Daffodil Embroidery Pattern

Yesterday morning, I spent quite a lot of time watching robins flitting about in our garden. They are such lovely birds. Why are they associated with Christmas, when they are around all year?

In other wildlife news: the other evening I was woken up by the sound of a fox screeching. When I looked outside, I could just make out the shape of a fox on the roof of our neighbours’ shed. Foxes can climb/jump?!

Slightly out of season, but I have a new embroidery pattern: Daffodils!

This was an absolute joy to stitch, using some of my favourite stitches: brick stitch, trellis stitch and Bayeux stitch. I especially love how changing the stitch direction in brick and Bayeux stitch creates interesting contrasting textures.

You can buy the Daffodil pattern here. If you are a paid supporter, you can download the pattern at the bottom of this email. :-)

We actually don’t have any proper daffodils in our garden, only some triple headed narcissus. Which are very pretty too! But maybe I need to get some daffodil bulbs in the autumn…

It is my birthday tomorrow. If the weather behaves Tony and I are going to London, but it looks like it might rain. The backup plan is to pop out for something to eat and then I’m going to spend the rest of the weekend quilting this:

I don’t really mind if we end up with the backup plan… :-)

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

x Carina

---

Some Interesting Things on The Internet

ChatGPT AI action dolls: Concerns around the Barbie-like viral social trend. It’s all fun and games, using generative AI but it is really bad for the environment, it is theft of other people’s work. And I would also be quite concerned about giving these companies access to my information, whether that’s photos on Instagram or any personal information they may take from device. In short, don’t use AI, it’s 💩.

Colours and patterns that appear in deconstructed buildings: here and here. {via}

Tips on Finding Creative Freedom.

Book I would like to read: The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It by Daisy Dunn. (bookshop.org affiliate link)

Lovely art by Glynn Thomas.

Tomoko Kubo’s Hiragana Embroideries Double as Japanese Language Learning Devices.

Drew Struzan: The Man Behind Your Favorite Childhood Movie Posters.

Would You Eat Meat If You Had A Year To Live? (Absolutely not.)

Illustrator Holly Astle.

A little while ago, there was a bit of a controversy because someone had made a replica of an ancient Roman dodecahedron, found near a place called Norton Disney, and put it on eBay. The local history and archaeology group were not happy about it and got eBay to remove the listing. I can understand that the group would be annoyed that the replica maker used their photos, but making replicas is an important part of figuring out how ancient artefacts were made. Over the Easter weekend, a bunch of people on Bluesky made their own versions of the dodecahedron, using the medium of (mostly) baking. The DodecabakeOff. The results are excellent. This is what the Internet is for!

By the way, if you happen to be an ancient Roman, please could you get in touch and let modern humans know what the heck those dodecahedrons were used for, because we have no clue whatsoever!

Paid supporters, you can download the Daffodil pattern below.