I am not going to lie, I felt as though last week I was starting to, dare I say it, get bored with my embroidery journey BUT – This was my favourite week yet!! Put some of the skills I have learned so far to the test with doing more project-based practice. Let me tell you, this made a world of difference in my motivation to keep on learning!

This week I had seen my two year-old nephew and he reminded me of his love for dinosaurs and in particular that “Auntie is scared of dinosaurs”. A little backstory on that, I was Facetiming my nephew and my mom, he wanted to show me his new dino that made noises, I made a BIG deal about it scaring me and he has NEVER let it go! Anyways, this had me thinking – if I was going to make an embroidery for my niece… my nephew needs one too, right? The answer is YES.

So I got started by google searching “dinosaur hand embroidery pattern free” (I feel like I have gotten in the habit of searching for ‘FREE’ things since being a student!). I did a scroll through my google search and ended up picking the first result, not because it was first, but because it didn’t look too complex and it wasn’t just the outline of a dinosaur.

Gathered, a crafting website had the pattern of the dinosaur I decided on – Free quick dinosaur embroidery. I found that this website articulated the steps of this pattern almost similarly to how a recipe would be:

• Outlined the stitches I would need to know
• What materials will be needed
• Free template
• Step-by-step guide to the actual embroidery

 

So far this has been one of my favourite learning resources – it was simple and everything was laid out for me to follow. I am not sure if this would have worked as well when I was learning the stitches, but it worked pretty darn good for following a pattern!

The ‘recipe’ had 3 dinosaurs, but I decided to do only one and to make it bigger… this ended up biting me when I ran out of embroidery floss, not once… but TWICE. I ran out when doing the bottom part of the brontosaurus so had to switch colours for the legs… which I then ran out of that colour as well. I will be finishing it after a quick trip to Michael’s but here is a picture of my work in progress!

I still haven’t aced the transfer of template onto the fabric, so I know what I will be working on next week!

 

Week 4 on my hand embroidery journey, here we gooo!

This weeks goal: To be able to successfully embroider lettering via TikTok tutorials

I am not going to lie, I spend my fair share of time on TikTok – trust me, you do not want to see my screen report summary. By no means am I a TikToker… as I have never posted a video, but I feel pretty comfortable using the search bar. SO that is what I did, I opened up the app on my phone and did a search “Embroidering Letters”. Please refer below of a screenshot of the results to my search.

I allowed for my search to become more refined by selecting one of the options you can see in the screenshot above and to the left under “Others searched for”. Continuing this search by selecting “Hand embroidery for beginners letters”. This allowed me to pick a TikTok with ease as one account, @emily_bea, came up in my original search and my more focused on.

It was a pleasant surprise when I clicked on her account and seen 37 tutorials on hand embroidery!!!

I followed Emily’s tutorials for the following lettering:

1. Simple lettering
2. Block lettering
3. Handwriting

As you can see, I didn’t love the way my block lettering looked as I filled it in, but, I do like how it looks with just the outline done!

I liked that the TikToks are short, about 1 minute in length, and though they can be hard to “rewind” in time on my phone, it is very easy to do when on the computer! There were a ton of different resources on this platform, with a wide variety of skill ranges. I found that TikTok was less of “buy my products” push than what I experienced with Youtube. Again, I enjoyed that the videos were short and to the point and VERY easily paused when needed. All in all, I found these TikToks incredibly easy to follow and I will absolutely refer back to Emily’s page as I continue on my journey.

My consensus on TikTok is, YES, it can be trendy and helpful! I would love to know what everyone else’s thoughts are on TikTok – any other ideas on how it can be used as a positive platform or learning resource?

Next weeks goal: To transfer a pattern to my embroidery fabric & work on putting all my newly learned techniques to the test!

Please see below the three videos I referenced during my progress this week:

@emily_bea

How to embroider cursive writing! #embroidery #embroiderytutorial #embroider #diy #howto #tutorial #stemstitch

♬ [Hip-Hop] Sad LoFi Sound – アイスカプロジェクト

@emily_bea

How to embroider block lettering! #embroidery #embroiderytutorial #embroider #diy #howto #tutorial #lettering

♬ A little uneasy lo-fi hip-hop(794918) – kai

@emily_bea

How to do simple lettering! The first of a few I want to make #embroidery #embroiderytutorial #embroider #howto #diy #tutorial

♬ Lo-fi hip hop(219685) – NAO-K

 

I had FUN this week! I turned to Pinterest for some creative inspiration and instruction for this weeks blog post and WOW to say I was overwhelmed with ideas would be an understatement. A quick search for “Hand Embroidered Flowers” brought on hours in the rabbit hole that is Pinterest.

