Learning something new

It's almost a week since I last posted.  Where has the time gone??
Doing Blackwork, that's where.  I am finding it much harder than I had anticipated!!!!!
I did a day at the Embroiderers Guild last week and we had homework for this week.  The homework took AGES, mainly because I pulled out about a third of what I had done (I have learnt to expect this from tapestry weaving). And I didn't get it all done - but neither did about half the class, so that took the pressure off.
Our teacher, Debi Marshall, designed a pin cushion as our sampler.  It has a lot of intricate designs that rely on each part being in the correct space.
I didn't do the outlining tacking quite correctly, so that put some of the designs out from the start.  Then I had some parts that were supposed to be square but were rectangular.  Then some of my stars looked more like spiders.
We were supposed to use varying weights of threads but, so far, I have only used the heavier weight with one small part using a lighter weight.
Debi was very patient with me and helped me a lot with my placement.  I don't think she liked that I had left some parts wrong but it would have taken way too long to pull them out so we ploughed on regardless.

I did manage to put my initials and date

 I have worked on it for hours each day this week but still didn't get finished today.  Ah well, I just have to remind myself that this is all learning and it is supposed to be fun.

This took me all day, with a lot of help - and it's still not finished.

I am going to persevere as I really want to try designing my own and then stitching it, so I may try for a simpler sampler to get toning down without having to worry about intricate designs, leave them for later.

One or two of the ladies got their pin cushions finished, or will this weekend. The rest of us struggled along more slowly.
By the way, there is no way any of us would use such a beautiful piece of work as a pin cushion!