Foxy

I'm so happy to be able to post this now. I made it for a friend's birthday and I had an incredibly difficult time not talking to her about it. I'd find myself starting to send a picture (as would be usually for a project I'm working on), before going NO! Plus, then you have to make up other things you're working on when they ask. So hard.

The design is from some wrapping paper the same friend used on a Christmas gift for me. There's the big lesson - use super awesome wrapping paper for me and I will embroider it for you. It was impossible to resist.

The tail satin stitching got rumpled while I tried to rinse out all the fabri-solvy. AWFUL. Never using that again when there's much satin stitching. It's all the most satin stitching I've ever done I think. I don't know why I've avoided it, as it's really not difficult, and certainly faster than the loose long and short I often use for big fills. I guess I worry because it's easy to snag and mess up after you're done.

The third season of The Great British Sewing Bee starts next week! So excited. The real draw of it and the Bake Off are seeing a group of lovely, kind, caring people do something they're really passionate about. When it's something that many (or most) people don't do at all that makes it even more special. Since there's no big prize and they're amateurs they're all just lovely to each other. 

I've gotten swept up ordering some hand dyed silk embroidery floss. No immediate plans for it of course, but it was soo pretty... I bought a vintage tablecloth embroidery pattern on Etsy (one of those with the design printed on the fabric), so maybe I'll finally start work on that.

Also finished a new piece for Etsy, so I'll post again soon with that. It's a quote form Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Rewatched that for the first time since childhood recently and it's so good. Still just incredibly enjoyable.

For the kidlets...

Well I finished the sun lion pattern by Cate Anevski onesie for my upcoming niece and a second one for her with 'girl' in various foreign languages. The girl one is an idea I initially did for my nephew Benjamin and one I particularly like and would like to sell in my Etsy embroidery shop (hoping to open it in about a month). Some parents really dislike people getting their kid's sex wrong (more so I think when the kid is a year old for the ones whose hair grows suuuper slowly) and somehow I like that it facilitates communication with people who you might not otherwise talk with. Plus you could take your families nationalities and just use those languages. I include Dutch on the ones for Benjamin and the new girl because our friend and 'sister' Tessa is Belgian (from the best part of Belgium, the Flemish part!).

I spent a bit of today embroidering a design I drew a few days back. It's part of a trio of animal head designs, very stylized. My wireless was out so I couldn't easily scan in the design and make it larger and then printout, transfer, etc... So in typical fashion I just drew it freehand with the washable marker. Therefore it's not quite right (right side white tuft is a bit too low, eyes aren't quite identical) but it's still pretty cute. I can't wait to try the other animals (along with the fox I did a raccoon and an owl). They'll be good for a possible baby quilt, onesies, and patches (or patch pockets) for kids clothes.

We had two days of warm (mid to upper 40s) weather and now it's cold and rainy again. I was so hoping that it would stay sunny for my lemon tree but oh well. At this point I would just be happy if we didn't get another rash of snow. I am so sick of it. Not that we've had any huge blizzards but snow every week almost since the beginning of December is just not fun. Especially since the house my mum bought is at the top of a really really steep hill (one which scares me a bit even when bone dry). She has a four wheel drive Subaru, but I do not. Fingers crossed, in any case.