Stitch Your Child’s Drawing

I’m working on a large embroidered collage project and wanted to include one of my daughter’s drawings on it.

I first saw this idea a few years ago and have just been waiting for my daughter to get old enough.

As far as projects go, this one was pretty easy.  I had Shelby draw a picture (that says “Shelby” not “by Shel”), then I scanned it in and printed it in mirror image and used a heat transfer pencil to trace over the design and iron it on to my fabric.  I find that is far easier than trying to trace directly onto the fabric or on the back of the pattern using a light box.

I stitched over the pattern using the exact colors that she used in her original drawing.  I think it turned out well and she’s impressed that her artwork is included on the collage.

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I Fought The Law Embroidery.

I had this song stuck in my head the other day.  And was in the mood to stitch handcuffs.  (You’ve been in that mood before, don’t deny it.)  So here it is.

I mounted this on an artist’s canvas.  I put a piece of batting between the canvas and the stitching.  The batting isn’t necessary, my mother doesn’t do it.  But her knots are nicer than mine and she doesn’t need it.  To give it a more polished look, I glued grosgrain ribbon around the edge.

I never thought I’d be giving embroidery instructions because I’m not exactly an expert.  But I’ve been noticing in blogland that some people transfer patterns the really really really hard way. You can trace your pattern over a light board (or do it in various other even harder ways), but I prefer to scan it in to my computer and then click on “mirror image” in the print options.  Then you can trace over your design and just iron it right on to your fabric.  For this particular project, I typed the phrase out in a word document and printed it as a mirror image.

Just thought I’d share that tidbit for anyone who doesn’t know.

Remember, in 2011 I will be donating 75% of my Etsy sales to my church’s mission trip to Haiti.  Please check it out at http://www.marybt.etsy.com.  I will be adding some new things this week that I’m really excited about.

I am linking up over to http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com .  Go check it out – you will find some really great links!

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Don’t Eat Me! Paste Embroidery.

I found this awesome pattern over at Wild Olive.  http://wildolive.blogspot.com/  For some reason, I am unable to copy and paste the link, but if you go to her archives, it was posted Sunday August 8, 2009.

I totally love the pattern.  I mounted the finished embroidery on a canvas.  I do not like that at all because you can see all the ends through the muslin.  Grrr.  Anyway, I totally love this and will keep the pattern for the future.  Thanks, Wild Olive!

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Some Stitching and a Birdhouse

I’ve been in the mood to embroider lately.  Probably because PipStitch (http://pipstitch.blogspot.com) posts so many cute links.

This first is a pillowcase that I made for the Shelbinator.  I got the pattern at Needle Crafter (http://www.needlecrafter.com).  If you haven’t visited her site and you like to stitch, you should really go over there.  She has tons of free patterns.

Then I made this tea towel for my grandma for Mother’s Day.  I traced a coloring page that I found at http://www.texasbob.com.  My Grandma doesn’t like Texas or anything, I just liked the pattern…Kidding!  She moved to Texas a few years ago.  And, yes, I stitched Texas in pink.

In case my superior embroidery skills don’t make it blatantly obvious, those are supposed to be blue bonnets…

Here is a tea towel I made as an Easter gift for a friend.  I think I’m going to wear out this bunny pattern from Orange Flower Patterns!  (http://orangeflowerpatterns.blogspot.com/ )

And here is the best craft of all!  Dollar Tree has small unfinished birdhouses.  Shelby picked one out, I spray painted it white, and then let her decorate it with permanent markers.  It’s a Mother’s Day gift for my grandma.

Okay, that’s all I have tonight.

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Easter Bunny Embroidered Pillow

I have been in the mood to embroider lately for some reason.  I don’t do it often – mostly because transferring the patterns is a bit of a pain and I’m a bit lazy.  Anyway, I found a darling bunny pattern over at Orange Flower Patterns ( http://orangeflowerpatterns.blogspot.com/ ).

Here’s my version.

I was just going to use it to practice as I hadn’t embroidered in awhile and I wanted to do a pillowcase for Shelby.  But it turned out so cute that I had to do something with it.  So I took it to my friend Missie, who owns the local quilt shop, and had her make it into a little pillow that hangs on a door knob.  I didn’t take a picture of the back, but it’s a nice 1930’s (plus or minus) reproduction print.

Shelby got very excited when she saw me hang it up – she thinks it’s a purse – so it has not hung on the doorknob for any longer than it took to take the picture!  I wanted to get a picture of her carrying it around like a purse, but it’s difficult to get her picture these days because she has decided she likes to be behind the camera and see the images on the screen.

It’s slightly out of focus because she was fixing to bolt over to see what was on the camera screen.

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