Hand Stitching

Here are the embroidery projects I've done since teaching myself embroidery stitches a little while ago. The first is Rachel's birthday present. Looking at it now, far away and several months later, I'm very impressed with myself!

Here is the sampler I made. It's been sitting in my embroidery bag, since I made it, and once again, now that I see it I really like it! I will have to display it somehow.

Then, last night I embroidered this scripture bag for Maggie. The Relief Society made this for the Primary kids and I found an extra under my bed, so I made it for Maggie. She picked out the colors and John did the writing.

Then I put her name on the back.

Continuing the theme of embroidery+stuff from the US, we got some goodies from a co-worker of John's today. Maggie was super excited about it. Here's what we got:
Of all the things you think you'll miss...

Maggie was begging to have "black jelly beans" after dinner. We thought she meant the M&Ms, but she wanted the black beans!

First Sewing Projects and a Non Surprise

I mentioned earlier that I've decided to learn real embroidery. I bought some supplies, doodled a design, and learned 4 stitches. As I was working on my sampler this afternoon, Maggie came and "helped" me. I told her a friend was sending us Maggie needles - plastic yarn needles. Not two minutes later, the doorbell rang.

"Who is it?" Maggie asked.

"Someone who doesn't read English," I replied. There is a Please Knock note on the doorbell - with an arrow pointing to the door even.

Lo, and behold - A package containing plastic yarn needles! Maggie was thrilled. I cut out a pattern from a cereal box, punched holes with my new handy-dandy hole punch, and threaded the needle with some yarn that was lying around. We did a star because this week's preschool was S. She completed her project while I finished mine, and Dalton went back to sleep - briefly.

And also a triangle that was leftover from cutting out the star.

Here we are with our projects. More on my embroidery later.

If you had told me two months ago that these are the things I would have requested in a package... well, first of all, I would have packed them in a suitcase and brought them myself! I was especially excited about the 3M hooks. I've already hung up our clock properly (it may have been dangling from a light fixture by a piece of yarn...) and my calendar. And I rigged a holder for my recipe papers on the cupboard so I can see them when I'm baking. Yay! Thanks, Kim.

Crafty Goodness

I went to a fabric store on Commercial Street today that Kerri told me about. Among other things (just about everything) he had an entire cupboard with little drawers full of embroidery floss of every color, and rows and rows of ribbon spools and trims. I am just posting all of the pictures I took. You can click to enlarge.

This is the shop from the outside. Tiny, but overwhelming.

The kids were impressed with the rainbow of thread. We picked out 7 colors to take home. (I also got an embroidery hoop, needles and poplin.)

There is basically no floor space in the shop.

Off to learn embroidery now.

Felt Fortune Cookies and Chinese Take Out Box

I followed the instructions for making the felt fortune cookies at Somewhat Simple. They were really easy and fast to make. The Chinese take out box is another story. I sewed the whole thing by hand, plus the embroidery. I got the pattern and instructions here. It was fun and definitely worth the effort, though. This is one of my favorite items of felt food I've made so far.

Am I a Traitor?

I made a fleece University of Utah blanket for John's brother's birthday. He was pretty excited about it. The licensed fleece was really expensive - $15/yard at Jo-Ann, although Erin said she saw it at Wal-mart for $10. Definitely a good purchase to use a 40% coupon on. I bought 1 2/3 yards, but I didn't realize it was 60" wide. You really just need 1 1/3 yards for a good snuggle blanket size. I cut 1" wide strips 4" deep along the top and bottom, and knotted each strip. No sewing involved.
Since they'll take this blanket to games, I embroidered his last name on one corner. I did it on the machine, but it was freehand so it looks like I wrote it. Excuse my sewing-hand-writing.
Since Jo-Ann also carries BYU fleece, it was suggested I could make one of these for just about every member of the family. Not a bad idea!