Today is my husband's birthday but I got the present. A student brought me a lovely bouquet. This isn't the exact bouquet (I didn't have a camera at work today) but it's pretty close. I'm helping her with a project and it was very sweet of her to think of me. I'm allergic so I set the flowers on a bookself outside of my office, where I can see them when I'm at my desk but not sneeze. Plus, everyone else gets to see them, too.I also got a package in the mail today from Hedgehog Handworks--linen twill for next summer's crewel class that I purchased in January while it was on sale, along with some linen thread, a little box of gold spangles, and some lovely linen plainweave in a natural color for crewel.
In the winter I feel this blog is always a week behind because I can take pictures on the weekend of what I did the previous week and then post them after the fact.
I spent time last weekend working on projects for children. This first was to show them that you can embroider on anything. The base for this project is paper towel. After some experimentation, I fused two pieces together.I put this design idea to work last weekend when we visited friends with young children. They liked it a lot. I prepunched the holes for them so they could use tapestry needles (no pokes!). E (5) finished hers with a great deal of persistence and determination. She got the back and forth movement but wasn't confident yet and asked me to verify every stitch, which was fine. She was always right. K (6-1/2) was less engaged and got bored pretty quickly. When he began unthreading the needle with each stitch, we worked out a deal where he finished the first half and I did the rest. Both were quite proud of their accomplishment, as were their parents when they received their Valentine surprise (they were banned from the kitchen where we worked). If I did it again with children of this age, I'd make the heart smaller or space the dots a bit farther apart.
This was a prototype for a Valentine to teach at the YMCA class. We decided the gingham, while cute, was a bit hard to work with. Plus, we'd have to buy hoops for anyone doing it. So, we made some adaptations.
This time the model is stitched on felt, much easier, and I added the bee pun. I did up a stitch guide, including bee instructions, and we're set to go. Last night Pam traced out the designs onto pink and red felt, which I think will be prettier than the white I used. We're starting this project tomorrow night.
My Valentine mood was triggered by this image. A friend and coworker had drawn a series of turkey cartoons for her younger sister. She was showing me when I grabbed this one and said that I wanted to stitch it. She was enthusiastic and we worked on getting a clear black and white image to use from her photos and I printed it out, traced it onto a tea towel I had and was off and running. I love this design and it was great fun to do. We have a sequel planned. This one is hers, the next will be mine.
