Crafting While on Vacation

Last week while ripping a bunch of CDs to load onto my iPod, I organized the pack of floss that I ordered from Sublime Stitching.  I wrapped the floss onto bobbins and then sorted through the colors so that no more than two bobbins of the same color were present in my floss holder.  Why the OCDness?  Because my floss is coming on our Great Western Adventure!

Last year I picked up Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts and immediately fell in love with the State Bird Quilt.

Image Source

Thankfully Nick is a bird lover too and agreed that this would make a nice summer alternative to our Lucia Duvet.  I couldn’t make up my mind what colors to use, so I never got around to starting it.  Every so often I would revisit the pictures and try to decide what to do.  Martha embroiders each bird using one color, which I think looks awesome and beachy in the photos, but which I’m afraid will look too rainbowy in real life.  Plus, the idea of embroidering a bird in all one color didn’t sit well with me.  I’m more of a realist and it would bother me if a bird wasn’t depicted with its real life colors of feathers.  So Nick and I finally decided that each bird should be embroidered in its true colors, while limiting the number of colors that I use overall so it’s not too all over the place.

I kept an eye on linen prices on Fabric.com and once they had a good sale, I ordered the required 6 yards.  During Camp Flickawanna, I cut out the 30 14-inch squares for the birds.  How pathetic is it that states repeat birds?  There are only 26 different birds that were chosen to represent the 50 states.  Seven states picked the Cardinal.  Come on, states!  I’m proud that Pennsylvania is the only state that chose the Ruffed Grouse as its mascot, even if I haven’t ever seen one in the 28 years that I’ve lived in this state.

I then used transfer paper to trace the birds onto the linen.   

I’ll be taking these squares along with me to work on in the car and when we have down time, using Nick’s bird books as inspiration for their coloring.  I've only had time to trace 9 of the birds (thank god for lunch breaks!), which I think will be way more than I'll get to while we're gone, but I wanted to be safe.

But before I get started on the birds, I am going to finish up the Ryan Berkley quartet by tackling a Mr. Fox and Mr. Bird for ourselves.  Here they are all transferred and traced and ready to go!  The frames come with the PDF version of the Ryan Berkley patterns, which is why I had to trace them on rather than just transfer them with an iron.  Sorry, I know I talk about these patterns all of the time, but I LOVE them.  Ok, I'm obsessed.  If I have convinced you to get these patterns, I suggest getting the iron-on transfers.  There are so many tiny details that it's hard to trace the patterns and I didn't have much success printing the PDF on a laser printer and ironing them on. 

I’m also bringing along some yarn to work on my knitted afghan if I don’t feel like embroidering.  Thought I forgot about that project, huh?  It’s been awhile since I finished a panel, but I haven’t forgotten!

I think that will be more than enough to keep me busy while we’re gone.  Do you take crafts on the road with you?