Christmas Projects

 These last two weeks I've been dreaming up Christmas projects that can be done relatively easily.  Above is a 4" square tote bag blank.  I decorated it with this Aida cloth embroidery which I did on my 4" by 8" embroidery frame.

 When you use an embroidery frame, the cloth will not slip out (unless you give it a really hard yank).  It does, however, move around a bit when you use standard Aida cloth.  I've begun a new approach to the frame:

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This image is made of craft felt and crushed panne velour.  This is sort of my own style, inspired by church banners and religious hangings.  I have used a stencil to draw in some appropriate flower and leaf designs.  These stencils, by the way, are really meant to be painted over, but you can draw around them to get a general idea of what you want.  On a background of light blue felt and placed a cat cutout of tan felt with clothing of panne velour.  As you can see, I am having to satin stitch around the edges of the velour.  Felt is virually the ONLY fabric you can cut up without it raveling.  Velour and fleece do fairly well, but you still need to satin stitch.

As you can see, I'm only partway through this project.  It will go on another of those tote blanks to make a nice Christmas present.  I'll show how it turns out later.  The good news is that the felt holds almost completely still in the frame, so the work is easy.  The satin stitching is in satin (rayon) embroidery thread which will knot up at the slightest opportunity.  Working it on felt has been easier than usual.  I've made large tote bags this way in the past, but right now I'm just trying for quick, unique  projects for Christmas.

 

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.