In which I embroider a whitework sloth

I love sloths.  I really, really love them.  If I’m having a bad day at work I just have to watch a clip from ‘Too Cute! Baby Sloths’ and I’m good again.  One day, I’d love to go to the Sloth Sanctuaryin Costa Rica. 

So what’s the obvious choice for my next foray into whitework?  Sloths!

 

 

After doing my Carrickmacross lace, I wanted to have a bash at cutwork.  I decided to embroider some hibiscus flowers, just about to be eaten by a sneaky sloth!  Sloths love hibiscus flowers.  I gave the flowers a bit of texture – the stamens are done in French knots, and I gave the sloth a nice furry coat.

This was so much fun to embroider!  If I did it again I’d use a whiter thread – this one looks a little cream, and use a sharper pair of scissors to cut the background cloth away.  You need really sharp scissors for this.  If you’ve got sharp scissors and know how to do buttonhole stitch, you’re pretty much sorted on cutwork!