Working on tea towels for family members that were so gracious as to accept my late Christmas gift via IOU. That's right, my family is so generously supportive that they actually got excited about an almost finished Christmas present.
I bought the tea towels at the most wonderful and entertaining website, thank you Jenny Hart, at Sublime Stitching. http://www.sublimestitching.com/ She has so many genres of designs that you are surely going to find something up your alley.
Just buy the amazing package of designs that are completely economical and super cute! You can iron the designs up to 10 times for the price of one. How can you go wrong?
This is so much like coloring for adults. I love to color with my daughter but this is just as fun! Well, after I discovered how much I like to embroider, I threw in the crayons anyway. The center of the Matryoshka's dress is colored in with crayon. I colored it in after I put the iron-on transfer on the fabric but before the embroidery so my thread would give it the "finished" look. Pick a complimenting color (Crayola is the best because it has most color to wax ratio) and color in the lines. Then take a hot iron (heat appropriate for type of fabric) with scrap fabric below and above your colored piece so it protects your iron and your ironing board. The heat fuses the color to the fiber and the extra fabric absorbs any excess. It will wash just fine because the water won't get hot enough to bleed out the color. I should mention that I don't usually wash these in hot water but very warm water. It gives such a nice addition to the work and looks very tailored.
Have fun embroidering!!!