Give me a hand

My trip to Toronto was an absolute blast.  With family, friends and food?  How could anything go wrong?  I love being in vibrant, lively cities like that so I didn't doubt that I'd have an amazing time.  My only twinge of sadness came when I was basking in all of the buildings, stores, people, accents, business and just...life...and realized just how far Detroit lags behind it's other big city friends.  When I'm home I love the energy that Detroit has, but when I'm away I realize just how far we really have to go. 

Anyway. 

It's official.  I am totally and completly in love with hand embroidery. 

I'll admit that perhaps a moving train was not the dream location for testing out those delicate stitches, but I made the best of the situation and went with it.  I spent about an hour pouring over the directions in the Sublime Stitching book, and when I just couldn't take reading one more word, I let my needle take the plunge.

There is something so relaxing and so exciting about seeing those stitches start to fill in a beautiful design.  So far my favorites are a stem stitch and a split stitch.  I think a chain stitch looks gorgeous, but I think I'm a bit of practice away from actually succeeding with a chain.  I haven't even attempted to try a knot or a decorative stitch yet, but my embroidery love is young, and has so much time to grow.

For now, though, I think I've stitched up the loveliest blue and peach cherries that one will ever see.