My New (Old) Love, Embroidery & Some Birdies for the Nursery

I almost titled this post "My New Love, Embroidery," until I remembered that embroidery was how I began my foray (descent? downward spiral?) into the needle arts. So that actually makes it my first crafting love.  As it turns out, embroidery was my first creative endeavor as a grown up.  Like, 9 nears ago when I was 23.  How many 23-year-olds do you know who are into embroidery?  Yup, I'm a trail blazer and clearly ahead of my time.

Of course now I'm 9 years older and a smidgen wiser and I've branched out and become hooked on knitting and, recently, sewing.  I also threw in a touch of punch embroidery and some haphazard crochet, as well.

And it appears I've come full circle and I'm back to loving embroidery again.  Embroidery offers me a different kind of relaxation than knitting.  It's easier, for one, and less monotonous, to a point.  Constant color switches keep it light and interesting, projects are more portable and I don't have to do any counting. (Yay!) Except when it comes to counted cross stitch. But that's a whole other story.

On to the New Nursery Sneak Peek!

I recently finished embroidering some scandanavian birds for our new baby's nursery. The pattern is Scandinavian Birds II from the sweetest Etsy shop, The Split Stitch. (I can't link directly to the pattern because once someone buys it the link won't work anymore.)  I love Sara's embroidery patterns and just purchased a sewing pattern from her, too -- and I'm almost already finished!

I love how sweet these little birdies are. And the colors were fun to choose, too.

In what might be considered sacreligious fashion, I cut and hot glued the evenweave fabric to the hoop (I know) and then wrapped the hoop with strips of coordinating fabric as per Allison's tutorial on her blog, Little Lovelies. I'm very happy with how it came out and plan to make another piece or two from this same pattern for the baby's room, and someday for mine. (The pattern gives you several more birds to choose from than the ones you see here, and in several different sizes and orientations.  What a great deal!)

Don't you just love it?! 

Stay tuned for more from our baby-to-be's nursery, coming soon... I still have lots to show!