Maximon Embroidery

I finished another embroidery for our embroidery wall! This one is of Maximon, a Mayan folk saint of the people of Guatemala.

Before our trip, we were told that upon arriving in Santiago, a small child would approach us and ask us if we would like to be taken to see Maximon. Our response should be yes! The Maximon figure is passed between houses throughout the year and the local custom is that tourists pay the children to take them to see him, where you give a small offering in exchange for a picture. 

I kept the embroidery pretty simple because I thought it would just get muddied if I included the textures of the scarves.

I think it captures the essence of Maximon without getting distracting. We only need a few more finished before we can start hanging them up!

This is Not Route 89

Remember that embroidery wall that I started working on back in April? For our 3-year wedding anniversary in October, I made Nick another element for the wall: an embroidered rendition of a hilarious, yet helpful, sign we encountered somewhere in Utah on our roadtrip last year.

The helpfulness of it came in because we thought we were on Route 89! Apparently to stay on the route you have to make a left turn at a traffic light, and in our search to find a lunch spot, we missed the turn. It's one of our favorite memories from the trip, making it a perfect candidate for the embroidery wall.

Look, I actually made something!

It’s been quite the pathetic past couple of weeks—no finished projects. Thanks to craziness at my day job and illness I haven’t had near the amount of crafty time as I usually have and I’m about to chop what free time I have even more starting in May, when I start taking classes for a certificate program. Thankfully it’s only a 7-month program, so I’ll be finished just in time for Thanksgiving and life can return to normal. So I’ll be attempting to make the next couple of weeks of freedom super productive before I get on studying lockdown.

I did manage to finish a small embroidery for our embroidery wall. Have I mentioned it before? I’m going to embroider small tidbits from our adventures and hang them on the wall of our stairwell. Some tidbits you want to remember, but it doesn’t necessarily make sense to print out a photo of them to hang on the wall. For some reason I think stitching an embroidery of it makes it less weird and more homey than a bunch of small photos of strange/funny things.

First up we have a tuk-tuk (pronounced “took took”), which Nick and I encountered on our honeymoon in Guatemala.

To get into the closest town, Panajachel, we hopped into the back of a pickup truck, but to get home from Panajachel, we flagged down a tuk-tuk (the pickups aren’t as prevalent in the afternoon/evening as they are in the morning). The tuk-tuks have a small motor, two wheels in the back and one in the front, and are steered by a handle bar (this is the funniest part to me). The drivers zip around the mountainside roads like crazy and I remember one night ride back to the house when I was convinced that we were going to careen off the side of the mountain (there are rarely guardrails). While we preferred the bed of the pickup trucks, tuk-tuks left us with fond memories of visiting the neighboring towns.

I’m waiting to hang up the embroideries until I have a few of them finished and can better arrange them. The next item for the embroidery wall is a funny road sign that we encountered during our Great Western Adventure. It involves a bunch of French knots, so it may be a while until I check back in regarding the embroidery wall!

New Blog Header!

Happy Sunday! You may have noticed that I finally got around to making a proper banner for the header of this blog. As much as I love the headless pigeons picture that I took in the Halifax Public Gardens back in 2008, it just didn't have anything to do with this blog other than it perfectly displayed my sense of humor.

I used designs from the Craftopia pattern from Sublime Stitching for the embroidery scissors, yarn, and sewing machine. The font is Clementine Sketch, which I downloaded from DaFont for free. I think it better represents what I share on here than seemingly headless pigeons.

 

I embroidered the banner onto a tote bag since I had no intention of hanging this up anywhere besides on this here blog. I think this will be my new knitting bag since the one I'm using is kind of small—my knitting practice turned scarf is getting quite thick these days and I pretty much have to stuff it in.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Put a Bird On It

This was the second year that Nick and I made hearts for the Hearts and STARS fundraiser and our third year attending. Our pals Lauren and Keeva were running the show this year! Even though I had my idea for my heart well before the new year, I somehow managed to wait a mere week before the hearts were due to start it. Thankfully we both finished our hearts on time.

