Diary of a Chain Stitcher

I've had this beautiful embroidered organza fabric in my stash for sometime now. It is rare for me to buy a fabric without a project in mind but this was one of those occasions when I fell for something and ordered a length without much thought! I originally got it from The Fabric Store ; it is still in stock and comes in white too. I really love the large scale of the foliage pattern, it has real drama. The contrast of the dense embroidery and the sheer organza is really stunning.

Just a quick post about a quick little project I made for my Nan's birthday earlier in the summer. I had planned on making her the apron from scratch but as with everything else I had planned over the summer time ran away with me! Instead I bought this lovely printed apron and decided to personalise it with a little embroidery! There's a bit of a running joke in my family (involving some cushions!) that my Grandad is Lord of their 'Manor' and therefore my Nan is the 'Lady', a title she quite enjoys! So i decided to embroider this to the apron bib in purple to tie in with the rest of the design. I'm a big fan of cross stitch and can quite happily wile away a few hours in front of the TV barely looking at what I am stitching. However this was my first time hand-stitching a decorative design without the grid of the Aida fabric to follow. Using a sharp pencil I traced the outline of the letters  very lightly onto the apron, using examples of letters f...