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Last Tuesday afternoon I had a haircut. As often happens, I completely forgot that it was the holiday season and I would like to give my stylist a gift until a couple of hours before. Or, really, about an hour and fifteen minutes before. I thought I would cut a piece of nice fabric, get cookies, and wrap them in the fabric.

In about twenty minutes I made a reversible drawstring gift bag, and then I stopped by the nice grocery store en route for some gluten free cookies. That is why these pictures are all in my car.

It wasn’t until I was writing this post that it occurred to me the other fabric is also cranes.

Later I made some more bags of the same sort, so I could share the method with you.

You’ll cut two identical pieces of fabric. Make them twice as wide as you want the finished bag, plus an inch, and the height from bottom to drawstring plus a generous two inches. The pieces below are 20″ wide and 12″ tall, and the bag they made ended up 9.5″ wide and not quite 11″ tall, not quite 10″ to the bottom line of stitching for the drawstring casing.

The pins in the second picture indicate the opening you will leave for the drawstring to go through, on both pieces. My markings are at 3/4″ and 1 1/4″ down from the top of the bag; when I made some bags for children I pushed the second line down an eighth of an inch. Sew the side seam with a half inch allowance, skipping the part between the pins and backstitching on each end of it, and press the seam open.

Fold the top of the bag down a half inch, press, and turn the raw edge under. Press again. I found my sleeve board very helpful for this step.

To keep the seam allowance from poking out the opening when you move the drawstring around, sew it down a bit away from the seam line. I just lined my presser foot edge up with the seam line. If you are putting the drawstring opening on a face of the bag, as in the crane bag, you need only go a bit past the drawstring opening. If you are putting it on a side, as in the three matching bags below, I recommend stitching all the way to the bottom.

For a bag with the opening on a face, flatten the two pieces so the seam line is centered and lay them on top of each other, seam allowances together. Otherwise just line them up with the seam allowances on the same side. Stitch across the bottom at a half inch, and again between that line and the raw edge.

Note that if your two fabrics have different amounts of give or you were less than precise when cutting, you may have slightly different lengths. It is more important that the tops be lined up than the bottoms.

Wrap one piece around the outside of the other and line up the tops, making sure the two drawstring openings match up. Pin and sew around, once close to the edge and once below the drawstring opening. I did the first by lining my presser foot up with the edge of the fabric and putting my needle to the right, and the second by running the edge of the fabric at my 6/8″ mark (the largest my machine has) and putting my needle to the left. Run the drawstring through and you’re done!

I made three matching bags for the three daughters of a friend, and used beads for their initials. There is a baby in the house, so I put Fray Check on the knots below the beads to keep them from coming undone. They have stickers and a few craft supplies.

I also made one with dinosaur fabric on one side and fabric with forks and spoons on the other. Here’s the whole family:

The dinos say “triceratops,” “t rex,” and “long neck.” Either they gave up or they are still mad that brontosaurus has been taken away.

I figure this could be very good for my remnant problem – or it could be very bad.

This is my entry to the Feelin’ Stitchy “Covered in Stitches” embroidery contest. I love the covers of 60s and 70s (and even some 50s and 80s) science fiction books – all lurid colors and crazy images. This was the only one on my shelf I felt I had any chance of doing justice to, though:

I am so pleased with how it came out.

I just stitched without any grand plan, and couldn’t have foreseen how well his hand would come together.

My other favorite detail is his left shoulder; I love how the threads blended and it looks like abstract art.

Of course, I have since discovered that the colors on my copy were not as vivid as they had been originally and in particular some formerly different colors had become indistinguishable from each other. However, it still looks good to me.

To make this, I first made three or so blown-up color copies on my home printer. Then I just pinned one to my fabric and started cutting out sections. Here’s a shot near the beginning:

And here’s a shot of when I finally started thinking, “maybe this will actually work.”

And it did!

The finished quilt: a 6″ by 6″ piece titled Saturation. It will be shown at an art fair on Wednesday.

The title came before the design; I was considering a quilt of leaf-patterned fabrics but just wasn’t feeling it, and the Feeling Stitchy August stitchalong was on my brain as well. I started looking at the fabrics and seeing what I liked, and the rich, saturated colors were the ones that grabbed me. Colors are saturated when they are very far from a gray of the same lightness. I think of saturated colors as being Very: very intense, very themselves. They don’t have to be dark or primary colors, but they are not going to be neutral.

