Embroidering Fabulously Felted Easter Eggs!

When things get complicated here in the studio and in life in general, I find it helpful to turn to a project that is just for fun, that I’ve been yearning to do but haven’t taken the time, and that gives me time to think.

I do a lot of thinking when I’m stitching – especially if I’m stitching on something that has no real obligation attached to it (yet). As long as it’s relatively uncomplicated (although sometimes, a challenge can kick me into gear on other things), I tend to get in some good contemplation that can lead to workable solutions for the Inevitable Problems of Life and of Work.

(It’s hard to call my job work, but it is work – it’s work I love, but it’s still work!)

This is a project whose parts have been hanging about in the studio for a long time. I’ve been wanting to play with it, I’ve been waiting to play with it, I’ve been willing to play with it… but Everything Else kept intervening.

I needed a diverting project this week, to give me a chance to think and to have a little fun.

And so… I started embroidering some fabulous felt eggs.

Now, I’ve embroidered eggs before – real eggshells – and that is definitely a challenging and diverting approach to decorating Easter eggs!

Embroidering felt eggs is a lot simpler, but still somewhat challenging, and really, really fun!

In fact, it is so fun, that it could be problematic for me…

(Incidentally, I love the fact that these can work so easily for pincushions! All you need is a good egg cup!)

Whenever I embroider three-dimensional objects like these felted eggs (or these felted hearts that I wrote about here), I choose stitches that “scoop” easily.

Chain stitch, backstitch, stem stitch, running stitch, straight stitches – these are all fair game for making this type of embroidery easy.

If I want to kick up the challenge a bit, I’ll choose more complicated stitches. (I have ideas – but I haven’t taken that dive just yet.)

On the egg above, I split the egg into 8 vertical sections. On four of them, I chain stitched green lines, using two strands of Heathway wool. On the sections in between, I used running stitch in yellow, using two strands of wool.

On the green chain stitch lines, I went back over them and added straight stitch “arms” (a kind of mock wheatear stitch), and then I split the ends of the arms with a dark coral on two of the vines and a light coral on the other two. Finally, I whipped the central chain stitch with a lighter green.

All of those were very easy stitches to work on a 3-D object like this, because all the stitches can be “scooped” easily.

You can find some tips on embroidering 3-D objects in this article, if you’re looking for more stitching information.

This bunny egg cup was a gift from a friend – I absolutely love it! It’s always on display in the studio, with a felt egg in it and some pretty decorative pins.

You can find egg cups anywhere, and they don’t have to be expensive. I picked up a $2 one at the craft store in the Easter section a couple weeks ago.

Since then, I’ve decided I need about 10 more.

Ut oh.

See how these things develop?

Well, I do have my cubbies – and they need some seasonal decor, right?

I’m working on bringing in high quality, well-made, clean, 100% wool felted foundations for you, for similar projects like these eggs, the hearts, and even Christmas (and other!) ornaments and baubles. Besides being pretty, seasonal things that you can display, they are useful, too – they can be used as pincushions very easily, but they can also be used as legit decorations on your holiday tree, they make great gifts, and on and on.

But right now, I just look at them as…

FUN!!

Yes.

I might have a problem.

Anna calls this Project 5,784.

Heh heh.

Happy Friday! Have a fabulous weekend!