embroidered family tree

Someone on /r/tattoos was asking for advice about what to get as a tribute tattoo for his grandfather. He listed all of these facts about his life, like that he was in the Navy, from Italy, was a miner for a while. In my opinion, the best tribute tattoos are the ones that nobody would know are tributes unless you told them.

If I were to get tattoos memorializing my grandparents, I’d get a rowboat for Grandpa Ray because he always used to take me rowing when I was little. Or an orchid for Grandma Irene, because her parents bred them and she always has two or three.

I have plans for future tattoos. But none of them are really going to be tribute tattoos, I don’t think. So instead of getting the artwork on my skin, maybe I could embroider it and arrange them on the wall in a family tree-esque way.

door privacy screen

So I’m in college, and I have a roommate. And something I was thinking about was getting a privacy screen to hide the closet (gotta love dorms with no closet doors) and also act as a changing screen. I never got one because I never found one at a price that I liked, and it’d be hell to move it around with changing dorms every year.

I have, in the time I’ve been on pinterest, seen things made with old doors: combination coat racks/picture frames, wedding décor, the list goes on. So why not a privacy screen, like this ingenious one?

Though actually I’m going about this the wrong way. What really inspired me was this post about using fabric to add some “frost” to your windows for privacy. This links to the original post, from Manhattan Nest, which is a door with glass panes. SO my head jumped around and came to: privacy screen made of doors with panels and the panels covered in lace (because glass panels don’t really provide privacy, oddly enough).

With this post I’m actually adding a new tag, ‘for later,’ which is for projects like this that actually aren’t really feasible in my current poor, college student state. Maybe someday.

sweetheart charm

I follow PurlBee’s RSS feed, so I saw this a few days ago when it was posted. Since I was going to Michael’s for floss anyway, I picked up some red felt. Already had white thread and ribbon, so I decided to just use those. Skipped the stuffing, too, and just cut up some felt and stuffed the heart with the felt scraps. Not sure how long it took me, but not very. Just going to write a little poem to put in the pocket, and slip it in Marc’s pocket on V-Day.

Han Solo sampler

Found this great sampler pattern thanks to Pinterest. Another project for Marc for Valentine’s Day. Currently have all the lettering and the heart done, and then I ran out of floss and just bought more two or three days ago. Gotta finish this and start the other one. Going in a 5×7 frame, I believe. Gotta double check the dimensions when it’s all finished.

Edit: Okay, so I finished this. Changed the pattern a little, decided to leave the gray out of the blasters and did the heart in pink and red instead of two shades of pink. Marc helped me pick out the frame, and I actually really love the way the stitching on the frame looks with the cross stitching in the frame. Worked out great. (Frame is from Hobby Lobby, for the record, and it is 5×7.)

fail whale/banana

I have a friend who I always (jokingly) call a fail whale whenever he even remotely messes anything up. For his birthday, I want to get some linen and stitch a whale with the word ‘fail’ in a nice script above it and frame it. Something small, like 4×4 or 5×5 inches if I can find a frame that size.

Font to write ‘fail’: Stars From Our Eyes, Always In My Heart, or KG Eyes Wide Open.

Edit: Okay. Fail whale may still be in the works for Marc. But I found a banana pattern for Neil’s birthday. Maybe the words, ‘love the banana’ around it.

embroidered hat

I started embroidering a hat with the Sammy letters forever ago. Wanting a way to make sure the stitches wouldn’t come out with the wear and tear that his hats get, I bought iron-on patches to iron on the back of the hat. The stitching is totally done, just need to iron on the patches.

embroidered pillow cases

Something happened to one of Marc’s pillow cases, and the person who was responsible for its demise got him new ones. They’re plain white, and Marc asked me to stitch them, one in a Sammy-related pattern, the other was my choice.

On the fraternity crest are fleurs-de-lis, so I found this pretty corner pattern that should be fairly straightforward to stitch. Haven’t decided if I want to leave it straight purple or add white/gold accents.

tetris piece magnets

This would make a good pattern for the idea that I had. Embroidery floss (not yarn) on plastic canvas, and I like the way the edges are finished on this one, with it wrapping around. I noticed at Michael’s that there’s higher count plastic canvas, so would probably have to double the pattern to keep the sizes (approximately).

Materials: floss in appropriate colors, plastic canvas, magnet sheet, glue/tape. Maybe yarn to use to finish the edges since I’m not sure embroidery floss would cover them completely?

cross-stitch bookmarks

Stumbled across this bookmark from a link on Pinterest and had to make one of my own. Can use whatever floss I want, really, but I’m interested in what Joann’s supposedly has: lace-edged aida bookmarks. And if I can’t get my hands on some pre-finished aida bookmarks, there’s always this tutorial for finishing one with grosgrain ribbon.

And, of course, what bookworm would be complete without a bookmark that says ‘fuck off, I’m reading’? That’s also on the ‘need to make’ list.

Leia quote sampler

Found this pattern on Pinterest. Marc liked it, told him I could do it for Valentine’s Day. Bought all the floss for it that I didn’t already have. Looking at it now, it’s supposed to be ~9.3×7.6 inches on 14 ct aida. Not a huge fan, I’d rather it fit in a 4×6 or 5×7 frame, so I’ll probably use a different font for it but keep the words, an AT-AT or two, and a rebel symbol just to yank his chain.