On top of the saturated colors I saturated the quilt with embroidery. I tried to find a way to put an additional level of saturation into the quilt but I didn’t want to be so literal as to make it evoke the molecular structure of a saturated fat, or the mathematical structure of a saturated bipartite graph. Two levels will do.

Or something of that nature. The August CAL theme on Ravelry was stripes, and the Amigurumi Army mission was monsters. I got really into my stripes project and finished it very early in the month, and didn’t finish the monster until the last weekend.

The stripes project was inspired by my tendency to take partially-cooked oatmeal to work some mornings. What does one do with it? I have some Pyrex bowls with lids, but I don’t want to tip them sideways to put into my regular bag, nor put the warm bowl in my cold lunchbag. Hence, I had an excuse to craft a made-to-order bag. I had been wanting to try out a spiral tutorial I dug out of the Internet Archive ages ago, so in three autumn colors, that became the bottom of the bag. Then I continued the spiral theme around the sides, and put the whole thing together and added handles with an accent color.

The spiral started out kind of awkward, at least the way I interpreted the directions. It smoothed out, though, and I like the way it looks a few rows out from the center. On the sides, I tried to do the same thing in terms of stitch height, with one round per color of sc, one of hdc, and one of dc, then back to hdc and sc. The finished product is slightly larger than necessary but fits the bowl reasonably well.

Now for the monster! He is gangly and gibbon-like.

I put magnets in his hands with the intention that he’d be a kind of emo monster and hug his own knees, but when he was finished he revealed that instead of being emo, he’s a monster with no sense of personal space.

Stumpy is not totally certain about this development.

The monster was freehanded, though I made some notes so the arms and legs would match. His body is basically a bowling pin, and the arms and legs have some bend to them via increases and decreases. I believe for the arms the first row was just sc across the chain, but after that I made 2 sc in each of the 2 centermost sc for two rows, then decreased twice (in the four centermost sc) for two rows, and maybe sc’d across once more before sc’ing the strip into a tube. For the legs I made 2 sc in the ends of each row and 3 sc in the centermost sc, in every row including the first one, for three rows, before doing the reverse for three rows (I used Lily Chin’s slip stitch-like decrease to decrease by three: pull up a loop in each of the next three stitches, and pull the last of those loops through the previous 2 and the one that was on the hook to begin with) and finally, again, sc’ing the strip into a tube. I stuffed him lightly, sewed the outer end of each limb closed (with the magnets in the ends of his arms), and sewed the other open end to his body. Though the yarn was already fluffy, I pulled up the nap to extra-fluffify him with a pet brush.

The July CAL on Ravelry was flower themed. I had, of course, just recently made flowers for an Amigurumi Army mission, so I worried about ideas. However, I had also just been in Colorado for a wedding and become enamored of wild lupine, so I thought I would make something purple. My thought was penstemon, or beard-tongue, but my efforts turned into more of a bellflower, so I embraced that. The pattern is simple (as always, abbreviations here): sc 6 in a magic ring. *sc 3, 2sc* four times so there are 10 sc in the round. *sc, ch 2, sc in back bump of second ch from hk, sc in next st of rnd* five times. Sl st, sl st, ch 1 [do not sk any sts], sl st, sl st, FO. (The ch 1 helps with the point of the first petal, which seems to need it.)

Since it turned into the kind of flower it did, I made a calyx for it. If you’re making a calyx you probably want to leave the loose ends of the flower yarn hanging out the back center of the flower. Each sepal is a chain with stitches down it, and this works best (stays flattest) if you stitch into only the top loop of the chain. Make a slip knot. *ch 7, and starting in second ch from hk, sl st, sl st, sc, hdc, hdc* five times (each time you’ll have a ch left over). Sl st to join and then sc around the inside opening, one sc per sepal (5 total). Put the loose ends of the flower yarn through the center of the calyx, stitch them through a loop and tie them together. Braid them with the initial end of the calyx and sc onto that braid with the working end of the calyx yarn. You’ll need to tighten it down on the braid and have the top of the stitches spiral around the braid to make it stable and straight.

[Alternatively, of course, you can make a stem however you like, or just finish off the yarn and have a brooch-style flower.]

The Amigurumi Army mission for July was nerdy crochet. I thought about something from a fandom, but couldn’t come up with anything I wanted to make. However, as we know, I am mathematically minded, so I looked in that world and found this:

A binary tree.