There were so many resources that I couldn’t pick just one, so I didn’t! Making my choice on which tutorials to follow was strictly a “judge the book by the cover” kinda thing. I know, I know – that isn’t always the best approach but it seemed to be the only way I could manage the high volume without clicking through every link.

OK – so what did I learn and how did I learn it?

• Satin Flower – this tutorial was just a video uploaded to Pinterest, there were no external links to click. This video was easy to follow and only like 20 seconds!

  

• Embroidery Rose – This one had a 3 step photo tutorial but there was also an external link… so of course I dug further. From the website there were more detailed photos and, buckle up because it is getting exciting, there were MORE flowers and leaf tutorials. Thank you, Miss Kate.
• French Knot on a Stem Stitch Stem – Ok a continuation from the above resource. I selected the “Hand Embroidery” tab on from the menu and started my search to where I found a post “5 Unique Ways to Stitch Hand Embroidery Leaves”.
• Satin Stitch – Yet another Miss Kate tutorial.
• Fish Bone – Ok, I am getting repetitive but it isn’t my fault that Miss Kate ROCKS.

My Work

I stayed fairly conservative with my flowers today as I truly had no idea how detailed they could get! You can check out my flowers below. I am particularly proud of my rose with the fishbone leaves! The amount of reality TV show I watch while working on this is a combination of impressive and sad. As I start to become more comfortable with the stitches I have learnt I can really start this

project will turn itself into a hobby and I am excited! It has been a great way to shut my brain off and, I can’t believe I am saying this, I find it relaxing!

What to Expect Next Week

Stay tuned for next week as I learn how to use the stitches I have learnt in lettering as well as maybe draw out a design as I am starting to realize I am not too good at free-handing!

 

Cheers!

OK. I wanted to document my most recent embroidery practice through an animated video BUT I tried to get videos of me doing the stitches & it was just not working, so I pivoted (again, cue Ross Geller).

 

 

Adobe Express

My pivot lead me to an Adobe tool, and, WOW! I have always been a fan of Adobe but it just keeps getting better and better, this week I tested out Adobe Express as a way to show case my most recent efforts in my embroidery journey.

I was overwhelmed with the templates to choose from, please see a summarized list below:

1. 1. Social Media Stories & Posts (Instagram & Facebook)
   2. Posters
   3. Logos
   4. Flyers
   5. Collages
   6. Book Covers
   7. Album Covers
   8. YouTube Thumbnails
   9. Resumes
   10. Invitations
   11. Menus

AND these were just the templates on the homepage – if you click on the ‘Projects’ tab on the left side there is even more!!!! This is where I found the ‘Worksheet’ templates, over 1,600 of them, SCORE! Now initially, I was thinking this is what I would use Adobe Express for, to create worksheets for my lesson planning, but as I explored further I began to think it would be a great tool for students to use as well!

Unfortunately, there is a Premium feature – though I found many of the templates and editing tools to be free! One premium feature that would have come in handy for my project in particular would be the photo background remover,  but I could still made do without it.

 

I clicked around the homepage, checking out the different tools and templates that I could use, there were some Premium templates but for the most part I found them to all be free. I decided I wanted to create a poster and my with creative skills lacking, I selected a template rather than starting from scratch. Once I was in the project editing I found that there were many cool tools to be used including: Text, Photos, Shapes, and other Design Assets.

 

You can also start from scratch by clicking the big purple + in the left hand corner of the home screen, where you will be given the option on what time of project you want to create. In addition to creating a project, you can also edit photos a number of ways – one being by removing the background, though this requires a subscription. There is also the option to edit videos and pdfs – neat.

 

 

Once in the ‘Projects’ tab you can see your work in progresses, but what I found to be particularly cool was that you can also share your projects with others and vice versa where you can collaborate together. That is an awesome feature for group projects!

How would I use Adobe Express as an educator? I would use it to create posters for my classrooms and worksheets for my students.

How would my students use Adobe Express? To create visualizations that they otherwise might have done by hand. One example I have would be for students to create a Book Cover as an alternative for a book report!

How does Adobe Express fit into The SAMR Model? I think that it sits on Augmentation – the features of Adobe Express can improve the creative process as there is more ideas and both teachers and students can be more creative or flexible with their ideas – but it does not completely transform what would be done without it.

 

 

My overall review of Adobe Express would be that it is easily navigated, full of incredible variation and a great tool for both teachers and students!

Back to My Embroidery Journey

This week I practiced the stitches I had learnt in the following week – really focusing on the 4 basic stitches, seen in my Adobe Express creation below.

