Tag: embroidery

I’m a sucker for cotton muslin.I ordered this set of antique pillowcases from ebay. One was completed, the other barely started. The finished case is much whiter than the unfinished one, but I had no way of knowing if the unfinished case would wash up after it was stitched. It didn’t. Actually, it is a bit better, but not much. I don’t think I’ll ever do this again. The fabric is far better than anything I could buy today in a kit, but the whole time I was working this pillowcase, I kept thinking, I don’t know where this has been, who handled it over the past several decades. And of course, you can’t wash it before you finish stitching because the stamped pattern is water soluble. It made me want to wash my hands repeatedly.Also, my stitching is very different from the original stitcher’s. I connect my cross stitches, but the other pillowcase is stitched with each X independent. That is why my case looks darker.

I’ll be keeping this set for myself, but I hope to do the pattern again on a clean, new set of pillowcases.See, the real draw was the original pattern included. I fell in love with those deco flowers. Next time I’ll use deco colors!I painstakingly matched up the wild colors chosen by some unknown person long ago.

DMC rose #335
DMC aquamarine #3814
DMC medium tangerine #741

This is my first foray into the land of embroidered towels. I was a bit worried about getting all the thread tails secure because the back is exposed and I figure that towels get a lot more wear and tear than pillowcases. I think I did a sufficient job. This pattern is from the brand Tobin and I purchased them from from artscraftsusa.com. I’ve become a big fan of Tobin’s patterns, but they are harder to find. Now, arstcraftsusa has the largest selection of Tobin products that I could find, but I doubt I’ll order from them again. Their service was less than stellar. The order trickled in a couple items at a time, over a 6 week period, with no communication or indication of partial orders. There is still one item that I ordered, which I was never charged for, was never sent, but showed up on every packing slip as filled. But, I did placed a large order and I think I bought everything that I want from that store anyway.

Mostly, I used the colors that I had on hand, I only had to order the dark grey to finish the kitties.

Colors used in DMC cotton perle #8:

Black 310

Dark Grey 413

Light Grey 415

Blue 3325
Pink 957
Green 702

My cousin Nikki is expecting her first baby next month, so I made these for her baby shower gift. Along with Dr. Seuss’ Sleep Book, an all time favourite of mine. That is part of my standard baby shower gift these days, since the old standby baby ear thermometer is too expensive now that the bungalow takes all my money. But back to the bunny and doe.

The mommy-to-be selected sage green and brown as her nursery colors, and bedding with little does all over. So I looked around for baby deer to embroider. I remembered this adorable doe pattern from doe-c-doe’s blog. I keep seeing it pop up on flickr, done in pretty pinks, vibrant pastels, bold aquas and corals, vintage gold, and even on a tee shirt. Then I found just the right colors in this Carter’s 4 pack of receiving blankets from JCPenney.

Two of the blankets have such bold patterns that I couldn’t really embellish them in any way, but the other two were just asking for some stitching. I decided to do the doe on the green blanket because the little doe would be brown and he would show up best on green. Then my friend Heather drew a bunny for me, using the doe as a model so they would co-ordinate. Isn’t she talented? I’m only sorry that the bunny doesn’t show up better.

I used DMC cotton perle #8, my favourite.

very light brown 435
cream (from my old stock- I think it is supposed to be white)
dark salmon 3328
salmon 760
light old gold 676
ultra dark coffee brown 938

This his and hers set of pillowcases is a stamped set from Bucilla, called Bridal Bouquet. I’m not sure what is going on with their website, because the colors in the photograph are garish, but in real life it is quite soft and lovely. Unlike usual, I followed the recommended colors. Except for the words His and Hers. The pattern called for one of the greens, but I decided I wanted them in blue and pink, respectively.

While I really do like this pattern, I don’t think I will duplicate it. In fact, I think it will be a long time before I do another cross stitch. I’m too impatient and cross stitch take much longer than regular embroidery.I do have this tip, though, should anyone out there decide to do this pattern. I worked one color at a time. I did the stems first. With the flowers, I worked from the inside outward. I bought a washable fabric pen ages ago. When I started each new color I marked the center of the stitch. Then I would work all the stitches in that color before moving on to the next color. I did each pillowcase this way, so I didn’t have to consult my chart every two seconds.

I did these three little kittens for my Aunt Lu, who has a beautiful black kitty, a new addition to their family about this time last year.I “borrowed” the pattern from a pattern I saw somewhere. Don’t ask me where now, I should learn to make note of such things, but I’m always sure I’ll remember. It wasn’t my best project, I’ll admit, I envisioned them turning out a bit differently. But Aunt Lu seemed to like them, so I guess that’s all that matters.

As I’ve become such a fan of variegated floss, I did two of the kittens with variegated dark grey, variegated tans (think Oliver-colored), and the third in solid soft grey. I didn’t write the color numbers down, and when I went back through my floss, I couldn’t tell which I had used.