I made it from the top down, sewing as little as possible: when the second piece of each pair was made I just continued into the next segment down, stitching around the first piece without a gap. This required just a little thought about the order of operations. The only significant sewing was the leaves, though that was pretty significant. The smallest bits are 5sc in a magic ring, continued without increase. Then I just put pieces together and stitched around without counting, trying to keep things fairly compact, which is why nothing is exactly symmetric after that. The whole shebang is held up by eight pipe cleaners, one inside each of the smallest branches.

I finished it while visiting a friend with a jewelry tree, so I asked them to pose together.

I was struggling for today’s blog post, because I have a lot of works in progress but nothing super-near finishing. I was concerned about deciding the topic and then having to stay up until midnight finishing the project! However, I found my way. The other day I finally started Planet M File’s firefly, which was a quick project.

Using bright red instead of country red makes him look kind of like a vampire, to me, so I adjusted the facial embroidery accordingly.

He vants to suck your blood.

Thinking of ways to make this a longer blog post, I brainstormed other things that light up. I figured there was no way that starting on Tuesday evening I would finish another animal that lights up, but I could do a lightbulb. So I did. A compact fluorescent lightbulb, in fact.

And then I made an incandescent light bulb to be his friend. I don’t know why cartoon lightbulbs are traditionally yellow, but I have a huge amount of mildly nasty-feeling yellow yarn so I went ahead and used it.

The incandescent was freehanded to match the CFL in size (which did not quite happen), but I have a pattern for the CFL.

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb (modeled after a 60 Watt equivalent, but is larger):
You need: small amounts of white and gray worsted weight yarn, appropriate hook for a tight stitch (I used E/3.5mm), two white (or silver or beige) pipe cleaners, and a small amount of stuffing. I also used small rocks in the bottom of both bulbs to get them to stand up.

In white: sc a tube 20″ long and less than 1 1/2″ around. This will depend on your gauge; for me with soft worsted weight yarn and an E hook, 5 sc around gave 1 3/8″ circumference. It does not matter how you start the tube because the ends will be hidden; magic ring, ch 2 and sc in first one, ch and join with sl st. Dealer’s choice.

After about 12″, stop and insert the first pipe cleaner. Your tube should be barely big enough for it. I like to fold the end over so the cut end can’t snag the yarn, and I recommend cutting about 1 1/2″ off the pipe cleaner to put the join closer to the middle of the tube. You will find that you can only push the pipe cleaner in from the end for so long, and then you have to scrunch the tube onto it. Finish the 20″ and leave a long enough yarn tail to sew the tube ends to the base of the bulb. Insert the second pipe cleaner to meet or slightly overlap the first, scrunch the end of the tube down a bit, cut the loose end off (should be about 3″, or 1 1/2″ if you cut the first one) and unscrunch the tube.

There is only so much you can do to get the tube into shape before it’s sewn onto the base, but to have the ends in the right places and orientation for sewing you should twist it now and fix it up later. At about 3/4″ from each side of the center point, fold the tube in opposite directions. You are looking at the top when it makes an S shape. Now coil the long ends around; each will make 1 1/2 rotations, interleaved with each other, before folding down to meet the base.

I’m not completely thrilled with the base, but as long as you shape it by hand it’s okay.

In white:
1. sc 7 in magic ring
2. 2sc around (14)
3. *2sc, sc* around (21)
4. *2sc, sc 3* 5x, sc (26)
5-8. sc around (4 rows)
This is a good time to sew the bulb onto the base. Center the ends of the tube on row 2, across the center point from each other.
9. *dec, sc 3* 5x, sc (21)
10. *dec, sc 2* 5x, sc (16)
sl st and FO white.
In gray:
Put slipknot on hook and sl st to row 10.
11-15. sc around (16 sc; 5 rows)
Stuff! I used fiber until I got the the gray part and then switched to rocks.
16. *dec, sc 2* around (12)
17 *dec, sc* around (8)
FO. I had to stick some more rocks in before doing the final drawstring. Shape by hand; you could get a better form on the bulb if you stitched the coils together but I didn’t feel like it.

While trying to think of crochet patterns I would like, I looked at my little ceramic lucky cat, bought in San Francisco’s Chinatown many moons ago. Locale of purchase notwithstanding, the maneki neko (beckoning cat) is a Japanese sculpture to bring luck, customers, and/or money to the owner – the raised paw is beckoning good fortune. The coin is labeled “ten million ryō”, which is something like ten billion US dollars.

