Recently I finished another embroidery project… a jewelry box for Aunt Susie. I made it as a “welcome home” gift and it was supposed to be done by the time she got out of the hospital but as usual, it took more time than I thought so I just gave it to her last weekend. Just in time, too, because she left for Michigan this past Wednesday. This project was a bit of a challenge, getting the different items placed just right inside their assigned squares (apparently my math skills aren’t what they used to be!), but that’s the great thing about making your own designs… even if you mess up you can adjust things so it turns out good anyway. In this case, I was left with a bit too much space under the top row, so I filled it in with the ivy stuff. And wouldn’t you just know it, that was the part Aunt Susie liked best! Each item in the design was chosen for a specific reason… the duck is for all of the birds and other critters she has loved. The gingerbread man is for all of the delicious goodies she likes to bake, and the candy cane is for her favorite holiday (she goes nuts for Christmas!). The flowers are for the beautiful gardens she creates (her flower gardens here were the talk of the neighborhood – people would route their walks past her house just to see the pretty flowers), and the bear is for all of the crafts she likes to do (she’s always knitting, sewing or making something).
Here’s the inside – the cloth was folded over to hide the back (I’m not good at making the backside nice yet) and included a little message with the date and everything. For this project, I experimented a bit with natural dyes… the purple heart was made from white floss dyed with blueberry skins, and the light brown part of the bear was made with onion skin dye. I really liked that part, though I did discover that yellow floss and blueberry skins do not make green floss. :)