I wanted to work on a larger embroidery sampler and decided to go with a 10 inch diameter hoop this time. It’s about triple the size of previous projects, and I’ve been working on this off and on since the fall.

The sampler has become a mishmash of textures and colours, and I sometimes love it, and sometimes hate it. I set it aside while I worked on the embroidered gift for my mom, and work on it about once of twice a week.

I’m hoping to finish it once I reach the borders of the embroidery hoop, but I’m not in a rush to get there. It’s nice to have a side-project with no timeframe or deadline.

I began this small embroidery project around mid-March, just at the Covid 19 restrictions hit BC, and worked on it almost every day until completion. It was the one thing I was able to focus on during that time, and it helped carry me through the weirdness.

It was a gift for my mom’s birthday in early April, that I very last minute decided to make. I managed to finish in half a month, (which must be some kind of record), and get it into the mail a few days before her birthday. It ended up taking so long to make its way across the country to Ontario that I thought it was lost forever. Thankfully, it arrived and she loved it!

The piece is created with a six inch embroidery hoop, using black cotton/linen blend fabric as the canvas. The composition is made up of hand stitched French knots, bullion knots, picot stitch, seed stitch, and back stitch. I love highly textured embroidery, and making use of all of those colours!