I started the design process before really looking for existing patterns. I found a few, but only one at the level of detail I wanted, and it was not the shape I was looking for, so I persisted. Three heads, four raised arms, five legs, two lowered arms, and three bodies later, I present to you the pattern.

Good Luck Cat (beckoning cat, maneki neko)
Use worsted weight yarn and an E or F hook, in white except for the collar, which is red. You also need:
* some stuffing
* a small gold bell for the collar
* yellow, gold, or gold-painted felt for the coin
* a black paint pen for the coin and optionally for the facial features (otherwise, black embroidery floss for the features)
* small amounts of red, black, and orange or tan felt, or the same colors in fabric paint (I used Tulip Soft fabric paint in gold metallic (on white felt for the coin), red velvet, ebony matte, and golden tan matte, and a DecoFabric paint pen in black)

Head:
1. sc 6 in magic ring
2. *3sc, sc, sc* 2x (10)
3. *2sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc* 2x (14)
4. *sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, 2sc* 2x (20)
5. sc around (20)
Top center is between sts 9 and 10 of rnd 5. Embroider face here (if embroidering).
6. sc, dec, sc, *dec* 5x, *sc, dec* 2x (12)
7. dec around (6x); FO (6)

Alternative (simplified head):
1. sc 6 in magic ring
2. *2sc, sc, 2sc* 2x (10)
3. *2sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc* 2x (14)
4. *2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc, 2sc, sc* 2x (20)
5. sc around (20)
embroider face, if applicable
6. *sc, dec, dec* 4x (12)
7. dec around, FO (6)

Ears (make 2):
ch 3; sc dec (the second and third ch from hk; not inv dec); ch 1; FO

Body:
1. sc 6 in magic ring
2. 2sc around (12)
3. *2sc, sc, sc* 4x (16)
4-6. sc around (16)
7. *dec, sc, sc* 4x (12)
8-9. sc around (12)
stuff
10. dec around; FO (6)

Raised foreleg:
1. sc 5 in magic ring (5)
2-4. sc around (3 rnds, 5 sc)
Now proceed flat, turning after each row.
5-9. sc 2, ch 1 (omit ch in row 9), FO
Fold flap over opening of tube and then fold under so last row meets free edge of tube. Stitch flap to itself and to tube.

Lowered foreleg:
Worked in rows. Ch 6.
1. 2sc in 2nd ch from hk, sc across (6)
2. ch 1, *sc, 2sc* across (9)
3. ch 1, sc across (9)
4. ch 1, dec, dec, sc, dec, dec, FO (5)
Sew row 1 and 4 together to make a tube; slipknot end is paw.

Rear legs (make 2):
These start with a magic ring but proceed in rows, not rounds.
1. sc 3 in magic ring (3)
2. ch 1, 2sc across (6)
3. ch 1, sc, dec, dec, sc (4)
4. ch 1, sc, dec, sc, ch 3 (3 + ch)
5. starting in 2nd ch from hk, sc across (5)
6. ch 1, sc across (5)
7. [no ch] sl st in 2nd st from hk, sc across (3 + sl st)
8. [no ch] sc 2, FO
Fold bottom of leg so row 8 matches row 3 (fold line between rows 5 and 6) and sew. Make sure to fold one leg in each direction. Tighten the initial magic ring and puff the row 1-3 portion of leg out toward the smooth row 1-5 side (the outside).

Collar:
ch 14; optionally, sl st across.
or, in embroidery floss with 1.3mm steel hook: ch 17, sc across.
or, cut a narrow strip of red felt, 1/4″ by 2 1/4″.

Assembly:
Following the picture, sew the forelegs and rear legs to the body. Paint the inside of the ears red, draw on the facial features, and paint the tan part of the calico spots. Once the tan part is dry, paint the black part of the spots. Alternatively, cut out small triangles of red felt, small ovals of orange/tan felt, and even smaller ovals of black felt and glue or stitch on. Paint some felt gold if necessary, and when that is dry draw on the “ten million ryō” characters. Sew the ears to the head, the head to the body, and the raised paw to the side of the head. Cut out the coin (if you are picky, paint the new edge and let dry) and sew or glue it to the lowered paw to hold it in place. Thread the collar between the raised leg and the neck and sew it around the neck, sewing the bell onto the overlapped edge and placing it center front.

