Most of my magazines come as a happy surprise, but I actively look for and fret about my Martha Stewart Living. For some reason, here in California it comes to subscribers well after it is already on newsstands, and I’ve come very close to just buying it because I see it and HAVE to have it. I am not a patient person, no.
That said, sometimes Martha’s editors/writers are just a *bit* too breezy. They make projects and recipes sound like they are oh so easy and simple and you should definitely buy the insanely expensive materials (um, have you recently checked how much hem-stitched linen napkins cost? and she just blithely turns them into sachets, sigh) and surely after 15 minutes or so you’ll have a pile of terribly clever, sweet and beautifully crafted pompom bunnies/tomato pincushions/nuclear fission devices with which to delight your family and friends. But sometimes? It all ends in tears (I’m looking at you, mangled, lumpen 3-hour “pincushion”).
Regardless, I couldn’t resist trying the ribbon embroidery from the March 2007 MS Living. And amazingly, all is well!
Strawberries and a mushroom! They are teeny tiny, too- I should have put a penny in there for scale. There were a few things missing from the instructions that I wish I’d known– do use a tapestry needle, as threading a regular embroidery needle with ribbon is not good for the blood pressure, and get several widths of your chosen ribbon colors, as it is much easier to make nice smooth “padded straight stitches” if you make your French knots with smaller ribbon and cover it with wider ribbon.
This is just a sampler, and I’m not sure if there’s enough space between what I’ve embroidered to cut them out and make them into fabric covered buttons (eeeh! too cute, yes?). But I do want to make some strawberry jam this summer, and I love Martha’s idea of covering the top of the jam jar with a strawberry-embroidered hankie (though mine will be homemade by me with serged edges rather than Martha’s $35 hem-stitched variety!).
And I need your advice- if you got 2 yards of red cotton with pin-point-tinywhite polka dots on it at the thrift store, what would you make? I’ve wanted fabric just like this for so long and now that I’ve found it, I’m a bit paralyzed by the possibilities (at the moment I’m leaning toward a Peter Pan collar, puff-sleeve blouse).
p.s. Thank you so much for the spring jacket and new site love yesterday!