Embroidery!

Look what I won! 

 Mary Corbet of Needle ' N Thread had a fun "12 Days of Christmas" contest on her fabulous website. I won these little embroidery kits, pincushions, and bird thread holders.

Mary sent me a little something extra, too. "Avril" is a dainty design done in blues and yellows, purple and greens, the colors of spring. I have been stitching all weekend and it is now done, but I will have to take more photos because the ones I took look awful. 

Embroidery is so much fun! I did not think I could ever stitch anything so fine and dainty, but I can! These little kits are from Rouge du Rhin, a French company so the instructions are in French. Now, I don't know French, but it was quite simple to figure out the stitches and which thread to use. In fact, that part was rather fun. 

 Last week's TAST was the Blanket or Buttonhole stitch. After working on the Rouge du Rhin "Avril" kit, I tried these tiny one thread buttonhole flowers. Little fly stitch greenery. So sweet.

Week 3 of TAST is the feather stitch. On the far left is my first attempt, not so good. I like the one beside it, and then to the right of that is a staggered feather stitch. The dark green is done in 4mm silk ribbon. Ooo la la. On the far right is some seaweed, perhaps? Shrubbery? Done in green perl cotton in two sizes with delicata beads for accents. I stitched the light green first and then the dark on top. I think it might be better with the dark underneath, but I still like it as is. Enjoy!