Embroidery Projects

 I hadn't embroidered in a long time, and yet I decided I would do some projects for Christmas gifts.  I had accumulated some really cute patterns and pattern books. First, I was overwhelmed with the thought of trying to buy blouses for some friends, that would fit and they would like. So I asked them to give me either a blouse they already had or buy one. Give it to me to embellish and I would give it back to them as a gift. Sounds a little cheap of me, but it worked.
The above pattern is on the front of a short sleeved summery blouse with eyelet sleeves. It's a modern flower mandala and I thought it went with the blouse and the person.

The second blouse was a long sleeve button down. I couldn't put one big design in the front, so I put these raccoons on the back. I love the raccoons.

Then I put this squirrel on the upper right front area.

And this owl on the lower left area. A cute long sleeve white button down with wildlife on it.

  Then I did some pillow cases. I had some border patterns. This first one had a lot of good luck symbols in it, four leaf clovers, horseshoes, bees.

I loved the bees.

  Then I have 3 friends that I camp with often. I had a camping border. So I made 3 camping pillowcases for them. Each one was slightly different color choices.

I did a couple of canvas'y tote bags. This is another flower mandala. I really liked how it turned out.

  There was a bunny, flower, heart border that I did on another pillow case.

  The next pillow case was a pair of cute squirrels.

I did these songbirds on another pillowcase.

And this paisley mandala was on another tote bag.

  My last pillowcase was a series of four mini mandalas.

  A male friend wanted me to embroider this stylized Medusa on a shirt cuff for him. The shirt was a very dark blue. He wanted dark on dark. I had a lot of trouble trying to transfer a pattern on the fabric. I wasn't able to find anything that worked. Finally, I pinned the paper pattern to the cuff and sewed through it.

I didn't have an exact match for the thread, but it was the best I could do. You can kind of see what it is, if you know what you are looking at. 

Doing all these projects in time for Christmas, was a little stressful. It did, however, ignite in me the enjoyment of embroidery and stimulated my mind for several future projects. Stay tuned!