A Flourish Of Finishes: Hardanger Strawberry

This is my final finish for this quarter and is, once again, something small!

Back in July, when I wrote my FAL Q3 list, I included my first piece of hardanger, which looked almost finished but in fact had the nerve-racking cutting out still to be done, as well as the needle weaving and dove's eye stitches to finish off:

It's only a small piece of hardanger - that's a 4" hoop!

By the end of July I had a finish, just not a blog post about that finish (no change there, then!) and, although it's only small, I do love it and can honestly say there's more work in it than you'd think to look at it!!

It's a surprisingly hard thing to photograph and I completely forgot to take a photo of the hardanger before I stitched it onto the strawberry, so I'm afraid these photos will have to do!

I think the strawberry is about 1.5" high and the hardanger is somewhere around 1.5" across its widest point - quite small but not so small that you need a magnifier to stitch it!  It was stitched on 28 count evenweave, using Perle 8 and 12 in a lovely zingy green (I'm not sure of the number but it's probably equivalent to either DMC 704 or 907).  This may be my first piece of hardanger, but I don't think it's going to be my last and I may have to see if I can work a piece into a little quilt for my sewing room wall.


I seem to have started another piece of embroidery and I'm slightly obsessed with stitching it can't put it down!  I started it yesterday (at a class run by my magnificent friend Beryl of Knot - read in the right (or perhaps, wrong) way, I think that sounds like a marvellous title to have!)) and, because my (right) hand/wrist was already sore before I started (I think all the typing for my recent  flourish of blog posts has aggravated my tendonitis/tennis elbow/whatever the hell it is) and was even worse after a couple of minutes, I've decided to stitch this with my left hand.  I'm not very right-handed (I was 'undecided' by the time I started school and may well have been left-handed if I'd been left to my own devices) - there are things I do right-handed (crochet, knitting, writing), things I can only do left-handed (peeling and chopping, eating, spreading butter, etc.  I've just realised that they're mainly food-related!) and things I do with either hand, depending on which is closest/free!) so I have relatively good fine motor skills in my non-writing hand and the only difference in my stitching is that it's ever so slightly slower than usual!  

This is going to become a little zip purse and will probably appear on my Q4 list!


As I type, Archie is enjoying some sunshine and is most content as he's had a walk (with lots and lots of sniffs!), some biscuits and now the sun is out so he can warm his bones:

That's me all caught up with my finishes, yippee!!  All I need to do now is catch with the other things I've been doing which weren't on my FAL list (some Summersville squares, my second ET block, the garden, ermmmm *thinks really hard* *quite a while later remembers moving furniture and hundreds of books* my newly arranged sewing room) as well as some lovely prizes I've received in the last few months and then I'm all up to date!  And then I'm going to make a big effort to blog more regularly, maybe even once a week!  (I've just noticed that this is blog post number 101, yes just like the Dalmations!, and it's only taken me three years and (nigh on) two months to get there!  I think that qualifies me for Slow Blogger status, don't you?!)

I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend and that the sun is shining down on you and warming your bones.  Archie thinks everyone needs to warm their bones as much as possible and that if you see a patch of sunshine you are morally obliged to lie down in it so you'd best do as he commands.