give their time & skill freely - it has improved my skills so much ... 

This is a good selection of basic embroidery stitches if you need a quick reference. 

Thank you for stopping by, your visits & comments are always appreciated. 

Dee 🧵🪡📍