I’ve spent the last week pondering how to get a highly detailed but very small hand embroidery design onto a piece of linen, with the least amount of grief possible.

The Least Amount of Grief Possible is the operative phrase.

For me, the transfer process of any embroidery design is always a bit of a hurdle. I don’t mind doing it, as long as I know it’s going to be successful. And once I’m doing it, even if I’m unsure, I’m ok.

It’s just that whole Gearing Up to do something I’m unsure of, that gets me. It looms. It swells into a mighty mountain. I turn in twenty different directions just to avoid looking at it.

Which is all rather silly, isn’t it? It’s not as if I haven’t transferred embroidery designs to fabric before! But, when it’s a project I want to be extra-careful about; when it’s a project that presents some logistical difficulties; when it’s a project for someone else… there’s always a little fear.

(True confessions here…)

So, this is the situation: I was asked to embroider a prayer book cover for a little girl making her First Communion next month.

I couldn’t say no. After all, it’s for my niece. And she adores me… well, she adores me, the way a six year old does when she wants something. Know what I mean?

This is what she wants on her prayer book cover: