Back to stitching....

It's now been exactly 2 months since I picked up a needle! The earthquake work really has derailed my stitching year, that is for sure. Since my last post we have been working really hard on the Wenchuan earthquake response, including having visited some of the hardest hit parts. It was a really moving experience to actually go there and see the devastation and the millions of people living in tents, and the trip has spurred us all on to do more if we can....and it looks like we will be doing more (much more) come the end of July when reconstruction starts. I've never connected my work with this blog before, but seeing as anyone can google my name and I come up many many times and it isn't hard to work out who I am, I'll just come out with it here by pointing you towards a couple of posts on our work blog that I wrote while I was out in the earthquake affected area:

http://eapblog.worldbank.org/blogs/mara-warwick

So much for work. Yesterday was my birthday (not a big one that involves a hill, that one is coming awfully soon but not this year), so I decided that my birthday was THE right day to pick up the needle and start again. But I haven't had the time or inspiration to work on TIFC (I hope I can come back to it later in the year), so I decided that for the next few weeks, I will do something that requires less planning and inspiration - more of a "doodle" with thread. Hence I have started the "stitch a-long" on the Hand Embroidery Group on Stitchingfingers. In this stitch-a-long Sharon B posted a list of stitches (more than 200 of them!), and we can stitch a long (as the name implies!) at our own pace and in any order. I decided to use this opportunity to make a band sampler. I don't have any fancy inks or dyes, so I can't do anything as spectacular as Sharon's stitch-a-long sampler, but I do have some nice 25 count linen and I am going to use that. I particularly want to try some pulled thread stitches (which are in the new A-Z of Embroidery Stitches 2 book) because I haven't tried any of those before. I wonder if I can do something contemporary like this sampler of Sharon's, which I particularly like.

On Tuesday we are off for 2 weeks to the Land of the Midnight Sun (which I guess means the girls will be up at 3am every morning, not the normal 5am) so as my husband said, that should give me 21 hours a day of sunlight to stitch by!

Oh, and today was a bona fide, not to be disputed, clear, lovely BLUE SKY DAY in Beijing. It was as hot as hell but nevermind, beggars can't be choosers!