'Quick' embroidery

Last weekend was full of kids activities.  Kid activities means sitting around waiting.  If I sit around with idle hands, I lose my temper, so I decided to do some quick embroidery.  Embroidery is great when my hands can move, but there's not enough peace for counting.

I always forget that I'm not very good at embroidery, so even simple projects take a week to finish.  Here are the bits I was working on.  These are from the 'Dress up' and 'Spaced out' patterns by Jenny Hart at 'Sublime Stitching'.

I'm planning to make little bags out of them, one for the little lady, one for the big guy.  I wonder how long it will take me to actually finish those bags?  Hmm, I think I'll just avoid thinking about that right now.  The big thing I learned making these is that I"m too old to be embroidering dark fabric.  It's hard to transfer patterns to it, my eyes don't like it, and it photographs badly.

While I'm on the subject, I thought I'd share some of my kiddos' embroidery.

This was made by my little guy when he was about 6 (This is the 'Mom' pattern is from Leanne at DLTK's Crafts for Kids).  No, I didn't make him choose that pattern.  He chose it himself.  He's a sweet kid.  I helped him with the lettering and the heart (we made a mistake and ended up accidentally changing the letters).  He did the flowers and border himself.

This is his latest embroidery (again from 'Spaced out' by Jenny Hart).  He's almost 8 and he's now tackling back stitches.  He threaded his own needles and tied his own knots.

This is the little lady's from when she was 4.  This is not her first.  On her first piece, she stitched the embroidery hoop into the cloth and I had to cut it apart to get the hoop free.

This is her latest piece.  She's almost 6 now.  She says it's a house; her very own design, displayed in her own frame.  She can be pretty independent.  About all I did is hoop the fabric and show her how to thread the needle.