Embroidery May and June

There hasn't been much time for embroidery lately, but I was able to finish this little cutie. This was the project I was going to work on during the flight to California in March, but decided not to risk going through security with a sewing scissors. So she had to wait until I returned home and had some time to stitch. (BTW, there was a lady on the plane with knitting needles, so I might have been able to have a sewing scissors.)

This is the little kit I put together for the flight to California.  I think next time I fly I will ditch the scissors and just pre-cut all of my floss to length.

The whole little kit fit neatly into the top box of my little travel case.

Here she is all finished with a cheerful strip of yellow at the bottom to match her apron.

I picked up a few transfers I had never seen before.  The Life on the Farm one is my favorite!  Aunt Martha pattern #4021-black.

We found these at a garage sale of a lady I knew from my childhood (she was actually the wife of Lyle Westphal, owner of the little grocery store I grew up with, The Friendly Village Market, that I mentioned in an earlier blog).  She gave them to us!  How sweet!  They might be so old they won't transfer, but I can always photocopy them and transfer them to fabric with my pen.

While we were on vacation in eastern South Dakota I twisted hubby's arm into stopping at a little shop in Watertown, SD called Expressions Gallery.  What a fun place for crafters!  She had knitting and crochet items, embroidery and cross stitch items, and every Aunt Martha pattern you could imagine.  She even had hand-dyed floss that is so pretty but at 2$ a skein, I only bought two.  I bought 6 skeins of floss to make my "little red hen" towel.

Goodies from Expressions Gallery in Watertown, South Dakota

Hand dyed floss from Weeks Dye Works.  But after reading the fine print I found that they are not bleed proof and will run when washed.  Sooooo, thinking I won't be using these beautiful threads on my dishtowels.  But they sure are beautiful to look at.

One of the adorable pages in the Colonial transfer book I purchased.

I bought a skein of floss there called DMC Flower Thread.  At first I thought, "Oh, how wonderful!  It's a new type of floss to collect!"  But when I got home, I looked at the brochure carefully.  The woman's nail polish looked a little too 90's to be modern.  After further investigating online I found that DMC discontinued Flower Thread in 2003.  Bummer!  If I had known that, I might've bought more colors!  It's meant to be used for counted cross-stitch, but I'm going to do some red-work with the one I bought.  I'll keep you posted on how it works.

There is one more project I've done this June and that's my little bird purse.  It was on my birthday wishlist and I received it just in time to work on it while we were on vacation.  I finished it in about 1.5 hours between Bismarck and Valley City.  It was so quick and easy to do too, with very good instructions.  I used my little purse all through vacation, using the wrist strap so that my hands were free to do other things such as take photos and shop.

My little bird purse.  Then, while I was browsing at Michaels in Fargo, I found the bluebird tote to match for only 10$...but I didn't buy it.  I know!  What WAS I thinking!?

So, there are my embroidery projects for May and June.  When I finish my current project, I will show step by step pictures of that one too.

Have a Happy Day!