Embroidery Hoop Art

Happy almost March! I don't know about you, but I'm very much looking forward to some warmer weather and less snow. It's absolutely gorgeous in Albany today... we hit 54 degrees! Andrew and I went for a walk through the snow and it seemed like everyone was out enjoying the unseasonably high temps. Unfortunately, it's not going to last long as we'll be dipping back into the 20's this week. In other news, I apologize for the long hiatus. Over the past month, I've been putting in close to 80 hours a week at the hospital on the pediatrics floor. It's been incredibly rewarding and affirming that pediatrics is absolutely the career for me!

Anyway, on to the project!

Over the summer, my grandma gave me some embroidery hoops that she isn't planning on using. I don't do cross stitch, but I figured I could come up with something creative.

I decided to browse the internet for a retro camera image and settled on this one. 

I converted it to black and white, added "smile," printed it out, and taped it to the back of some cross stitch fabric that I had placed in my hoop.

Holding the hoop up to the window, I traced the camera image onto the fabric.

Next, I used double thick black sewing thread to stitch over the pattern. As you can tell, it's definitely not perfect.



(As I said, I don't really do embroidery... and I was in a bit of a hurry since this project was really me procrastinating on some major med school work that needed to get done.)

Even with the imperfections, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I hung it on the wall with the other embroidery hoops Grandma had given me. I placed a photo from a family snow adventure in the larger of the three hoops, and left the tiny one blank. I'm still thinking about what to do with that one, but seeing a blank canvas on the wall reminds me to keep the creative juices flowing regardless of how busy life can get sometimes.

Also, I know that spring doesn't officially start for about a month, but I'm really longing for it now, hence the Mark Twain spring quote. If you're looking for another easy project, this is how I made the tiny burlap print.

Hope you find this simple project inspiring!

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