needled...in a good way

It seems that every time I turn around I'm either sewing or crocheting...ya know, when I'm not doing the laundry, washing the dishes, homeschooling the girls, or well, sleeping. I love to do all of those things, by the way, but sewing and crocheting are very gratifying. It's exciting to see a piece of fabric or a ball of yarn turn into something great. Besides, making things is good for my brain, my creativity, my sanity! Well, as I was reading SouleMama the other day a certain little girl was reading over my shoulder AGAIN and saw something fabulous. Click here to see what Amanda Blake Soule made with her family...fabulous handmade family portrait bookmarks. Bookmarks are big here in our house and the girls know that if it involves fabric they can usually get me to stop everything else to create something great. And sew so it begins...embroidery!
Yes, still in their nightgowns, before school work even began they wanted to start making their bookmarks. I didn't have any linen in my stash, but in our house pink works for just about everything. I taped scraps of fabric to the table so it would be taut and easy to draw on with a pencil. I drew a rectangle on the fabric so they would keep their pictures inside the rectangle shape which will be the size of the bookmark when it's finished. We tried several different writing utensils on the edge of the fabric to practice. We found that the black template pencil from my quilting pencil pack worked best. Of course, miss E wanted to use her own school pencil instead, it worked okay, so no arguments here. She drew a ballerina with a super duper tutu. She also wrote an E at the top so we would know it was hers. Miss O decided to draw a picture of her stuffed ducky. Yeah, no family portraits here, just things we love. She drew an O at the top of hers as well. A fancy O, mind you, not a plain ol' boring O. After the pictures were drawn, the embroidery part began. They picked the colors they wanted and I got right to work. Well, they got dressed for the day and we started on some schoolwork while I hunted down my old embroidery hoop. Embroidery is quite the instant gratification craft. I was just using a simple, quick and easy back stitch...because that's pretty much all I know (for now anyway) and the pictures started coming together very quickly. Here's what they look like right now. The fabric for the back of the bookmark and the ribbon have both been chosen. Now all I have to do is sew it all together. But wait, that was so much fun I wanted to make one, too. I'm still stitching that one but it'll remain a secret. It may just end up being part of a gift. So, what do you think? Cute, right? After I get them sewn up I'll post a picture of the finished bookmarks.