Quel désastre!

I missed the last embroidery class of this term as I had the flu; I knew roughly what I still needed to do to finish my Goldwork sampler, so I set up in my small room and took few stitches as I started to feel better. This is as far as I had gotten when disaster struck!

Our main bathroom is immediately above my little sewing room; the bath decided to leak and water poured through the ceiling all over my desk and embroidery (insert several swear words of your choice!!) We managed to get the leak fixed and I cleaned up my space, however my sampler was ruined. Luckily the centre 'Tempus Fugit' section was unblemished, so I have cut it out and will look for a small frame for it.

The initial idea behind the sampler was to give me a chance to learn various Goldwork techniques, in that respect it served it's purpose. I have cut around the small sections I had finished and have mounted them in my project journal, at least I will have them to refer to when I want to work one of these techniques again.

To cheer myself up, I decided to start a new project! Several months ago I bought these Metalwork feather kits, from the lovely Helen Richman at The Bluebird Embroidery Co

I chose to start with the 'Jay' feather, in blues and browns; the kits come with the design already traced and all the threads etc you need

I stab stitched the silk and calico backing together and stitched down the felt padding for the cutwork

I then added some colour, in the form of blue silk shading

and some fly stitches

Working the sampler has given me the confidence to stitch this kit, I now know how to work all of the techniques needed, and can just enjoy the stitching.