Not just for colouring...

I don't know about the rest of the world, but here in the UK it has become really trendy for grown ups to indulge in a spot of colouring in. I used to love to colour and draw as a child, as a teenager I bought Altair design books, which were basically tessellated line drawings. I spent hours on rainy afternoons with coloured pens, designing graphic patterns. They went out of fashion for years but now they are back! They would make brilliant patterns for hand pieced quilts! you can find them in stationery shops and at Amazon HERE
The current craze has resulted in lots of adult aimed books, with lovely line drawings, I especially love these two

they are full of great drawings that are perfect for embroidery, I think this would be stunning in Goldwork

Mary Corbett over at Needle n Thread has stitched the hummingbird design from Johanne's Book 'The Secret Garden' you can see it HERE

Life is crazily busy for me just now, and I wanted a project that I could stitch without too much thought! I want to make a padded zipped pouch to carry my in progress embroidery to class, and so I decided to make an embroidered one. I have chosen the Scarecrow pattern also from 'The Secret Garden' book.

I have appliquéd the clothes and I will embroider the rest

I stitched the birds in split stitch, it is a stitch that I have only ever used as an outline for satin or long and short, but I think it is lovely as a filling and one I will use again

I don't know why I decided the birds had to be blue! possibly because I heard Vera Lynn signing 'There'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover' on TV - which of course is impossible as we don't have bluebirds in England! Next up the strawberry patch and some yummy reds.