My Embroidery Project

I've embroidered since my preteen years, but, now that I'm a Hobbies Examiner for Examiner.com, I've been trying to think of meaningful, relevant embroidery projects.  Yes, embroidery has been important historically, but part of that time it was important as a refined, meaningless occupation for ladies.  I mean, who ever wanted to use the painfully worked stuff?  It was just a husband-catching mechanism.

 

I've thought up a few projects that might actually make a desirable gift for a loved one.  My first is pictured above.  I've included the sketch on the embroidery frame, the photo original I took it from, and the stencil I used to add some holiday greenery.  The little blue dots mark the boundaries of my project.  I plan to compete and hem this picture and sew it onto a 4" x 4" 'blank' tote bag.  This ought to make an attractive gift, and it shouldn't be beyond the ability of an average embroiderer.

 

Then I realized that a lot of embroidery methods aren't basic, everyday knowledge, so I wrote this article: http://www.examiner.com/article/embroider-a-picture-beginning-basics. 

Embroidery is such a huge field, bigger even than knitting or crocheting.  I was amazed to find YouTube embroidery videos from Mumbai and Multan - quite a different kind than what I learned!

 

Now I am trying to choose the most accessible, least daunting techniques to write about.  Embroidery is part of a woman's heritage.  Since all the textile work was thrown at us, we developed our own language and expression in it.  We need to find that part of ourselves again.