Teeny, tiny blue flowers

The Trevelyon's Cap project is coming along...slowly but surely. Stitching hasn't been at the top of my list since school started. Like most teachers, it takes a while to get used to expending the energy it takes to teach every day after the summer holidays. I hear you saying...I wish I had such nice holidays. I understand, really. But interacting with over 100 little human beings every day, hugging them when they're sad, keeping them from hurting themselves and one another, encouraging them, guiding them, observing and assessing them, or  just talking to them meaningfully, is exhausting. For the first month of school I am bushed when I get home and all I really want to do is sit down, have dinner and do lots of nothing slowly before I fall into bed at 9 pm (or earlier).So it's been a good thing that progress on the Trevelyon's Cap project can be measured in teeny, tiny steps. Since everything is in miniature,  it doesn't take long to work up one of the little motifs. For example, each of these teeny, tiny blue flowers takes about and hour. Firstly, I stitch around the outside of each flower using split stitch. When doing anything in long and short shading this is always a good idea as it helps the edges look their best.Next, I stitch very teeny, tiny long and short stitches on each petal. The term "long and short" seems a bit ridiculous I think. The long stitches are tiny and the short stitches are teeny. (In my mind teeny is smaller than tiny. What about you?)Then comes the second layer of darker blue followed by the darkest blue pointed tips. By now it's taken about 45 minutes, maybe a bit longer depending on my concentration level and how tired I am. Lastly comes the bright shot of color in the gold French knots in the center. These work up the quickest and then the flower is done, finished, Ta! Da!So, an hour or a bit more has passed in happy stitching and another teeny tiny blue flower is finished. Just how teeny tiny is it?Very teeny, tiny! About 3/4 or an inch or 1.5 cm. They say progress is often measured in small steps and I think they must be right!