Little Miss Matryoshka

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!!!

Embroidered Bookmarks

This picture of Lily working on her embroidery is a repost, but I wanted to remind you of the work in progress. The bookmark is finally finished and turned out so cute.

The fabric is an old sheet I cut up and I used scraps from other projects for the backs. Then I used a little ribbon or ric-rac for the top of the bookmark. The embroidery thread is about 25 cents at Hancock Fabrics...super cheap idea. If you use Crayola Washable markers, they can pick the color they want and it washes right out. I am very new to embroidery and these stitches are basic. I pretty much just kept my needle and thread on top of the color and didn't worry about anything.

Kenny also made a bookmark for his grandma (at Christmas, yikes) and it's finished as well. The red one is for me from Lily. I think it's funny that she didn't put "mom" on the bookmark but put "Chrissy" instead.

The cutest thing about these bookmarks is that they are the real thing....the real creative energy from their thoughts. All I did was bring it out with thread. I love this idea. It's so easy, inexpensive and unique. The recipient is always happy!

This one was for Mema. Lily asked me what she should draw and I said, "just draw what you think of when you are with Mema." And this is what she came up with...."me and you!" I love it! Such a sweet thing to see when you open your book.

First Embroidery

Love this picture! She didn't even know I took it. I was setting up the sewing maching and saw that she stole my embroidery hoop. I thought it would turn into a big mess with string aroung the outside but she did great. She followed the markers of her own design.