Embroidery

No, not the machine kind, although I'm still looking for the perfect embroidery machine for me. I've been reading the archives at SouleMama, and have become interested again in hand-embroidery. I learned how when I was a kid, and used to love it. I have several half-finished projects lying around the house, including panels for a quilt I was making for my college boyfriend (long story, but I can't let go of the panels I completed).

My mama and grandma made several baby quilts using hand-embroidery including my own baby quilt which I still have. My daughter's baby quilt, which was actually created 25 years before she was born and includes her name, is hanging on the wall of her room. Usually, they hand traced drawings from coloring books onto muslin and then embroidered the outline. I collect coloring books for this reason - you never know when you might want to embroider Harry Potter or Winnie-the-Pooh.

I'd heard of Sublime Stitching before, probably through Bust back when I still read it, but it never really seemed like my kind of thing. Then I started noticing the super cute veggies on SouleMama's kids' clothing, and wanted it for myself. I haven't bought any designs yet, but I have a few picked out (how did I miss this before?) that I really want.

• Garden Variety - love this for gardening aprons (which I'm trying to figure out how to make)
• Forest Friends - the hedgehog is so cute!
• Monkey Love - we're really into monkeys around here
• Dia de los Muertos - it's so hard to find any kind of designs for this holiday - so exciting!
• Craftopia - um, not sure I need to embroider a sewing machine, but love it anyway
• I Love Veggies - these are the designs that drew to Sublime Stitching - my absolute favorite

I also like that these are so small, whereas the designs I used to do were pretty large. So these can go on small things, like pockets or hems, and not just for large quilt panels.

Did you know there's also a book? I feel so out of the loop.