Wandering through a meadow!

Hey friends! How are ya? 

Did you know that the first Saturday in July is National Meadows day!? 

Me neither!!

When I discovered Meadows Day was a thing and that it was this weekend I changed my mind on what I wanted to post and feverishly spent some time typing and getting some photos together, only to realise how late it had gotten, so I decided to post it today instead.

Still, better late than never…

According to the dictionary a meadow is ‘a field with grass and often has wild flowers in it.’ I love visiting meadows, wandering through the long grass searching for butterflies, listening to the birds singing and hoping not to attract any ticks.

So I thought I’d share some meadow related snaps from some of my recent adventures!

Meadows have been part of the English landscape for over a thousand years. A meadow is traditionally an area of grassland which is left to grow long through the spring and summer months and then cut for hay and turned into animal feed for during the winter.

One of my favourite things to do when adventuring is to spend some time just sitting amongst the long grass, listening to the buzzing…if you look closely there is actually a bee on the Knapweed in the centre of the shot – I didn’t realise until I looked back at the days photos.

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Raising a surprise Small Tortoiseshell

Hey friends! I’ve got a new Butterfly Tale for you this week!!

Again I missed my Friday/Saturday posting day, but hey it’s only Sunday!

I’ve had a chance to raise a new surprise butterfly, a surprise Small Tortoiseshell butterfly to be precise. A few weeks ago I was sitting quietly in the garden enjoying an afternoon in the sun when this little guy crawled up my arm.

Honestly I jumped out of my skin!

Funky looking ain’t he?

Anyway this fellow is a Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) and are a medium/large sized butterfly with a wing span of up to 5.5cm, and are one of our most top 5 butterflies who use the common ol’ nettle as its food plant.

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Embroidered Butterfly #11 {Grayling}

Hello my friends! 

Back in the autumn I posted a One frame of a rare Grayling and I wanted to create a needlework version for my butterfly challenge. My actual plan was to post this a couple of weeks before Christmas but everything got a little bit on top of me and I never got round to it.

It was awesome to see a basically endangered species just living its best life out in the wild!

These butterflies have a real life wingspan of up to 6cm and as it aways rests with its wings together which is a shame as they’ve got such pretty markings! I created a male as there’s very little difference between the two sexes.

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Embroidered Butterfly #10 {Comma}

Hey friends! 

Last week I posted a bonus Butterfly tale about a Comma butterfly that I accidentally rescued on a nettle plant – a rather ragged brown and orange chap who usually lives in the woods, I felt so super excited to have fostered one of these so late in the year that I couldn’t help but want to create a needlework version. 

Comma have a real life wingspan of up to 6cm. There isn’t too much difference between and males and females (which I’m glad about as the pattern was super fiddly!) All in all my needlework version has a wingspan of about 11cm to keep it inline with my ‘twice life size’ scale.

Its been great to create a different wing shape, the ragged edges were so much fun to try and recreate although the wire was so uncooperative! I know I say this with every one I make but this one is definitely my favourite so far.

Also this rather lovely fella is #10 on my needlework butterfly challenge (whoo-hoo I’m in double figures!!).

That’s a wrap for this week…another butterfly finished only another 50 or so to go!! I’m really hoping that you’ll stay with me while I needlework my way through our native butterflies. Thank you so much for checking out this post!

© ArtyMissK 2024

Embroidered Butterfly #9 {Red Admiral}

Hey friends! 

A few weeks back I posted a Butterfly tale about raising a bunch of Red Admiral butterflies and I’ve enjoyed their company all summer (in total I will have raised 60 of them this year) so I had to make a needlework version which is #9 on my embroidered butterfly challenge!

A Red ad has a real life wingspan of about 7.2cm, so its definitely one of our biggest butterflies. My needlework version has a wingspan of about 14.5cm to keep him inline with my ‘twice life size’ scale, so it just beats the Peacock I made recently for size. (Weirdly when I think of Red ads they’re always boys, I have absolutely no idea why.)

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Embroidered Butterfly #8 {Peacock}

Hey friends! 

Happy Friday! This week I’ve got a new embroidered butterfly to share with you…

Last week I posted all about my recent experience of raising and caring for nine Peacock butterflies – a very pretty red fellow with large eye spots reminiscent of peacock feathers, I became so attached to the caterpillars and then later the butterflies in my care that I couldn’t help but want to create a needlework version as I really missed them once I released them into the wild. 

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Embroidered Butterfly #7 {Pearl-bordered Fritillary}

Hey friends! 

Last week I posted a One Frame of a Pearl-bordered fritillary – a beautiful black and orange creature who usually lives among the scrub on Bodmin moor, I felt so unbelievably blessed to not only have actually seen so many up close but to have gotten a couple of great photos as well! It goes without saying that a needlework version wasn’t going to be too long in the making!! (its #7 on my embroidered butterfly challenge.)

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Embroidered Butterfly #6 {Speckled wood}

Hey friends! 

A couple of weeks ago I posted a One Frame of a Speckled wood butterfly – a rather pretty brown and cream chap who usually lives in the woods, I felt so super excited to have seen one of these so early in the year that I couldn’t help but want to create a needlework version. 

A Speckled wood has a real life wingspan of almost 5cm. There isn’t too much difference between and males and females so I just made the one – but might add another to this post later. All in all my needlework version has a wingspan of about 10cm to keep it inline with my ‘twice life size’ scale.

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Embroidered Butterfly #4 & #5 {Large & Small White}

Hey friends! 

Are you enjoying the last of the summer sunshine?

A while ago I posted a Complete Lifecycle of the Large white and then a couple of weeks ago I shared a One frame of two Small white butterflies mating…I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for cabbage butterflies – purely because of the fact that they’re treated as pests, in my mind it makes ‘em a bit of an underdog.

I thought that as they’re so similar I’d create both types in needlework at the same time, so this is both #4 and #5 on my Embroidered Butterfly challenge – only 53 more to go!!!

Similar to my Orange tip butterflies, you can easily distinguish between the two sexes of both types and can clearly see the size difference as well. They’re white with black wingtips (although the female have slightly creamy lower wings) and I thought it would be fun to create both a male and female, size wise the little pair of Small whites are about 7cm across (so they’re slightly smaller than the others I’ve already made!) While the Large whites have a wingspan of almost 14cm!! The body of each one has a crocodile clip sewn on so that I can attach the butterflies to plants, but I’ve also been wearing them in my hair.

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Embroidered Butterfly #3 {Painted Lady} (updated May 2024)

Hey friends! 

**This post was edited on 17/5/24 as I’ve remade the butterfly and updated the pictures**

How ya doing?

I’ve got a new embroidered butterfly to share with you this week as we’re coming to the end of the Butterfly Count. Over the last six weeks I’ve been raising twelve Painted lady caterpillars (I did a post on them a couple of weeks ago) who all successfully pupated into beautiful butterflies that are now living out free in the big wide world and I couldn’t resist the chance to create a needlework one!! 

So this is #3 on my Embroidered Butterfly challenge. Seeing as there are 61 types of butterflies in the UK I’ve got quite a few more to do.

Continue reading “Embroidered Butterfly #3 {Painted Lady} (updated May 2024)”