Stitching Saturday: Do What You Can Do

I'm in love with this free pattern by Mollie Johanson. Lately, Do What You Can Do has become my informal mantra - the busier my life becomes, between blogging, real work, family, and volunteering - the more I realize that life will always be decisions as to what's important, what needs doing first, and what is a priority.



Recently, I was sent these beautiful Merino wool threads by Mountain Meadow Wool, so I did a test-drive and review on Feeling Stitchy.

It was a lot of fun, and challenging, as I was juggling a couple of other projects simultaneously, someone in my family was sick, and I was doing a lot of volunteering for the animal shelter and my church.



I struggle with my perfectionist side, that wants to create this amazing, perfectly designed experience which I just don't have the time to create. So, Do What You Can Do takes over.

I hung this on my wall so that it's the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning, and its reassurance has helped immensely when I feel stressed at all.



But ultimately, I think I'm going to gift this to my sister, as she is famous for wanting to do it all, too. :) How about you guys? Is your crafting and life gearing up to an all-time busy high as well? May I suggest sitting down with this pattern, and taking a little time for yourself? :)

Stitching Saturday: Finished embroidery

Well, I am finally finished with the embroidery on this soon-to-be-pillow.

Actually, I've been finished for weeks, but I was dreading the photography portion of my finish. Instead, I started on about 3 new projects. Just like a crafter, right? ;)



For whatever reason, it was so difficult to capture the colors and texture on this largish square piece.

Zoomed out, flat photos look so, well, flat. I switched back and forth between my HTC One phone camera and my fancy camera, but my fancy camera got the best shots.



Either way, I'm quite happy with all the colors and textures I was able to put into this piece. Adding crewel wool was really what brought it all together and made it possible for me to finish.



I love all the raised textures on the leaves. Though far from perfect, they're a wonderful pop of color. I like that I used 3 different shades of green (1 dark green pearl cotton, 1 lime green embroidery floss, and 1 lime green crewel wool). I would never have thought it until I tried it, but they combine well with each other.

I'll admit it, there were so many moments when I thought I'd chosen a terrible color and panicked. But for the most part, I rarely picked out mistake colors and just kept stitching. By plowing ahead, I was able to create relationships between colors I would have never imagined before...



This remains my favorite corner - stitched in pinks and red and yellows, in mostly in 6 strand embroidery floss - it's quite shiny and bright.

But it's tied for my affections with this corner flower motif-


I really went nuts with it in color and texture - it's about half 6 strand embroidery floss, and half crewel wool. My favorite part is that satin stitched jade greenish area near the center, with a teal crewel wool strand couched on top with 1 strand of orange crewel wool. I would have never put those 3 colors together ordinarily, but I just went with it and loved the result.

There are so many little details that bring me such joy in this piece, and it just feels satisfying to know that I stitched them all. I won't bore you with every bit, but suffice to say, I really love this piece, and it's one of my all time favorites.

Stitching Saturday: Roumanian stitch leaves

I'm still working steadily on my floral pillow - most of what's left now is filling in leaves...



I wanted to experiment with different leaf stitches, so I found a stitch diagram on Pinterest, and tried it out:

Apparently, this is the Roumanian stitch - using this diagram as a guide, I got to stitching with some dark green pearl cotton:



The pearl cotton gave it a nubbly texture, but I really liked it - it's almost like fish scales. It's a lot faster to work than satin stitch or the raised herringbone stitch I learned last week, and it eats up a lot less thread.

Here's how I stitched it, step by step:


I tried the same stitch using 2 strands of crewel wool on that bottom left-most leaf:



I love how the crewel wool sort of floats and expands above the fabric - it's a totally different effect!

Here's how I stitched it with the wool:


What do you all think? I'm having a ton of fun finishing up this project - I'm amazed to say I am almost done now! :)

Stitching Saturday: Crewel Obsession

I am having so much fun with this project now! Here I am working some leaves, this time in a DMC pearl cotton - I love the raised texture this stitch gives the leaves. I used this tutorial on Pinterest to form this stitch -  I never execute it perfectly, the leaves always tend to lean to one side or another, but I think that gives it an organic look.



Here I've worked the leaves using 2 strands of crewel wool and the Van Dyke stitch. I was stitching along with Kristin's Craftsy class for this stitch, which is really helpful. I'd tried this stitch before, but only in a straight line, never in a leaf shape. I love the way the crewel wool can stretch into such a fine, defined line, and the way this stitch puffs above the fabric like little green caterpillars. :)

By the way, here is the pattern I am working from for the pillow - it's much more balanced and dense in its original version, but I enlarged it and kind of winged it here and there:

Stitching Saturday: Crewel is magic!

Stitching with wool for the first time last week was a total eye-opener for me. Crewel wool is perfect for larger works - it moves differently, sits differently on the fabric, it has an extra springiness and a visible texture. It makes a much stronger, bolder line, and is so nice to work with. I can't believe I'd never used crewel wool before, and it has already added so much to my stitching.

I had a pillow project I'd stashed away - I loved the pattern, and all the bright colors I'd chosen for it. I'd already done some really dense stitching that I'd totally enjoyed, but then my enthusiasm just burned out. I looked at the large expanse of remaining shapes and practically groaned. I imagined myself separating out 2 strands of floss for each line, and painstakingly stitching away, forever.



But again, crewel wool and traditional filling stitches were designed to fill up large spaces quickly - and I'm loving that long and short stitch with a thick, plush white wool.

I used a buttonhole stitch to trace the edges of that teal paisley shape, and again I said, "well, duh" - it hugged each curve so perfectly when stitched with crewel wool - no more dividing lots of strands, and fussing as they get caught and tangled up with each other - even when I double up the crewel wool, it pulls through linen like a dream.



I keep a lot of needles on hand as I stitch with the different weight fibers - large dull-tipped darning needles with big eyes for thick yarn (left), a long yarn darner with a sharp point for more detailed stitches (center), and a regular sharp crewel needle for the crewel wool (right).

In short, I am in love with crewel - I'm glad I added so much dense texture in the embroidery floss at first, and I'll build on that with all the matte, textured shapes I'll stitch in wool. Yay for crewel wool!