Picking up the needle again

It's been a long time since I've done any embroidery. I've been busy crocheting, sewing, and learning how to knit these past several months. When I decided I really had to make something to enter in the Etsy Needle Arts Team's January creative challenge, I wondered if I would even remember how to do any stitches! It all came back to me pretty quickly, however, and what I didn't remember right away I picked up again thanks to the videos at needlenthread.com.

The theme for the creative challenge this time around was "winter sports". It took me some thinking to figure out what I wanted to stitch, and once I started I had a few false starts trying to decide what stitches to use. I picked "snowshoeing into the Northern Lights" as my theme, but I didn't know how to depict the lights. I ended up using chevron stitch to make a wavy pattern after I was inspired by a design in the Constance Howard Book of Stitches. I almost gave up in disgust a few times but, as it usually happens, once I was almost done with it, I was suddenly very happy with it.

Once I finish the back, add a hanger, and take a million pictures, I will put it in my shop :)