Daisychain Sampler: Ambitious embroidery

Embroidery and cross stitch seem to be my ‘new thing’ at the moment. It’s great to have another craft I can do in front of a film besides knitting and crochet – I love sewing, but my machine takes a little while to set up, which tends to put me off.

These new hobbies are also really helpful when I have RSI, as it’s usually my left hand which plays up, so I can still stitch, as long as I rest my arm on a pillow.

Until I tried embroidery again, after not doing it since infant school, I didn’t ‘get it’ at all. While I could appreciate the skill involved, and the end product, I couldn’t possibly see how it could be enjoyable at all. Ha! What do I know?!

This Daisychain Sampler by Alicia Paulson is my biggest project to date. I meticulously traced the design with an iron-n transfer pencil, using the ‘tape it to the window on a sunny day’ technique, which worked great (although I had to turn the heating off as the radiator under the window -it was sunny, but freezing cold – was griddling my tum!)

I didn’t do such a brilliant job of transferring the pattern from the tracing paper onto the cloth –  a few of the letters got blurred where I pulled the fabric when I moved the iron. But it’s probably not bad for a first attempt, and I can stitch over the double lines I think.

I’m using some lovely lilac linen and embroidery thread, rather than crewel wool, as I wanted the finish to be quite smooth and sheeny. It’ll go in Storm’s bedroom when it’s done. I plan to make it a present for when she starts school in September (eep!) to help her with her ABCs.

So I need to stitch a letter a week I think. Let’s see how that goes! Just ignore my track record on unfinished objects please. Ahem.

I have made quite a few of Alicia’s projects, so there’s a little Posie Gets Cozy archive here, if you like her stuff. Personally, I think she’s fab!

Tags: child, embroidery, posie gets cozy, sewing