A Very, Very Berry pouch

It has been a Very, Very Berry week in more ways than one.

I finally made the little Very, Very Berry crewel embroidery panel into a small pouch. It had been the intention all along, and I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

The little pouch is perfect for carrying my embroidery bits and pieces when I go away. It has three pockets inside so that scissors, needles and other little bits don't just 'rattle around'.

I have long been using the Tulipa pouch when I go away, so I got it out and made this one the same way, using the cherry print cotton that gave me the idea for the design in the first place for the back.
I have not had my sewing machine out in ages and for the first time ever, managed to sew into my finger! No blood stains on the linen which is the most important thing.

It is really a few days since I finished the actual pouch, but I wanted to write up the pattern so that you can download it and make a pouch of your own if you want to.
You can download the FREE PATTERN HERE

Between stitching, writing and drawing to get pouch pattern ready, I did pick this beautiful bowl of wild blackberries. I always keep an eye out for them on my works and was not really expecting any this year because of the hot weather we have had. But mother nature can be so resilient.

Have a lovely weekend everyone,
Anna

Back to the original Mother Hen

With the Mother Hen Needle Book finished, I have started back on the original, larger version of the design. You can just see it in the top right corner of the picture.

You will notice the larger design is mirrored to the needle book- or rather, I had to mirror the needle book otherwise you would be opening it at the tail of hen and that somehow felt and looked really wrong :-).

The larger version needs detached pieces for leaves and flowers, as well as the wing and head for the hen and I managed to finish all those elements this week.

I only need four of the periwinkle flowers, but I am going to try an attach them in a way, I have not done before, so I have embroidered four, just in case it doesn't work.
They are stitched in just two shades of silk (Au ver a Soie, Soir d'Alger 4912 and 4913). In the photo, the flower on the left still needs the blanket stitch around the edges.

The six leaves were a bit tedious. They have wired edges, so I can shape them later and are all stitched exactly the same way with the same colour combination.

I usually use a variety of greens for leaves, but for this design, I feel they all need to be the same. I am glad they are done now. At least they are quite small (as the pin for comparison shows).

I still need to embroidery the four little chickens, the raised petals for the two buds above the hen and the hen's tail and body. It is my goal to get it finished in the coming week... we'll see how I go.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Anna X