I cannot count my day complete
'Til needle, thread and fabric meet.
~Author Unknown

Sharing a common thread with those who love the art of hand embroidery

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

As I gaze across the dry packed earth of my garden spaces..........


some with tired, weary looking plants.......
some still filled with early spring weeds........
I realize that although, in early spring, my 
intentions were so great to create beautiful garden areas, 
the high heat......my laziness of not wanting to work 
out in the heat.... and many other excuses,  make 
my gardens.........full of flaws and make
the quote above reflect so much about me.
I also shudder and think to myself......."what was I thinking?" when 
one year, many years ago..............I stayed up in the wee morning hours making homemade place mats..........with 
........of all things.........
appliqued watermelon slices on them............
even worse.........
to give to my husband's family...............
yes..........I really did...............
I really thought they were great.........at that moment.
Can you imagine the look on their faces when they opened the box
to find these very primitive "things" made for them??
And what is worse..............I continued to make
more "handmade things"  
until I started realizing............maybe I should have given "gift giving" 
more thought.  
Thank goodness for loving family and friends, 

.......yes, my friends were not immune..........

who really just took these things and 
did not tell me just how absurd these "works of art" 
really were!!!
So many flaws........with good intentions! 
I think......they really knew my heart was in the right place.......
just not my sense of reality!   
Have you spent hours.........
full of good intentions,
excited as you go creating along........
making a homemade "work of art" for someone........
to realize much later........after giving it.........
how you wish you hadn't??  
I would love to hear! 




Tuesday, July 16, 2019

For all of you who tried to guess what my embroidered project was.........your guesses were very good......

but no one guessed that 
it is a handbag !

Now I am finished and can show it.

This photo you saw in the last post photo is the front pocket..........

I tinted the designs with crayon because I did  
not want the embroidery to look like "dish towel" 
embroidery.  Tinting fills in large areas and 
allows me to accent it with embroidery stitches.


I had to add a beaded dragonfly.  

and a colorful

assortment of 

butterflies.

I love floral scallops and added this to the top of 
the handbag. 

although the inside of the handbag looks good, I did not want 
the threads of the embroidery to get snagged by keys or 
to get stained by a leaky ink pen....
so I chose a colorful print fabric to line the 
inside of the bag

This butterfly and rose fabric was perfect to use as a liner......
don't you think so?


This is a very sturdy canvas bag and I love the black
bottom and straps. The thick canvas was very tiring 
on my hands to stitch, so I am beyond glad I am finished with this.

Thank all of you for your sweet comments and for playing along
by trying to guess.  
I think I am in the mood for cross stitch now and am 
planning on working on a couple of cross stitch projects that
need to be finished. 
How about you?
What are you keeping your hands busy with?
Painting, gardening, sewing, quilting, or embroidery?
I would love to hear!

Monday, July 8, 2019

My new project started...................

can  you tell what I am embroidering on?
This is just the start............ one section done..............
I have many stitches to still work before I am finished. 
"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."  
Hans Christian Andersen