England Souvenir is finished

England Souvenir Finished

I finished it! Did you notice the something else added? I couldn't help myself and added tiny half pearls and it was just what it needed. I'm happy. I hope you will enjoy creating your souvenir as much as I did.

Close-up 1

Close-up 2

Welcome to England! World Quilting Travel Adventure

Welcome to England!

It's time for England and I'm happy that we have arrived!

There are so many wonderful tidbits of England that it was difficult to choose so few.

1. Big Ben is not actually the name of the clock, it is the name of the bell which is inside the clock.
2. In the year 1945 a large flock of starlings landed on the minute hand of St. Stephen’s Tower (Big Ben) which made the time of the clock go back by 5 minutes.
3. I visited several places trying to make sure about this next fun fact. I understand that there are more chickens than people in England. Okay, for those that don't know me, I am the crazy chicken lady so this tidbit had me smiling ear to ear.
4. The River Thames that flows through London has over 20 tunnels and 200 bridges.
5. Throughout the years, London has been under many names, during the Roman Invasion it was called Londonium… it was also called Ludenwic in the Saxon times.
6. Back in Shakespeare’s day, mattresses were fastened to bed frames by ropes; by doing this you were able to pull the ropes which would make the mattress tighter, therefore making it firmer to sleep on hence the saying “goodnight, sleep tight.”
7. England is 74 times smaller than the USA, 59 times smaller than Australia and 3 times smaller than Japan. England is however 2.5 times more populous than Australia.
8. One of England’s quaintest traditional events is the cheese rolling competition in Brockworth, Gloucestershire.
9. The world’s first public street lighting with gas was installed in Pall Mall, London in 1807. In 1812, the London and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company became the world’s first gas company.
10. The oldest zoo in the world opened in England, in the city of London in 1828.
11. Shoelaces were invented in England in 1790.
12. There are over 300 languages spoken in England.
13. English people consume more tea per capita than anybody else in the world (2.5 times more than the Japanese and 22 times more than the Americans or the French). 

I love tea whether it be hot or cold so it only made sense that the souvenir had to tea related. The process of making it is as important as drinking it to me. For the past several years, I have been a student of tea and have loved learning how different types of tea are made and where they are made. Did you know that half of the world now drinks tea! If you would enjoy learning more, go HERE. Another fun thing about the Tea Journey folks is that they have a JoJo Club! Now how fun is that. I felt so special seeing my name that I may have to join and get custom teas delivered to my home each month!  I learned about the magazine from a Kickstarter campaign that I participated in. I can hardly wait until the summer of 2017 to get my special, smart tea brewer.

Yay----I only have the binding left to do and wanted to get this out to all of my patient travelers. I will email the pattern tonight so keep a eye on your mailboxes!  :)

Now, can't you just picture yourself walking down a path and seeing the Tea Room sign beckoning you to come in out of the cold for a nice, soothing cup of hot tea! Ole England how I desire to someday visit you in person.

England Souvenir

Anyone want to go to England with me? World Quilting Adventure -- Passport Required

England Souvenir by JoJo Hall

I'm going against my own rules again. LOL. I seem to do that a lot, don't I?

Our next stop on our quilting adventure is England!!! I'm sharing a picture of the souvenir my traveler's will be receiving once I've written the instructions and finished the quilting on it. It was so much fun to make and I had to make myself stop because I kept thinking of more things to add to it. I may have to add some fun hand stitching once I complete the machine quilting. And, my sign post is screaming for some embellishment. I also have a few points on the post that will have 'welding' spots so stay tuned for what I have in mind for it! Are you excited????

I will be working off my Thanksgiving calories for the next several months but it sure was yummy and relaxing spending time with my best friend and husband.

Have a blessed Sunday everyone!

Let's make Hexies!

March 2015 BOM - Arabella - Designed by JoJo Hall

Have you joined the hexie craze? No? Well, I'm here to remedy that right now. In case you are a new visitor to my blog, I'm a bit enthusiastic over the hexagon shape. So much so that I designed a block of the month and taught it at a local quilt store in 2015. It was so much fun seeing each student's monthly blocks.

Our souvenir for Canada is the perfect "dip your toes" hexie project. There are only 10 hexagons to make. I have videos for you to watch on knotting, basting, and joining hexies. The videos are posted them on my website HERE. Note: there are many ways to baste hexies: glue baste, through the paper and through only the back. Choose the method that you prefer. For me, I prefer through the paper.

