Needle and Thread

I don't know what it is about a needle and thread that I love so much. I've always found comfort in doing something with a needle and thread. My mother was an excellent seamstress and apparently so was her mother. My dad's grandmother, who died long before I was born, was also very accomplished and even tailored for a living, or so I was told. But I don't think my love was actually fostered by them. It is just something deep within me.

Several weekends ago I journeyed north a few miles to a little town where the local quilt guild was having their quilt show. I used to belong to this guild and have attended their shows before so I knew it would be good. Now this year there seemed to be fewer vendors, but that was okay since I hardly need to buy anything after the week in New England. The quilts on display were very varied, a little of everything. One with hand quilting caught my eye and I moved closer to view the quilting (which was excellent, tiny well spaced stitches). But on the quilt was little squares where the quilt maker had embroidered something, I don't really remember what. I've never really cared for the embroidered quilts so have never really spent much time looking at them. But there were several others with embroidery and I'm not sure what sparked this but I remembered a tote bag that I had started probably 7 years or more ago. On one side of the tote bag is a little embroidered scene with a quilt shop and some flowers. I had worked on it off and on and always grumbled when I did. The fabric was a linen type weave but it was bumpy and somewhat hard to work on and it was too thick to trace the pattern on to so I had to actually draw the picture on the fabric. And it wasnt really what I wanted to be doing but I thought the bag would be cute to have. So I would work on it and then put it away, but I remembered this project while walking around the show.

So I came home, inspired by all the quilts I had seen, and pulled out this little tote bag project. Much to my amazement it was almost done. And I was surprised at what a neat job I had done on it. So I picked it up with renewed resolve to finish it in time to take to the Houston Quilt Festival in November. I've been taking it outside while the dogs play (when it isn't too hot) and I've enjoyed just sitting and sewing on it. I find it so relaxing to have a needle in my hand. I also have a quilt for Jaydon that I'm hand quilting, it has been in the frame literally for years as my hand quilting is so slow. But I also enjoy the quilting. There's something about pulling the needle and the thread through the fabric that I just love, deep down in my soul.

This is the picture I'm embroidering and the fabric behind it is the strips I sewed together for the fabric to make the outside of the bag. The little picture is actually sewn onto an outside pocket of the bag!