thursday = embroidery

So, as promised here is my first post about embroidery! This time I'm going to show an example of my work and talk a little bit about it...depending on how productive I am there will be either an example of a finished project or one of the transfers from my collection. At the rate I'm going right now I'm thinking there's going to be a lot of transfers and not a lot of work on Thursdays!

I did this pillow for my sister for xmas and I'm really happy with the way it came out. I bought a coloring book on eBay that was devoted to episodes from I Love Lucy and then picked the one I thought best resembled her. I scanned that into the computer and built the rest of the design around it using several online sources. The banner is from my Sublime Stitching book and the birds & scallop element are from needlecrafter. I wasn’t originally planning to do the beading around the frame…it was a way to get out of doing French knots! But I’m so glad I did do it because I really think it adds another dimension to the piece and reinforces the kitsch of it.


It’s all hand-done with stem and satin stitches. And I really referenced Jenny Hart’s work when I planned it out since her portraits are so amazing. Looking at hers really helped me get over my nervousness about doing my first portrait, having something to reference took away some of the unknown and gave me a boost of confidence.

To transfer it onto the prepared pillow cover {which I bought from dharmatrading I printed it out in 4 quads, then cut and taped those together. Then using a light box I flipped the image over {so the writing was reversed} and using a blank sheet of paper re-drew the image using sulky transfers pens {from fun2stitch}. If I have a tip to share, its that I planned my colors out ahead of time and then used the closet pen color possible so that everything looked neat and tidy in the end. I started it right after Thanksgiving and finished it around Dec. 16th, working only in the evenings during the week but then marathon sessions on the weekend.

I’d definitely do another portrait, I’m just not sure what or who it would be of - I was thinking one of each of the pets would be nice...

One more thing – I’d just like to thank everyone for their nice comments on flickr and here on the blog! I’ve been very inspired by the photos, blogs and creations of so many people on the internet and I can’t believe that now I’m putting stuff out into the void and having people respond to it! Thank you, thank you, thank you!