Proud Aunt

We were in Omaha a couple of weeks ago for my niece's graduation party. While we were there another one of my (10 year old) niece's remembered that I had worked on my embroidery when I was there the last time. She asked if she could learn to do it too.

The only thing I had that she could use was a blank towel, so we came up with a pattern that had her name and a cute little ducky.

She was really determined to get it done and learned without much instruction at all. So in between all of the crazy busy-ness of the weekend she completed the whole towel and picked all of the colors herself.

We didn't have time to iron it before we left, but I'm sure it will be well used soon enough anyway.

Well done Emma, Well done.

Part Way Done

Here is the project that I started and still need to "save".

Here is the part that I embroidered for my buddy GoldyLocks. I traced the guitar off of the fabric in a funky matching green color and then I traced her logo font around the guitar and embroidered that.

I could really use a light box, because I held this brown fabric up to my lamp shade and tried to trace it that way...
I want to make this into a pillow with the guitar fabric on the sides, but I cut it a little too small trying to master the Rotary Cutter/Ruler thing. I will try to find some other fabric that matches and make it work. I just hope it doesn't look too county, as she is a total rock chick!

Holly Jolly Towel

This is a sweet towel that I embroidered for my sister-in-law's aunt. She wanted three towels with simple holly patterns and this is what I came up with.

Coffee Please!

I embroidered this towel for a friend of mine who never seems to be seen without a 2 go cup in his hand.

I sort of traced a medium sized cup that I had on hand and then traced the bottom of a cup to make the circle in a size that seemed to work. I had to put the American Red Cross in the middle as a joke because it seems to be his lifeline! haha
He did get a kick out of it and said it now has many uses around the house which is good to hear.

Snowy Trees Towel

We had one side of our family's Christmas celebration yesterday and I wanted to give something to my grandma who just turned 86. She has been cleaning out some of the extra stuff around her house so I wanted to give her something she could actually use and that I made for her.

I came up with this winter tree scene from a vintage pattern I found online. I copied the trees that I liked and moved the deer up to run between them. It just felt cozy to me.
I think she liked it, she said she would put it on display anyway.

Waechtersbach Pattern

My crafty sister-in-law Alyson, has a mother who has commented varies times on my towels recently. I have the feeling that she really wants one, but doesn't know what to get.

I asked Alyson and she thought that a towel made with the tree from the Waechtersbach Dishes she has would look cool. So we found the dishes online, printed one out and then I pinned it to the back of the towel, held it up to a window and traced it. That made my pattern! Really you could do this with anything that you wanted to try to embroider.

The whole point of those dishes are a solid red background with a solid green tree and all of the bulbs, candles and stars are solid white, but this is how I could improvise on a white dish towel. I thought about doing the candles and stars in yellow, but just didn't think that would be true to the pattern.

I like how it turned out & hope it will be a great surprise for Mrs. Bev!

ps. if you know her, don't tell

Here it is up close.

Towels for Aunt Laura

My dad's Aunt Laura was in town this fall and requested that I embroider some towels for her daughters for Christmas. These are a few of them.

She gave me ideas for patterns and colors that would work in their kitchens.
I tried using different stitching techniques for different areas. Mostly I used the Back Stitch, but also tried the Chain Stitch and some Stem Stitching.

Hopefully she will be happy with how they turned out. I went to the post office today and the line was super long, so I tried the automated machine and then the parcel collector was full! I hope they make it there :)

Jenny Hart!

I got to meet her last week! Can you believe it? Jenny Hart from Sublime Stitching had a book signing at Crafty Planet to support her new book Embroidered Effects. I had to go, after all she is the reason I started embroidering and I LOVE her patterns. It was great, she took time to talk to all of us for a few minutes and sign her new book. I even showed her what my 6 year old daughter was working on. She seemed so genuine & sweet. I dig crafty women!

Luckily the book signing was early enough that I could still make it to Twilight at 9pm and then New Moon at midnight. What a fun night :)

Bird in Tree Towel

So my friend Matt Doubek is this awesome artist that I knew from high school. I recently got back in touch with him & his lovely wife, when Shawnna was in town this summer. I talked to her about Matt's awesome paintings & I decided to use one as an embroidery pattern.
I actually took things that stood out to me in 2 different paintings and combined them. I found out that some things are easier to transfer to thread than others.

I used 2 different colored threads on the outer orange part of the tree to match the shading idea in the painting and also in the brown threads for the trunk.

I just LOVE these trees, I think these would look great embroidered on a long skinny piece of fabric, framed and hung up on my wall.

They actually took a really long time to embroider because they are open tree trunks and not just one skinny line as I typically do.

This is the painting where I got the Birdie from, I just love that little spinner hat.

This is the print that I got the trees from. I thought about doing the umbrella, but the dingle balls just said "French Knots" to me & mine never turn out too well, so I decided against it and added the sweet bird instead.

I sent this one to him because I just enjoy having different patterns and ideas to try to embroider and hoped he could enjoy my interpretation of it.

