A WALK ALONG THE SHORE - Westgate at low tide

  The beautiful weather on the Sunday evening of the recent bank holiday weekend lead to an impulsive evening walk along the beach at Westgate-on-Sea.
 
Luck was with us because when we reached the beach the tide was out leaving long stretches of sand and seaweed covered rocks.  The first thing we noticed was the number of Razor shells.
 

a little crab tries to scurry away

The rockpools reminded me of long days spent on Ramsgate beach as a child and the fun we had searching for life in them. I felt like that child again as we scrambled over the rocks.

 I was very pleased to find this little chap under a stone in one of the pools.  He was put straight back after this short photo shoot.

A little further along the beach we came across this jellyfish in another pool.  There were also several shrimps - but they are quite hard to take pictures of.

so many different seaweeds

 Ripples in the sand and barnacle covered rocks.

 Many, many shells and several different varieties nestling amongst the flints.  And a Herring Gull stands at the edge of a pool.

oyster, razor and common piddock shells

Bits of driftwood, seaglass and shells make up my Treasure for the evening. 

Lots of different shells and seaweeds together with plenty of life in the rockpools can only mean a clean healthy coast.  And eight Thanet beaches received BLUE FLAG status this year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22631868 

GOLDWORK PROJECT - EMBROIDERY COMPLETED

a little fuzzy but shows imitation jap being laid for the body

  I have just completed the last few stitches of my goldwork project and just in time as my Sister and I want to learn Stumpwork together. 

  
Couching imitation jap to outline the wings in a similar fashion to the larger dragonfly - but this time there isn't any paper underneath.

I styled the smaller dragonfly  little differently to try and give depth and distance.

In preparation for the anticipated stumpwork a little bit of needle weaving for the wings

 Imitation jap for the abdomen and wing outlines - couched.  Smooth purl cutwork for the thorax and a black bead for the head.  

Blue needle weaving gives a similar effect to the wings of the smaller dragonfly as the couched imitation jap used on the larger one. 

 So now the work is finished- yes it has been time consuming but so enjoyable that I have often been surprised to see just how much time has past.  It is not the cheapest form of embroidery but it is so very very beautiful and I can hardly wait to start another project.  The things I know for certain are that I must buy a proper pair of goldwork scissors using cutters as I did does damage the purl and twist etc.  The term cutwork confused me to begin with as I associated it with WHITEWORK and here it means something completelydifferent. Rough hands catch on the threads (not 100% sure I can always solve that problem).  I wouldn't have been so sure I could do this without the excellent books from SEARCH PRESS. http://www.searchpress.com/book/9781844487028/goldwork  

 All there is left to do is to display my work so I will get the maximum enjoyment from it.