The fundraiser takes place in a really cool space in Trenton called Art Works. It's so much fun seeing something that you made being displayed on a gallery wall! I took inspiration from the hilarious Portlandia and made mine pretty by putting a bird on it. It's the Eastern Goldfinch, the state bird of New Jersey.

Nick took inspiration from the Trenton Battle Monument. His included a silhouette of the monument and an excerpt from the quote that is displayed at its base. The colonial secretary of state for King George III, Lord Germain, told Parliament three years after the battle: "All our hopes were blasted by that unhappy affair at Trenton." Sorry, Brits!

We each raised $30 for our hearts, making our grand total the same as last year. I was really hoping to beat Nick this year since he beat me last year, but at least I increased the amount that someone bid on mine.

We didn't get to stick around too long for the after party this year because I had to rush home and finish MaMotts' quilt. Hearts and STARS is always a good time, so if you're in the area, consider checking it out next year. It's always in the beginning of February and supports a really great cause!

 

And look what Nick made me for Valentine's Day!

For those of you who don't know (which is probably most of you), Nick and I met as teenagers working in the gift shops at Sesame Place, the Sesame Street themed amusement park in Langhorne, our hometown. Outside of the shop that we originally both worked at, there used to be a staircase with a giant Big Bird Head on top (it was once the start of an awesome bridge that used to wind through the park). It's hard to believe that was 12 years ago! Isn't he the best? Happy belated Valentine's Day!

WIP Wednesday: Hours of Hourglasses

My lack of posts as of late may suggest that I have been taking my nights and weekends off from sewing and crafting, but fear not, I have been a busy bee behind the scenes. I just happen to be working on a large project that seems to be taking forever.


MaMotts’ 90th Birthday Quilt
Family members: Shhh! Remember that this project and the party are super secret.
I mentioned before that I'm making a quilt for my grandmother's 90th birthday. Most of my work on this has happened during marathon sewing sessions over the past few weekends. I can’t believe how long this is taking me! I don’t think I’m going particularly slowly so I guess I just have no concept of how long it takes to make this type of quilt in this size. It’s my first quilt larger than a baby quilt, so I’m a little scared of how the quilting is going to go.

The good news is that I have all of the sashing cut out so it's just a matter of putting together the quilt blocks and then sewing the quilt top together. I hope to get the quilt sandwich together on Saturday and start quilting on Sunday. The party is on February 11th and I really don’t want to be working on this quilt right before I run out the door!


Sewaholic Minoru Jacket
Most of my Wednesday Sewing Class time has been spent on the Minoru. I put together a muslin and was so pleased with the fit—no alterations needed! I have all of the pieces cut out for the real deal but have been devoting so much of my sewing time to finishing up the quilt that I haven’t gotten much else done. Once I finish the quilt, the Minoru is first on my list to finish up.

Charity Auction Heart
I’ll explain more about this heart at a later date, but the concept is that community members decorate hearts and then they are auctioned off to raise funds for the South Trenton Area Residents’ Society. Our hearts are due tomorrow so I really took this one down to the wire! I have been frantically embroidering during lunch and on train rides this week. Tonight I’ll be tasked with finishing the embroidery and then mounting the fabric on the heart. Then it’ll be shipped off to be hung in the auction gallery. I’ll share the completed heart soon!

Knitted Blanket
I finished the ends of all of my panels, now I just have to block them and then piece them together. Not much progress here!

Basic Chevron Scarf

My knitting practice has turned into an actual project. I enjoyed this stitch so much that I decided to keep going and make it into a scarf. I think the tension issues that I was having in the beginning are getting better.

 

I've been holding the yarn a little looser and that seems to be fixing things. Thanks for the tips, you guys! I think I’m going to have to join two skeins of yarn together soon, which I’ve never done before. Yay for expanding my knitting repertoire! (Side note: Isn't repertoire such a classy word? My piano teacher taught it to me when I was little and it always reminds me of her.)

