The day before yesterday was a bit like Christmas. I had ordered several things due to arrive in the mail and I assumed they would all arrive on different days having been sent from various parts of the country on various days. (1. a new, faster camera lens. 2. A guide book on San Miguel de Allende. 3. My iron-on embroidery transfer patterns and towels.) When Dennis (our mailman) drove in our driveway and up to the front door I knew he had a package for me. I walked out to greet him saying “I thought you might have a package for me today!” He responded with “Not just one, but THREE packages for you!” Like I said: Christmas!
Alas, trying out my new lens in the kind of weather we’ve been having is not much fun. After the rain stopped I snapped the photo above. I liked how the raindrops clung all glisten-y to the wind chime. (My other lens did not allow apertures below 5.6 even when completely in manual mode, so I wanted something faster so I could shoot in lower light situations. )
I was very excited about starting on the embroidery. In anticipation of their arrival I had purchased an assortment packet of floss at Michaels the day before, and since the surface of my iron was shot I also bought a cheap new one. I was ready to get this project started!
I chose the “Down Mexico Way” patterns with my mother-in-law in mind. Rick’s parents are in Mexico (hence our visit to San Miguel) for several months and I thought they would be cute in her kitchen. I don’t think she is reading the blog while she is there because she only gets online to read her email since she has to go to Rick’s cousin’s house to even do that. But in case she does read this: Surprise!
I had a false start with the transfer. I don’t know if the iron wasn’t hot enough or what, but it wasn’t transferring. And even though I had the pattern pinned, it slipped and left a double impression. If I looked at it with my eyes crossed it might have looked normal. sigh. Since the transfer was so light I decided to wash the towel and see if it would wash out. It did and I began again. This time I turned the iron temperature up one notch and instead of keeping the iron moving across the transfer I left it in one place for 5 seconds, then moved to another part of the pattern. It worked! Nice dark lines. See for yourself.
It was like magic! I have never done this before and after the fiasco with the first try at an impression I was very pleased.
Sometimes I have a hard time choosing colors for things. I am not an artist, so planning it out ahead of time always helps. I photocopied the pattern and tried different color combinations. I wanted to use as few colors as I could. After trying a few different ones I decided on this:
And here is the WIP:
It was fun and relaxing to do. A very different experience than knitting altogether, so it’s a nice change. I hope to get quite a bit more done today but it’s so dark (rainy) I will need to sit under a good light source instead of my usual spot in the sun room.
Also on my schedule today is a quick trip to the grocery for coffee, trying to keep the dogs entertained since they can’t go outside, and another Spanish lesson with the Rosetta Stone. Rainy days can be enjoyable as long as you have something entertaining to do!
I think the buds on the maple trees are beautiful. It’s hard to imagine this “flower” turning into leaves, but soon it will.
Happy April 1st and I’m not foolin’!
It’s true you know. Old hobbies never die. They just lie dormant until they are poked and prodded back into active life again. For the last few years my hobby has become knitting, but in the before-time I did needlework of varying kinds. Now my embroidery passion is again coursing through my veins and itching to fly out through my fingers. More about why a little later in this post.
My first needle-y hobby was crewel work. [Crewel has most of the same stitches as embroidery but is done with yarn instead of floss.] Mostly I just bought small kits and did them for family members. This one I brought back from my mom’s house and I think it was one of the first ones I ever did. I think it was a kit by Sunset.
Bless mom’s heart. She had it framed and hanging on the wall.
This piece was also framed and hanging on her wall. A Christmas gift.
Whatever possessed me to take on such a big needlework project (20” x 15”) I can’t imagine! The pansies were done in 1975 and this epic was worked in 1978. I was on a crewel roll!
Here are a few close-ups.
Maybe I got overwhelmed with that project, I don’t know, but I moved from crewel on to counted cross-stitch and stuck with it for many years. Mostly samplers.
This one I modified the real pattern of the cats to portray each of the cats we had had up to that time, so each one with a name embroidered underneath it has custom markings and coat color.
Why I chose this one I’m not quite sure but it was fun to work on.
I also liked to do flowers ...
None of these were ever framed. They just never seemed to fit into the decor of whatever house we were living in with the exception of “Home Sweet Home” at the very beginning of this post. That one, I’m sure you’ll agree, fits in most anywhere.
What followed was a big gap in my creativity with any kind of needle. The hobby then became dogs. Breeding dogs ... showing dogs ... collecting dogs. A truly all-consuming hobby.
Then knitting arrived on the scene and all the unfinished or never begun needlework projects got shoved further back in the closet.
About three or four months ago I started to get the urge again and bought a very small “Learn to Embroider” kit at Michaels just to remind me of the stitches and see if I really would enjoy doing it again. I did, but the design was boring and I really couldn’t see myself hanging anything on my wall that said “Believe in Yourself.”
What really jump-started this old-but-found-again passion is the fault of two blogging sisters. Becky (of the heirloom iris) blogged about some quilt squares her sister had embroidered for the new grandbaby’s quilt. They were absolutely adorable and beautifully stitched! Then most recently she blogged again about her sister’s prowess with a needle in the form of these gorgeous teapot tea towels. I was totally hooked.
Tea towels! Now those I could use or give as useful gifts and how fun to create! With the help and advice of Becky’s sister Jan who pointed me in all the right directions, I purchased some iron-on transfer patterns on eBay and some flour sack cotton towels. Now I can hardly wait for them to arrive so I can get started!
I’ll be posting more on them when they arrive, but they are all designs of the vintage variety from the 1940’s and 50’s. And oh, by the way, If you think you might be a future recipient of some hand-embroidered tea towels and you really don’t think you’d want them, you’d better let me know.
The rain woke me up this morning at 4:00 a.m. It was a nice sound but I never did get back to sleep. It’s dark and gloomy out and for a while this morning it was hard to tell it was morning. The grass has greened up a bit and the forsythia hedge has taken on a golden glow, which means it’s thinking about blooming. The daffodils and day lilies are up by a few inches, some of my heirloom iris have sprouted little green flags (hurray!), and Rick spotted the first bear of the season just the other day.
Spring has sprung here in New Jersey, but ever so slowly.
Can you tell I’ve been spending a lot of time with my Rosetta Stone?
{words added} photo: on the beach, Riviera Maya
