Sunday, December 11, 2011

Perpetually Stitching

Even while on the road for hours and hours, and wherever we're traveling, I'm not entirely content unless I have something to work on. An otherwise tediously long trip by car can be almost pleasant while listening to an audiobook and stitching. During our 23-plus hour drive each way, to and from Florida, we were entertained by "Valley of the Horses," the second book in the Earth Children series written by Jean Auel, published in 1982.

While listening, my hands were busy with this embroidery piece. It's one of the latest designs by Crabapple Hill called "The Night Before Christmas." It sews into a pillowcase.

Before leaving on our trip, I prepared everything including cutting the three fabric prints for the pillowcase. For the embroidered part, I used my light box and a Sewline pencil to trace the design onto a tone-on-tone snowflake print fabric.


Thanks to my Aussie friend, Tracey, I was able to embroider the design with a lovely, hand-dyed, variegated Australian thread made by Cottage Garden Threads. Tracey mailed it to me from South Australia and in exchange I sent her my New Life Quilt pattern. A great swap, I'd say! 

The six-stranded thread is quite pretty with short color variations from cherry red to burgundy. I stitched with two strands.

I began stitching on the way to Florida, and completed it shortly after arriving. Then, was able to sew it into a pillowcase on my traveling Featherweight sewing machine.

I finished it in time to mail to Kansas City as a gift to our granddaughter, Celina, for her 13th birthday.

Later, she thanked me sincerely and reluctantly told me she isn't using the pillowcase! Because she showers at night and goes to bed with damp hair, she doesn't want to ruin it. 

How sweet is that? I guess I'm glad to know she likes it enough not to want to risk damaging it.

During the car trip from Florida back to Iowa, I completed these stitcheries.


They're part of a long-term project, "Snowmen A to Zzzz," also by Crabapple Hill. When I first started stitching these, I worked on the alpahbet letters I happened to like best. Now I'm just working my way through the alphabet. The  letter "M" is already stitched, so "N" is next. As always with UFOs, it's good to see progress. It might even be a quilt by Christmas 2012! Linda

7 comments:

  1. I can't stitch in a car. I get car sick.
    That is some very pretty embroidery.

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  2. Love the pillowcase. Looks fabulous. The snowmen are gorgeous. Hugs,

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  3. How lovely! I can't stitch in a car, either! I don't get carsick, but I can't seem to do a good job with all the jiggling around a car does on the road. Beautiful work!

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  4. Well you certainly go a lot done during that long ride in the car. The pillowcase is beautiful Love the red fabrics you used too.
    The snowmen are so sweet.

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  5. The pillowcase is so pretty..too bad it's not being slept on...wet hair or not! What could happen, I say! Your handwork is lovely, Linda.

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  6. I have both of those patterns but haven't gotten to start either one - have others in the works right now. I love embroidery though and it's one of my favorite things to do in the car when the road isn't too rough. blessings, marlene

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  7. Celina's pillowcase is just gorgeous, Linda! :-)
    Hugs
    Jenny
    xxx

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