State Bird Embroidered Quilt
I was almost finished with the first bird when I realized that I didn’t like how it was turning out by using the actual colors of the bird. After some deliberation with Nick, we decided to mimic Martha’s look and use one color per bird. So it looks like I get to start from scratch on this one. At least I figured this out before I got too many of the birds finished. Now I just need to decide on the 4-5 colors to use. Hrm.

No progress:

• Market Skirt
• Crepe Dress
• Tote bag
• Art kit
• Cape
• New blog banner embroidery
• In the Night Kitchen embroidery

My Totals:
Completed Projects: 0
New Projects: 3
Currently in Progress Projects: 13

February is looking to be a record-setting month for finished projects! I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced. Head over and see what everyone else is up to.

Works in Progress: Start of 2012

Here it is: my big shamefully long works in progress list.  I thought I would lay everything out there in hopes of widdling down this very long list.

Knitted Blanket
Let’s start with the oldest project in my pile, the knitted blanket.  I am so excited that I finally finished knitting all of the panels, so the only thing left to do is to block the panels and then piece them together.  Never mind that I don’t yet know how to do either of these steps, but I will figure it out.  I really wish I had discovered this Super Easy Baby Blanket before now.  Then I would be finishing up the project and not have to piece anything!

Art Kit
I cut the pieces for the Art Kit from the Craft Hope book while making an art kit for my nephew last Christmas.  My original intention was to donate it to a local charity since that is what the Craft Hope book suggests.  I got a little behind on my gift making that year so I ended up pushing this to the side and then I never found an organization that would want such a donation.  I have no idea where or why I got these fabrics, but I think they’re super cute.  Don't you just love those ants?  Oh and that stray piece of cat hair on the zig zags (gah it's everywhere!).  I’m considering finishing this up and hosting a giveaway as a thank you to a lucky winner for reading my blog.  Stay tuned!

All-Day Tote
I’m pretty sure the pieces for the All-Day Tote from Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing have been cut out for at least as long as the Art Kit.  After discovering the pieces in my stash, I decided to add a long adjustable strap to the bag, but even with that, I think this bag will be quick and easy to complete.  I think I got both fabrics from the remnant bin from Joann, but who knows how long ago that was.  Sorry for the dark pic.  The outside fabric is a dark brown.

Crepe Dress
I started working on the Colette Crepe dress last March and have made very little progress since because I haven’t picked it up since then!  In my defense, I had no idea how to fit a muslin after sewing it up and I needed a major small bust adjustment for this pattern.  I have received a few tips on fitting the bodice since then, so I hope to return to this dress soon because I originally wanted to wear it on Easter.  Hopefully I will be able to this year!  The pink is the body of the dress and the gray is for a waist sash.

State Birds Quilt
I thought I would make some progress on this quilt while on our Great Western Adventure, but it still remains in the same state it was before we left.  Almost all of the 36 state birds are traced onto white linen and are waiting to be embroidered (some states use the same state bird, which is why there aren't 50). I originally had hoped to have this complete so we can use it on our bed this coming summer, but that definitely doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, so our bed will have to wait until Summer 2013.  That is, if the world doesn’t end in December.

Market Skirt
The Lisette Market Skirt has been partially finished since the end of September.  I had a good deal of it finished until I realized that I didn’t cut my pieces to match up the pattern on the fabric.  For a couple of days I considered just finishing it and calling it “good enough,” but my OCDness reared its ugly head and I decided that it was unacceptable in its current state.  I did some brief research on how to match up patterns, but I am still a little hazy about it.  I’m also not sure if I have enough fabric left to match up the pattern.  If I don’t, then I’ll have to make the decision to finish it like it is or rip it out and try and use the fabric for something else.  I’ll get back to this project when I’m feeling a little more adventurous.

In the Night Kitchen Embroidery
Originally, this was to be a Christmas gift to Mr. Pinds.  Then I got honest with myself and realized that that wasn’t going to happen, so now it’s a project that we’re working on together.  We’ve been so busy since Christmas that we haven’t looked at it since I originally unveiled it!  I have a feeling that this is going to be a work in progress for a while.

Birthday Quilt for MaMotts
(Shh, family members!  This is super secret!)

