Storms and stitches

The bluebells have finished, now, and the birds are scarce, too busy looking for juicy grubs for their babies to visit the feeders in my garden.  It will be quiet now for the next 2-3 weeks, before we start to see the young birds and animals venturing out for the first time.  The only 'new' visitor has been a lone goldfinch, hoping round the dandelions sprouting near my patio for the seed-heads.  It's unusual to see goldfinches on their own, but this one is most definitely a loner - I hope he finds his flock soon!

It has been a time to catch up on some of my current WiPs.  (Works in Progress). 
The next two parts of Papillon Creation's How Does Your Garden Grow mystery s-a-l have been released:-

I haven't added the beads to the butterflies yet, but I can already see how pretty this piece is going to be.  Now that it is growing, you can see the lovely subtle shading of the Silkweavers opalescent lugana, too - not all hand-dyed fabric is 'blotchy'!  The butterfly wings are decorated with Norwich stitch, french knots and bullion-bar stitches, and the floral border above has different shaped eyelets, lazy-daisy and rhodes hearts.   . 

The other piece that has had my attention is The Drawn Thread's Sampler of Stitches.  I have now completed the next 'mini-sampler' in this series of 9; MNO.

M is for . . Moorish Stitch (left of the moon charm), Montenegrin, Milanese Stitch; then, to the right of the 'M' is a Maltese Cross and Mosaic Filling.
N is for . . . New England Laid Stitch (pink), Net Passing Stitch (cream), Norwich stitch (greys) and Net Filling Stitch (pulled) - and 'necklace'!
O is for . . . Octagonal Rhodes (red), Open Basket Filling (pulled) and Open Wave (pink), with Oriental Couching underneath the cute little Owl!

I was very impressed with the Net Passing Stitch which lays on top of the fabric; it took a while to figure out how the weaving is done but once I was into a rhythm with it, it was quite easy and very effective.  You do need to put your fabric into a hoop (or in my case, Q-snap frame) to work this stitch, however.  The Net Filling produced a lovely lacy look but it was fiddly to remember the pattern-repeat and work out how to fit it into the space provided. 
 
And here is my Traditional Sampler, made into a bell pull, in situ in my guest room where it was always intended to be - now you see why I chose the colours I did!
 
The bell-pull ends are by Permin.  I chose pewter-coloured ones as brass would have been wrong and the black would have been too heavy. 

That's it for now!  I am back working on Jane Greenoff's Secret Garden, the last section; hopefully I will have it finished before the class in July so I can take it with me and show it to Jane herself.