Friday, September 24, 2010

Sweet Stitches

Here's a simple post to share my embroidery works in progress.  I have very little experience in embroidery, but I've found this craft to be fun, portable, and gratifying.  I have not found it to be particularly quick.  I'm still defining my style at this, but here's what I've done so far. 

half of my Julie West scene
BLUR! the other half -  I have a lot more stitching to do!
These are the pics of my aforementioned embroidery project.  I don't know what I am doing here, but I am loving the stems on these mod flowers.  I am hoping this turns out fabulous!  Time will tell, my friends.

I showed my Spanish teacher my new handiwork, and he said he needed a cloth in which to wrap his tortillas.  So I just busted out the needle and thread and gave it a go.  I used the "Country Cool" embroidery pattern from (where else?) Sublime Stitching.  

This is the lower-left-hand corner
This is the lower-right-hand corner
I am learning that embroidery doesn't have to be elaborate to be good.  I found that back-stitching these simple outlines on plain fabric was very satisfying.   Embroidery seems to be a no-fuss craft.  I don't iron my fabric first, because it will be stretched across a hoop anyway.  Hoops, needles, and thread are cheap and readily available.  I have been tracing patterns onto my fabric using carbon paper, but you can easily just take out a pen and draw.  You can see I wrote out "Tortillas de Ed" in ballpoint pen!