My grandmother, who we call MaMotts, is turning 90 this March, so I thought it would be nice to make her a pretty quilt.  I didn’t want to make anything too modern, so I chose the Planetarium pattern from Elizabeth Hartman’s The Practical Guide to Patchwork.  I got a bunch of Aviary 2 charm packs in the Bark and Lilac colorways and have been going to town making hour glass blocks.  I spent a good chunk of Sunday doing this and I still have a long way to go.  The good news/bad news is that I won’t be working on this quilt for too long because we’re throwing a surprise birthday party for her in the beginning of February.  This is the largest quilt that I have made to date, so I hope the quilting goes smoothly!

The finished hour glass blocks are in the stack on the right.  The almost-finished hour glass blocks are in the stack on the left.  Yikes!

New Look 6073 Cape
For this session of sewing class, we’re making capes.  I chose view C of New Look 6073, which includes toggle closures and a hood.  I took my very first trip down to Fabric Row in Philly (on 4^th Street near Fitzwater) and went into about 6 different stores until I discovered the awesome wool section in the Pennsylvania Fabric Outlet.  They had a wide variety of colors, styles, and types of wool!  I went through a few different patterns before I decided on this fabric.  I’m not sure what lining I’m going to use yet, but I’m thinking something cozy that will add some warmth.

Of course Mr. Pinds and I swung by Jim's for some cheesesteaks for lunch, which is conveniently just a few blocks away from Fabric Row.  Seriously delicious.  I usually get mine double Whiz without (double the Cheez Whiz and without onions) and Mr. Pinds gets his double Whiz with (double the Cheez Whiz with onions).  We average about one cheesesteak a year, so I'm OK with how unhealthy this is.  It was delicious and totally worth it.  Did I mention it was delicious?  If you're in the Philadelphia area, Jim's is really the only acceptable place to go for a cheesesteak.  And the guys who work there are really nice too.  Be prepared to wait in a hefty line though.

Sewaholic Minoru Jacket
Now for the least complete project in my pile!  I only have the pattern pieces cut out but the muslin is prepped and ready to be cut.  The final version will be made up in a gray cotton twill with a cotton lining.  I’ll probably use a slippery fabric for the sleeves so my arms slide in easily, but I haven’t picked that up yet.  Tasia from Sewaholic is hosting a sew along that starts on Monday, so there’s still time for you to join in!

So there they are, my whopping 10 in-progress projects.  I’m hoping that by linking this to WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced, I’ll be motivated to actually work on these instead of turning to something else mid-progress!

In the Night Kitchen Project

Remember when I used to post about things that I've actually made?  Don't worry, I've been a busy Christmas elf but since it's not Christmas yet, I haven't been able to share anything that I've made.  I should be able to start sharing some things next week, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, take a look at one of my works in progress.  I am recreating this illustration from In The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak for Mr. Pinds.

Image Source

It's one of his favorite illustrations from the book and we both agree that it's magical and would look great in our kitchen. I was going to make it for him as a surprise Christmas present, but I got so overwhelmed with my other projects and started to doubt my ideas for it that I caved in and shared it with him.  Good thing I did because he suggested a few changes to my original idea and I think the end product is going to look so much better!  Here is what we have so far, complete with curious kitty.



Ok, it looks a little crappy and sad right now.  The middle fabrics will eventually be covered by the buildings so I just used muslin as a filler in between the sky and the shelf that the milk is resting on.

The first change that I'm doing is substituting a darker blue for the sky so it actually looks like night.  When I picked out all of the fabrics this blue looked pretty dark, but now I think it's a little too light.

I'll be using a combination of fabric, applique, and embroidery for this project.  I hope to get some work done on it during Winter Break, which starts next Friday!  I'll have 10 glorious days to relax and catch up on a few projects that have been tossed aside during Christmas crafting.  I can't wait!

You've Been Booed

This Halloween season, my department at work decided to run an activity that is similar to Secret Santa.  Everyone makes or purchases a small treat for a co-worker and sneakily puts it on their desk along with a sign that says "You've Been Booed," as in boo like a ghost.  The treat was meant to spread the Halloween spirit, so we weren't supposed to spend that much on it.  I knew right away that I needed to find a small embroidery design as part of my treat.

