I had some errands after work last night and then after I got home I realized I should have picked up some supplies for the stained glass jello I'm making for my granddaughter's graduation party on Saturday so I went back to Walmart. It's only 10 minutes away but that was still a chunk of time lost in my evening. So by the time I could sit down and do something, it was creeping up on 8:30 p.m. I didn't want to wind bobbins but I did finish up a tatted motif I tried out.

I've been wanting to embroider for weeks. Not sure why but I just do. I keep printing out free patterns I find online. So, remembering one I still had laying on the printer, I went about finding fabric, the transfer pencil, the light box, and then transfering it. It's a very simple pattern but I thought it would be just enough to curb the craving. I got one flower head done and started another. i have two more I think, and then the stems and leaves which are very simple. I'm challenging myself to do more than backstitch, stem stitch and outline stitch. I couched down a thread on the first flower though you can't hardly see it now with all the French knots. It really took me quite a while to get the couching part done. I was basically making up my plan as I went along and I still am! I used a chain stitch for the beginning of the second flower and that's as far as I've gotten. The end result may not look as polished as a pre-planned stitching but I'm exploring and having fun. I'm going to forego the beads and fancy threads on this one, keeping it simple but varied from my normal mode.

I just discovered I had this in draft mode without the photos! Here's the first version finished up. I changed one of the flowers and I think I was going to show it before and after. Oh well. This is not the best photo. One thing I noticed is that the flower on the right doesn't show up very well as some of the variegated is white and it's on a white background. At the time, I had the blue transfer pencil showing and it wasn't as noticeable as it was when I rinsed and damp-stretched it. I also managed to embroider my name on this one. I usually don't do that part well.

Here's my second version which I was happier with but I'm still not happy with the flower on the far right. I was also disappointed that some of my thread colors ran. They were from some thread I dyed years ago with easter egg dyes and they simply never quite got to be colorfast.

But, as I said, I had fun exploring and I played with some new stitches and methods. I plan to do even more!