Doodle stitching

Thank you all so much for your comments on my last post! I am currently stitching another little heart, a teacher gift, which I will unveil in a few days. These are highly addictive little stitchies!

My very first project with embroidery, after a bit of experimenting on scrap bits of fabric, was a trio of nursery songs for my girls.

I first showed these on my blog way back when (you can see them in situ there!). The idea for the trio started with the birds’ nest, featured in Aimee Ray’s Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection, the second in her beginner’s guides to embroidery. I took her designs, then added the titles of songs we like to sing.

Can you spot the bird’s nest? And the bunny gazing up?

Each picture allowed me to practice a basic embroidery stitch on a small scale.

Some chain stitches, stem stitches, back stitches...

The “Rain, rain, go away” picture was based on a cloud and raindrop design, but I added the rainbow running stitch to brighten it up.

 

And my little bunnies had to be gazing up at stars (the stars that, obviously, you can see I doodled in myself!), because I have sung “Twinkle, twinkle” to both of them nightly since birth. Special memories. 

 

These little pictures are my no means perfect, but they were a lot of fun and got me hooked on embroidery. The girls love them. I mounted them quite sloppily in the hoops, and don't even ask me to flip them over - the backs are a real mess of threads! Back then I didn't even know how to transfer properly - I just took a pencil and copied what I saw in the book, no tracing on a window or with a light box. And the words were just me 'writing' with the thread, I tried to write with pencil on one of them and got fed up. Ah, it's the thought that counts, right?

Here is Aimee Ray’s first book, by the way, which I highly recommend to anyone wanting to dabble with the art of needle and thread. It is playful but instructive, fun and unintimidating (sometimes the beauty of embroidery overwhelms me and I can’t imagine being able to do something so fine and detailed. This book contradicts that mindset.)

She illustrates and explains the stitches thoroughly, with illustrations and photographs, making it far easier to attempt stitches and compare what you’ve done with the photo.

Have you ever tried embroidery? Are you interested but have yet to try? I’m thinking of creating some of my own designs – I do a bit of drawing, and I have some ideas in my head for simple projects, but I might need to call on some volunteers to try them out...

Chrissie x

PS A special "thank you" and warm welcome to my new followers!