Craftiness

I've been on an embroidery bender lately- it's dangerously addicting. After months of looking for patterns that didn't involve geese in bonnets, or kittens playing in the milk jug, I've found this site. My goodness, I LOVE it! Simple outlines, funky pictures (librarians, pirates, SUSHI?) and not a saccharine kitty in sight. You can purchase transfer sheets for $3.50 from her website- each 8x11 inch page is crammed with as many drawings as she could fit. The creator, Jenny Hart, also has a book, Sublime Stitching, that came out last year. Lots of tips, stitch instructions, and iron-on transfer pages. Maybe everyone does this, but she uses a transferable ink that can be transferred up to 8 times! Cool...and I wonder if you could still trace them after that? Wonder Daddy suggested making a photo copy before you start transferring. See, that's why he's the one with the Masters Degree! I have the book on order from the library- can't wait to get my paws on it and see what she has to say.

So, on that note, here is what I stitched up for my brother-in-law this afternoon. We're throwing a birthday part for him tonight while they're still in town. He is a tennis MASTER. Also, although he weighs MAYBE 60 pounds sopping wet (I kid...kind of) he LOVES food. His vacations are planned around restaurant outings. He was raised that way (and his mother weighs 90 pounds. No, I'm not kidding.) With apologies to Ms. Hart, I just couldn't wait to trace her sushi pattern so I free-handed my own. These are stitched on plain white handkerchiefs Ernie and I picked up Monday morning. For anyone who wants to know, I used 2 strands of floss and a back stitch, except for the straight stitching on the sushi.