OT Shirt

Here I am doing cross-stitch on a t-shirt using waste canvas. After the letters are done I pull out the strands of the waste canvas leaving behind hopefully straight letters on the t-shirt itself. It will say 'hypnotist'. I don't have a single t-shirt that is on the topic of hypnosis, so I'm making one. I have pretty unique interests so I've decided to make t-shirts to reflect that.

Ah well, it's late and I'm off to bed. So far I've finished the O and the T. So my shirt says OT.

Embroidery on a t-shirt

I don't have an embroidery blog per se. So I guess I'll put my new t-shirt project here. I'm about half way done I think. That is unless I decide to do the back too, which will take more time. I think I may have a little surprise there on the back just so people will go, "Oooh look there is something on the back too".

Farmyard Embroidery Sampler

Lately I've been obsessed with cross-stitch embroidery. I think I have ten projects going at once. I think it's because I'm inherently sloppy and cross-stitch is so precise and organized. It goes in the total opposite direction of my personality. It's challenging, it's frustrating, it's tedius, and it's way so satisfying when something comes out right. My favorite piece right now is a sampler with farm animals, letters, and flowers. I just added a deep red heart to it. I like that I don't have a predetermined outcome. I'm not sure what I will put where next. That keeps the project exciting for me. Like a murder mystery! What will I do next, and where will I do it? What color will I use? I'm using various reference materials, but I'm very proud of the pink piggy because I made that up as I went along right out of my head. I love working on tan aida cloth. The light colors look so good against it. I always thought mid-range backgrounds were the best, because then you can add shadows and highlights. I'm using 2 strangs of DMC embroidery floss on each 'x'. I got some new colors at the store on Wed. so now I can finish some of the animals I already started.

Needle Punch Embroidery

Years ago my mother and I bought some needlepunch kits on sale. At the time I remember almost finishing one, going out to run a few errands, and then when I got home I discovered my border collie had chewed it all up. That was in the 80's.

Now years later I was thinking of making a rug, and found ordinary craft stores don't have much in the way of rugmaking supplies. So my eye fell upon a needle punch kit. And now I have the confidence to design my own projects, so I dove right in. I learned the hard way that too much in one day can leave a nasty blister on a person's thumb. Now that it's healed up, I'm ready to go again.

My first design was a memento of my trip to Quartzsite AZ. I'm using embroidery floss.

Freeform Embroidery

A piece I made a few years ago. I should do more of this. It was a whole lot of fun.