Embroiders Guild Christmas Challenge...

Guild had a challenge for those attending our Christmas lunch...one of the Committee members made up packs from her sewing room (she wanted to have a bit of a clean out) and the challenge was to make an item, any item, utilising what was in your pack...and no two packs were the same except for just about all containing floss skeins of yellow/gold hues, she had a lot of yellow/gold floss from a previous goldwork project she wanted gone and the challenge packs offered a perfect opportunity.  This was my pack...

For some reason when I saw the fabric I thought of sunflowers - seriously my imagination is weird sometimes - and a pincushion.  Well, the sunflower stuck but as it morphed from a stitchery to a wool felt arrangement the block size increased and a pincushion the size of a small ottoman morphed into a small block keeper, then I decided to "frame" the block so it went from 8" to 10"... I called a halt to any further "improvements".  I used an old Leanne's House pattern as the basis and construction method.

It was fun to play with the wool felt and I'm rather impressed with the bullion stitch bumble bee as I managed it first time without any pulling out and restitching - even if the wings are a bit vampire bat-like!...I was going to do french knots for the stamens but after doing a few decided it looked ridiculous so used black seed beads stitched on with the yellow floss instead, much happier. 

Had fun and it's useful.

Happy Stitching...