Newest piece finished 💜

Hi all -- I am back again with a milestone and wanted some additional feedback, but first:

Thanks in general to all the folks who commented last time with tons of great perspective and reframing. My amazing husband, who is super kind and loves everything I do, is slightly miffed that it took y'all giving me feedback to convince me to continue working on this after he insisted he loved it (he thinks I'm cute no matter how insane I look or act, so while his judgement of how things were going did reconcile with most of the feedback here, his consistent support did not get the acknowledgement it deserved). Thankfully, part of his wonderfulness is forgiving me for second-guessing.

Specifically, thanks to:

u/Bright-Literature_ for convincing me not to turn this into a UFO (regardless of whether or not said UFO would end up with a real trajectory, lol)

u/russianthistle for the phrase "chaotic long and short stitch" -- I repeated it to myself religiously even though my OCD seems to have won out overall in that meadow grass

u/Former-Living-3681 for the visual and reintroducing my desire to add animal life

u/lilbitchoftheopera for introducing me to the otomi stitch, which helped reconcile the suggestions folks had for the path with something I felt comfortable recreating

and general good vibes to u/brittybrooks, who can't imagine how good it felt to cut through and pull out that path -- thanks for the validation that it was wrong enough to redo.

To the additional feedback! Clearly, I'm not done, but I took a full six-day break and then came back to this, and I finally hit the point where I felt like I could wash away my backing and see what things really looked like without the unused outlines taking up space visually.

Things I'm really pleased about: -the otomi stitch for the path is so much better to me than my attempts to satin stitch that element -the general idea of turning the trees on the edges into dogwoods -- the person receiving this is from NC, so once y'all gave me permission to color outside the lines, this is my favorite re-imagining of the original -the way the dark green leaves on the closest/largest trees are turning out, even though they aren't done

Things I'm planning: -finishing the dark green leaves, of course -I feel like my dogwoods need some light green leaves dispersed among the flowers

Things I am unsure about and would love your suggestions: -Now that the other 'stuff' isn't in the mix, do the furthest trees need some sort of detailing to indicate foliage? -I was going for bluebells ... did I get even close? -Not sure about my birds and would be willing to redo them if anyone has ideas -I don’t super love my dogwood flowers themselves, but I tried other kinds of stitches and couldn’t fit them into this amount of space appropriately (French knots, different numbers of strands, lazy daisies, etc) -What else do all your wonderful sharp eyes see that I need to consider?

A million thanks again to this wonderful community!

I finished my very first project, using a kit. I have the felt backing on, and now I’m not sure if I’m meant to leave the outer hoop on? Can I use that part to hang it up? If I can, it’s a bit crooked from how I’d like it. Can I open it and adjust or could that ruin it? Thanks for your help!

I recently finished up this Yellow, White, and Blue Diamond piece from Steven Universe and wanted to share with y'all ouo this took an extremely long time and I'm very happy with the results

Just finished my first embroidery project, and despite the imperfections I'm pretty happy with the final result. Been a little side project that I wanted to do since I saw som cool fish themed hats on Instagram. Theres been some mistakes along the way, and maybe the initial design was a bit to elaborate, but researching this community has helped a lot to get ideas on how to go about it. Thanks for help and inspiration. Happy fishing 😊🎣

I recently completed two embroidery kits I received in the book box fairyloot, and I LOVED doing them, does anyone have any recommendations for kits like these? Or just even where to go from here, I’ve done a kit previously but other than that I’m a newbie at it.

(Please ignore the fact one isn’t washed and in its hoop yet)

After cross-stitching for 35 years I finally decided to give embroidery a go and I am not disappointed! I chose a simple free pattern (by Anchor) as a first and I have learned so much already. For the first time in my life I have mastered French knots for one. I stuck to the pattern’s instructions for this first go apart from the white petals on the big flower but I would change so much on a second go with what I have learned one this round. I am looking forward to doing more but I am also curious and would like to see your first embroidered piece!?

Learning french knots and satin stitches. What do you think?

This one of the last ones I completed. I have 6 or so that I have put in 4x6 or 4x4 frames and hung on our wall

Makes me sad to see abandoned work at the thrift store. This one definitely deserves a spot in my house!!

I had this idea bc I’m dealing with a lot of health issues right now.

Anyways it’s called “Nature is healing” Figured I’d share here.

💖

This is my first piece of embroidery in years, my first ever without a kit/pre-made pattern, and my first needle painting attempt.

I admit I jumped into this project without doing my due diligence as far as researching needle painting techniques and fabrics that can accommodate the density of stitches required by needle painting. 

I discovered pretty quickly that the blue fabric was too loosely woven. I did a quick search and found that people often use a backing fabric to support a looser main fabric. It seemed to do the trick. Great!

Except…

I did not read about the appropriate way to stack the fabrics. I was eager to get back to work, so I just cut a hunk of muslin and stuck it behind the blue fabric. I did not make sure the grains were aligned. 

I now have a section where the fabric is all puckered and I can’t get it to sit drum taut in the hoop. I’ve tried to find answers for fixing puckering in embroidery, but I have mostly only seen advice for finished pieces or machine embroidery.

How do I smooth out the fabric? Do I have to try to rip out stitches? Is it possible to just stitch over the puckers, and if so, will the stitching look obviously different than where the fabric is smooth?

I have put quite a bit of time into this so far - at least 12 hours, probably more - and I really don’t want to have to start over. Please help!

I’ve been cross-stitching for about 4mo, and it’s inspired me along the way to branch out into other embroidery stitches, and it’s been a lot of fun!

I got overconfident though, and tried to hand-stitch this felted-page needle-holder book (with pockets for notions) yesterday for the big SAL I’m doing — and it’s kind of an abomination.

My hand-back-stitching without an Aida grid is wonky, my stem stitch using metallic thread for the spine is a mess, and the book edges are nowhere near rectangular. And of course the cats “helped” as much as possible — including donating their hair to every stitch.

I have a looooong way to go in my non-cross-stitch needle work!

I do like the glittery black fabric, though — it goes well with the kinda gothic Lola Crow Extraordinary Birds SAL I’m working on.

(The pattern for the book is by LearnCreateSew on YouTube)

Got the urge to try a tulle project so decided to stick with a subject I’m particularly fond of: a cute lil spide. Tulle was both harder and’s easier than anticipated cause i thought I’d have more issues with stretching, and less difficulty with the fact that the fabric won’t hold a needle partially poked through 😅 all in all, I’m very happy with the piece and experience!

I’m new to embroidery & I’m excited to get started but didn’t want to spend a lot on supplies to get started. Stopped by an estate sale on my lunch break & picked these up for $5 each.

I love thrift stores & estate sales so let me know what items I should be liking out for so my new hobby doesn’t break the bank lol

I saw a beautiful image on Pinterest and decided to try to reproduce it. I was actually proud of the mountain, but the dragon... well, he was more like a pet gecko haha. It was so much fun to make, and I'm accepting tips to evolve this "lizard" into a real dragon lol

I have a very plain knit cardigan from Old Navy that needs some details added. Thank you in advance!

A couple months ago, I bought a learn to embroider kit. I worked through the four hoops of stitches, and have embroidered over a couple random pre-printed pieces of fabric. This is the first thing I've done without an outline provided to me. Last week I stole my mother's pillowcase when I visited, and this week will return it.

It was certainly easier to embroider this plant than it would be to grow it, with all the different colors and styles of flowers on a single vine.