A New Hobby: Embroidery

A few months ago, Becca emailed me to tell me about an interesting person she had met the night before at a dinner party, Rebecca. "She was so nice!" she wrote to me "and she makes these beautiful things!" I clicked on over to Rebecca's Etsy store and resisted the urge to buy everything in her shop because I wouldn't know what to do once everything arrived.

I've been wanting to learn how to embroider for a few years now (after I tried my hand at cross stitching a while back and it proved to be one of the most stressful experiences of my life) and I was so excited to see all of Rebecca's beautiful designs.

When my Mother-in-law asked what I wanted for Christmas, I asked for the Color Wheel Sampler, which looked like it would teach me all the stitches I needed to know. I started it during the few days that I was at my parents' house between Christmas and New Years and luckily for me, my cross stitching Mom knew all the stitches and was able to teach me (and we didn't even yell like we usually do when we do a craft-we're notorious for our yarn fights in Michael's, which is when we yell at each other about how much yarn I need for a particular project and what colors are the best).

When I got back to Brooklyn, I spent a full morning binge watching Downton Abbey (I am almost on to Season 4!) and made some serious progress on it!

My favorite stitch so far are the French knots (the purple ones)...I just want to keep making them and think I could easily make hundreds before I got tired of them, they're so cute!

My least favorite is the Blanket stitch (see below) because I am terrible at it and also I stuck myself with the needle and made myself bleed. Don't worry, I ripped these out and started over...these really are the worst, they look like I did them with my eyes closed.

Dilly and Zula like when I embroider a lot more than when I crochet because its smaller and they can cuddle right on top of me, which they're into. My MIL also got me The Sequel Sampler, which seems to be a more advanced introductory sampler. The sticky up thread one looks like its going to be challenging?

I'm looking forward to tackling the Paisley DIY Sampler after I master all the stitches and build up a more substantial thread collection. You can also subscribe to Rebecca's shop and you get a sampler every month! Its on my To Do list for 2016 and I'm so excited (is it too early to start making plans for 2016? It seems like maybe it is?).

So if you're in the market for a 2015 hobby, I say embroidery may be it! I love, love, love all of Rebecca's designs and I have to say that the Color Wheel was the perfect first project. So go, go, go and buy one! I can't wait to see your progress!