Jimothy

Not quite sure how I happened across the Jimothy Embroidery Pattern by Fife Fibers, but when I saw it, I thought it would be perfect for my friend Louise's @imfeelincrafty birthday. 

The design is 8" big, and I used my lightbox to trace it onto a gray-blue Kona cotton that I can't remember the name of unfortunately. I backed it with a piece of Essex before stitching, which was great for stitching, but caused a bit of a challenge later on, but more on that later.

For all of the embroidery, I used embroidery floss in a varying number of strands - I honestly just followed the designer's suggestions. In stitching Jimothy, I happily learned a new stitch - the rice stitch. Basically you layer what I know as seed stitches, using different colors of thread. It was a great way to fill in.

The only challenge in the whole project came when I went to insert the finished stitchery into an 8" wooden hoop. The gathering of the fabric on the back was a little heavy due to the double thickness. But I was slow and careful, and once the gathering was complete, I lightly pressed the edges on the back before adding the felt. 

[Just for the record, I traced the felt along the outer edge of the inner hoop, then cut out with scissors. For the gathering and sewing the felt on the back, I used a single thickness of Wonderfil Spagetti 12wt hand quilting thread.]

Louise received Jimothy a few days ago, so I'm happy to be able to share him now. This little stitchery was definitely a joy to stitch.