Embroidery Quest! Keys 1635 - 1638

I loved embroidery when I was younger and in my mind I can still see the Holly Hobbie pillow and the Christmas stocking my somewhere around ten-year-old self made. In the Christmas stocking I mixed up the rays of the sun and went: light yellow, yellow, red, orange, dark orange instead of light yellow, yellow, orange, dark orange, red - I don’t know why I didn’t just redo it but perhaps I didn’t realize my mistake in time? And perhaps I didn’t know that it was OK to take stitches out and start again? And what I really don’t know is why, why after over 40 years whenever I remember that stocking I can’t marvel at the wonderful neat stitches my youthful fingers created and instead can only see the glaring error in my sun’s rays?

How wonderful to be able to find images from my youth so quickly on the internet! My Holly Hobbie doll was predominantly made with blue thread. This was a great pattern - the French knots were fun and easy to make and covered lots of fabric ground quickly.

This “recreating keys I’ve already made using childhood crafts” portion of my 5000 Keys project keeps expanding well beyond the “ten keys ten ways” mini-series I usually do. I decided to take my friend’s advice and make an embroidered version of my doodle art poster.

I began by tracing the back of my original pattern with a fabric pencil and then ironing the transfer onto a piece of old shower curtain liner (I believe this is what’s known as “drop-cloth embroidery” - using whatever “drop cloth” is at hand). Some parts of the design came through more clearly than others. I wouldn’t say adhering strictly to a pattern is my strong suit so perhaps it’s better that I’ll be forced to just wing it a bit!

Here are the first four keys: