Embroidery Day!

Today I’m dragging out some old, old stuff.  Many years ago I got interested in embroidery and went after it with my usual obsessiveness.  I think I like it because it’s really the first crafty type of thing I ever did.  I started this one embroidered bib when I was maybe 6 and finally finished it when I was about 22.  I’ll find it sometime and show it to you.

I did these 3 embroidery pieces when I was 22 or 23 years old.  Ever since then it’s just been stored, doing nothing. You will see I have a certain style - I like organic-ey, rounded shapes, kind of like vines.  I love those shapes, it’s so very much fun to draw and sew!

This next blue/green piece is my favorite of all the pieces of embroidery I’ve done.  Looping vines and 2 kinds of flowers.  I don’t quite know what I’m going to do with it, but who knew I had enough patience to do the satin stitch on those petals!

This last is a foretaste of my last show-and-tell project today … I love the scrolled look of the embroidery.  More curved shapes!

Finally, I had three pieces of Holiday embroidery in the pile that I’d apparently originally intended to be pillows.  I decided they would be one of my projects to finally get done when I reorganized.  I can’t remember the details of what I was going to do originally, so I got to make it up again.

So … here’s my Xmas pillows, in April!  Don’t laugh!!  It’s a 10-year old project finally done!!  I think they turned out nicely, kind of like presents, even if I do have to put them away immediately.

Seriously, regardless of the theme & decoration here, I still faced some sewing fears!  In this case, the red fabric is a really shiny satiny material, very slippery - festive!  I usually avoid this kind of thin, slippery fabric, and this was a good opportunity to grit my teeth and sew with it anyway. I also avoid buttonholes like the plague, and I had to make buttonholes for the envelope closure, and because of the fabric I had to use stabilizer in it.  But I prevailed.