Yay! Hmm, new theme …
How about this - I need a holiday!
A holiday/vacation theme - this could be inspired by a holiday that you’re planning, somewhere you visited on vacation, a holiday activity, or even just an idea for taking a special break in the day to day.
I was just thinking about the difference between US and British/NZ English, I think I always use the word ‘holiday’, but I think you’d normally use ‘vacation’ in US, is that right?
Excellent theme!! Yep, we tend to use ‘vacation’ here in the US. 
Hm…not 2 minutes later I might already have a pattern picked out, lol. ParticularEmbroidery gave me 10% off for my previous purchase, and I couldn’t resist! And I was definitely wrong on our zoom, it is a woman-owned shop! 
Well, I have to get my creative cap on for this on…I am sort of on vacation all the time…
I gave my friend and massage therapist the flower hoop today…she needed a little spring boost! Jim gave her a huge piece of his chocolate birthday cake so she really got some love today!
Very pretty! It has a folkloric feel to it!
Lovely! Great colors and your satin stitch is 
I saw that and immediately thought of you.
Here’s my stitching for the I need a vacation theme.
I’ve never been to Paris, and probably never will, but I thought a coffee and a croissant in a French cafe was a nice thing to dream about. This pattern is a mash up of some little drawings from a DMC pattern and a colouring book, and a bit of artistic adaptation. The transfer pen didn’t work well at all, so a lot of the stitching was winging it.
I used a reel of silk thread that had been sitting in my stash for ages, it was lovely to stitch with.
It’s wonderful! I’d love to go to Paris one day, too!
The whole piece is gorgeous, but I especially keep staring at your lettering. It’s perfect!
Such tiny, perfect stitches, wow! The bicycle!
On my phone the linen looks fuzzy, I thought you’d stitched all that on terry cloth or some such, lol.
Lovely!
I have always wanted to embroidery with just one color, but I need to practice my stitching since I think it really does focus the eye when it is one color.
I like the idea that dreaming is vacation!!
The lighting is not brilliant, the winter sun was very low in the sky when I took it. Also, the fabric is a plain cotton linen blend, which was nice to stitch, but it doesn’t want to be smoothed with the iron.
Thanks for the compliments everyone! Apart from the teacup outline, I just had smudges from the transfer pen for rough placement of the letters and other components, so I had to follow the drawing by eye, and really focus on stitch placement (there was a bit of unpicking).
If you do want to focus on precision (e.g. small stitches, lettering), my main tip is use the stab method, rather than sewing. That is, keep the needle straight up and down and pull the thread all the way through to the back, and then the same from back to front, rather than the needle going down and up across the fabric in the same move. It’s slower, and not great for all stitches (e.g. chain), but I find it gives more accuracy and more even tension.
Do you have a favourite embroidery needle? This is mine. I know it by it’s lovely subtle bend.
Haha - I’ve got a lot of needles in different types and sizes, but I do have one or two slightly bent faves I still keep using.
My favourite needles are often quite old ones from my grandmother’s sewing box (and the odd thrift store find), I don’t always like the newer ones.
I don’t know if I have a favorite needle, but I definitely have needles I don’t like! 
For my “I need a vacation” stitch, I started something, but wasn’t loving it so I shifted gears to play with my new felt that I got for the Felt Badge Swap.
I’ve been dreaming of the mountains lately. I’d love to vacation in this little scene.
Beautiful scene…and your stitching is just so neat and even…great job!
Lovely!
That’s really pretty, and your stitching is so beautiful and neat too! love it!
