Little Cacti

This morning I finally got around to doing something that I have thought about since the moment I saw it on the shelf- the free embroidery kit on the front of Issue 68 of Mollie Makes magazine. I only buy this magazine now if there is a project that really speaks to me. I used to buy it religiously every month but it started leaning more towards fashion and accessory projects, or paper craft and I really only have time for little projects that I can do on the go and have no real purpose other than being fun or pretty. A bit like these miniature embroideries!

I finally decided to get it out of the packet and work on these today, and I'm so pleased I did. They are really quick to make and such fun! The fabric, threads, hoops and a needle are all provided, although I confess I used my own needles. The fabric wasn't quite big enough to properly fit my smallest hoop so I stitched lengths of scrap calico around it to make the fabric base bigger- this is a great tip if you have a small piece of fabric or want to stitch in just one corner but can't get close enough. Lay the edges of the top fabric over a scrap material, making the total fabric shape as large as you need to centralise the part you want and work a quick running stitch to secure. Once you are finished stitching, you can simply remove the tacking stitches and be left with your finished piece. Be careful that you don't stitch through the scrap fabric though.

The templates for the cacti are provided but I found that they were larger than the circle of the hoop so drew my own based on their template. I played around with strands of thread, sometimes using three strands sometimes only one, to get different thicknesses in the stitches.

The stitches I used were back stitch, french knots, bullion knots, fly stitch and long stitches.

Once my little cacti were stitched, I cut them out in large circles and placed the wooden circle at the back, working a running stitch around the edge of the fabric and pulling to form a tight pocket around the wooden circle. A circle of white felt was glued to the back to hide the rough edges and then the embroideries were pushed into the frames!

They are so cute and tiny- real palm sized embroideries. A fabulous sunshiney morning well spent!