My New Hobby

A few Christmases ago, I tackled my first embroidery project and made my sister a pillow with ferns on it. I hope she's thrown it away because it really was terrible. 

And honestly, these are things I'm going to look back on one day and wrinkle my nose at, because I think they're very much the work of a beginner who googles embroidery stitches and tries to imitate them, making it up as I go along. 

But it's fun, and fairly cheap. Hoops are inexpensive, and when I was in Washington we found bulk embroidery floss for $1 a packet of several different colors and bought 10, so for $10 I now have lots and lots of floss that I've dutifully wound onto spools.

So here are a few of the things I've made lately! 

I made this for my friend Jillians birthday.  

And I worked on this one for Emily's baby, Tirzah. The satin stitches are something I think I'm getting better at but still need to improve.

I saw something on Pinterest with a rainbow of French knots, and the first time I tried French knots was on the hoop for Tirzah, so I was feeling confident. I did the knots too close to each other and don't really like how it was going so I stopped working on this after a whole bunch of those stupid knots. I think I've got the hang of them now though :)

I made this one for Morgan's sweet Grayson. The lighting is SO bad, but I really liked this one. 

It also occurred to me that I could stain the wooden hoops, so I grabbed some leftover stain from our rocking chair project and brushed on one little coat on some of my hoops. I wasn't totally sure how people kept the hoops secure when they were all finished, so I hot-glued them  in place. The back isn't pretty, so maybe I should also work on that in the future :)

And last, I've been making these little patchwork states. They've been fun to do and they're helping me practice that satin stitch. If you're a friend of mine, I might have made your state too!