Botanical sketches in stitch - A personal project

So I've started this little personal project which I announce with a little trepidation because my track record is that while I'm great at starting something, I'm pretty rubbish at keeping them up! However this project ,I feel, is a little different because it's bite sized and manageable...and it's one that I'm really interested and curious to see where it takes my stitching style and skills.

The project is to create one botanical sketch a week using freehand stitching...or perhaps I should call it  'skitching' , because basically I'm aiming to create a rough line drawing as I do with any sketch, only this time I'm using stitches...no pencils (or rough drafts) involved!

The plan is that I bring a little piece of nature back home from one of my runs each week and stitch it up. I'm allowing myself an hour to create each piece to keep things loose and quick (hey, thats quick in embroidery terms!), if it takes a little longer and I have the time then all is good and well.

If I can do more than one a week then it's 'pat myself on the back' time.....however I've come to realise that over stretching only ever brings guaranteed doom!! haha!

The thing I really love about this project is that by gathering a little piece of nature each week I'll be recording the changes of the seasons in stitch, AND I'll also get to learn the names of flowers and trees that I'm not familiar with yet.That tickles me no end!

So I'll stop going on and I'll show you my first Botanical sketch in stitch....