Patriotic Embroidery

I know this is kind of late-but I thought I'd post this anyway. I thought I'd share with you how I turn an image into a pattern. I didn;t have a Patriotic pillow, so I looked through my stash and found this vintage magazine.Very old and faded. I will only use the main part of the image.
I put it through the printer and make a color copy. This is where you can make it the size you want it to be.I trace the out line of all the stuff I want in my finished embroidery with a thin sharpie to make the lines stand out.
I trace it onto my fabric with a light box and disappearing ink fabric marker.You can put it up to a sunny window, if you don't have a light box.
You could start embroidering it right now, or you can add color. I chose to color in with Prang crayons. You can use any kind of crayon, but the Prang are a little softer. You don't have to do the same colors as the image, you can get creative here.

Don't worry about being too neat. Just have fun. Then iron the color in with a paper towel over it, so it doesn't melt onto your iron.
Start embroidering-no rules here. I did the entire thing with a straight stitch, except for the stars on the flag. I used french knots. You could get creative again, by adding beads, small buttons, different stitches, colors etc. I did mine very simply.
When I stitch, Max sits on my lap. It's a tight fit!
After embroidering, rinse it under water if you used a water dissolving pen. It looks a little weird, until you rinse away the blue ink pen.
Let it dry and press it flat. I added strips of fabric that I had to make a pillow cover, but you could do anything you want with this.
Here's the image I traced off for you to use. You could do it all one color-like redwork, or go crazy with coloring.It's really fun to use some of those vintage images in new ways.
Here's one I did for Valentines day-same steps. You can use vintage cards, magazine ads,old book pictures. Have fun and let me know if you decide to try this.Joining It all started with paint Pillowpalloza for a fun pillow party.

Leslie

Red, White and Blue

I've been decorating for the Fourth as you can see.
I finally repainted my vintage chalk board with Martha Stewart chalkboard paint. The old surface was messed up and you couldn't write on it. So happy I took the time to do this.
The little banner is a freebie from Jenny Harris at her wonderful blog- Allsorts. You can download these freebies and cut them out then string them on bakers twine.
It's hard to take pic's through glass, but my dear friend Donna gave this to me and I used my vintage Uncle Sam and a cute Liberty tag I picked up. Can't remember where-sorry.
On the new mantle- a flag bouquet.
A little bit of Texas. I made the little Tx flag at a rug hooking workshop years ago.
Close-up of the embroidery-primitive style is always fun to do-no straight lines.
My big clock and patriotic horns in my entryway. I'm getting into the patriotic spirit! How about you? Dropping son off at the airport this afternoon-he's going backpacking in Europe for a few weeks. Lucky him! Wish I could do that. Have a great day!!

Leslie

Loose Ends

I've been trying to tie up some loose ends. Here are the promised pic's of the tea towels I showed you last week. Here's one hanging on my new hutch.The patterns were from My Vintage Mending, Thanks Renee!
I love to work in a single color-no changing threads-super easy and quick!
The cabinet I showed in progress from last week. I repainted, sanded and finished this, I still want to paint the knobs a darker green that will contrast more against the white.
I put in my Mom's set of nodders. I showed you some of them HERE, when they were back at my parents house. After my Dad died, I wanted a special place for them.
So I put the cabinet in my bedroom, because the bases are almost always pink and green(my bedroom colors) They were usually tourist souvenirs.
Each piece comes out and is a salt and pepper shaker. They balance in the base and can swing or nod back and forth. They are very kitchy and I am reminded of my Mom every time I look at them.
One last thing. I found this cute wire basket cloche thrifting with my son last week. But he did me proud. He found a practically new pair of Doc Martins-just his size! Awesome find, Son!
I loved, loved your comments from my last post! The different ice cream men in your different neighborhoods-wow! I think I'll go get a drum stick right now. Have a good week!

Back in One Piece

We made it back from the road trip to Chicago in one piece. It's a long drive from Texas! I worked on these 2 stitcherys from a pattern from Renees wonderful blog, My Vintage Mending.I had the tea towels from a garage sale-they still have the original price tag pinned on. Woolworths-6 for 49 cents. Don't you wish we could still get them at that price?
I've also been painting again. It seems like I always have a brush in my hand. I'll show the finished little cabinet soon.
We didn't have much time in Chicago and we took the dog, so couldn't do much. One thing I wanted to do was to find some of the places my parents lived and went to school in Chicago. I had this wedding picture and did a little detective work and was able to locate the church they were married in. They would have been married 62 years in August.
I found it- and it has been turned into a school. The door is the same. Even though I grew up outside the city I had never been by this church.
Took this out the car window. I remember waiting for the Good Humor Man in the summer every night and when I heard the song, I'd run in to ask for money to get an ice cream bar.
I was surprised that Good Humor is still going. It's kinda comforting that some things never change! Do any any of you have a fond memory of the ice cream man?

Thanks for all the comments on my kitchen hutch. I loved reading every single one! Have a happy day!

Leslie