rainbow of stitches contest

On Sunday, it was announced that my embroidered doily was the winner of the white category in Feeling Stitchy's Rainbow of Stitches Contest--wow! Being new to embroidery, I'm so honored and flattered to be in the company of so many talented stitchers.

My doily is now in the running for the grand prize, and if you have a moment, I recommend checking out all of the finalists and voting for your favorite one. Voting closes at 12:00 a.m. (EST) on Wednesday, June 16, so be sure to get your vote in before then. And thank you, everyone, for all of your lovely comments here and over on Feeling Stitchy and Flickr!

embroidery project: doily

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of taking the Artistic Embroidery class with Kat McTee at The Stitch Lab in South Austin. After falling in love with this doily-themed embroidery project, I knew I wanted to try out something similar.

I started off using a simple circular design that I found in a book at the sewing studio. I transferred the design to my piece of linen and then started stitching, embellishing the pattern as I went along. I experimented with a variety of stitches, including a modified blanket fan, to create a sampler of sorts.

One of my favorite sections of the doily is its center, which features a cluster of French knots.

I finally framed the piece last week and finished the back off with a vintage sheet.

UPDATE: This piece won the white category in Feeling Stitchy's Rainbow of Stitches Contest!

happy valentine's day!

 

In preparation for today's holiday, last weekend my husband (he's caught the crafting bug!) and I made a set of valentines from construction paper, doilies, and Elmer's glue using this tutorial from Avie Designs.

The valentines were super easy to make, and I was really happy with how they turned out.

I also used some of the leftover doily scraps to decorate Valentine's Day presents.

To celebrate today, we ate cupcakes from Sugar Mama's Bakeshop--my favorite bakery in town--and chocolate-covered strawberries from the Godiva kiosk in the mall. Did you do anything special for the holiday?