Orphan Embroidery: Children's Picture Book Characters

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have a tendency to make something without a planned outcome. Meaning, I embroider something without a pattern, or project. Many times without even thinking about the size. It's all about the embroidery. Hence I have many pieces, that would be classified by my mom's quilt friends as "orphan blocks." Or they might call them UFOs (UnFinished Objects). LOL

Well, I thought I would share a few of these with you on this hot & muggy, upstate NY, summer day... There is at least a theme for these "orphan blocks", as you may have gleaned from the title of this post: children's picture book characters.

My favorite picture books as a child where the Frances books by Russell & Lillian Hoban (Garth Williams drew the original Frances in the first book, Bedtime for Frances 1960). This is partly because they are great books, with wonderful illustrations, & partly because my middle name is Frances. Other books in the series are A Baby Sister for Frances (1964), Bread and Jam for Frances (1964), A Birthday for Frances (1968), Best Friends for Frances (1969), A Bargain for Frances (1970), Egg Thoughts and Other Frances Songs (1972). They are all still in print (HarperCollins) & can be purchased at any decent children's bookstore.

Frances the badger

The next 2 are both from books by Mo Willems. My daughter loves him! Oh, & there is an exhibit at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art featuring Willems this summer. You should check it out.

Gerald and Piggie 

The embroidered & crayon tinted piece above is based on the beginning reader There's a Bird on Your Head (2007) in which a pair of birds nest on Gerald's (the elephant) head & hatch 3 babies. It is very amusing, especially if you come up with a funny voice for Gerald like I do.


The pigeon below is from the famous Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (2003) which has fast become a staple in any preschool & public library.If you don't know it, I recommend going to the children's book section & reading it, preferably with a school age child with you or the librarian or bookseller will think you mad... or a teacher.

Pigeon

& finally we have Olivia. She might be upset that I didn't put her as the headliner, but Frances has to be first in my book. Olivia is based on author/ illustrator Ian Falconer's niece of the same name. I love Olivia because she likes clothes, is stubborn, creative, a bit of a daydreamer, & she loves... RED!

Olivia trying on one of her many red dresses

So, now what to do with them? Pillows, wall-hangings, little tote bags? Comment here on on facebook if you have any ideas.

Flashback...

Hope everyone had a great National Embroidery Month. I fell way behind due to life (& death), but am ready to start March with a bang.

While I continue to work on my daughter's One Direction quilt, I will share a few previous projects!

The Bonnet

This particular piece was for  local fundraiser. Everyone who participated decorated a window, then the windows were auctioned off. The pattern for this lovely lady in her floral bonnet came from the book Ladies of Leisure.

I traced out the pattern on to white cotton, crayon tinted it, then broke out the embroidery floss. I just rediscovered this photograph & figured I would share it. I think it is beautiful.

Ellen Hardin Walworth House Saratoga Springs, NY- razed

 This is another project that I created as part of a fundraiser. Our local DAR chapter (Saratoga) was holding a fundraiser & my mother & I created this pillow to help. Using a photograph of Daughters of the American Revolution founding member Ellen Hardin Walworth's home in Saratoga Springs, NY I was able to create this redwork facade. My mother put the pillow together.

The house was razed in the 1960s. There is currently a gas station/convenient store on Broadway where the house used to stand. The 3rd floor of the Saratoga Springs History Museum is an approximate replica of the rooms in the Walworth House.

back of Walworth House pillow

For more information on Ellen Hardin Walworth, check out Saratoga Sojourn: A Biography of Ellen Hardin Walworth by Allison Bennett & Fall of the House of Walworth by Geoffrey O'Brien.

Teaching the next generation

This past weekend, while I was embroidering & tweeting* & watching my boys valiantly loose to the Atlanta Falcons (Yes, I am a Seattle Seahawks fan... long story), I was also attempting to teach my daughter & nephew how to embroider.

Zachary, or as Fiona calls him "Z", has been embroidering for a little over a month. He has at least one finished piece, a Moshling named Scamp, which he proudly showed his Home & Careers teacher.

Zachary started embroidering after tracing the image in pencil

Saturday he started a new project with the embroidery supplies I gave him for Christmas. This one involved crayon tinting & fabric markers. He is doing well.

Crayons and fabric markers add vibrant color

Fiona has some coordination issues, but she seems eager to try, which I am always in support of. She has been embroidering a little bit every other night this week. She chose a simple stick figure drawing from the Internet. She then traced it on a bit of cotton, wrote the words on with fabric marker & crayon tinted the shoes, faces, hair & clothes. ( I wielded the power of the iron on both projects.)

Fiona concentrating on her stitches

When teaching embroidery, especially to kids, I find it is better to let them pick out an image they are interested in, instead of some kit. Let their personalities shine through & they may surprise you!


BTW, if you want to follow me on Twitter- @aprilsongstress

Christmas gifts for California cousins

The one bad thing about having family & friends "like" your Facebook page & follow your blog means that you can't post projects until after they have received them (unless you are cryptic). OK, they follow my blog because I post it on Facebook.

I can post these though because the California cousins (i.e. my nephews Connor & Aidan, aged 9 & 8 respectively) do not follow my blog & are not on Facebook...

 Here is Aidan's...

Using a light box and pencil to transfer design to t-shirt

For the name I used the "Broadway" font  in all caps. I think the size is 120.

surfboard and name successful transferred

The surf board and tree design I found online for free.



 

crayon tinting on gray jersey

 

I tinted the design using regular Crayola crayons. You can even customize a box of 64!

 

embroidery time

 Using the stem stitch, I embroidered the outlines. I like to use DMC #3021. It is a brownish-gray that reminds me a pencil lines. Plus, it's not as harsh as black.

completed design

 Here is the final design. I can't wait 'til my mom sends me a picture of Aidan & his shirt. I will be sure to post it & Connor's completed shirt too!

Happy Holidays! & keep embroidering... only 6 1/2 days left!

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/