Lucy! You Have Some 'Splainin' to Do!

At long last, here is one of the two big projects I recently completed. Check that off the Christmas gift list. (The colors in these images are not quite as vibrant as they are in real life. I haven't had good lighting lately.)

I found a drawing from Google images, enlarged it, and printed it in gray scale. The simplistic style of the image appealed to me because it lent itself well to embroidery, it seemed simple enough to tackle, and it was different from anything else out there. I then used my "light board" (a piece of Plexiglas that I suspend between a desk and a rolling cart, with my OttLite underneath) to trace it onto the fabric, which is cut from an old bed sheet.


The stitching didn't take as long as I anticipated, which is not something I can often say. The entire piece is satin stitch except for the little title heart on the bottom right, which is long and short. When you see the second completed project (hopefully tomorrow), you'll understand when I say that I do not care to do any more satin stitch any time soon! Really, it was very good practice, although I still need to do some work on getting the floss to lay nicely and getting my edges more even.

Going into this I promised myself I was not going to be as neurotic about every detail, and it's amazing how much faster it went that way. I allowed myself the opportunity to tear out and redo stitching that was really off, but I did not nitpick or obsess over teeny imperfections. And looking at it as a completed project, I can see that the piece is perfectly nice and way more pleasurable to me because it didn't turn into a huge headache.


It's been turned into a throw pillow (about 16" square), using more fabric cut from an old bed sheet and a pillow form. It's a gift for my sister, who has a room in her house decorated with Lucy paraphernalia. I think she'll love it--and if not, she has some 'splainin' to do! (A few more detail photos can be found on my Flickr page.)