Last Thursday we had a church meeting. And a very interesting meeting it was, too, with lots about the proposed new building. Throughout the meeting I paid close enough attention to be able to give a fairly detailed summary to my husband afterwards. I only mention this because I also doodled throughout the meeting, and I wouldn’t like you to get the wrong idea 
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Do you do that? Doodle during meetings, or in waiting rooms, or while on the phone? I do – I’m an inveterate doodler. Somehow it seems to help me concentrate better. Sometimes it also produces something usable, as it did in this case. I’d been thinking of toadstool designs for a while; in fact I’ve got a sketch and notes for a goldwork toadstool. And talking of buildings at the meeting brought them to mind (I used to love the toadstool houses that gnomes live in in fairytales). So I sketched a few toadstool shapes on the agenda. (Apologies for the slightly crumpled pictures – I had to retrieve this invaluable record of my designing process from the recycling bin…)
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As you can see I drew some separate toadstool shapes first, then decided they’d look better overlapping slightly. When I got home I drew a larger sketch based on the overlapping version. This was then scanned, to be tidied up in my photo editing program.
While tidying up I decided that the left-hand side looked a bit empty, and as I love little creepy crawly critters as long as they are in needlework rather than in the flesh (or whatever real insects are made from) I added first a caterpillar (my favourite creepy crawly) and then an alternative beetle.
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I’m planning to stitch three versions of this, in three sizes, one outlined in stem stitch only, one mostly outlined and partly filled in using a variety of stitches, and one filled in entirely using long-and-short stitch and ste stitch filling.
As I was getting the toadstools ready to print, I thought I might as well tidy up a sketch I did some time ago of a simple daisy and bumblebee intended for teaching. I haven’t decided how to stitch that one yet; it could work in goldwork, or perhaps in freestyle outlines it would be a good one for another workshop in aid of the building fund!
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That’s great — like the caterpillar, but what about a snail? And surely the bug is a ladybird? To my eye, the daisy and bee needs something else, although I surely don’t have any idea what. But the turns in the leaves are excellent for learning that particular way of stitching with leaves.
Oooh, I hadn’t thought about a snail – I’ll have a go! The bug I’d envisaged in shiny blue-black, or possible greeny-gold, but a ladybird might “echo” the middle toadstool rather nicely. Definitely something to ponder.
I agree that the daisy-and-bumblebee is fairly spare, but as it is meant for a workshop or class I didn’t want to make it too complex, as it can sometimes work discouragingly. A more detailed design or one with more happening around the daisy would be great for a series of classes, though!