Foxy

Hello Friends!
Not so long ago I participated in an embroidery swap on Craftster, the theme of the swap was "Twinchie". What in the heck is a twinchie, you ask? Well, it's a little embellishment, a piece of art, in this case embroidered, that is less than 2" square.

For this swap I was lucky enough to be partnered with my friend, Crystal and so I was also lucky in that I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her, love that! No fretting this time around like I usually do, wanting to make just the right thing for my partner. This time I knew... I was gonna get FOXY! 

Crystal loves foxes as do I, all woodland animals actually, so this was really going to be a pleasure, I just needed to find the right fox and when I stumbled on this image I knew it was the one. Crystal is a wonderful mama, her little boy Baxter is a cutie pie, who just turned two years old, I feel lucky to get to see him grow into a little boy, it's astonishing how time flies though, seems like he was just an infant yesterday!



Picking colors for this sweet, nestled mama & baby fox was fun, russets, burnt oranges, browns and creams, a fox has all of those colors and more. As soon as I had a good mix I started right in. Stitching was a dream, some projects just flow and this was definitely one of them. Even though it was early summer when I started this project this snoozing autumnal duo had me dreaming of fall.

See? All nice and little and confined to two square inches. Yay twinchies!

I did hit one snag when it came to hooping up this mama & baby, I'd ordered some special tiny 2" hoops, so that this could be an embroidered pendant necklace but alas, two inches was the size of the outside of the outer hoop, poop. My foxes didn't fit. Plot twist! I grabbed a 3" hoop from my supply (yes, I actually keep a supply of a variety of hoops at all times as evidenced here) and was back in business.

To add a little sparkle, I embellished the hanger with a couple of gold & amber beads.

This is how I've been finishing the backs of my hoops lately, card stock glued to the back of the hoop with Fabri-Fix. I finally, finally have found a way to finish these hoops that I really like and gives me a neat, consistent result. I've done this a couple dozen times now, love it. I've tried lots and lots of different methods and for me, this one is best. Usually I use plain brown card stock, but for Crystal's foxy pair, I wanted something a little different.

I was very pleased with how this mama & baby came out, my favorite is the baby paws, eep! So little! And his (or her) tiny face.

Crystal knows me so well, look at what she made for me!!

A Vespa, with rainbow toots! Lol, I'm sure they're not toots, but the thought of a tooting scooter makes me laugh and laugh.

Seriously though, how sweet is this? I love mint green, I love eyelet, I love rainbows and lawdy, lawdy do I love me a red Vespa! It's so perfect. Thank you, Crystal!!

This was a really fun swap, I'm so glad I got in on this one.

What about you, are you participating in any swaps this summer? There are a LOT of them going on, I wish I had time for all of them! There are a lot of stitch-a-longs going on as well, I'm doing two of them, I'll post about them soon, promise!

oxo,

Lisa