Tiny embroidered bouquet

I’ve made a few things recently with stitching on card — the Tom Servo picture, the otter birthday card and even, on a smaller scale, the mixed media abstracts cards — but it’s been a very long time since I did any actual hand embroidery on fabric. With the exception of a few inches of fly stitch on a piece in response to a Messy May prompt last year, I don’t remember doing any embroidery since I was a teenager (which, for the avoidance of doubt, was several decades ago).

Doing all that stitching on card — along with the desire to do more with textiles lurking in my brain — convinced me to try a bit of traditional hand embroidery again.

I had a look around for a not-too-complicated pattern to have a go at. I’d come across EmbroideryArtbyNat on Instagram, so I went to her Etsy shop and found this pretty little bouquet.

I wasn’t holding out much hope for success, so I just grabbed a convenient bit of calico and an embroidery hoop, transferred the pattern using my light pad, and set to work. As it had been so long since I’d done any stitching, I followed Nat’s stitch suggestions and approximate colour scheme. Of course, having taken all the pressure off to make a perfect piece, it turned out far better than I expected. Good enough to put in a frame and send to my mum, who was the one who taught me to embroider in the first place.

Next time I’ll find a nicer piece of fabric to work on first.