Embroidery: May 2011 Archives

One of the keys to making a house a home is dedication to details. Whether this is spray-painting a lamp the perfect shade of green to accent your dining room or picking out trim to really finish off your drapes in the bedroom, details can take a room from 'Blah' to 'WOW'. Adding details to unexpected places is also another way to make a room special. One of my favorite details in home decorating is embroidery. It is a simple, colorful and unexpected way to add an extraordinary touch to a home dec. project.

I have been really blown away by the pillows, lamp shades and throws in blogland, so I decided to try my own to spice my sort-of boring green couch. It came with some standard matchy-matchy pillows that are too contemporary for my taste. Deciding on some of the totally hip Dwell Studio Blossom fabric that I have previously used in my Amy Butler Style Stitches Post, I thought the colors would really work in my living room which is heavily blue. But I wanted to add some color accents to make the pillow pop but also to add some texture. Not wanting too much of a good thing I decided to embroider three accents in three different colors. Making the bird the center focus of the pillow as well as one of the blossoms and a small cluster of berries was my plan. Using simple stitches such as back stitch and French knot, I was able to fill in some color in little bits without overdoing it. I called on my knowledge from Sublime Stitching and my invisible zipper post.

Sometimes it was just an outline of the bird to make it stand out or adding french knots and fill stitches to the berries to fill in some color, the trick was not to overdo it and add color everywhere. The fabric was already amazing; I just want to make it special and mine. This is a great beginner's embroidery project since the overall pattern will distract from any mistakes and it is basically coloring in the lines. Even more the advanced will enjoy adding their gift all over the house.