As some of you saw on our Facebook page, I am working on my very first embroidery project. I want to start off by saying that I really, really enjoy this craft. While tricky at times, it's a great way to express your creative side. It's also a really fun way to add your personal touch to a project.

My cousin Sarah is having a boy - the first boy to be born in our family in decades - at the end of May. I'm giving her a really cute quilt...

Before handing it over, I thought a really nice touch would be to add a gift tag to the back. While my mom has a great sewing machine that allows her to program in words and shapes that she can embroider, I decided to give it a shot by hand first.

Let's just say, it's a little rough...

I think that because this is such a special gift for me, I am going to go ahead and re-do the tag with my mom's machine. But, I am not giving up hope! I think a better idea would have been for me to start with an embroidery pattern, and work my way up to a tag like this. Too bad that's not my style. Ha!

I was looking through one of my co-workers books yesterday and saw some really cute embroidery patterns that I am just dying to try. I will keep you posted on my progress -- hopefully next time the end result will be a little more polished! Do any of you have tips or tricks, or maybe a good reference book that you can suggest?

-Alisha