Gram's embroidery

My mother's mother passed away 7 years ago. This past summer, while going through her things, my mother came across a number of Gram's old craft projects. She went through them & decided on one each for all of us. Mine is a counted cross stitched & embroidered children's prayer.

cross stitch by Jacqueline Martin

For my birthday, my Mom brought the cross stitch to KC Framing & Fabrics in Saratoga Springs, NY. Kelly did a great job with the matting & framing!

close-up of older girl and baby

I am rather partial to the older girl with the brown braids. I wore braids & ponytails quite a bit as a kid. She reminds me of myself, but she also looks like my big sistar, Emily. The little blond baby reminds me of my little sistar, Heather.

close-up of older boy and younger girl

 This little girl could be me, the middle sistar. The boy could be my older brother, Sean, if his hair were brown.

close-up of younger boy

There are only 4 of us, so this little boy is extra. He's cute though.

Heather's pillow

Last Christmas I decided I wanted to make something special for my little sistar*. We are very close in age & shared a room for the majority of our childhood. In many ways we were best friends. I thought about sister quotes, but I'm not a fan of embroidering words.

If your family is like my family, there are a few iconic photographs that everyone loves & remembers. I decided I would adapt one of the images into an embroidery pattern & make a pillow. Brilliant!

I decided on one photograph. Luckily it was already scanned, so I had a digital copy to work with.

Heather & Tisha outside Nanny & Gramp's house c.1977


I printed the image out on a regular sheet of paper. Then, using pencil, I traced the objects to be included in the finished design & added embellishments.



pencil outline on copy of image above

Then, I blew up the image on the printer/ scanner & retraced the outline using black marker for most lines & black pen for fine lines.

marker & pen outline on copy of previous image


Notice how I chose to include a complete outline of the mailbox on the fence? I nixed the tree & added some cartoon flowers near Heather at the base of the fence. I chose to add the flowers because Nanny was an avid gardener & owned her own greenhouse business for many years. She eventually put a flower bed around the mailbox.

If you want a reverse of the image simply flip the paper over, & using a light box or taping it to a window, trace the image onto the back of the paper. Now you have two patterns.

reverse of previous image

Next, I traced the image on white Kona fabric using pencil (but water soluble blue marking pen works as well). I used crayons based on the colors in the original photograph & colored in little Tisha & Heather & the flag on the mailbox. Then, sandwiching the colored fabric between two pieces of paper, I ironed the crayon into the fabric (process is called "crayon tinting"). Then, choosing coordinating embroidery floss, I got to work. Since I don't sew, our mom^ made the finished square into this pillow. (Thanks Mom!)

finished pillow

* I'm not sure how this started, but my sister Emily came up with this. We are Big Sistar (Emily), Middle Sistar (me), and Little Sistar (Heather).

^ Mom's blog- http://www.justaduck88.blogspot.com/

redwork tea cozy & table quilt

Mom & I have been working like crazy these past few weeks. Craft fair two weeks ago, one today, a couple in October & one in November before she & Dad head to Vegas for Thanksgiving with my little sistar!

I will be updating my Etsy Shop tomorrow with anything that doesn't sell today (Kulak's on Route 146 in Rexford, NY if anyone is out & about).

tea cozy & table quilt in redwork

The teapots on the table quilt in the image above were adapted from a disposable, paper napkin. I scanned napkin, then increased the size of each teapot to fit on my pre-cut 12"x12" cotton muslin square. Outline stitch in red... then get my mom to put the squares into a quilt. (I have to learn to sew one of these days!) The tea cozy is a different pattern that I did not design or adapt, but they look great together!