You can find Matthew's work

Charming Wall

Matt's myspace

joyengine

Fall Towel

I thought it was about time to take down the 4th of July towel I had hanging on the stove and switch to a fall one. I did a search for fall clip art online and found a pattern that I liked. I then enlarged it on the copier to the size I wanted and traced it onto my towel.

I ended up filling in the moon because I thought it would look really cool, like it was "glowing". I debated filling in the Bat and the leaves but decided I like it the way it is.

This is my first real try at filling in a space, I know there are other stitches that you can use, so I may try those down the line. I decided to add the stars for added effect.

In Progress...

I feel like I have too much to do and can't finish anything lately, so I have nothing to post most days. Sorry. I have STARTED a new project for my upcoming craft sale, will post when I finish...

This is another one of the towels I have been working on for my Dad's aunt who was recently in town visiting my folks. It is almost done so I will post the finished project when I can.

Cafe Latte take II

Does this towel look familiar? This was the first pattern that I had ever embroidered & now I have been commissioned to do some more coffee towels for my Dad's Aunt. This is one of them.
I think it looks much better on my second try. The first towel I did is on the left and I used 6 strands of thread for the whole thing. I also used a Chain Stitch because that is what I learned to do first.

Here is a close up of both of them. The one on the right I used 3 strands on the whole thing and used a Back Stitch for the whole pattern. Depending on the stitch, it really gives it a totally different look.

Toasting Marshmellows

I finished another towel using a pattern from the Camp Out set by Sublime Stitching. I am liking how these are turning out & I am going to have a hard time giving them all away as presents when I am done :).

Deer Towel

This is the towel I embroidered for my sister. She has a really cool Deer tattoo on her lower back that reminded me of this one. I will have to get a pic of the one on her back.

I told her it was sewers choice as to what pattern I was going to do for her, but as soon as I saw this one I new I had to do it for her. She has gone deer hunting for as long as I can remember. She can kill em' clean em' and cook em' like no one else I know!

This is one of the bigger projects that I thought I would try to do back stitching on. When I first started embroidering I always used the chain stitch and then I tried the stem stitch. I did all three of them on this project, but the deer head is all done in the back stitch. I made the eye a little too bulky to be seen clearly, but I really like how it stands out against the rest of it. I have seen other projects done where the shadowy parts are in a darker color and maybe I would try that next time. I still stink at French Knots, maybe one day I will get it.

This pattern is by Sublime Stitching of course and I think it's from the Forest Friends pack. Find them Here

Camper Towel

Wow, was has it really been so long since I last posted? Sorry, where did the time go? We are getting ready for the first day of kindergarten and I am having a hard time with it. Big changes to come...

I have been doing some projects: Cushions for a friends bench seat & mud room, A cool old chair that I ran into a curved back problem(that I am currently working on as I write), Thank You cards for a gift, Embroidery projects and I am thinking I am going to do a minor re-do on the bathroom.

Here is another pattern from Jenny Hart/Sublime Stitching I embroidered. It's part of the camping set. Love the fun old style camper. Once again my French Knots stink so don't look too close. thanks.

Floss

I was hoping to get tons of embroidering done on our trip to the Black Hills. I got a small amount done. More importantly I got organized. Sort of. I found this case and the little holder thingies and worked on it the whole way to Sioux Falls. My mom helped with the really tangled ones. Then my daughter re-sorted the colors a million times and "helped" find colors when I needed them. This isn't all of them but most of them....

I will post some of the photos from our trip next.

Hotdogs over the Campfire

Another awesome pattern from Sublime Stitching! I am making up a bunch of these fun camping/fishing towels next(maybe for Christmas presents, shh).

My family is heading to the Black Hills for a few days and I will hopefully have lots of fun photos to post after we get back!

Cafe Mocha Towel

I tried another of the transfers from my Aunt Martha Coffee Set. I made this one for one of my cousins who loves Mocha's.

I feel like I should have made it look like there was something in the glass. I did the darker brown on the outside and the lighter brown on the inside, but it is still hard to tell... Anyone know a design that is fun and looks good for this type of thing?

Fresh Ground

I have finished a few more kitchen towels that I need to post. This is one I made for my mother, I used a pattern from the Aunt Martha coffee set that I had. She requested this one because she has an old ceramic grinder that was her mothers. There are still a few flaws so just enjoy the overall look of the towel :D

I washed it to remove the circle left over from the hoop and then the pattern seemed to "pucker". Does anyone else have this problem? Should I prewash the towels first?? Thanks!

Ladybugs on Grass

We drove down to Omaha to see my husband's family this past weekend. I tried to make good use of the 6 hour drive by getting some embroidery done.

I found this free pattern on pimpstitch and changed it a little bit. I started the embroidery before we left and finished it on the way. I also worked on a couple of other projects that I will post later. I let my daughter pick the colors for the ladybugs. My French Knots are not very good I think I'll have to keep practicing those, so don't look too close. I still consider myself a beginner and I am giving most of these away or just keeping them for myself.