Embroidery 101 for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is right around the corner and if you're like me, you're still waiting for that perfect gift to jump out at you. I've always felt thoughtful gifts are more memorable than the price of the gift. This year, I saw an embroidered saying...Hello, Beautiful...and inspiration struck! I found the perfect gift for my Mom! I decided to make an embroidered wall hanging that she can hang by her nightstand, to see every morning when she wakes up and every night before going to sleep.

Now, I've never done embroidery before, so I figured I'd keep it simple and wing it! I use to do cross stitch all the time, so I already had the needed supplies. I'm using a 3" hoop, scissors, embroidery floss, and needle.

Next, I practiced my writing and carefully wrote on my fabric.
I used muslin for my first one, then got a little more creative and used printed fabric for my second.

I chose my floss, divided to two strands, threaded the needle, and knotted the end. My second gift, I used three strands to make the yellow floss more bold and standout against the printed fabric.

Embroidery has several stitches, however since I'm a novice and keeping it simple, I only used the back stitch. To do the back stitch, starting on the bottom side, decide the length of your stitch, and bring the needle up at the end of that length (at the end of the, would-be, stitch).

Pull all the way through, then poke the needle down at the beginning of your stitch. Your stitch goes backwards through your design, hence the name "back stitch"!

Continue through your design, trying to keep the stitch lengths equal in size. Since my design has loops, I found it easier to have close stitches in the loops to keep the shape.

When you're ready to tie off your thread...on the backside, stick the needle through a prior stitch, then loop it through itself to make a knot.

It took me about an hour for each. Voila! I now have a homemade, thoughtful gift!

So, if you're still looking for that perfect something...maybe you have a special saying you'd like to give your Mom, Daughter, Daughter-in-law, or friend.
This was shared at the Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop and the From the Farm Blog Hop.

-Live Simple, Be Happy-
Magnolia Holler