Before I go any further, let me say that I’m definitely not an embellisher. I admire lots of embellished quilts — especially crazy quilts — but I’m not comfortable doing embellishing myself. It’s been a real stretch for me the past two years when our guild challenge has mandated embellishing, but I’ve done what I could.
That said, one of our local group members, Judy W., made a drop-dead gorgeous caddy to put over the arm of a chair while doing handwork. It has a couple of large pockets for scissors and threads, etc., as well as a pin cushion to eliminate the need to poke holes in the arms of our sofas and chairs. What made this caddy so special, though, is that she’s an artist with embellishing; she is truly amazing. So what could I do when she offered to teach our group how to make this caddy? Yup — there simply wasn’t any choice at all; I had to make one! So the project was begun yesterday, and I’ve pinned several trims in place and begun the embroidery on my caddy. Here’s my progress so far:
I have until March to finish what I’ve started, and then we’ll have another lesson on how to assemble the parts. What you’re seeing here is the two pocket sections, as well as the book of embroidery stitches I’m keeping very handy (I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew as a child about embroidery!), a small hoop, some threads, etc.
