New Threads

 DMC recently came out with a line of wool threads dyed with natural substances, and I found them irresistible. I bought a set of 30 colors (needs more purple), and promptly sat down with all my crewel embroidery books to look for patterns; I settled on Catherine Shaughnessy's The New Crewel and The New Crewel: the Motif Collection. From the former I selected three floral designs and put them together on linen:

Those colors are lovely (not sure about that coral, though), but there was a gorgeous red I wanted to stitch with so I picked a sunflower design from The Motif Collection. It reminds me of the spirograph toy I had as a child; fun!

For this I used a feedsack dish cloth (new, not vintage).

I've yet to fully finish them (I think I will stretch the wildflower trio onto a canvas), but my woolly stitch itch has been satisfied. For now.