Greenman #2 completed.

All the stitching on the Greenman #2 hand embroidery is complete, I am quite pleased with the piece

now I just have to decide how I am going to finish it. I have been considering adding borders for a small wall hanging or altar cloth, a friend suggested a pillow and I have toyed with the idea of framing it. In the meantime I have been planning a few other hand embroidery projects.

On the 21st of May I attended another hand embroidery class at the local quilt shop, this class focused on fill in stitches.

Getting the chain stitch to curve at first was a challenge as you can seen by the cane shape stitches, I made improvements at the top and achieved the arc I was aiming for.  The chain stitch looks great in spirals which I need to practice.  The other stitches are the blanket stitch top in both dark and light purple floss, when they are flipped and stitched together they make a nice fill space.  The purple leaf shape is my fishbone stitch which I love and the heart is a randomly stitched long/short stitch.

A small hand embroidery I finished yesterday is this cute little motif a free download from: http://www.red-brolly.com/

I am selecting the floss colors so I can start the Goddess piece I have traced onto the fabric and added a backing fabric to stabilize my stitching. I plan to begin stitching during tonight's Full Moon.

Over the past few weeks I have been gathering a few new patterns for hand embroidery, many with a garden or nature theme, two of my favorite things, and since I didn't plant a spring garden this year I grow my plants with needle and thread. These two patterns are from http://www.birdbraindesigns.net/

Garden Sampler

Thyme to Garden

My love of the ocean and seaside had me buying this cute little pattern on one of my trips to the quilt shop, I am planning to get a few patterns on the lightbox for tracing so I have several things to work on.

I also have an old iron on transfer book of just seashells which I have used over the years usually

tracing the patterns in the book rather than cutting them out and ironing onto the fabric, I have an idea forming in my mind for a summer or ocean goddess altar cloth using some of the shell motifs. More about that in a future post I'm sure.