As you may recall, I decided to try my hand at embroidery after reading through some sewing books recently.  The main inspiration for jumping into this tedious process of adding depth with fine stitches was Anna Maria Horner’s book, Seams To Me.  Among her many fun project pages she has a couple that add detail with embroidery.  While I certainly have tried my hand at embroidering things in the past I have never had the patience to use it often in my different sewing and craft projects.  Until now.  Right now I am working on a wall hanging art piece using vintage fabrics and I thought it might be nice to add some handiwork stitching to the fun colors of the fabric.  I figure anything that revs it all up a bit is worth the effort, right?

You can see from the shot above I used a blanket stitch to outline the vintage fabric image and help keep it firmly attached to the backing fabric.  Next I added a line of chain stitches in a coordinating pale green.  After completing the outline of one square with several rows of different stitches, I decided to approach the other three assembly line style.  That way I could continue on with the same color thread rather than having to keep up with each individual color I plan to use.  It also has helped me to keep things consistent.  One thing I have learned during this process is that if you don’t embroider often, jumping from stitch to stitch can leave you with a messy lines and uneven stitches.  While I am all for the handcrafted look, I still want things to look more professional than “Cathy Crafty” if you know what I mean?

Now that I have gotten further along with this project I am thinking I may embellish the actual inner image a bit with some more fun stitches.  It depends on how over it I am once I get the last three squares completed.  I plan to mount them for hanging once all the embroidery work is completed.  I will be sure to add a finished item update once I get to that point.  In the meantime, tell me about your embroidery projects.  Are you a novice like me, or are you out there making up your own stitch patterns?  I would love to hear about your projects and experiences.  Add your photos here or on our Facebook Page too.

Happy Sewing!

Erika