Award winning Reindeer

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My mother & I have belonged to the Daughter's of the American Revolution (DAR) for about 10 years. Last year we decided to enter their art competition for member daughters. In a way it is also an essay contest. So, this year we spent a bit more time in composing our essays that accompany the photographs of the art.

Since this years entries have just been submitted on the state level, I thought I would share my award winning entry from 2013. The theme was something like honor our heritage today... I don't recall the wording. This is what I wrote:

In December 2004, I was at a friend’s house for a holiday party. My daughter Fiona, then 3 ½ years old, & another little girl were bored, so our hostess brought them some paper & crayons. One picture Fiona drew was of the stuffed reindeer toy sitting on the couch with her. I am always on the watch for new embroidery patterns, & had just started embroidering my daughter’s drawings. I immediately thought this one would be perfect. Deciding to use a basic outline stitch in only two floss colors, I tried to mimic the simplicity of the line drawing in embroidery. The child-like fabric bordering the embroidery is subtle. The fabric on the back of the pillow is bold and graphic.
This pillow now graces the living room sofa every holiday season as a family heirloom in the making.

Blue ribbon redwork reindeer embroidered in brown & red

Showing the backing fabric of the pillow

I won the blue ribbon for NY State in embroidery, & advanced to national, but did not win at national. Maybe this year! The above 2 images are of the blue ribbon pillow. & it won a red ribbon at our county fair this past August.

This is one I did in traditional redwork

Redwork is a style of embroidery. Though, traditionally, rendered in red (hence it's name), you can stitch it in any color you want. In the reindeer below, I used 3 colors.

Wall hanging using brown, tan, & red

This one is stitched in blue...

Given to my daughter's grandmother- This reindeer was stitched in blue