My sister is suffering continued ankle problems from a misstep on Easter Sunday, and it’s making her grumpy. Just the excuse I needed to create a crochet Grumpasaurus.

He is made of mildly scratchy acrylic, because Grumpasauruses are not cuddly. I was inspired by Kat’s knit Grumpasaurus, but mine looks very little like hers and is probably overcomplicated. I sewed the limbs on before closing up the bottom, but after stuffing the shape changed a bit and his legs are not even close to symmetrically placed.

Should you want to take a Grumpasaurus home with you, here is the pattern. See the crochet reference page for abbreviations and pattern conventions. For this I used invisible decrease.

Grumpasarus Body:

1. sc 6 in magic ring
2. 2sc around (12)
3. *2sc, sc* around (18)
4. *2sc, sc, sc* around (24)
5. *2sc, sc 5* 4x (28)
6. 2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc 11, 2sc, 2sc, sc 11 (32)
7. sc 18, 2sc, 2sc, sc 12 (34)
8. sc 19, 2sc, 2sc, sc 13 (36)
9. sc 21, 3sc, sc 14 (38)
10. sc 3, 2sc, 2sc, sc 17, 2sc, 2sc, sc 14 (42)
11. sc 3, 2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc 18, 2sc, 2sc, sc 15 (46)
12. sc 5, 2sc, 2sc, sc 21, 2sc, 2sc, sc 16 (50)
13. sc 31, 2sc, 2sc, sc 17 (52)
14. sc 6, dec, sc, dec, sc 21, 2sc, 2sc, sc 18 (52)
15. sc 6, dec, dec, sc 21, 2sc, 2sc, sc 19 (52)
16. sc 4, dec, sc, dec, sc 21, 2sc, 2sc, sc 20 (52)
17. dec, dec, sc, sc, dec, dec, sc 40, dec (47)
18. dec, sc, sc, dec, sc 18, 2sc, 2sc, sc 19 (46)
19. sc around (46)

Somewhere around now, embroider the face.

20. 2sc, sc, 2sc, 2sc, sc, 2sc, sc 19, 2sc, 2sc, sc 19 (52)
21. sc, 2sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc, 2sc, sc 43 (56)
22. sc 3, 2sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc, 2sc, sc 12, dec, dec, sc 7, 2sc, 2sc, sc 7, dec, dec, sc 9 (58)
23. sc around (58)
24. sc 28, dec, dec, sc 6, 3sc, 3sc, sc 6, dec, dec, sc 8 (58)
25. sc 38, 3sc, 3sc, sc 18 (62)
26. sc 25, dec, dec, sc 12, ch 4, sl st in 2nd ch from hk and down ch (3 sl st), sc into next st of prev rnd, sc 11, dec, dec, sc 5 (58 + ch + sl st)
27. sc 39, sc 3 into rem lps of ch, 2sc in turning ch (tip of tail), sc 3 in sl sts, sc 19 (66)
28. sc 9, 2sc, sc, 2sc, sc, 2sc, sc 8, dec, sc, dec, sc 16, 3sc, sc 16, dec, sc, dec, sc (67)
29. sc 45, 2sc, sc 21 (68)
30. sc 46, ch 4, sl st in 2nd ch from hk and down ch (3 sl st), sc into next st of prev rnd, sc 21 (68 + ch + sl st)
31. sc 46, sc 3 into rem lps of ch, 2sc in turning ch (tip of tail), sc 3 in sl sts, sc 22 (76)
32. sc 5, dec, sc 6, dec, sc 6, dec, sc 27, 2sc, sc 25 (74)
33. sc 6, dec, sc 3, dec, sc 3, dec, sc 30, ch 4, sl st in 2nd ch from hk and down ch (3 sl st), sc into next st of prev rnd, sc 25 (71 + ch + sl st)
34. sc 5, dec, sc 3, dec, sc 3, dec, sc 28, sc 3 into rem lps of ch, 2sc in turning ch (tip of tail), sc 3 in sl sts, sc 26 (76)
35. sc 5, dec, sc 5, dec, sc 31, 2sc, 2sc, sc 28 (76)
36. sc 3, dec, sc 3, dec, sc 3, dec, sc 30, 3sc, sc 30 (75)

From here you no longer work in rounds; you are making the bottom flap of the body. Odd rows proceed head to tail and even rows tail to head. You may still use inv dec because the only row that uses it faces the right way. Unless otherwise directed, do not use a turning chain, and make your first sc or sl st into the second stitch from the hook. Turn after every row.