The pumpkin design is by big B, who I found on Etsy.  Isn't it adorable?  It's part of a 10-page Autumn embroidery package.  There were so many great designs to pick from that I am going to have to stitch up one of them for myself.  The "Boo" bag was done by Nick, as I have zero ability to draw anything that doesn't look like it was by a kindergartener.  I'm pretty sure the person I booed liked her treat as the embroidery is now hanging up in her cube!  Shhh to any of my co-workers reading this—it's supposed to be a secret!  I also gave her a Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkin and a handful of Hershey's miniatures.  Isn't Halloween candy the best?!

I was also busy stitching up my own desk decoration, Hallowe'en Trio by Cathy Gaubert.  It was the pattern for the September Stitch Along at Feeling Stitchy.  Although I finished mine a little late, it was fun to work on the same pattern as a lot of other people.

For the first time, I actually finished the back of these embroideries!  I knew I couldn't give someone an embroidery treat with the back all messy, so I went back to the finishing techniques that I saved a long time ago and actually tried it out.  To my delight, it was super easy!  I ended up finishing the back of the autumn and Halloween embroideries, as well as the praying mantis embroidery before I ran out of hot glue.  I somehow managed to not take a picture of the finished back of any of them, but I used the very detailed tutorial by The Split Stitch.

Mr. Bird from the Ryan Berkley Quartet

Here he is: the final member of the Ryan Berkley Quartet!

I changed some of the colors in this guy from the first one I embroidered.  I am pleased with the results.

I especially love the shading on his head,

and his jacket and tie combination. 

Which I guess is basically the whole thing! Now I just need to find something oval to mount all of these guys on and hang them up on our wall!

My Ever Evolving Project Spreadsheet

Happy middle of the week!  Back in July I shared my way of keeping track of projects through a spreadsheet.  I am here to report that my spreadsheet has been evolving in the two months since I first created it.  I hope I’m not the only crazy person out there who needs to list everything out in a very detailed way!

Originally, I had all of my future, current, and completed projects listed on one tab.  As I kept coming up with more and more projects, that tab started to get pretty long and unmanageable.  To remedy this, I removed the completed projects from that tab and inserted them on their very own tab, called 2011.  When we get to 2012, I will start a whole new tab for completed projects.

I also needed a way to organize all of the projects that I was daydreaming about.  I decided to keep in-progress projects at the top of the tab, but then to divide all future projects into seasons.  They are:

Spring	March-May
Summer	June-August
Winter	December-February
Fall	September-November

When deciding which season a project should go in, I took into account how badly I wanted to have that item finished, what season it would be appropriate for, and if I had any specific reason to finish an item.  For instance, even though I love the design, I pushed off making a Lonsdale dress until the Spring because I didn’t want to spend weeks making a dress and then not be able to wear it for another 6 months.  I also had to prioritize items that I am making as gifts and decide how they were going to fit into my sewing schedule.  I know I've said it before, but I will not have last minute sewing again this Christmas!  For the record, I plan on starting all of my Christmas-related sewing projects at the beginning of December, which will be more than enough time to finish weeks before they need to be given.  I hope that if I keep repeating myself, this will actually happen.

Of course there are random projects that don’t really fit into a season, so I allowed myself to have a catch-all section for small projects that can be completed when I have a little wiggle room.  This section mostly consists of curtains, dishtowels, and napkins that I need to make for the house.

I am also finding it helpful to list mending projects as well, since they always seem to get pushed aside.  I have been meaning to mend the arm seam on one of Nick’s sweaters and take the hem up on one of my skirts for over a year.  Once I put them on the spreadsheet I felt compelled to move them to the completed tab.  The items are now fixed and we can actually wear them this winter!  It’s amazing how motivated I get if I can cross something off a list.

Once I saw all of the projects that I wanted to complete listed, I knew that there was no way I’d ever complete everything in the designated season.  I edited down the seasons so I would only have one garment listed per month.  I think sewing up one garment per month is realistic at this point.  At least I hope it is!  If it proves to be too much, I’ll have to make edits again.

