Welcome to the 31 Days of Halloween - DAY 19

 

Next up today is an embroidery canvas. I had to paint the material black first and let it dry. I am typing with blackened fingers because I am an impatient person... Anyway, I drew a spider web across the material with a white pencil. Then I grabbed a skein of white yarn and stitched my lines. The white against black shows up really well, don't you think?

When I reached the end of my yarn I left a length hanging from the bottom-most web part. Then I riffled through my pompom and pipe cleaner drawers and found the makings for my spider. I had to use hot glue to get her to stay on the hanging thread.

That's it! A fun and simple (and not time-consuming) Halloween craft that doesn't take a master sewing expert to make. The canvas is 6x6 so kids and adults alike can try their hands at this project! 

My house and deck are filling up with my handmade decor and I can't wait for the big day. As I watch neighbors putting up huge skeletons and blow-up decorations, I have two thoughts: One, that I saved a bunch of money this year, and two, that I need to go bigger next year. My decor is on the small side, and my house only has so many windows and deck space. A little more yard planning and larger patterns is on tap for 2025...

Thank You, Gram

By the time I was 14 years old, my Gram had taught me how to bake bread, make Hungarian pancakes (a cross between crepes and Swedish pancakes), darn, hand-stitch, embroider, sew on her (1920-era) Singer sewing machine,  and crochet. That was a l-o-n-g time ago, but some things are, like they say, easy to get back to, like riding a bike.
In my daily purge and organizational efforts during self-isolation, I finally tackled my "sewing stuff". Lots of old material, thread, bobbins to a machine I no longer have, yarn, zippers, crochet hooks - I even found 2 latch hook tools! I haven't seen latch-hooking kits in decades!
I also found the baby blanket that my Gram sewed for me.She sewed one for each of her 6 grandkids. She gave me mine when I got married (when Bill passed away, we had just had our 41st anniversary). So it's not exactly starchy new. In fact, as you can see below, a few of the panels that she embroidered have started to fall apart.

 With all this "free" time on my hands, I have been trying new techniques in art, but this week I am returning to a long-lost one from my past. Gram taught me the Back stitch, the French Knot, the Cross stitch, and many others, and it's slowly coming back to me. While she traced animals out of children's coloring books, I have a large collection of digital images from which to choose.
For my first panel, I traced Frog Prince digi from Tiddly Inks and started sewing.
The most difficult part?  Threading the needle!! LOL
I don't know if this form of crafting fits any challenges out there in Blog Land, but I might join a few Anything Goes just to show people I'm still alive and kicking!

Challenges I am Entering:

(there are none)