Happy Monday!

There were several things in my embroidery hoops this weekend. It was a fairly productive stitching weekend!

Every summer, I prepare a couple three week embroidery workshops for youth that start at the end of July and go well into August. This year, being a perpetual optimist, I plowed through preparations for this year’s sessions, thinking that things might change enough to reasonably plan for the classes. We take about 6 children or youth per 2 hour session, with two sessions a day, with the age groups meeting on a rotating schedule for a period of three weeks at a time.

They’re fun classes. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to give kids a skill that they can further develop, that will give them a hobby and creative outlet to turn to, and that, hopefully, will last them a life time.

Obviously, this year’s workshops aren’t going to happen. Even if Kansas is open enough to allow it by then, I don’t have space for social distancing – which would be the most unnatural thing in any craft workshop situation with young kids, anyway.

Still, I began stitching samples for one of the summer workshop designs and I couldn’t quit. I figured I might as well finish it and its variations.

So this past weekend was devoted to some fun, bright, casual embroidery that I could let loose on, choosing whatever stitches and colors worked well on the folk designs you see above.

The Name Problem

It’s the funniest thing – I really have a problem naming designs. I have no idea what to call a collection of these types of happy, chipper, sunny, bright folk embroidery designs. The whole time I’ve been stitching them, I’ve been trying to come up with some way to refer to them.

“Folking About” kept coming to mind, but it’s hardly a universal reference and most folks wouldn’t get it. (And they might think I was being a bit… cheeky.)

(“Folking About” is a reference to The Salting of the Slug, a skit by Riders in the Sky – probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but I grew up with it!)

But very little else has come to my poor, uncreative, muddled brain. Any ideas?

So those were finished this weekend.

A Linen Tea Cloth

The other thing in the hoop, you might recognize as one of the scroll designs in my ready-to-stitch scroll towel set. (I have a few of those available in the shop right now, along with some other designs, if you were waiting for them.)

But it’s not on a towel. It’s on a beautiful piece of crisp, white linen, hemmed up for a simple tea cloth (a square accent cloth for a table – this one is 30″ square).

I really wanted to try these designs on something a bit dressier. So I’m embroidering this square linen tea cloth with the designs around the edge.

We will see how that works out! I’ve modified the larger of the designs to stretch a bit longer on the center sides of the tea cloth. Because the stitching is relatively simple (I’m sticking with the stitching suggestions and colors for the original, that you can read about here), I hope to have it finished in a reasonable time. My thought is that I may prepare some (very limited) linen tea cloths, ready to stitch, for those who want to dress things up a step from flour sack towels. We’ll see!

I didn’t work on the Jacobean piece this weekend. I wanted to, but after I finished the folk designs above, I didn’t get back to stitching. You know how it is. Eventually, you have to face chores, laundry, and all those other exciting things!

For all the moms out there, I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day yesterday! We had our first family Sunday brunch in about eight weeks, so that was nice!

If you have any name ideas for the folk designs, feel free to chime in below!

Enjoy your Monday!