greenie doodles

I went home to Cleveland, TN, this past weekend and took some embroidery supplies with me. Even if I look dorky, I do so love the portability! These were fun - I stitched them over the course of a few days, sometimes in the morning before work while I waited for the hubs to finish his breakfast, sometimes in the bed at night snuggled in between the rogeys (it's cold!). I have a lot more ideas for little greenies. And yes, the odd man out is the pair of glasses at the top right that are facing the wrong direction. Oh, well... that's the nature of the doodle.

thread doodles

I've been having such a ball with French knots that I decided to extend my repertoire to back stitch. I like the sensual aspects of embroidery (ok, that sounds a little weird): the needle popping through the fabric, the thread pulling along, my whispery curses when I create knots in my floss.... ahhh. I do like the portability though; knitters always look like they're having fun while they're out-and-about doing their thing. Although I did have some hesitant thoughts about bringing my embroidery out at a party... but I did it anyway!

fun with barbells!

Pardon the typos... it's hard to type with a bandaid on: I should really invest in some thimbles if I'm gonna continue this hand-stitching business! Before the massive bloodloss, I was able to complete this mini quilt, which I call barbells. And of course, the French knots made an entrance! And gold thread, gold thread! I really like it, and there used to be more of it. This piece and the last were kind of lessons in editing: I added too much and then took stuff off until I was happy again. It's been working for me pretty well, but I should probably purchase a friggin seam ripper if I'm gonna stick with that trend. Ahhh, tools.....

I've also been thinking this pattern would be fun to make in stained glass... maybe when the garage is warm enough to work in again!

hmmm.... spring

Maybe it's the 17-degree temperatures in Asheville or the utter lack of color, but something about this week made me thirsty for green and spring. And maybe a little springtime romance... with French knots! This piece was really fun to make. I was definitely kind of making it up as I went, but those little U/tombstone shapes keep showing up. I hope they stay. I've got a couple of projects in the works for upcoming books, but all I wanna do is make knots. Life is tough.