Stitch Along in March

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't bring myself to work on the Hobbit caravan since teasing you with it during our last check-in.

Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I did finish using that strand of yellow to reinforce the outline of what will be the front door of the trailer. But no more, even though I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do. In my defense, we had a new sliding glass door installed this week. I think the fumes from the sealant affected me more than we expected it to. Plus there were recovery times from the  shopping I did for upholstery fabric (see previous post).

While I wasn't able to face the Hobbit travel trailer I did manage to do some other stitching. Specifically, I started a new set of pillowcases and embroidered a bit more on the set I already had in progress. This is the new set:

And here's one of the pair I've had on the go for a couple of months now.

I'm not convinced my treatment of the center of the daisy was the best choice but I'm not about to take it out, at least not yet. I did buttonhole stitch in the centers of the flowers in the newer pillowcase and quite like the way they look. The middle of the daisy is significantly larger however, so I was reluctant to use buttonhole there. I may yet remove the threads I've laid and replace them. The buttonhole stitches on some of the leaves were my own idea too. I enjoy tweaking mass produced designs to make them my own. 😊

I've also spent time and energy looking for a better way to keep my embroidery projects clean and organized. I seem to be perfectly comfortable with storing patchwork blocks in various plastic bags but when it came to the growing number of embroidery projects I found I wanted something more substantial for them. (I'm beginning to think I suffer from Stitcher's ADD more than I ever have the quilter's version!) So far this is what I've come up with:

The tool box in the foreground is not ideal but it's acceptable. I ordered it online with another set of plastic boxes that stack and snap together. They turned out to be too small for my purposes. Currently the tool box holds my various sampler projects. The other two boxes each contain one set of pillowcases in progress. I found those at Office Depot here in town. The pillowcases have to be folded up pretty small to fit but they do fit, and since they will be laundered when they're finished I figure any creases will relax then. They are poly-cotton blends so they shouldn't hang onto creases or wrinkles the way pure cotton would anyway.

I have a couple of other, larger, plastic boxes or totes for bulkier projects and raw materials (blank dish towels and the like). My hand-dyed flosses are currently in a lovely scrapbooking box with a carry handle. It's big enough to hold 12" quilt blocks should I ever decide to move the floss out. I found a way to keep the various transfer patterns all in one place too. I may not be a neat freak but I do like to have things organized! 😉

In case you haven't been around to see what all the other stitchers in this group are working on (I think I'm the last in the world-wide time zones) you can click on their names below and be taken to their blogs. I promise you some great eye candy and maybe even a little inspiration!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina,

Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Mary Margaret,

Heidi, Connie, Jackie, Sunny