Here's our finished souvenir.

Sewing map

After appliqueing hexies, prairie points & stitching

After trimming batting and backing

Sewing binding on

Love Clover mini clips!

Front view before stitching down back

Welcome to Canada! World Quilting Travel Adventure

Big, Beautiful Canada!

It is impossible for me to select just one area of Canada to visit. Canada is definitely a destination that my husband and I both will visit someday. Since we live in Oregon, we will most likely visit by driving up through Washington and into Canada. We are parents to a 10 year-old baby dog that cannot be boarded due to an ongoing illness so travelling is pretty nonexistent unless it is fairly close and we can bring him with us. 

Seeking out tidbits of interesting facts about each destination is so much fun. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I had fun finding them.

1. Did you know that Canada is the second largest country in the world! Wow!!! In case you are wondering, Russia is the largest with the United States coming in at third place.
2. Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world at 243,977 kilometers – 151,600 miles.
3. Canada has six time zones.
4. Half of the country is covered with forests. That means that one-tenth of the world’s forests are there.
5. Almost half of the population in Canada were born in other countries.
6. I understand that dog food is tax-deductible in Canada. Could that be true, and if yes, how wonderful!
7. Canadians like to finish a sentence with the word Eh. For some reason, that makes me smile!
8. Baseball fans have Canada to thank for the baseball glove. It was invented in Canada in 1883; However, hockey and lacrosse are Canada’s national sports.
9. There are a lot of smart people in Canada. Their literacy rate is over 99%.
10. Canada is home to 42 national parks, 167 national historic sites and four marine conservation areas.
11. There are a lot of HAPPY people living in Canada! Thirty two percent of Canadians are very happy, 55% are quite happy.
12. It appears from the research I've found, Canada is a bilingual country with French and English recognized as the nation’s national languages. Isn't that wonderful. I wish I would have learned another language. 

One phenomenon that occurs in Canada that I must see in person before I leave this planet, it the aurora borealis, which some also call the Northern Lights. Regardless of what it is officially called, I must see it in person someday. 

Here's my inspiration for our souvenir from Canada,

Aurora Borealis/Northern Lights

Isn't it beautiful!!!!

Now my first stab at creating the souvenir was a bust. I researched all kinds of information about the colors, sky, movement, etc. I guess the gases in the atmosphere can reflect a whole rainbow of colors. 

So instead of trying to be so literal (my left brain trying to take over!), I allowed myself to 'see' differently. This seeing allowed my right brain to drift and slowly allow a general idea of the souvenir. Sounds crazy I know, but I am not a person who can plan out the project BEFORE doing it. I have to just jump in and create with just a general feel for what I'm going for. 

Allow me to introduce you to my version of the aurora borealis.

JoJo Hall's Rendition of Canada's Northern Lights

Isn't it just the cutest thing you've ever seen! I had such a great time creating it. It's a perfect hot pad size, but I doubt I could ever allow anything to sit on it. At least not just yet.

Now, things you will learn if you follow me on this one:

• How to draft any size hexagon you want.
• How to make and sew hexagons (videos will be available). If you have never played with hexagons yet, I hope you will give it a try. There are only 10 little ones and they sit on one big one!
• How to make Prairie points!
• How to sew binding on a hexagon shape that doesn't have 90 degree angles.

Normally, I post this post and at the same time, I send the pattern to the travelers. This time, however, I need a little more time to get the instructions out of my head and into the computer. 

What that means to you if you are just reading this post is that you have time to request your passport and jump on the plane. You must submit a comment below telling me you want to come along. Leave your email or I cannot send you the instructions. Also, please become a follower of my blog.

Just as a reminder -- check out the top of tab, Travelers Souvenirs. If you have finished a souvenir, please add a link to your page so others can be inspired by your art. Thank you Karen for being the first brave soul to post a link. Now, who is going to be next!

Link up is now working!

I am the worst at trying to be perfect. Do you struggle with the perfection gene too? Don't get me wrong. It's great to want to do the best I can do, but it can become an obstacle when I continue to critique myself to the point that I stop creating. At that point, perfection becomes a doorstop. I've tossed the doorstop into the garage where it can't mire me down. Won't you join me in kicking it out of your studio. 

