Spider

I shall start by saying that I am terrified of spiders, can't stand them; their scuttling legs and their habit of dashing across the lounge floor in the middle of Strictly Come Dancing (I would just say that much as I dislike them I don't kill them, I use the glass and paper trick.). However, the garden is a neutral zone, I appreciate that it is their world and they do a good job. Last summer we seemed to have a lot of common garden spiders who liked to string their webs across various places and, when the sun was right, they were really quite beautiful. When I examined them up close I realised that their markings are astounding, this one had a perfect white square on his or her bottom.

I have often looked at this photo and thought how it would make a fabulous embroidery, the flecks in the pattern look like tiny stitches. But it took me a long time to pluck up the courage to sketch it; staring that closely and for that long at it's hairy little legs. However, It's funny how when you study something this closely you loose your fear, it was only when I stood back I got a little shudder.
My original sketch included the web but once I started sewing I felt that it would be impossible to make it that delicate, my floss thread is about as thin as I can go but it still felt it would detract from the actual spider.

I will let the photos tell the story from here:

So, here he/she is, I can't say it has cured my fear but I am fond of this one:

Now, I have an idea for framing that will be slightly different, more to come in the next day or so...