37. sc 2, dec, sc 3, dec, sc 3, dec, sc 29, sl st (40)
38. sl st, sc 33 (33)
39. ch 1, 2sc in 1st st, sc 29, sl st (31)
40. sl st, sc 30 (30)
41. sc 26, sl st (26)
42. sl st, sc 25 (25)
43. ch 1, sc 22 starting in first st, sl st (22)
44. sl st, sc 20, sl st (20)
45. sl st, sc 16, sl st (16)
46. sl st, sc 14, sl st (14)
47. sl st, sc 10, sl st (10)

FO, leaving a long tail. Stuff firmly and sew the flap to the free stitches of round 36.

Grumpasarus Arms (make 2):

1. sc 6 in magic ring
2. *2sc, sc, sc* 2x (8)
3-4. sc around
5. sc, hdc, hdc, sc 5
6. hdc, dc, dc, hdc, sc 4
7. sc, hdc, hdc, sc 5
8-10. sc around (3 rows)
11 (partial round). sc 5, sl st.
FO, leaving a long tail to sew with.

Stuff with a doubled length of pipe cleaner, bent in the middle, to assist with the elbow bend. Sew onto the Grumpasaurus so he is fists-on-hips.

Grumpasarus Legs (make 2):

1. sc 6 in magic ring
2. 2sc around (12)
3-6. sc around (4 rows)
sl st and FO, leaving a tail to sew with.

Stuff and sew onto the Grumpasaurus on the bottom of each side, forward of the center point.

Did you know the members of each successively earlier generation of a bee’s family tree are counted by the Fibonacci numbers? Starting with a drone or worker, one bee, there is one parent, the queen. The queen has two parents, a queen and a drone, and between them they have three parents, two queens and a drone. Among those three bees they have five parents, three queens and two drones. And it goes on: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, …

I learned this from a lovely page on the Fibonacci numbers generally, that I found years ago while looking for teaching resources, and it came to mind when quilting friend of mine said she would love to make a Fibonacci quilt, but didn’t have a pattern.

My first design test is a stained glass quilt square. In stained glass quilting, the fabric is bordered by black or dark gray material (usually bias tape) to look like panes of stained glass. My square is 8″x8″ plus a 1/4″ allowance. Except for one corner, all of my “leading” was in straight lines, so I was able to substitute black ribbon for the bias tape I didn’t have. I attached everything with fusible web: Wonder Under for the contrast fabrics and Stitch Witchery, cut into thirds, for the ribbon. Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) kept me company.

I started at the top, and was able to hide all cut ribbon ends under other ribbon without any folding except for that lower right corner out in space. That took a fair amount of manipulating and some extra Stitch Witchery, and made me grateful for my retractable tweezer fingers.

My other ideas are more traditional quilt formats, and hence less intriguing to try out, but will follow in later installments.

I finally had time to do the Iron Craft challenge again, which this week was called You Are Here: make something with a map or make something that looks like or is inspired by a map.

In my stash were two world maps sent by the charity Doctors Without Borders, and a piece of scrapbook paper I’m pretty sure I didn’t buy that was a piece of a road map, but I couldn’t think of what to do with them. While doing something else at the sewing machine I looked over at the scrapbook paper and thought about stitching the lines onto fabric, but that with all the red roads it risked looking like a bloodshot eye. Then I thought topographical maps would translate really well to embroidery, but tried in vain to find a good topographical map relevant to my life (I am from the flat lands, and also there are a great many websites that promise free topographical maps and provide nothing of the sort). Somewhere along the line the idea of a topographical map of something non-topographical popped into my mind, and after a little more research and work I present to you Landscape of Love:

If I did it right, it is a topographical map of a larger-than-life pair of lips (and surroundings). The fabric is cotton calico and the floss is DMC satin, which is a terrible thing to work with – even if you spend time pumicing your fingertips and filing your nails between each session, it catches on the needle itself. I haven’t decided what to do with it yet, though it would make a good boudoir pillow. Although actually, I’m not so impressed by my stitching. I am very proud of the pattern, though, and in case you like it too, I actually made the effort to put it in sharable form, suitable for size changes.