I love learning stitches...

I've lost count of how many books I have on embroidery stitches!  A very old Mary Thomas book is the one I treasure the most but I like this one by Marion Nichols, it's the best for explaining the stitches. I found it in a charity shop somewhere, it was a bit wrinkly with water damage and it cost me 50p.
She dedicates her book:    
                                             To every little girl
                                    who has cried over her stitches

There's a large family of chain stitches. Who would have thought?!

 The diagrams are lovely and clear and I like that she shows how the stitch looks on the back of the work. If I'm stitching something like the spider web square,  then I'm very neat both sides but some people.. well they just don't mind if their work is messy on the back!

On another subject, I was watching Countryfile on TV last Sunday (cos I'm a country girl at heart) and there was an item on needle felted birds by an artist, Eve O'Neill. They were gorgeous.

 I've had a go at needle felted leaves, but never a bird! 

This birthday card caught my eye in M&S and it's a little needle felted cat and mouse. I think M&S sell some lovely cards and they're reasonably priced too. 

I finished the chain stitch square,  mine looks a bit wonky.  It's so dark in the house due to the poor summer weather. I can't get any light for a decent photo.

Then it was on to the spokes, I suppose that's the spider.

I'm sure I've done this stitch before. 

I went looking and found this Dorset button, I knew I'd worked a spider web stitch!

Now I've put the spokes in. Ready to weave the web.

The instructions are very clear in this kit, but it took me a couple of tries before I got the rhythm.

The last step was to chain stitch the orange thread round the outside...

...and take a photo of the back!