HAND EMBROIDERING THE OWL: PART 1

 

Thursday, October 30, 2025 6:48:47 PM 

   HAND EMBROIDERING THE OWL

I do not buy just one skien of floss, I am always concerned that I will run out of that color. There is always a risk that the color you need will not be available., should you not buy enough, even kits give you more than enough

I needed three shades of brown. In my stash I have at least 5 shades of brown but it wasn’t what I was looking for. In addition, a few of the browns were different brands and I wanted to use the DMC. One of the shades of brown I had transferred to a spool and I did not know the color number.  

I now tape the number to the bobbin, a flat plastic spool shaped object that floss can be placed on. I then group all the same color in a ziplock back.  I do not use those storage containers that the bobbins can slide into.

Have you ever seen videos of people who have neatly organized containers of  floss, they have many shades of each color. Eventually, those plastic bobbins become empty, or they may have just a foot or two left. By keeping each of the color on a bobbin along with the floss that has not been used all in the same ziplock bag I can grab the color I want. I throw the bags in a box that contains a set of colors. This works for those of us who are not so organized that we will properly put away our bobbins when we are finished.  I re-purpose boxes, decorate  and label them according to the color, 2-3 colors per box

 Left over floss can go in the bag until it is to small to use, then I have a thread jar. With enough thread I can make a bal for a rag doll head, or body. 

This step should have been thought of at the Organization and Preparation stage, see GETTING STARTED, but I assumed! And, as per my personality, I often change my mind about colors, while in progress. Unfortunately, I may change my mind! 

THE LESSON: I PROBABLY WILL NOT LEARN; Plan your colors before your start.  

Sunday, November 2, 2025 9:28:41 PM

It is the same error I made when I first started the Owl, the number of strands. I was working on the eye and was using two strands I was half way through the first eye and realized it was to thick. I didn’t know where my seam ripper was so I just grabbed my embroidery scissors and started removing the stitches. 

This time I was not disappointed or irritated with myself, in fact I was giving myself words of encouragement as I undid the work that took me a while to do. I realize, some things take time.

I look at some of my projects and can see the mistakes but it still came out good. 

LESSON: Don’t be so hard on myself! I will get better as I get better, in the meantime, keep a seam ripper on hand :)

NOTE:  I wrote a separate post entitled: EMBROIDERING THE OWL: I MADE A MISTAKE, it will follow this post.

WRITTEN by Marsha L Floyd

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED