The Awl Saves the Day

So, as you can see, my embroidered wall quilt L'Herbier is back on track. In the last post I'd had a challenging day stitching the ribbon embroidery through the two tightly-woven layers of fabric in the circles.

In the introduction to one of my silk ribbon embroidery books, one of the recommended tools is an awl, so you can "pre-drill" the holes for the ribbon. After the first day, I remembered that I have one!

A year or two ago I bought this for $1.99 at a hole-in-the-wall fabric store that mainly sold lycra and sequins for costumes. I recall that I thought it would come in handy one day. It sure has! Today's stitching was a piece of cake.

I'm so relieved! The muslin lining was otherwise so nice and useful, with a great hand, that I really didn't want to give it up. So now it can be full steam ahead! Whew!

Another Year on Sweet Hearts

Back in November I realized with a chill that on Valentine's Day, 2013, I wrote that I hoped to have all nine of my Sweet Heart redwork designs finished by Valentine's Day, 2014. I knew then that there was no way that was going to happen! Not after I'd spent so much time on Best Friends Forever. But I made a push, and finished this little guy, who may well be my favourite:

With the spats on the shoes and the striped outfit, I'm pretty sure this is a boy. But he feels quite familiar all the same...

Yes, that's me on the right!

I've realized that I stitched all the singles first, and now I have all the couples left. In general, the couples had more detail, so I guess I started with the easier ones. The first couple is well underway:

And here's a layout of all nine to give you a sense of where things are going:

I really do want to finish them and move on to the next steps with my plans for some pieced and applique borders. Too many projects! In any case,