I have one more embroidery order to finish today and then I will be back at our next adventure. I came up with a new idea that I think will be fun for you and me. It will be small and should go together quickly. My biggest issue is that I fight the BIG. My travelers have shown me that small is not just okay, it's wonderful. That is not to say that I will not occasionally go for a middle size, but my goal will be to stay small. Let's see how I do! LOL 

Link ups are ready for YOU! When you finish a souvenir and have posted on your blog about it, would you please add your link to it? At the top of my blog is a new tab called Travelers Souvenirs. Please add the actual page link on your blog that has the souvenir. This way visitors won't have to search for it on your blog.  

The longest they will allow me to be able to keep the link up open is 30 days. So each month, I will add a new Link up. The previous Link ups will remain so you can browse through them when you are in the mood for inspiration. I get a lot of inspiration from seeing your work so please share your finished souvenirs with us!

Okay, I better get these jackets done so I can get to the next souvenir. Stay tuned!

Check out Karen's Oregon Souvenir!

Karen's Oregon Souvenir

Karen from Karen's Korner emailed me last week to let me know she had finished her Oregon Souvenir. I love her version of the souvenir! She made into a mug rug. I adore the pink cactus for her tree!!!

I love how creative my travelers are becoming in making the souvenirs their own. Each one of us will have a slightly different memory of our trip, which is how we all are in real life. Ask any two people about a trip that they took together and they each will have different memories of it.

Now, unfortunately I have spent about 18 hours on our next souvenir only to decide this morning that it just isn't working for me. What was in my head did not translate out into something that I am happy with so I'm starting over. I don't want you to make something that I'm not in love with. Now I could be seriously upset about it, and I am disappointed but I'm trying to learn from my mishap and bump up my skill to the next level. What I hope you will take from my lengthy going around in circles is that you must sometimes just take a step out into the unknown. As Charles Kettering once said "You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance you have of stubbing your toe, but the better chance you have of getting somewhere." Creating art takes movement! We may not always love each piece of art we create, but we will learn from the experience and that is just as important.

Here is the result of my painting with fabric and trying to get what was in my head into fabric. I'm not sure what to do with it. This is just the top and I have not stitched on it yet. Maybe I should just cut it up and recycle it into something else. I'm not sure yet. I am attributing it to my Picasso side, which by the way all of our great painters have paintings underneath their paintings. Can you only imagine how wonderful it would be to be able to see what they thought was unacceptable art. So, I have hope for myself yet!

Stay tuned for our next souvenir. I need to regather myself and do a do-over!

Yikes! I spilled it everywhere

Working on future souvenir

I spilled paint fabric everywhere! Okay, it started off all pretty with tiny little piles of fabric but as I got on a roll with decision making, it....well....it just went everywhere. That little clean spot was where my butt was sitting as I was auditioning.

Now I gotta pick it all up because I need to get some other work done that pays the bills and of course, I was playing right in the middle of my work path.

Get some color therapy today! It's good for the soul.

Woop, Woop -- My first traveler's Oregon Souvenir Revealed

Andrée's Wonderful Mountain!

This morning while I was waking up and sipping my coffee, I was so excited to receive an email from Andrée, one of our World Quilting travelers. She finished her Oregon souvenir and posted about it here. I was so excited to see her souvenir and read about how she took my pattern as her inspiration and created her own, unique masterpiece. I loved reading about her process and you will too.

To date we have 24 travelers that have joined us on this quilting adventure. Let's increase that number so we can have the plane all to ourselves. So who's going to be number 25!!!

Become a follower of my blog and post a comment below letting me know you need your passport. Email me personally if you don't want to leave your email address in the comment.

Peak of Next World Quilting Adventure Souvenir -- Passport required!

It's a rainy Sunday in Oregon. Yesterday, we were hit with some strong winds and the weather folks had us worried with the threat of hurricane force gusts. Thankfully, the storm had split centers and we were spared the worst. Unfortunately, several coastal areas had significant damage because of tornadoes.

I have drafted the next souvenir and thought I would break with tradition and share my draft. This one will be approximately 39 inches wide by 26 inches tall.

Attached below are some larger pictures for the Hawaii souvenir. The pattern has these pictures but I like seeing BIG pictures and thought you might as well.

The next pictures shows how unappealing the flower looks before adding color with paints and free motion stitching. Amazing difference, Yes?

Before paint and stitching.

 After paint and stitching.

It's so comfortable to wear and super absorbent. I love it and hope you enjoyed making one for yourself.

