Machine blackwork

Yesterday I went to a workshop course run by a lady who owns a local plant nursery. In the winter she runs embroidery and craft workshops. She lives in a lovely little cottage, quite isolated a couple of miles from the village. There were seven of us (the maximum she takes is eight) and she provided a lovely lunch, salmon, salad, rice salad, vegetarian loaf, potatoes, rolls, fruit salad, date slice, meringues and cream. Brilliant. I didn't eat all of that of course, but it was there. So lovely to have a proper lunch provided, instead of having to make up your own and take it.

After exploring the stitches available on our machines and deciding which ones worked best, we set to work on making these flowers. I'm afraid the quality of the photographs is poor, but it's about 6.45 am, and I was too impatient to wait until daylight to take them and write this blog!

The plan is to cut them out and mount them on a background fabric. The smaller flower will be wired as I do the satin stitch and then fixed on top of the larger flower, giving a 3D effect. I'm not too sure what I will do after that. I could make some more to make a larger wall hanging, or I could set just the one in a frame, or I could leave it unmounted and put it in a vase. Any ideas?

I've signed up for some more of her classes as I enjoyed that one so much, and they're terrific value.