Texas vibes

**This post was written before Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey hit Houston and the Texas coast, wreaking catastrophic havoc. My heart continues to break for the people of Houston. I'm from Dallas and lived in Houston for two years. I have a ton of friends there, and my dad and step-mom actually just moved to Houston two weeks ago. I remember thinking the flooding that happened with Hurricane Ike while I was living there was astonishing. That was nothing compared to this devastation. The pictures are truly unfathomable. Houstonians are a strong bunch, and they will pull through, but it's going to take a lot of time, and they're going to need a lot of help. If you haven't already, please consider donating to a local relief charity. Texas Monthly has a great list of organizations who could desperately use your help. Thank you for the outpouring of support in every possible way for the people of my home state. It seemed appropriate that this should be the project that I posted about today. Houston Strong.**

All of my recent couch time hasn't just been good for applique; it's also been good for embroidery. I've really been wanting to dive into more embroidery classes ever since I took a class with Alison Glass at QuiltCon, and this Texas pattern by Nydia Kehnle had been calling my name.

I used four colors of perle cotton (also purchased at QuiltCon, incidentally) in my favorite color scheme.

I suspect there will be more of these in my future. It was a a pretty quick sew and just turned out so cute.

And, luckily, embroidery is great for the car, too. I knocked out this little project on our drive home from the beach. The pattern is by Wild Olive.

These pics also show off my favorite embroidery tool -- a great stabilizer with the silly name of  Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy. You can read all about it on Wild Olive's blog, but it's a water-soluble stabilizer that you can print or trace on; it sticks right to the fabric (no iron needed); and when you're done, it dissolves in water in just a few minutes. I used it on my Texas project as well, and you can see it left no trace behind. So handy!

Ta da!

Try it out!