Post 243 Flowers, phone, family, friends and finish.

This is not my embroidery (wish it were - I’d be very proud). It was done by Sandra, one of my stitching friends who has been in some level of  lockdown in Manchester for months. At the moment she has a 'bubble' with her son and his family but can't move outside that. 

She began these embroideries in preparation for doing a Trish Burr class in Appleby next July. Unfortunately that’s no longer happening. Seems to me that if and when you get to attend, Sandra, the class will benefit enormously from your presence. Thanks so much for sending them to me.  They are superb.

I had a slow, lazy start to the day. It was a chilly morning. The sunflower has dried out again. 

I have agreed to prepare a workshop on Icelandic Embroidery for the Certificate Course in May next year. I spent a bit of time today thinking about this and adapting the PowerPoint I made for the World Embroidery Group. The focus for the Certificate needs to be on what the Group could work as a sample, or adaptation. It also needs to focus on the surface stitchery components rather than counted. Barbara wants to emphasise creativity, so I'm thinking about how I could get students to design and work their own example. One option is a floral composition,  the other a human figure. The stitches are different in the two options.

While attending to the drooping sunflower, I was inspired to attach the macro lens to my SLR and take some photos. I'm very pleased with some of the results. These are a couple of the sunflower.

There are quite a few more of the daisies, gazanias and marigolds - for another day.

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By these pursuits I managed to get to 2.30 pm without lunch and without threading a needle or pinning a feather to a chair. I settled in with what I was itching to do - finish the Deruta sampler.  I have (almost) squared it off so the samples are more centred. This involved pulling a new thread on one side and shifting the pulled thread on another side - not too difficult.

Late in the afternoon I called a friend to check a detail about our lunch appointment tomorrow. 70 minutes later we got off the phone. It won't cramp our style tomorrow!

Midway through the conversation a postman brought a delivery which turned out to be the first volume of my blog book. I’m pleased with the quality. 

It is lovely to have a reminder of our time in Stratford in print form.

My brother also rang. It was good to hear his voice and catch up on his news. They have been able to spend a few days in the Blue Mountains. The launch of his new book is next Monday.

I watched the sun go down at the western end of the apartment a few minutes before I saw the moon rise at the eastern end.

I have finished the edge of the Deruta sampler. I had considered adding tassels or beads on the edge to make it into a food cover, but I don't really use covers.  Once it is washed and ironed, it will become a liner for one of my bread baskets.

Happy with that.