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My parents are master embroiderers.  I say parents, because there was a phase when my dad sewed alongside my mum when wool embroidery was the craft of choice.  I'm not sure how many they finished but there were letters of the alphabet, each around 50 x 50cm, each letter covered with a flower or plant that corresponded to the letter.  They are somewhere safe, probably in my roof space along with much of mum's other supplies.

My mum has many beautiful cross stitch works on her walls, mainly of Danish design, and I love them all.  I love the memories of mum sewing them and the beauty of the finished works.  Cross stitch isn't for me though, the counting, having to constantly concentrate, it's too precise for my style of handwork.

Over the past few years I have been sewing these Christmas decorations.  Every years three new designs join the gang, 1.5 of this year's patterns already finished.  They remind me of a little red slipper I received many years ago, when I was about Ella's age, from a Hungarian lady my mum worked with.  Her name was Anna, she had very dark hair for a lady of her age, which she wore in a bun at the nape of her neck and she had an ample chest she used to pull me into.  She brought the slipper back from a trip "home" and it is quite delightful.  These "pozie" designs put me in mind of that slipper every year.

Such is my enthusiasm for embroidery, freestyle for lack of the correct term, that I've been scouring new sites and been trying to find just the right work to get me into something big.  Not sure how to start on this but I've decided to try and create my own pattern, of hellebores, or winter roses.  Years ago now Christie inspired me with her red thread work of Alice in Wonderland, so I figure maybe I can draft a pattern too..... Watch this space.