A Consistent August Palette

Today Clara's embroidery project exactly matched the flowers on the dining table.

I Finished Another Embroidery Project!

This dresser scarf was an awesome project--because it was 80% done when I pulled it out of the bag. I fished some almost-matching floss out of my stash of embroidery thread, and dove right in.

Modernizing a Dated Embroidery Project

My step-mother passed a big bag of sewing goodies to me which had belonged to her late mother.  I found quite a few new-in-the-package sewing kits--embroidery and crewel work. 

The crewel work--it is what it is: harvest gold mushrooms and olive green flowers. Clara may work them up for fun some day.

I appreciate the nice quality of some of the printed projects--these guest towels are on 100% linen, fun and mindless to cross-stitch. And they fit in my purse. I brought them into this decade by throwing out the bright color choices, and doing them in a monochromatic pale seafoam green.

Needs a Dachshund

I recently made a plaid wool tote, and it looked a little plain.

"This needs a dachshund," I said to myself.

($30, send me an email if you want it.)

Embroidered Pieces in the Shop

 New tote bags and a quilt in the shop tonight. The bags each sport loads of hand-embroidery--very different from each other. And there's a quilt!

Clara Embroiders a Waistband

Clara is making herself a summer dress from sage green dotted Swiss. She used the wrong side of the fabric for the waistband and is embroidering it in vines and flowers.

Clara Tackles the Floss

Clara dumped out the plastic bin filled with wads of half-used embroidery floss skeins. That was yesterday. Today she's got almost everything on little cards. Who knew this was possible?

A Little White on White

Clara and I are about to put together our next quilt top, which involves quite a few words (from the Bible, and having to do with ravens). She is an embroidering machine! But I don't mean that literally, since she does it all by hand.

Boreal Forest Quilt, Finished

This is Boreal Forest, the quilt. The forest is populated with creatures seen and unseen. No one knows who made these tracks:

It wasn't the bear--he's headed into the trees.

It wasn't the pine grosbeak--he flew in.

So did the Great Horned Owl.

And the hare hopped in from the west.

The boreal forest is full of animals,

and their secrets.

Design by Clara and me, embroidery by Clara.

A Mountain Hare for the Forest

Here you can see a little bit of the process--the blue marks to outline the hare's form will disappear with a damp cloth. Clara just finished this, and started the Great Horned Owl sitting in one of the trees.

. . . And Then a Bear Walked into the Forest

Clara is taking our Boreal Forest quilt to the next level.

Daisy Makes a Baby Gift

A church friend is having a baby boy very soon, so Daisy embroidered this darling truck on a piece of white muslin. I turned the edges under and zigzagged it to a onesie.

You can embroider right on the jersey, but it's definitely trickier.

Vintage Simplicity 3552: A Collar for Embroidery

 Over Christmas break I cut this dress out for Clara, and sewed the collar pieces together in preparation for some elaborate embroidery--and Clara took over from there. It was her carrying-around handwork for spring semester, and then she made the dress.

She's pretty handy with the satin stitching.

And I was very impressed with the chevrons she achieved with the skirt pieces.

On plain old ticking.

Honeycomb Smocking

I had soft gray fine-wale corduroy to make Daisy a dress, and decided to insert a front panel of honeycomb smocking, because the texture seemed like it would be delicious.

Embroidery in All Shades of Gray

 Last year I found a printed embroidery kit at the thrift store. Lots of flowers and plants, and I believe it came with a mess of crewel yarn. 

I threw that out.

I knew I wanted to embroidery this whole great big piece in just shades of gray. So I bought every shade I could find at the craft store.

When I finished, I thought it still needed something, so I went in and embroidered random star shapes here and there above the plants and in between them. And then scattered it with clear seed beads.

Soon I will make it into a pillow.

Vintage State Flowers

I've noticed before that my stash is full of mysteries--for instance, I have no idea where this collection of state flower embroideries came from. I think there were about thirty-six, all beautifully worked on a creamy yellow silk (?). How can something like that just appear?

I've made them into two table runners, both backed with linen. I hope to get them in my etsy shop soon, in case there are people out there needing a Vintage State Flower Embroidery Table Runner. I hope there aren't more than two people like that.

The Crewel Garden Grows

Clara had to take a break from embroidering to work a 2000 piece puzzle, but she's back in the saddle now. Hoping to finish this by the end of her break.

Crewelwork and a Large Cat

Innocently embroidering by the fire, Clara found her lap suddenly commandeered by a very large cat. Oh well.

Clara Embroiders a Kindle Case

A folded-over piece of wool felt, machine stitched into a pocket.


And French knot hyacinths in a row across the top.

More Felt Ornaments

This year's embroidered felt ornaments are going to be at least this deer, and a red winter coat. Thank you to Posie's shop for the pdf patterns (Clara donated felt from her stash).