Make it your own!

It won't come as a surprise to you, dear reader that I like to stitch. However, there's stitching and stitching. As a professional embroideress who tries hard to make a living, the most of my stitching evolves around you: My dear prospect or recurring costumer. And although I love you all very much, every now and then I like to do a little me-stitching.

Recognize this? Indeed, it is Tanja Berlin's pendant. I loved the idea of turning metal thread embroidery into something wearable. I bought the kit, but didn't like the colours very much. Since I am living in stash heaven that was easily overcome. You see, that's what I often do. Kits are a great way of learning new skills. Even if the design is not exactly your cup of tea. You're bound to learn something from it that can be implemented into future projects. This kit for sure has sparked a lot of ideas! You can buy Tanja's pendant kit from her lovely new Etsy shop.

And you probably recognize this design too. It is Mary Corbet's watermelon gingham embroidery design. Over the years, I have been given so many left-over threads, that is was time to turn at least some of them into a fun piece of embroidery. However, when Mary's blog post came out, there wasn't a scrap of gingham in my stash. As I am living in a beautiful tiny rural village, the fabric shop is 30 km away. And trying to make a living as an embroideress does not exactly pay for a car yet. Health insurance and a modest pension plan are far more important. That left me not so patiently waiting for next day's bus...

The red gingham I bought has 5mm squares. I used two skeins of Anchor #113, three skeins Anchor #225, one skein Anchor 386, three skeins DMC #809, and one skein each of Schürer #20, #2425 and #3093. All perle #5, that is. The brand Schürer no longer exists. Julius Schürer, born 1808, started manufacturing yarn in Augsburg in 1858. The company merged in 1937 with the Zwirn- und Nähfadenfabrik Göggingen. Which merged 20 years later with the Zwirnerei Ackermann. The Ackermann Göggingen AG became the largest European manufacturer of sewing yarn until 1994. The company went bust and the production of yarn was taken over by Amann. In itself a German based global playing yarn manufacturer established 150 years ago.

This gingham embroidery works up nice and quick and leaves you with a pretty useful piece of embroidery. I can see myself stitching hedgehogs on an autumn themed table runner, and snowflakes for a winter one or narcissuses on a spring one. So over to you. What stitching design are you going to make your own in the coming week?