The weekend before last I taught the first of my three shisha workshops in aid of our church’s building fund. As one of the ladies attending brought cake for everyone, we can safely say it was a great success .

But even ignoring the cake (not easy – there was chocolate cake, carrot cake, coffee & walnut…) it went very well, with ten ladies practising their needle skills and producing their very first piece of shisha embroidery. Would you like to see how they did?

That last, rather abstract version is my doodle cloth (yes, that sequin is very purple), which I use to demonstrate stitches. The next workshop will be on 13th June, and the last one, which still has places available, on 11th July.

My preparatory stitching for these workshops has long been done, but there is plenty more on my Would Like To Stitch list; and being a bit of a serial starter I now have five projects on the go with several waiting in the wings. Actually being stitched at the moment (on a sort of rota basis): the goldwork balloon, my Pearsall’s wool experiment, the second Wedding Elephant, a set of birthday coasters for my mother, and Join the Band, a Hardanger and surface stitch band sampler. Nagging to be started: the Tree of Life, several Kelly Fletcher designs, and the little goldwork project whose design I’m using for my wool experiments. Waiting to be charted: a goldwork toadstool, flower & seahorse (not all in one design, I hasten to say), several “outline” designs to be worked in stem stitch, and the Round in Circles SAL.

Could someone please leave me a fortune so I can retire?