 

I also free-handed a little bit of a make-shift rainbow from the 4 stitches outlined in the poster above. It is very crooked as I still haven’t learnt how to transfer over an outline, but I do feel confident I am getting stronger with my stitching 🙂

Coming Next

FLOWERS & LEAVES and all that fun stuff is my plan for next week – I am excited for it!!

OK! Week 1 into my embroidery journey and I am reminded that it is not as easy as it looks. I was extremely humbled this week.

I sat down with my embroidery material with the goal in mind that I wanted to learn how to start an embroidery from the very beginning as well as a good amount of basic of stitches. Being a very visual learner I thought YouTube would be the perfect place to start. I learned very quickly that there was a whole world of resources for beginners like me on YouTube – it was truly a task to find which one I wanted to watch.

One video by I Heart Stitch Art (Sarah) particularly stood out as the title of the video literally had everything I wanted to learn in the title “Embroidery for beginners – Stitches, knots, needle threading & More”. This video was awesome! From it I learnt how to load my hoop and properly separate my thread and thread it through my needle as well as the following stitches:

• Back Stitch
• Running Stitch
• Stem Stitch
• Chain Stitch (I struggled with this one.. hence the title of my post)
• French Knot
• Lazy Daisy (OK, I reaalllly struggled with this – picture proof below)
• Satin Stitch

This video was great in terms of instruction but it also broke each step down into ‘Chapters’, making it extremely convenient to find the time where the stitch you needed more practice with was.

I wasn’t just glad to have stumbled upon this video because of Sarah’s great instruction but, low and behold, she also has an Etsy Shop, Blog, and Instagram where she has more free resources (SCORE!).

This week proved to me that embroidery is definitely “in” right now just by the amount of resources available – I don’t think I will have any shortage as my journey continues!

What to Expect Next Week

More of the same will be coming next week while I try out some more complex stitch work and maybe try to find some more resources to assist me in the ones I struggled with this week!

 

 

Hello Everyone!

This project couldn’t have come at a better time, well actually, better timing really would have been around April 2022 (you will learn why soon) – but I am not one to complain… so anyways, I am glad it is here now! During the pandemic when we were all spending waaay too much time at home, my roommate gifted myself and the other girls in our house an embroidery kit. Ok, you could be thinking either “Wow what a great gift idea!” or “Is that really a gift if you have to do it yourself?” – well she had done so in hopes we would do it together to pass time, which we did exactly that, so the end result wasn’t really our focus.

Anyways, this kit was incredibly fun.  Was I good at it? No not overly. Did I complete it on my own? Also no, I think it took 4 of us to finish this very basic piece. The point is that despite it not being perfect and not doing it from scratch, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I spent the time where I wasn’t confused about what I was doing, thinking about my late grandmother who always gifted handmade things. Those gifts were so special and now that she is no longer with us, even more so.

Fast forward 1.5 years to this spring, May 2022, my brother and sister-in-law welcomed the most beautiful little girl into our family. Now, I was thinking about gift ideas and just stumbled across the thought that our grandma would have made something incredible for her, so I thought I should continue on this tradition. Knowing I am not near as creative nor as talented as her, and keeping in mind I had only done one beginners embroidery kit over a year ago (which took me an embarrassingly long time to complete), I ordered a custom pattern off of Etsy to do an embroidery pattern for my niece. This pattern has been printed out and sitting on my desk since May 2022 – so, here comes the reason why this project is perfect, I am FINALLY going to learn how to do this pattern and complete it in hopes it can be her Christmas present!

Let’s talk about my game plan (sorry about the sport lingo, I was a student athlete, remember?), since the only embroidery I have ever done was 1.5 years ago and I had 3 friends helping me – I simply don’t remember anything I had once learned so we are starting from scratch and we are going to learn from only online resources! WOOHOO!

OK, back to the game plan, since I was feeling extra motivated when I first got this pattern I had already purchased the materials I thought needed but to refresh my mind I did a fast Google Search for “What you need to start embroidering?”.

Wandering Threads Embroidery quickly reminded me what I would need:

1. Fabric 
2. Embroidery Hoop
3. Floss (not for your teeth, FABRIC FLOSS)
4. Needles 
5. Scissors
6. Fabric Pen

I had everything at home except the fabric pen but figured I would need more colours of floss and more fabric as I am going to need a lot of practice – so I put in an order from Michaels.Now that the materials are taken care of, I am going to spend the rest of my journey from now until Christmas learning different stitches (starting with the basic and working my way up), how to incorporate the stitches into a piece, how to transfer a paper pattern to fabric and completing mini projects along the way.

Here are a few pictures of my Grandma Val’s work – both cross stitching and embroidery.

Stay tuned & wish me luck!