Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Embroidery Revisited



This past summer, due to the unbearable heat in my workroom (when the AC only takes the temp down to 85, there's a problem), I took up embroidery for the first time in about 20 years.  It was actually the first type of needlework I ever did -- I remember a pagoda-like structure embroidered on yellow satin with turquoise and red sewing thread when I was about 5 -- and it turns out it's still a favorite.

It also appears that my color palette hasn't gotten any more restrained during that time.

The only problem with embroidery, for me, is I find a really fun design and execute it and then I look around and think, "What do I do with it now?"  It's fine when I'm embellishing an existing garment or I have an idea from the get-go, but usually the idea is "cute design, let's embroider it and think of something to do with it."

Enter the scrap bag.  And hamper.  And another bag or two.  In addition to embroidery, I'm also a fan of patchwork, but I'm a terrible quilter.  I may have the patience to embroider sugar skulls until the cows come home (now there's a picture), but I can't quilt to save my life.  So I pieced around each embroidered image until I liked the effect, then I backed them with batting and muslin, and machine-quilted all all the seams.

Then I dug around and found suitable backing fabrics and turned them all into envelope-back pillow covers.  They look very snazzy with my new labels, and you can either buy a pre-made pillow form for them or use a pillow you already have.

These were out at the craft show and a few of them sold.  The rest of them are in the Etsy shop, waiting for someone to love them.

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