My First Embroidery Experience

While I was on vacation last week I stayed at my cousins.  While she was helping me get sheets and stuff for bed she asked which blankets I wanted to use.  I immediately recognized one of them.  It was a quilt that I helped make!

A long time ago my Aunt (who happens to be my cousins mom) decided a perfect gift for our Memere would be to make her a quilt.  It wouldn't be any ordinary quilt.  Each piece would have a personalized rectangle by each of the kids, spouses, and grand kids.

Before I folded the blanket up to put it away I snapped a quick shot of my square.

My first embroidery project ever!!!

I was dumb and didn't take a picture of the whole thing to show you how creative and beautiful it is.  Sleeping with it made me feel a little closer to my Memere again.  How we all love her and miss her so much.

If my cousin gets back to me with a photo of the whole thing I will add it. :)

EDIT!!!!  Melanie got back to me and sent me a photo!

 

Mentor Monday - Embroidery Madness

One of the first blogs that I found (I honestly can not remember how) is by Mollie.  She is amazingly creative and I have learned so many new embroidery skills just from reading her blog.  She creates themed embroidery pieces and items that can be purchased in her Etsy Shop.  Her signature is faces.  All of her designs have little faces on them, each and everyone.  The faces make the designs come to life.  She has a Spoonflower account where she actually makes fabric too!

I have saved many of her free printables to hopefully one day practice making them.  She helped me decide how I wanted to set up my blog schedule by sharing hers.  I hope to emulate how Mollie is able to create and develop such interesting and unique items.

Enjoy her blog here.

Kellee's Frame Reveal

My friend Kellee had a tough day at work one day.  Later that night we were hanging out a Jai Alai and she mentioned how she had thought if she had a visual reminder of calm it might help.  I immediately volunteered to make one.  I made sure to find out what word and what colors she would want.

I bought what I needed at Jo Ann's and got to work.

I printed a page with the word and sizing that I wanted (I made sure it would fit within the window of the frame).  I taped the paper to the sliding glass door and traced the word on the tear-away paper.

I then pinned the fabric to the tear-away paper and placed it into the hoop.

Yay tomato pin cushion!

 I used my blue thread, thinning so that I had three strands and the doubled it so that I was embroidering using 6 strands with the basic backstitch.

Once I finished embroidering the word I then had to tear away the tear-y stuff.  Getting it out from behind the tight embroidery was tough and I may rethink using it next time.

You got a peak at my duck slippers!

Once I got it all removed I admired the word. I ironed out the wrinkles from the hoop and put it into the frame.

I was so excited that she loved it.  I wished I had not pulled the thread so tight (I don't like the wrinkles around the working).  I hope that I can make some more and fine tune my technique enough to eventually sell some!

And because the Kitten was weird the other day I had to share this:

She was chillin' on my Publix bag.

Happy Tuesday everyone!!

MLK Day Crafting Extravaganza!!!

Today I have been able to sit at home ALL DAY and be crafty.  I had some major plans for the day: an embroidery project for Kellee, more embroidery projects, beginning a baby sized quilt, and maybe throw in some time cleaning the kitchen.


I planned out a little list of things I wanted to accomplish:
~ Embroidery project for Kellee
~ Embroidery projects for possible sale
~ Figuring out sizing of squares for a quilt
~ Cutting out all of the squares for a quilt
~ Drafting up some future blogs
~ Making soup in the new crock pot

Quite a list?  Yes, but one that I knew I would enjoy working on.  I let myself sleep in because I am so tired of the cough/cold that I have.  I hoped getting a little more sleep might help me finally kick it.  I started my lazy day with a trip to the grocery store since I wanted to make a turkey soup.  I went with a list and didn't stray from it.  I got home in time to head out to meet the bf for lunch at Sonny's.

I just LOVE their sweet tea...

I stopped on the way back home at Jo Ann's (I know I just went there Saturday but I found something else I wanted) to buy a fabric cutter since they were 40% off!

I was so excited that this was on sale!

I chopped, sliced, browned, and defrosted everything I needed for the turkey soup.  It is cooking right now!!!  I am very excited about that.  I'll share if it is good or not later in the week.

I can not wait for this to finish cooking... I am even going to add in some stewed tomatoes too.  YUM!

I then focused by attention on the embroidery project for Kellee because I would love to get it to her by Thursday.  I am making progress and am very pleased with how the stitches are looking.  Sorry no pictures because I want her to be surprised.

As far as the quilt... I have to say that I was successful in that I now have a rotary cutter to make the square cutting faster!  I am going to have to work on that one throughout the week  Just be ready for a picture explosion when I share it because I am planning to document my work very well.  :)

I very much enjoyed watching the kitten examine and smell the outside world from the open sliding glass door.  I think she liked being able to beg for pets whenever she wanted too.

Oh and I got some boring things like vacuuming the bedroom and laundry done too.