More Butterfly Florals

I've been working this week on a magazine project, so that's under wraps until the winter. But there are still plenty of florals to show. The floral projects are just fun and enjoyable stitching. I like especially that they fit so well in the hoops for easy display. I still don't have enough hoops, believe it or not, even after all these years of doing embroidery, but I would love to see them all hanging together.

These two are my favorites so far, but there will be many more in the future.

It must be the soft colors. They are just irresistible!
Closeups of the butterflies:

I hope your summer sun and fun continue on!!

USA Map Embroidery

I hope you're all managing to keep cool! Up here in the northern latitudes, it isn't especially warm this year, but I can feel the heat in the US all the way up here.

Today I have an old favorite from a few years ago that I have re-photographed. I don't think this project was every posted on this blog, so here it is once again...

This time I've taken a couple closeups.

 

It took some time to outline all the states and all the small shapes, but it was definitely worth it for this project.  It's just special and I'm very glad I made it. I have received questions over the years what I used to color the shapes, and the answer is crayons. Colored pencils would surely work too. I used a fairly light hand, but I think it would work to press harder for more color.

I still love this project and when the time is right I plan to stitch up the America version of this design. That one will have full instructions like all the new patterns do. The USA map pattern doesn't but most of it is stem and back stitching with a few french knots and lazy daisies where they fit.

Keep cool and enjoy the summer!!

Owl Mandala Embroidery

I dug up another old embroidery to photograph for my Instagram collection! This one was a fun one. I remember just having some fun with the stitches and colors I chose.

This one is from the third mandala pattern collection.  I'm thinking this one too could be remade into a nice crewel kit too. More to work on! And I am still so wickedly far behind.

Also, I have finally joined Pinterest!! It's been a long time coming. I'm slowly putting some of my stuff on there, but I also plan to scour the web for any sort of nice embroidery or artwork too that I like to share.

Butterfly Florals Embroidery Pattern Collection

Stitching and stitching! I've been working hard to get the Butterfly Florals Embroidery Pattern Collection finished this week.  This new floral embroidery collection with 12 patterns in it with sizes from 3 inches to 6 inches. These florals continue to be a lot of fun to play with, and I have many more ideas waiting for a chance to play.

I love working with the soft colors especially lately, but I do try to stretch myself with some new combos too! 

I really love the look of the chunkier stitches too on these. I often use 6 strands which adds a whole lot of interesting texture to the embroidery.

I have many more images I will be posting too as I look out for my next projects!

Happy stitching everyone!!

Bird Mandalas

I've been sorting through my embroideries lately as I dig up photos for Instagram. For me, the embroideries bring back memories of when and where I stitched them. This is one of the things I always love about handwork, especially slow handwork. Memories and associations are worked into each stitch. Most are neither happy nor sad, just reminders of where I was at different points in my life.

Here is one of my stitched memories. I remember very well this little project. I wanted to experiment with using a different color fabric than white, which I almost always prefer. The birds are fun, I may very well revisit them in a crewel project.

I'll be returning with more of embroideries., and the work on new one is continuing every day too, so more pictures very soon.

Lately, I've been seized with the explore bug, so I've been taking whatever little outings I can, even ones to those sort of little landmarks on the side of the road that you always just pass by and never take the time to stop and look. It's always, someday but not today. My latest stop though is more special. These are stone carvings from the bronze age (1000-500 BC.)

 

These are found in Southern Sweden, not all the far from the Baltic Sea, and as you might imagine they feature ships rather prominently. The little lines are thought to represent rowers and the larger figures might be gods.

More Floral Embroideries

Yikes, how time does fly away from me!! I have finally returned with a few more pictures from the Floral Embroidery Pattern pack!! Yay.  I've been visiting family in the US for the past few weeks and fell totally behind on everything.  I've finally recovered from a wicked case of jet lag and am working furiously to catch up a bit.

These are a couple of my favorite florals.

I'm still working on more florals. They are simply a lot of fun. While I was away, I had the opportunity to five my first embroidery class, which of course was for woven wheel florals!  Everyone had a great time trying them out, and I would love to eventually do lots more classes.

I'll be back soon with lots more pictures...

New Embroideries

I've fallen hopelessly behind! Most of my time for posting gets sucked into Instragram. It's been great fun seeing what other people have been working on and getting a little inspiration too. 

I have recently finished a couple new embroideries though in between everything.

Bee Floral Embroidery

All Life Floral Embroidery

And a couple closeups:

These are fun. I'm working on some new ideas. I'm behind as always, so back soon again!