More ladybugs!

I thought there were a lot last week, but yesterday there were at least three times as many!

This time it was the boy who got to enjoy them with me.

I think I need to pull out my stash of Terrance Nolan/Dimples Designs "Wee Beasties" patterns.  I've done one set of three ladybugs but if they are going to swarm like this they will need more friends!

Ladybugs and clover

A quick break today from scissors week. 

Yesterday while collecting eggs we saw that the chicken coop was swarmed with ladybugs!  There were hundreds of them, maybe enjoying the sunshine for a last time before going to find a cozy place in the eaves to hibernate.

Little Lena was fascinated.

Of course lots of them landed on us. 

Lena wanted to "feed" them some clover.

So I was inspired to make a small piece I've been pondering for a while.

Thanks to a Japanese book "Embroidery Animals and Insects" for this pattern.  How should I finish it?

A beautiful new stumpwork book for the shelves

Houseguests this weekend, so not much stitching was completed.  But not to worry, my Amazon preorder of the new Jane Nicholas book finally arrived! 

Stumpwork & Goldwork Embroidery Inspired by Turkish, Syrian & Persian Tiles

As always, her projects are unbelievably beautiful, and also, incredibly intimidating.   My favorite is a delicate scrollwork of grapevines

Mughal Grapevine Tile

 

or maybe this turquoise carnation tile

Iznik Carnation Tile

Yummy yummy yummy, this book is the very definition of eye candy.  I'm pleased to see that Jane Nicholas has also updated and improved her website as well, with better pictures and the feature that was long overdue IMHO, the ability to pay for these project kits by credit card through a secure server. 

I am still working on projects from some of her previous books.  In fact, I am ashamed to admit I've only completed one small project from her books, a small beetle about the size of a quarter from her fantastic book of beetles. 

I am pleased with how it turned out for a first try, and I really want to try more stumpwork. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the projects they are more difficult to drop mid-stitch and put away neatly, so my stumpwork experiments may need to wait until the rugrats are a little bigger and/or we win that big lottery jackpot and we build me that stitching studio with a comfy chair and all the storage space and the big windows...I'm sorry where was I?  Oh yes, Jane Nicholas new book-- I give it five stars!