Welcome to Hawaii! World Quilting Travel Adventure

Hello & Welcome!

Oh how I love Hawaii. My husband and I have visited twice; once to Maui and the second time to Oahu. We hope to return to Maui again someday and stick our feet back into the warm sand. I also enjoy listening to Hawaiian music thanks to a very good friend of mine! Hi Syl!!!  ;)

In fact, allow me to share one of my favorites with you right now:

Now onto some little known tidbits about Hawaii that you may or may not know:

1. Spam is BIG in Hawaii - #1 in consumption. HI has an annual Spam festival. Portuguese flavored Spam can only be found in HI because of Portuguese sausage that is also a big thing in HI.
2. Poke (pronounced poke w/accent mark on the "e") is BIG in HI too. It is raw ahi tuna (most popular). It is also done in salmon, mussels, clams! I understand it is yummy! If you live in California, poke restaurants are popping up like crazy thanks to local Hawaiians coming to California. A build-your-own bowl is very popular. "Sylvia, I think I must schedule another visit--do you think you can stand me visiting again so soon? LOL"
3. Shave ice (not "shaved"--that's wrong). The best is found at a little old wooded building in the McCully/Waiola area hidden amongst houses/apartments. The ice is ground very, very, very fine. I have not found anyplace in Oregon that even comes close to the shave ice I've had in Hawaii and California. Oh yes, I love shave ice flavored with papaya/mango or mango/lime! 
4. When you visit in person, make sure to climb Kokohead Crater. It is an uphill battle over old trestles with no carved out trails. Your effort will be rewarded with a sunrise you will never forget.
5. Hawaii state's nickname is "Aloha State' because the word 'Aloha' is one of the most commonly used words in Hawaiian language. Based on the context, Aloha can mean 'hello', 'welcome', 'love', 'best wishes' or even 'goodbye'.
6. Hawaii is the only state in United States where whites (Caucasians) are in minority. About 38% of Hawaii's population are of Asian ancestry.
   
7. Hawaiian language has only 12 letters (A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P and W) and a symbol called 'okina (') and it indicated a glottal stop (slight pause) 'Okina is often represented by the apostrophe (') but its official symbol (') In Hawaiian language, Hawaii is written as: Hawai'i. Every word in Hawaiian language has to end with one of five vowels (A, E, I, O, U). The kahakō symbol is a line placed over a vowel. It directs speakers to stretch out a vowel sound.
8. Hawaii has its own time zone (Hawaiian Standard Time) It's also one of two U.S. states that doesn't follow Daylight Saving Time. (Arizona is the other.)
   
9. Hawaii is the only state in the United States to honor a monarch, celebrating King Kamehameha Day on June 11th since 1872. King Kamehameha I (Kamehameha the Great) is known for uniting the Hawaiian Islands in 1810.
10. A Lei is a wreath comprised of nature's gifts (flowers, leaves seeds, nuts etc.) presented upon arriving or leaving as a symbol of affection. A lei is usually given with a kiss. It is impolite to refuse a lei or remove it in front of the person who presented it. A lei should never be thrown away casually. It should be returned to the earth by hanging as a decoration, burying, or burning.
    

I saved the lei for last because that was my inspiration for our souvenir for Hawaii. Hey did you know that the Hawaiian language does not distinguish between singular or plural so you can have one lei or many lei! Isn't that cool!

We all wash our hair. I like to wrap my hair in a towel but towels do not like staying on my head. I'm constantly fidgeting with the towel to keep it in place. Let's make a custom wrap for our wet heads and embellish it with a flower that is commonly used to make a lei--plumeria. The most common plumeria flower I've seen is white, but there are also pink and yellow ones. My towel I used is white so I chose to do my plumeria in pink fabrics.

So I present you with my gift to you for traveling with me on this thoughtful journey as we take a break from typical quilt making to create a personal gift for ourselves or to gift to someone you love.

Plumeria Headwrap

First flower

Second flower on opposite side

Are you coming with me to visit Hawaii?

JoJo Hall's World Quilting Travel Adventure

I'm changing it up and our next stop is Hawaii. Our plane leaves on Friday morning so if you haven't requested your passport yet, you still have time to join us at our next stop.

Post a comment below letting me know you want to join in and what email you want me to send it to. Please also become a follower of my blog. That's your only payment necessary!

Now for the good stuff, I'm giving you a heads up on supplies for our next souvenir. So here's what you need to have on hand for Friday if you want to get a jump start and be ready to start.