So what is on my plate for the coming month?  Right now, here is what I am working on:

• Mr. Bird: I've been working on this in the evenings after work when I feel like doing something creative but don't have the mental energy to sew. I just have the frame to finish and then I can hang up all four of them!
• Halloween embroidery to hang up at my desk at work: I’m working on this during lunch.
• Sew U Blouse Muslin for my sewing class: I should finish up the muslin at class on Wednesday, so I'll be starting on the actual blouse soon!
• Lisette Market Skirt: After stitching up the muslin on Sunday, I have made a little progress on the actual skirt.

It sounds like I am a crazy person!  Once I finish the Market Skirt, I’m going to work on the new Colette Pattern, Peony.

 
I am so excited about this dress!  I hope to finish it in time for an event at work on November 2^nd.  I am looking to make a simple pencil skirt since mine is looking a little ratty.  Anyone have any pattern suggestions?

Our Fantastic Mr. Fox

The third member of the Ryan Berkley Quartet is finished.  Meet our very own fantastic Mr. Fox!

Mr. Fox came together pretty quickly.  I guess I'm used to working with tiny details by this point!  I was able to finish his face/body in 5 half hour lunch breaks and then it took me a few hours to do the frame at home.

It's so relaxing sitting on the couch with my embroidery.  Call me an old lady, but I love it.

Now I just need to finish Mr. Bird and the quartet will be finished and ready to be displayed on our wall!

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?

Ms. Kitty Embroidery

Introducing Ms. Kitty of the Ryan Berkley Quartet!  Admittedly, Ms. Kitty is my least favorite of the four, but I do love a dapperly dressed animal.  Maybe it’s because Ms. Kitty isn’t as formal as the rest of the bunch?  Although her broach and hair clip are quite fetching.  I won’t be surprised if Flick develops a crush on her immediately.

I forgot to mention when I shared Ms. Bunny that I used Sublime Stitching’s method of blending two colors of floss to create a wood-like feel for the frame.  I’m pleased with the result and I think using the split stitch added the texture needed for a “wooden” frame.

In case you're keeping track, here are the two that are finished and ready to be framed.

I’m so excited for when they’re all finished and I can hang them and stare at them in their formal glory every day!

Ms. Bunny of the Ryan Berkley Quartet

Since I love the Ryan Berkley designs for Sublime Stitching so much, I decided to stitch up one of each animal to hang over the nightstand in our bedroom.  The first design that I tackled is Ms. Bunny, who is looking very pretty in her ruffled blouse and string of pearls.

I plan on stretching the embroideries over canvas so the frames can act as frames, rather than framing them in embroidery hoops like I normally do.

This may seem obvious to veterans of embroidery, but a row of French knots turns out much neater if you insert the needle from the same direction every time.  I realized this halfway through the string and ended up cutting out and starting over so the string would be uniform.  I’m glad I did.

Next up is Ms. Kitty!

Mr. Fox and Mr. Bird Embroidered Tea Towels

Remember when I started embroidering Mr. Fox and Mr. Bird on tea towels to give to our friends as a housewarming gift?  I finished them weeks ago but we hadn't gotten a chance to give them the towels until this past weekend.  I can finally share them with you!  Aren't they so dapper?

Here's how they look hanging on the oven door handle.  I kinda wanted to keep them for ourselves!

Now for some closeups.  I separated the floss down to three strands so I could work in the details.  I've never separated floss before, so this was a fun exercise in working with thinner stranded floss.  I loved it actually.  When I went back to working with six strands for the praying mantis, the design felt very bulky.  I'm not sure if this is going to alter how I embroider in the future, but it's nice to know how to stitch a more delicate line.

And here's Mr. Bird.  I love the shading on his head.  Who knew this kind of artwork could be achieved from embroidery?

I will be whipping up a Mr. Fox and Mr. Bird (and Ms. Bunny and Ms. Kitty from the Ryan Berkley designs) for our very own!  Stay tuned!