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<\/a>I made it as far as 3am before my poor hands could no longer hold a needle and my spine would no longer hold me up (you will remember I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, that causes constant pain and fatigue, and injury is extremely easy). \u00a0To my disappointment, I still had the hillock outlines to do,\u00a0and of course\u00a0serendipitous butterfly<\/a>\u00a0to insert.<\/p>\n I got to Hampton Court early, and sat down knowing I was going to have to stitch very concertedly if I was going to finish. \u00a0I knew I wasn’t going to get it completely mounted, it takes a full day to do that. \u00a0I would have to be content with just finishing the actual design… but even that was going to be a struggle. \u00a0This isn’t a blog about Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, or I could write a comprehensive essay on the things that were aching, burning, creaking, popping and swelling. To add to my woes, it was a hot June day. \u00a0One of the things that often happens with EDS is that the autonomic nervous system misbehaves, and this leaves us with the rather baffling ability to get heat stroke if the temperature goes above the level our bodies are accustomed to, even if objectively speaking, that is ‘only’ 23 celsius. \u00a0So there I was, three hours sleep\u00a0and in a bad way, locked into a battle to subdue a bird. \u00a0First, the borders of the hillocks went in – raised chain band. \u00a0I did all the ones in the background, but when I got to the long one along the front I had to change plan. \u00a0The weaving in and out required for raised chain was not easy with worked areas either side to snag the needle, and fingers that felt like they didn’t belong to me. \u00a0It felt like I was battling every stitch. \u00a0And anyway, I felt like the foreground needed a little something different. \u00a0It would need to be raised and textural to go with the raised chain band on the other borders, and it needed to be QUICK! \u00a0Everyone else had gone for lunch at this point (not I – oh no!). \u00a0The answer was french knots, worked in two or three strands, with different colours of green mixed in the needle to give dimension and shading. \u00a0I also added some little groups of five light blue knots, like flowers strewn in a grassy meadow. \u00a0I don’t know how many french knots there are in that front foreground border – hundreds. \u00a0I certainly got good at doing french knots! \u00a0When the tutors got back from lunch they were amazed by how quickly I had done them. \u00a0French knots are often seen as fiddly, but really, compared with the raised chain band and the needle weaving that had gone before, they were refreshingly simple!<\/p>\n 2pm, and the planned work was finished. \u00a0But what about the unplanned bit? do you remember back when I was pouncing and painting the design, I splodged my paint? \u00a0I named my splodge serendipitous butterfly, and determined that the splodge would become the body of a butterfly. \u00a0Wearily (and with trepdation) I took up my pencil to draw a freehand butterfly on my canvas. \u00a0Under normal circumstances, it is not a good idea to draw straight on to your canvas when you are incredibly tired and your hands are swollen and unresponsive. \u00a0Yet that is what I did, not having a whole lot of choice available at the time. \u00a0Then I threaded up some blue and improvised a stitch plan. \u00a0I based it on a gold work butterfly I did for something else… I think it came out all right, considering!<\/p>\n After casting off serendipitous butterfly, I fussed and fretted over some details before finally realising…. It was finished. \u00a0You might think my first reaction would be relief, or joy, or pride… no, my first reaction was loss. I actually cried. \u00a0Birdy had become such a friend, a guide through my first attempt at “real” embroidery. \u00a0I had loved every second spent with him, even the painful ones. \u00a0But after some gentle words from my tutors, and some lovely admiration from my student colleagues (all of whom are talented embroideres whom i respect enormously) all of those other feelings came along as well. \u00a0I am proud of my jacobean birdy, as well as being very grateful to all who encouraged and supported me.<\/p>\n In my imagination, there are literally hundreds of blog readers out there, waiting with bated breath, all asking themselves “But what has happened to Emma’s embroidery? Why hasn’t she sent an update?” \u00a0To answer the second question first, I have been incredibly, breathlessly busy. \u00a0I ended up having to finish birdy in an almighty rush … <\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>