Embroidery has never been one of my
things. I guess I have to have a practical application for the
projects I undertake, and embroidery on clothes always says 'hippy'
to someone my age.
My mum's greatest joy as a young woman in the
1920s was painting and embroidery. When I was a child my bed had a
beautiful cream linen coverlet that she had embroidered with
bluebirds.
This matching pillow sham is still in
my linen cupboard.
A friend signed up for an embroidery
course at our local Neighbourhood House last year and I decided to
join her for the heck of it.
I wasn't completely clueless about
basic embroidery stitches but learning to do the bullion rose was
quite a challenge.
Having completed the three-week course,
I had to find something to embroider. My sixth grandchild was on the
way at that time so I thought it a perfect opportunity for a bit of
embroidery. The difficulty was what to embroider as we were expecting
a boy baby.
I'd already made a bunny rug and chain
stitched a bear onto it.
I tried out a boat on my sampler.
Then I had the bright idea of embroidering a set of bibs featuring the images in that classic children's book, Very Hungry Caterpillar.
I drew up the shapes to the size I
wanted, traced them onto tissue then marked them onto the bibs by
piercing through the tissue with the point of a biro (there must be
an easier way?).
Some were more successful than others
but all in all I was pretty happy with the result.
The VHC himself was, I thought, a
triumph (it's not easy to embroider a face on a tiny caterpillar!).
An evening spent with needle and thread
is an evening well spent.
These are so cute x
ReplyDeleteThank you, such fun to do.
ReplyDelete