Sunday, August 17, 2025

A new embroidery project...

Wanting a break from my Manx squares, but still desiring to work with fabric and floss, I decided to give in to the desire to embroider something.  

Perusing books lately, I've come across some fun embroidery ideas.  Embroider Your Life is more of an inspiration than it is a project book.  But it also provides some fun designs the reader can use.


Seeing a whimsical fox pillow in the above book, I decided that's what I'd do.  

I had to enlarge the small pattern in the book by about 250% before it was large enough for even a small pillow.


Taped to a window, I was able to trace the outline and some directional markings onto a natural colored homespun fabric.  


And, of course, before tracing with a heat-erasable pen, I didn't take into consideration that I'd want this whole thing to be stabilized in some way. The obvious choice (to me) would have been fusible (iron-on) interfacing or stabilizer, but I did not want a hot iron erasing all the tracing I'd just done!  

Sigh.  Okay...  what to do?

Looking through my stash of materials I found some nice felt I'd purchased for a different kind of embroidery. 

Hmmm...  well, why not? I'd bought it for embroidery backing.  I didn't imagine using it for such a large piece.  But it should work. 

Right? 

For something that will be sewn into a pillow?  You think?

I decided to go for it.

So, I machine-basted the homespun to the felt.  While the thickness of the felt causes it to be a little more effort to pull the needle and floss through, I'm thinking it's going to make a nice smooth finish to this piece when I sew it all together and stuff it into a pillow.



Finally, with that decision made, I was ready to start stitching!  


In the book, the whole fox image was filled with running stitches on a white fabric, but because I'm using beige fabric, I thought it would look better if I embroidered the fox's white chin, throat and belly with long and short filling stiches that would cover the space better than a simple running stitch does.  And it's kind of fun that it looks a bit like fur...


That said... in retrospect, it seems a bit silly that I thought creating a filled-in effect was important to do on the underside of the fox, while the rest of his fur is depicted with running stitches.  But I'm going to finish what I began - even if it takes two or three times as long to fill the fox's underside as it would have if I'd simply done the whole thing in running stitches.  Who knows... maybe I'll find the two different ways of filling open space in the design adds to the whimsical factor.

Hopefully, we'll find out soon that it does!


12 comments:

  1. This looks like a fun project. There is … well was a blog. She has quit now, but her blog is still up that did embroidery. Her things were always so pretty. Jenny of Elefanz is the name.

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    1. Yes, Sandy! Jenny of Elefanz made sweet embroidery designs that she combined with pretty fabrics. I used to follow her. If I remember correctly, she took a break, but came back. I just googled her and I see that earlier this summer she stepped away from blogging again. She made very pretty things. And her free patterns are still available as of right now.

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  2. Best Wishes. It is a cute design.

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    1. Thanks, Maureen. Cute and whimsical seemed like a perfect project right now.

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  3. I think a fox definitely needs a white under chin and the running stitch may not have been so obvious against the beige so I like what you’ve done. I also like embroidery that has variety in the stitches so I think this is going to work well. Liz (Highlandheffalump)

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  4. Oh what fun! What a cute fox. I can imagine your creativity running 'wild' as you work on this project.

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  5. I absolutely LOVE the direction you've decided to take with this! I think it's going to be a wonderful project. (And I also have a fondness for foxes. We have gray foxes here in New Mexico but none of the red ones which I am used to seeing.)

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  6. The fox is going to be adorable. I like the stitches you have chosen. Gives nice texture and depth.

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  7. I like to embroider; it's calming.

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  8. awwwww - he (she?) is going to be so cute! I think you made a wise choice to do the long and short stitching on his tummy, even though it is a lot more work.

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