my summer vacation day one: embroidery

fair entries are due in on friday, and i've got a few ready to go but a few last things i need to finish (mainly buttons) and a few i need to start (mainly baking).

one of the "to be started" items is embroidered tea towels. well, even just one.

i did start a bit before leaving the town. which is to say, i pre-shrunk the fabric, cut it to size, and hemmed the ends. but, no actual embroidery.

in fact, i hadn't even really decided what i wanted to do.

i was thinking dandilion clocks, but there's the issue of grey-on-white not being easy to see, and the leaves standing out more than anything.

then i thought of trillums, which also grow around the cottage, and which i could arrange so that green leaves serve as backdrop for white petals. but a truly pleasing arrangement didn't present itself.

then i thought, maybe something borrowed from the cottage curtains fabric, but that seemed a bit too desperately matchy-matchy.

but - looking at the fabric - maybe just oak leaves?

then i stumbled across a book called an introduction to nature: birds, wildflowers, trees and had a flip through, and found a nice illustration to start from.

now i'm thinking, the other three tea towels could maybe be other trees that grow around the cottage - maple, sumac, butternut!

n.b. these summer vacation posts are one week delayed as the cottage is delightfully free of electronics!

eep!

it suddenly hit me that our cottage trip is a week away, and that means it is past time to get ready for the fair! i have some projects i plan to work on up there - a scarf, a tea cosy - and some i plan to work on up there that will require some machine sewing first. like, hemming the edge of the tea towels i intend to embroider. i feel like embroidering tea towels and knitting a tea cosy are very cottage-appropriate, somehow...

first, here's the finished, folded, labelled, ready to go pile - seven items - just so i feel a leetle bit accomplished instead of totally overwhelmed:

and here's some stuff basically done, being blocked:

here's some lace being blocked, i just need to make the pillow case it will be trimming (one of my must-do machine-sewing projects):

and here's a scarf-in-progress:

i also have an item to add to the geronimo stilton costume, pyjamas to make, and there will be much baking when we're up there... can't wait!

but for now, i'm going to spend some quality time with my supermatic and ace in the hole to keep me company.

yee-haw

finally finished! months later, but there you are... harry is now the proud owner of a real roy-rogers-style cowboy shirt, embroidery and pearl snaps and all. giddy-up!




he is somewhat less thrilled with the horsey pyjamas though... who knows what lurks in the heart of toddlers.

ugh

nothing like sickness to get caught up on crafting. the wee one and i are both down with "an enteric illness" (so described by the notice announcing the outbreak) and i'm finding embroidery is comparatively easy to do while semi-reclining or shuffling after a restless baby. i've picked up his roy rogers shirt, and have made a fair amount of progress (with a few pauses to fix the mistakes born of a feeble mind).

here are a few shots of the basted together yoke & body, with curved slash pockets. i'm at a point now though where what's left to do (topstitching, armscye and side seams, attaching collar, front button band and snaps) needs a machine, and i just can't sit at a desk. just typing this is stupefyingly arduous.

ugh.

where the heck have i been?

hmm, i had been doing pretty well for a while, but then life got in the way. a quick run-down of recent events:

- tg's dad arrived from africa
- tg left on canoe trip
- took baby to sil's house to see mil and fil
- fil invited himself over for dinner, implying that he had discussed it with tg although this was not so
- manic housecleaning
- baby got sick
- paediatrician prescribed steroids because he had fluid in his lungs :(
- moments before fil was due to arrive for dinner, tg returned from canoe trip with an injured foot
- follow-up paediatrician appointment
- manic packing for trip to the lake
- week of relaxation and crafting!!

so now i'm back, with (of course) a half-finished project in my bag - a roy rogers-style cowboy shirt! i'm embroidering the yoke and cuffs prior to putting it together, here are a few pics of what i've done so far:





also, there was much scrabble: some good, some bad, some just unfair. note lack of vowels:



then i got this:



... and finally, some vowels.



ugh.

whee!

i am so excited. i have been wanting and wishing to find one of these, but hadn't actually looked for one or anything. imagine my delight to see them while waiting for my order to be filled at my beloved lee valley! now, there is nothing to stop me from heading over to the leather & sewing supply depot on my lunch and digging through their scrap bin... yay.

and speaking of the supply depot, here is a good list of similarly useful supplyers for all your crafting needs.

here we go

it's filmcraft photo time! here are some pics of what i was working on yesterday... i'm assuming the recipient has no idea this blog even exists, let alone that this is for her (or him??).

before i started embroidering, i sketched it out in chalk pencil:



once i got started i realised the chalk was coming off as i worked, so i did some basting lines to help me keep things even:



one side done!



now i'm working on the other side:



i think you can probably guess what film this is from by now!

busy busy day

seriously. i woke up at five-thirty for unknown reasons, and i've been on the go since then. embroidering for the swap (i might actually post pics later of the work-in-progress, since i don't think the recipient knows she's getting something from me - it's a birthday swap, all surprises - and no one reads this blog other than erin anyway!), blocking the in the mood for love sweater, more constant gardening, some light reupholstery, etc., etc. i'm sure there's stuff i'm forgetting.

now i must run out to pick up supplies and run various errands. busy saturday! but i might get some pics up later, so stay tuned!