Quotable Quotes to Create....

When I have been short on money or I wanted to give someone a personal gift, I have created a wall stitched saying or a couch pillow with a cute quote that reminded me of the person or a quote I liked or some I have made up.

I have a group of women that I have been friends with for 16 years and we have a bunko group. I stitched a bunch of my favorite sayings as prizes one year. However, to find those quotes, I went through three or four containers of quotes and typed them up. I then asked a few friends to help me judge which to make out of the top 20. These were the winners.

I made up the saying, "When I look at you, I love what I see!" and created one for myself to put next to my girls picture on the wall.

Here are the other winners: "If you are going to laugh about it in twenty years, why not laugh about it now?" "Put your face to the "Son" and all shadows fall behind." That one actually used the word "sun" but I thought it had a double and more true meaning replacing the word "sun" with "Son." "The "bonds" of matrimony aren't worth much unless the "interest" is kept up." and "If you haven't done so yet, decide to decide!"

It is very easy to make a saying into a wall hanging. Find a frame. I sometimes use one I have by lightly sanding it with steel wool and spray painting it. All of the frames above I spray painted.

Print out the saying with the type of font you want. You can go online and find cute little flower patters, houses etc that you can easily make from simple stitches. I like hearts because they are easy to stitch and go with most sayings.

Cut out the muslin or whatever color fabric you want about 2 inches bigger than the opening of your frame. If you are using white or light muslin, I use the fabric double thickness so the threads don't show through from the back from letter to letter.

Tape the printed quote to a window and then tape the fabric over it. I usually fold the fabric in half and half again to get the center of the fabric so the saying is centered. Once the fabric is taped up, start tracing the quote to the fabric. If you are using light colored fabric, use a pencil and go over it very lightly so you can erase or wash off the pencil. If it is a colored fabric, you can use a chalk pencil used for quilting. Once you have the sayings printed on the fabric, put it in an embroidery hoop for stitching. You can find these for less than a dollar at a craft store in all shapes and sizes.

Then, stitch with any type of embroidery floss, needle point yarn, colored string for crocheting or thin yarn. I sometimes go to a thrift store and buy up old needle point kits and get the string or threads out making the project very inexpensive. I also get the frames there sometimes and just paint them over.

When finished, erase any showing pencil marks. Don't carry the thread from word to word or when you iron and frame it, the thread will show through if it is a dark color. Tie off each word individually. Center the stitching on the backing of the frame. Flip the whole thing over and tape it down. I make sure I tape the whole thing so it is taught and has no raised areas. If you want to make it so the tape on back doesn't show, I use a thin piece of cardboard like the back of a legal pad of paper and put that over the back so it is a solid back on the frame and the fabric is hidden under it.

Happy Stitching!