• Bath towel (all cotton and not chunky thick) in either white or pink or yellow that is at least 25 inches long. I chose a white one that I already had in my closet. Wash it if you buy a new one or be thrifty and use one that is needing to be culled out and re-purposed!
• One elastic hair band in the same color as your bath towel.
• 3 cotton fabrics in colors (a) white, yellow, a darker tone of yellow or (b) pink, yellow, darker tone of pink. I'm using strips of fabric I have in my stash that are 5 inches wide.
• Cheap muslin fabric. Really, you need not use good fabric so if you don't have muslin, use something else that is either white if you are using white cotton fabric or neutral colored if you are using pink or yellow cotton fabric.
• Thread in colors of your towel and fabrics.

That's it! Now get ready for some fun, effortless sewing for your souvenir. You are going to love using this souvenir all during our travels; I promise. 

Collecting Souvenirs - Sizing Discussion

Don't delay any longer -- join in on the fun!

It was a fabulous weekend for me and my family. We were able to thoroughly enjoy the outdoors and what feels like the winding down of summer. We still have many warm days scheduled according to the weatherman, but the mornings are much cooler letting us know that it won't be long before we get to hibernate indoors. This morning was a shivering 44 degrees and when I went out to open up the chicken coop, I swear I could hear the girls shout 'close the door'!  LOL

Terry brought up that the Oregon Souvenir was a larger project than she had imagined it would be and I wanted to talk about it for a moment. THANK YOU Terry! Comments like this are wonderful and I encourage others to let me know their thoughts so we can discuss them and perhaps make a souvenir that really will be uniquely yours.

Oregon's souvenir is a perfect souvenir to make 'any size.' I recommended that she consider making it half size or even three-quarter size. She had already planned on taking it to the copy shop to have printed so instead of having them print it full size, just let them know what size you would like it to be. Because we used fusible web for the applique and stitched it via our sewing machine, the size really can be any size you would like, including "larger."

Let's open up discussion for this souvenir. Let me know your thoughts and questions. Don't hold it in because whatever your question/comment is will undoubtedly help other people out as well.

Also, because I am the tour guide and because none of the attendees have to endure long lines at the airport, we will NOT be visiting the destinations in the order I mentioned in my earlier post. I'm going to bounce around to make it more interesting.

Please request your passport now if you want to receive the next souvenir for free. I really want to give away my patterns and knowledge to you as a thank you to all of the wonderful people who taught me various things during my lifetime. If you sign up after we have already visited a destination, you can still receive older souvenirs for $4.99 on my Craftsy page, but I really want you to have them for free.

Signing up is easy. Leave me a comment letting me know you want to participate and then become a follower of my blog. Only 2 steps are necessary....easy peasy!

Oregon Souvenir Finished!

View from my Window (2016/09/08) -- JoJo Hall

Close-up

Well, technically I still need to add a sleeve and label to the back, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I painted the voids of snow where I had machine quilted to capture more of the mountain appearance. I added crystals for the stars (larger in the sky area and smaller in the water area). I may still add a sliver of a moon to the right side but for now, I'm letting it rest.

I added a black binding to simulate my bedroom window, and I love it how made the picture pop!

For this souvenir, we played with:

• paper backed fusible web
• glue basting
• turned under edge
• hand embroidery stitches using floss and yarn
• played with color using fabrics from our stash
• sewing applique via sewing machine using zig zag stitch
• fabric paints
• crystals
• machine quilting
• getting outside of our comfort zone!

Well, what do you think? Is this the type of small but fun project that you are comfortable with trying out new things? What's the worst that could happen? Okay, so painting on the finished project might be a little scary, but hey---I did it! And it was fun. 

I may mix it up a bit and visit a different destination than I mentioned earlier so if you haven't requested your passport, please don't delay getting in on all of the fun! I need to hear from you before we depart from Oregon in order to receive the next souvenir for free. Become a follower of my blog and request your passport today!

Don't forget that I am here to help so give me a shout if you need to.

How in the world do I machine quilt snow or better yet 'voids of snow'?

Sometimes the planets align themselves just perfectly. I snapped the picture above yesterday morning during the weather report. Thank you to our own KPTV weatherman, Andy Carson!

