Thursday, February 24, 2011

Spending time with needle and hoop---


Lately, as I've been out touring in Blogland, I have visited several blogs that feature hand embroidery. It brought back memories of my "hand embroidery days" way back when. I remembered how much I loved the feel of the needle in my hand and the peacefulness I felt as I stitched designs with thread and floss.



I checked out some books from the library and just knew I was going to have to do some embroidery.

You can find these book at Amazon as well. I may have to buy them for my collection.




I love to stop by and visit  with Carina at Carina's Craftblog, where I always find beautiful embroidery and lots of inspiration. When she mentioned a stichalong over at feeling stitchy , I thought I'd drop by and see what it was all about. And that's when I decided to join in.

This is the pattern that was being used--




So......I rummaged through some drawers in my craft room and found--


a hoop, a needle and a sweet crocheted egg to use as a pin cushion.



After a little more searching I found--

some leftover cotton craft thread from a long ago project.



Now what to stitch on--

I have lots of scraps left over from projects--so I though this brown piece might go well with the thread colors that I had.





I enlarged the design, photo-copied it,  transferred it to my material using some tracing paper, and started stitching--





I spent the afternoon on Sunday, sitting in my rocking chair in my craft room with the windows open, listening to the birds singing, and embroidered.

It was a wonderful, peaceful way to spend an afternoon.





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Here is the finished product. I'm a little rusty with the tension and stitches. I just used three stitches, a couple of different versions of the daisy stitch, french knots and the stem stitch



I'm thinking of making this into a pillow.

Thank-you to all my new "hand-embroidery" friends, for re-introducing me to this wonderful past-time. I will be spending many more peaceful afternoons in my rocking chair--stitching away.

11 comments:

  1. Wow, what a nice job you did. I love the vintage dish towels that are stitched with fruit and flowers.

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  2. That is a beautiful pattern. Is the stich a log over? This is better than the once upon a time cross stich, for me anyway, because I can't see anymore!! Even with glasses, it is too difficult to follow. Oh, what I used to be able to do with young eyes... Brianne

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  3. What a beautiful project! Those books look like they definitely need to be added to any stitcher's library.

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  4. I think it would be a wonderful pillow. My grandmother used to make some wonderful embroidery pieces. I used to do cross-stitch, but haven't in a long time.

    Hugs,
    Kat

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  5. Hi!
    Just want to thank you for the sweet well-wishes you left last week!

    I hope our weather warms up soon!

    Katherine

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  6. I love this embroidery! It came out beautifully. What a lovely pillow it will make.

    xo
    Claudia

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  7. Megan, I've got a blog award waiting for you on my latest post. Lisa

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  8. Megan, thanks for visiting me today. We'll be headed your way (St. Augustine) next week. We can't wait to sink our toes in the sand. I love that you have been married to your sweetheart since the age of 18. Me and mine got married at just 19, it's been a wonderful life. b

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  9. Very Pretty! I ran across 2 hoops recently - have had them for years. Have no clue why I bought them as I never did any embroidery work, that I can remember. I just made a note to ask my daughters if they want them. :)
    Thanks for stopping by.

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  10. Good job dear. Am beena from India . First time your blog am following u . Glad if u will follow me back dear
    www.beenascreations.blogspot.com
    www.cookingatmayflower.blogspot.com

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