Now that my miniature project is pretty much complete, I can devote more of my free time to genealogy, embroidery, and knitting. One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to finish embroidering a picture that I had purchased all the way back in 1995 at a needlework shop that of course sadly no longer exists.
I had originally purchased 3 patterns during that shopping spree, with the strong intention that I would complete them and give them to my mother and two sisters. Since then I’ve completed two of the three, which are being enjoyed by their recipients. The last picture is Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum’s ‘Once Upon A Time’, it’s being stitched on 32 count linen. Since making my resolution, I’ve worked on it some and am hoping that I can devote more time to it. I feel that I’ve made some progress with it, but that it’s taking longer than the other pictures that I completed for my mother and sister.
While making each of these pictures, I learned something new about the embroidery process. The first of the 3 pictures, Damask Roses by Mirabilia, was stitched using an embroidery hoop on Aida fabric. I remember making many mistakes with that pattern and having to frog a lot of it and then restitch those frogged portions. By the time that I was ready to stitch my mother picture, Garden Verses another Mirabilia pattern, I had a large scroll frame that was a Christmas gift from my husband. That made the stitching easier since I didn’t have to deal with an embroidery hoop which I felt smashed the stitches. Also, I decided to photocopy my pattern and then mark with a highlighter the area(s) that I had stitched as a way to help me keep my place.
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| Picture of Once Upon A Time from the pattern |
While making each of these pictures, I learned something new about the embroidery process. The first of the 3 pictures, Damask Roses by Mirabilia, was stitched using an embroidery hoop on Aida fabric. I remember making many mistakes with that pattern and having to frog a lot of it and then restitch those frogged portions. By the time that I was ready to stitch my mother picture, Garden Verses another Mirabilia pattern, I had a large scroll frame that was a Christmas gift from my husband. That made the stitching easier since I didn’t have to deal with an embroidery hoop which I felt smashed the stitches. Also, I decided to photocopy my pattern and then mark with a highlighter the area(s) that I had stitched as a way to help me keep my place.
For the ‘Once Upon A Time’ pattern, I made a photocopy of it so that I can mark what I’ve stitched. This time I’m using a colored pencil instead of a highlighter because I didn’t bother to enlarge the copy of the pattern. Since I’ve begun embroidering this picture, I’ve noticed that my vision appears to have changed since 1995 or even since the early 2000’s which was the last time that I stitched on 32 count fabric. I’ve started using a clip-on magnifier to help enlarge the fabric’s weave and my stitching.
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| What I've stitched so far |
I have many embroidery projects to complete or even begin. Soon after accumulating these, I said to myself that I wouldn’t buy another kit or pattern until I had finished all of them. Since then, I’ve pretty much organized the patterns with corresponding fabric and floss if it didn’t include it. I’ve also developed one pattern that was created from a picture of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. I recently was given most of the floss for this project, but found that I needed to obtain the fabric.
One normally doesn’t consider knitting and embroidery to be similar hobbies. However, at a recent session with my knitting group, one of my fellow knitters brought in their embroidery supplies to give away. Amongst the patterns and embroidery floss were several packages of various embroidery fabrics. Some of the fabrics were of a high count and would be useful to use for my Hanging Gardens pattern or could be used in making embroidered miniature rugs.
