Dots And Dashes Deciphered

I struggled for inspiration for my November TwoByTwo patch. I seemed to be so busy doing other sewing jobs - chiefly the Shed aprons. It was satisfying to work on this ZeroWaste project, using up the offcuts from Mandi's company. But even though I worked out a very efficient way of interlocking and cutting the pieces, I had quite a few rectangles left, sort of A5 size. Too big to discard, but what to do with them?
Pencil cases or make up bags seemed a good idea [for after Christmas] Then I decided I could use one to make a couple of 'stitch sampler' patches.

Using the white stripes I worked different embroidery stitches across the piece, working with two strands of DMC embroidery floss in shades of blue.

• blanket
• herringbone
• feather
• open cretan
• running stitch/French Knot
• laced running
• wheatear
• cross
• split stitch [two colours]

I wanted to acknowledge that this was something I had done for the Shed Project - but I didn't want to add lettering - doing Quarry Bank in September had been difficult. Then it occurred to me, I did not need to add lettering as such. On Remembrance Day I had been thinking of Mum and her codebreaking at Bletchley Park. So I chose a contrast red thread [to match the tags on the aprons] and using running stitch and French knots, I stitched

-  .... .  ... .... . -..  which is T H E  S H E D in Morse code!
As far as the Christmas patch goes, at the moment I am stuck, so saying

... --- ...  [S O S]