Check out that snow on the mountain. See those gray areas? That's what makes snow on a mountain so darn cool. If you had just a sea of white, it just wouldn't have the same effect. So if you are a person similar to me that struggles with machine quilting because you never know what to do, sometimes just following mother nature is the best route to take.

Take your snow top of the mountain and start playing. An easy and fun way to play with designs is to purchase double polished clear vinyl. You know the vinyl covering that is used to cover outdoor furniture or used to make a clear plastic pouch. Then pick up a a dry erase marker and a rag that you don't care to get all dirty. Now you can lay your vinyl on top of your quilt and draw out designs that you thought might look good. You can see perfectly how it is going to look and if you don't like it, just wipe it off with your rag. I auditioned my design prior to stitching it. Unfortunately, I was not born with the gene that allows me to quilt 'off the cuff.'

Snow Cap for Oregon's Souvenir - JoJo Hall

Quilted snow cap for Oregon's Souvenir - JoJo Hall

I've drawn my sky quilting areas in but am not convinced this is it....or is it? LOL

How do you prepare for quilting your tops?

Decisions for your dogwood tree

Designing on the fly

How is everyone doing? I haven't heard a peep from anyone yet. Labor Day weekend is here and I'm sure lots of you are busy with family and/or getting ready for school to start. Our charter school started class last Thursday. There were lots of happy first graders happily starting their first day of school. The joy in their voices was enough to make anyone smile.

You may not have noticed but I did not give you step-by-step instructions for your tree or flowers. This was on purpose. Don't groan because I want to encourage you to play. Play with abandon which means play wildly and without limits! You did this when you were young and all through grade school. You didn't worry about the outcome. You just played because it was fun playing. I want you to dig deep and step back into your youth and grab that curiosity you had. 

What if I (you):

• used bias fabric for my tree and tree branches.
• used a combination of fabric and thread
• used knitting yarn and hand embroidery stitches
• didn't put a tree on it at all

Originally, I had a pattern for your tree and exact placement for each and every flower. After I printed it out and stared at it, I decided that you should make your souvenir unique and different from mine. You can make it look exactly as mine if you wanted to but maybe it would be better to give you the road-map but allow you to take detours along the way.

I love my flexible ruler. It allows me to play around with shapes that I would not be able to do freehand with my chalk pencil. I had no idea where to start so I just started at the bottom corner on the left side and made a curve with the ruler that I thought looked nice. I drew it in with my pencil and made another curve. I made curves off of curves. Look at your trees and how limbs jet out from limbs. Remember you cannot see the whole tree in this scene. I've caught only a snippet of the branches in the photo. Capture that foreground and it will give you a more dimensional, natural look. I thought the scene without the tree was too flat. It was pretty, but the tree brought it to life.

Once you have drawn your tree shape, it's time to make flowers. I used some precut 2-1/2 inch strips that I had in my stash. Three of the strips had the same colors but different patterns. I chose to use all three so that the sizes of the flowers and voids of colors would be all different but similar. 

Apply the paper back fusible stabilizer to your fabrics and draw your flower on the paper side and cut out the shapes. I did different sizes like the pattern you have. I cut a few, laid them out on my drawn lines to see how it looked. Cut more, played more, repeat. I repeated the process until I liked the fullness of the flowers on the tree. I ended up with nearly 50 flowers. It took me a little while to do this part but don't despair.....the results are worth it.

Now you must decide what your tree will be made of. If you choose fabric, you may want to glue baste your branches in place first. Then apply your flowers.

Since I decided to hand stitch my branches, I fused all of the flowers in place, then went back and stitched the branches. I used a heavy chain stitch and knitting yarn. I love the look of the heavy chain stitch. It is an easy stitch to learn even if you have never done any hand embroidery. And if you want to learn how to do it, Mary Corbet is my hero on any hand embroidery stitch you could ever want to learn. She is my go-to hero and I am pleased to introduce you to her if you didn't already know her.

Here's a close-up of the stitch for my branches:

And because enough is really never enough, I decided to add in some hand embroidery to every single flower. I love how it looks.

The stitch I used is called a daisy stitch in two colors. Mary's how-to link is HERE.

When I was all done, I added in some paint to each flower. The paint I mentioned in this earlier post is what I would consider similar to applying shimmer eye shadow. There is a color but if you are light-handed, it is mostly shimmer with some depth. I started off adding it to only a few, but then the others looked sad and left out so everyone got a little color!

What do you think? Are you having fun?

Next it's quilting time!