Nothing to sneeze at

I have a sore back from needle-felting.  Yep, I know it's hard to believe but it's true.  So I've put myself on the 15-day disabled list and I'm taking up embroidery during the interim.

Here's a picture I posted earlier this year.  The clay bird is eyeballing a Kleenex box with an owl that is just begging to be stitched.  Actually, there are owls on each side of the box, so that makes 4 owls--all begging.  I've chosen one of the other 3 to start with.  I have in mind to stitch 2 owls that I will frame and hang on the wall in the Concondo powder room.  If I get really carried away, I'll do all 4 and find a more impressive place to showcase them.

Here is an enlarged copy of the owl I'm going to do first.

Here is the side of the box I cut out so it would lay flat in the copy machine.  It is also my color guide.  I took it with me to the craft store to find just the right colors of embroidery floss.

We have a big sliding door in the Calcondo that works as a great light box in the late afternoon.  I taped the copy to the door, and then taped my plain white fabric over the copy.  It was fairly easy to trace the owl onto the cloth with a pencil.

And now I've begun the fun part--the stitching.  I'm using an outline stitch for the borders, long and short stitchs for the fill-in parts, and back stitch with some French knots for those little whisker thingies at the top.

I'm looking forward to lots of nice, relaxing stitching time....unless my arthritis flares up and I must extend my time on the DL.  Then I'll just have to go to the beach.