Out On A Whim Wednesday: Felt Baby Sign

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Try A New Stitch :)
I woke up with the idea for this baby sign in my mind.  I had originally thought I was going to do something with squares, but circles were on my mind when I woke up so I went with it!  I used my Circles #2 die and another Circles die to cut the felt.  I used my Typeset Alphabet dies to cut the navy blue felt letters.  The felt was adhered together using a felt glue and then came the stitching :)  I don't do a lot of hand sewing, but I figured how dangerous could I be with a needle and thread?!  So I went out on a whim and began by stitching around the center circles with white embroidery thread.  I really like how it came out...even with my lack of experience :)  Then I decided I wanted to try a new stitch - a blanket stitch - that I had seen on some pillow appliques.  I took out one of my sewing books (I think it had been opened once before), but I could not follow the directions or the photo well enough to get the stitch started.  I went back to my bookshelf and smiled when I saw another book staring at me - this one entitled Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches.  The book had come out of an estate sale that Michael had gone to.  The woman who had passed away had quite a few sewing books and sewing notions and I couldn't resist!  This book was copyright in 1935 and still had the price tag on it...$1.98!  And it's no small book mind you!  It is a hard cover book with over 200 pages of stitches!!!!  The hand-drawn pictures and the accompanying instructions were easy to follow and had me doing a blanket stitch in no time!!!!!  Here's an up close photo...don't be too critical - it was my first time :)

I am so excited about playing with a new stitch that I am already thinking about what my next project might be!!!!!  I glued all the of the stitched felt pieces together with felt glue and then used hot glue to adhere them all to a long piece of wood (actually a very large paint stir stick from the hardware store).  I then nailed in a few hangers so that it can be hung on the wall with a few nails.  So my lesson from today?  Try a new stitch!!!!  And don't forget about what an amazing resource old books can be!!!!!!  Stitching, here I come!!!!!!