Hand Embroidery Quote with Watercolor

I work with youth at our church and they voted for a sewing activity – at first I thought they meant like sew a bag, but they meant hand-sewing, how fun is that?! One of the girls knew she’d have to miss, so I told her to pick a quote and I’d whip her up something (cause I needed to practice and have a sample before I showed the other girls what to do…) – – I had planned to use a fill stitch to fill the “happier” with variegated (color-changing) thread, but I was in a rush, so I thought about just using watercolor to fill it in so that it still had depth and color – I love how it turned out! And so I have a quick show-off of my Hand Embroidery Quote with Watercolor.

It sure makes me want to use watercolor on embroidered things more often!

So, first up, find a quote (or have a friend send you one…) that you love. Print it on paper and then just put your fabric over it to trace it. I used one of those water-soluble fabric markers, but you can lightly trace with a pencil as well.

Then just follow along the lines and sew it. I love that embroidery can be taken with you easily, worked on in between lots of other things, etc.

I added a little interest with a fabric scrap for the bird. I stitched around it to secure it to my hoop, and accented it with legs and feather things – and I even got my french knots to work out!!

Then it was on to the watercolor – I did a test on the corner of my fabric, so I could see how much color and water to use. Mostly it’s just jumping in and going for it! The water will spread, so you’ll just need to let that dry.

I always get a little overzealous with embellishments, so I thought I’d add a little color around the border of the hoop as well. I’m not sure I love it this way or plain better, but there’s no going back now 😉