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.)

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. 

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.)

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.

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.

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.