With the hand stitched arts, I love variety.  A little hand quilting here, some English Paper Piecing there, embroidery when the chance arises.  It has been so long since I worked an embroidered or cross stitched piece, so I've seized on the idea to stitch letters to collage on a nursery wall.

 

Starting with "e".  This pretty piece came together all in one night!  I had the chance to stitch this up over some nice conversations with my girlfriends.  Hand stitching is so portable and social.  Love that!



My concept is to do a random assortment of letters, in various fonts and sizes, all on black cloth.  Most will be in white or cream thread, I think.  This one is pink as a point of emphasis.  The pattern comes from Anna Maria's Needleworks Notebook, where a full suite of lowercase letters beckon.

Finding black aida cloth was no easy thing.  None of my local haunts had it, so I ordered 14 count via Amazon as a test piece.  Now that I know I love the look of cross stitching on black and have not found it difficult working with the dark color, I've ordered this set of 11 count cloth and also made an excursion to Hobby Lobby for a big, economical piece of 14 count.

The "e" was made double size from Anna's pattern by skipping every other hole.  It's only about 4" tall.  I used pearl cotton size 8 rather than embroidery floss.  The pearl has a more glossy, substantial look.



My next piece is a large, cursive "H" worked in embroidery on Kona black, again in pearl cotton 8.  It's hard to resist using that nicer thread!



Returning to slow stitches reminds me to savor.  The world outside is shining this morning, freshly washed from the storms with mists rising across the pastures.  See the dogwood tree, just beginning to turn? 

I am so grateful for these beautiful moments.