Embroidery Tip - Darning

At one of the vendors at Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival I saw a familiar thing used in an unfamiliar way. Darning mushrooms were used for embroidery.

I just had to try this out, and after returning home I dug up granny's darning mushroom.

 I stretched the Freeform Embroidery over the head of the mushroom and stitched a line of Buttonhole Stitch.
It was easy as I didn't need to stretch the fabric in a hoop. Moving the area to be stitched so I had it in front of me all the time also went smoothly.

I had never thought of using a darning mushroom in this way, but I will use this technique in future, too.