The dogma prompt: Black fabric. Fabric paint in the colour you used last week (which for me was orange). Make circles. Make straight stitches across the circles in black, and straight stitches between the circles in a colour matching the circles.

The only black fabric I found in my stash was a thin, slinky polyester thing. No stability to it whatsoever, and fraying so badly around the edges that I was afraid it would disintegrate in my hands.

I had no orange fabric paint, but I found a red (that was very dried out) and a gold (that was still liquid) so go for gold.

Those long, straight stitches that the prompt asked for, combined with the floppy fabric, produced the least durable piece of embroidery I’ve ever made. Don’t touch any of the stitches, or they will deform.

I keep saying it because I keep feeling it: I really like this kind of playful, no-commitment, low-stakes embroidery. Do something, try something new, and it doesn’t matter if it comes to nothing. Except it will probably never come to actual nothing: I’m getting so many ideas from each of these. I don’t like the look of the golden stitches between the circles (if this was an actual project, I’d rip them out) but the rest of it? Yes please. (Imagining a black blouse or top with some golden circles artfully fake-randomly sprinkled out, black stitching across the circles.)