I ordered a set of colorful handkerchiefs on Amazon, and was a little disappointed with their quality; they weren't very evenly cut. I used some creative folding and ironing techniques to mask the irregularities, but would have been happier with some straight lines!
For each handkerchief, I did a lot of searching on Pinterest and Google Images to look at examples of the ideas I had in my head. For some of them, I just stitched without a pattern, but for others, I held the handkerchief up to my computer monitor and traced a little pattern in pencil directly onto the handkerchief using the image shining through.
My first embroidery attempt was a classic monogram inspired by this photo on Pinterest, using some fun variegated embroidery floss. I think if I were to do it again, I'd stitch the horizontal line of the "A" using a vertical stitch so it's a little more solid.
Next, because Alan is a bibliophile, I stitched him a little book based on this. I like the way the pages look, all fanned out, and the green is a fun contrast to the purple.
Then, because he is an avid biker, I stitched a bicycle. Initially, I thought I was going to stitch a thicker bike frame, but I ended up changing my mind, so one part of the frame is a little funky--or, as I like to think of it, has character.
Finally, and my personal favorite, I stitched our initials carved into a tree (inspired by this).
Continuing the theme of creative, thoughtful, homemade Valentine's Day gifts, Alan baked me some delicious and adorable chocolate hazelnut "Scrabble tiles" that spelled out my name:
All in all, I was pretty happy with how this project turned out. It was nice to branch out from cross-stitch, which can be a little more labor-intensive and less varied in style. I look forward to expanding my repertoire of stitches; for this project, I relied primarily on the back stitch (this link goes to a blog with excellent tutorials).
