Hope you are doing well. Where is time going this year.. can't believe we are in mid of the year .
I wanted to share details of finishes I had last month , the gifts I sent to my colleagues in USA.
I visited my USA office in March and wanted to thank two of my colleagues for their hospitality . As with us crafters, we prefer to make something with hand as thank you gifts rather than store bought items, I thought of making a personalized wash cloth and something of cross stitch for them.
I found perfect yarn in my stash from my time in Kuwait , and made these wash cloths with initials of their first name.
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Alphabet square Designer : Heather Design source :https://daisyandstorm.com/2021/05/10/daisy-storms-knitted-alphabet-squares-pattern-book/ |
Then I started thinking of which motif to stitch for my colleagues from the SAL. I stitched two motifs from Cliffside stitches Heritage Motifs Stitch-Along . I came to know about this SAL in December and thought of stitching motifs of countries I have visited for myself.
Ms. J shared how much she enjoyed her vacation in Italy with her family while we were chatting during my visit. So ,I picked this blackwork version of a Italian motif to celebrate that.
For Ms. K ,I chose cross stitched version of a Indian motif to remind her that she always has a friend in India.
For Ms. K ,I chose cross stitched version of a Indian motif to remind her that she always has a friend in India.
Now the funny part is my initial plan was to finish these motifs in tiny pillows/ornaments. Well, that didn't work out, I couldn't find a perfect backing fabric to use. Also , I realized that stiff aida isn't ideal when using hand sewing to make ornaments. Another thing I learned is its better to use colored fabric to stitch on when making ornaments , buttons and laces look good on colored background instead of white.
Do you any such experiences or advice on this?
After the stitching finished and I had above realization, I got disheartened and almost gave up. Hubby suggested to sleep over it..voila it worked. Next morning I woke up with a new finishing idea , to finish as these cards /postcards . I found perfect material for the Indian motif, an old wedding card. Love upcycling !!!
The Italian Motif is finished using Colorbok designer paper .
I packed these with some Indian souvenirs and dry snacks .
Happy to say that my colleagues liked the gifts.
What a great idea .good utilisation 👍💯
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely gifts you made for your coworkers, so thoughtful and well made! The cards are just wonderful and again, thoughtful to include countries motifs that were special to each of them! I have found Aida to be very stiff when making them into something once it's stitched on. The card idea was a great way to go. Have you ever stitched on linen? Linen fabric is much easier to work with when fully finishing. Happy Stitching!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful finishes for gifts! You are very talented being able to do more than one craft.
ReplyDeleteThese are all great! Have you done a biscornu or other kind of whip stitch finish before? I think that's a great staring point to making pillows/pin cushions, even from aida.
ReplyDeleteThe washcloths are so very pretty, Mini! I love the color of yarn you used. I'm sure they will appreciate their pretty gifts and cards so much! Hope your weekend is going well!
ReplyDeleteSuch thoughtful gifts you made, I love the colours of the threads within the cards, they look really special. Aida, I may have a little few bits but hardly use it these days. Sorry I am not really helpful at all, can't really shed a light there as I migrated to linen many years ago. Your stitching is very beautiful.
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