Hoosier Girl

I've come to think of her as my "Hoosier Girl" project. Like, Monday, when I was coming home from work, I had apples on my brain, but I was also thinking that I'd really like to get some work done on my stitching. It wasn't to be on Monday, and even though I was knee deep in boiling jars and chopping last night, too, I did manage to finally finish the embroidery part of Hoosier Girl.

In fact, I've been seeing red for several reasons! I've also been working on the red trio for my botanical applique. I know I say this every time I start a new color, but these are my new favorites!

And there she is, that lovely lass in the back, made using traditional redwork. I've made her the perfect size to fit the bottom cupboard door of Gram's hoosier, and oh, I think she fits the tone and mood so perfectly!

When Scotty saw me working on it, he got very excited. He started squealing, "Mommy, that's you! That's my mommy! My mommy! That's you, Mommy!" and guess what? It does look like me! I hadn't even thought of that, but of course it does. Her hair pulled up and and stitching away (which you can see in the next picture). Tommy is a big-boy-now, and at 9 years old there decidedly less squealing (unless he's being pinched by Scotty ahem), but he also said, much later, "Hey, mom, that looks just like you!". What those kids do to me.

The picture is very old; I believe it's in the public domain, possibly from an old coloring book? I found it here. I used a photocopy machine to blow it up to 150% it's original size, then copied it onto kona white cotton using my light box and a micron permanent red pen. I knew I wanted to do the whole thing in red, so the easiest thing was to just trace it in red. There are a couple of spots where I went off the tracks by a millimeter, and the red pen is visible, so you wouldn't want to do that if you weren't using red thread.

I used two strands of DMC red (the darker one) and backstitched everything but the circle. She didn't come with the circle, but I didn't want to leave her floating out there. I used an embroidery hoop to pencil in the outline of a circle. I used two strands and I think it's called 'lazy daisy' stitch? Or 'daisy loop' stitch, maybe?

This was also the first time I embroidered through the batting and the fabric at the same time. It was so smooth! And I think she looks smashing, but of course I'm biased! I still need to back it, trim it to the exact size, and make and sew on the binding, but she's closer to done than all that sounds. :)

Of course, that's just chronologically speaking. "Close to done" could be months away, if my pile of "close to done" projects is evidence.