Can you tell what it is yet?!

Neither can I, but it will probably end up as a book cover.

Before I started to hand stitch, I machined a greek key design automatic stitch in pale gold metallic thread to hold one edge of each strip down.Then I found the brightest coloured contrasting threads I possessed and used them to work feather stitch and other simple stitches down the centres of each strip. These photos have deadened the colours somewhat - they really zing.

There are lovely burnt oranges and vivid purples in there which vie with each other so well.

I might add a sprinkling of beads and/or sequins when I have done enough stitching.

Although bulbs are coming up all over the place in the garden and I can see buds on a couple of clumps of daffs, I was impatient and just had to cheat and buy this little pot of small narcissussesses! (Optional spelling!). I will plant them in the garden when they have finished flowering so they can swell the numbers out there for next year. Hope you are all battened down well and safe from the strong winds. We watched one of the pergola posts swaying alarmingly in the breeze yesterday. My husband had to go out and brace it, and a man is coming out tomorrow to see what needs to be done to strengthen it. We had it built nearly 20yrs ago so it's done pretty well considering that every winter the bottoms of each post are regularly waterlogged. Twenty years sounds such a long time when you are embarking on something new, but those years pass by so quickly.