Last year we had a huge family reunion here, and it was my goal to make everyone embroidered napkins. You know, just some napkins they could use that included a personalized motif or design stitched on? I used to do a lot of embroidering, especially for my grandfather and dad. They both were handkerchief users, and I would buy a box and then embroider their initials or things they liked on there when I was a kid.
Well last year with the big family reunion, I thought I would make everyone a pair of napkins to take home. I bought all the stuff and hahaha – guess what? I was so busy preparing for everything else that I had no time for the napkin making. So this year, I’m taking all that stuff I bought and making a few of these to give away.
The first ones I made were a simple design for someone who likes flowers and simple touches. The one bad thing was that I bought napkins that were too “slippery.” I should bought cotton ones and I didn’t. At first I was going to leave the flowers outlined like this:
but I realized that they would hold up better if I filled them in.
I used to embroider all the time, so it was nice to get back in the swing of it again. Before I made these I embroidered a little cthulhu on one of my husband’s tee shirts as practice. Then I did these napkins next because of the simple design. I’ve got some placemats and napkins to make yet before Christmas that will have more complicated designs on them, so I’m looking forward to that.
I love these. I used to embroider when I was a little girl. You make it look like such fun!
Aw, thanks! I hadn’t done it for ages but I’ve found it really relaxing.
Very nice. What a cool personal touch. I’m sure these will be very much appreciated. My sister and I used to embroider a lot of handkerchiefs.
Years later, when hankies had gone out of style, she gathered them all up, starched and pressed them and gave me the whole collection as a Christmas gift. What a treasure.
Wow, Eileen, what a nice gift. I think hankies were really cool, it’s too bad people don’t use them now. You could also make them into a quilt or something too, right?