My niece, Ava, had a checkup at Children's Hospital in Omaha, so Tensley and I went along for a "girl's weekend". We had planned on going to the zoo the first day down there, but it was rainy and cold, so we were driving around trying to decide what to do instead. The girls had fallen asleep in the backseat. We were coming up to a stoplight, when we looked over and saw a neat looking store. Since our mom had come with, she offered to sit in the car with the sleeping girls, while my sister, Rachel, and I ran into the store. It was a quilt shop that also had a very nice, fairly extensive gift section. While we were browsing, my sister noticed a penny mat on display that she liked. She asked if I would make one for her to give as a gift. The lady working at the shop assured me that it was "easy, easy, easy" to make. We purchased the kit and other needed supplies and we were on our way....
Oh and did I mention that the entire thing needs to be sewn by hand? The Queen-Of-Not-Sewing-By-Hand (that's me) is supposed to make this for my sister to give as a gift! I read through the directions and decided right away that while the project might be "easy", it was going to be very time-consuming, especially since it would be my first time hand sewing anything. So I told Rachel that I would make it, but she better keep it for herself as I was only making one!
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| The beginning of the project - ironing on the 'Steam A Seam' & cutting the shapes... |
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| Shapes cut out and positioned... |
Last Saturday, my sister, 2 of my cousins, and I took a little trip to do some shopping and to visit a nearby winery. I used the car ride to get started on the embroidery. Fortunately, my cousin Melissa knows how to embroider, so she taught me the blanket stitch and the French knots. (Thanks Melissa!)
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| Progress so far... |
The instructions called for 4 French Knots for the mouth, but I thought that looked too busy, so I went with three. (Either that or only doing 3 French Knots for the mouth saved me from having to do 6 more French Knots.) I still have to blanket stitch around the inside of the snowmen, blanket stitch around the noses, and stitch snowflakes on the inside. It is an easy project to work on - especially on car rides - but I think I would rather read a magazine. The next long-ish car ride I go on, I plan on working on it some more. I hate to work on it at home when I could be piecing a quilt....
Thanks for reading!
-V
Valerie, You did a great job on this project!! I knew you would! Very cute, but I agree quilting is more fun.
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