Embroidered Mexican Linens (Picture Heavy)

Pregnancy is a lot more tiring than I thought it would be. The first trimester (Spring) was mostly spent curled up in a ball on my couch, too nauseated and exhausted to do more than watch Ugly Betty and Arrested Development on Netflix. The second trimester (Summer) was a lot better. The nausea went away, as did most of the fatigue, but I still had trouble rallying to do much more than what I had to (chores and writing).

Sadly, this involved crafting. There were weeks at a time when I couldn't motivate myself to stitch, none the less put together a cool new pattern to work on. If it hadn't been for my stash of pre-stamped Mexican linens, I might have gone all season without embroidering.

I picked up a slew of these little beauties at my hometown swap meet a few years ago. They're mostly 13"x13" cloths, perfect for bread (or tortilla) baskets. I also snagged a few larger ones (17"x17") for some pretty table decorations.

This is one of the smaller ones. All the little petals were deceptively time-consuming to stitch, especially since I decided to get fancy and do the whole thing in split-stitch. I used variegated floss, which is most obvious on the stems and leaves.

When it was done, I backed it with some pretty Dia De Los Muertos fabric. Note the zig-zag stitching. It was my first attempt at using this stitch for, well, anything!

It's kind of a "companion piece" to the first linen I stitched up last year...which I realize I forgot to post about.

See? Perfect for tortillas!

I also stitched up one of the larger pieces. I fell in love with the fruit motif, and I thought it was an appropriate piece to celebrate the late summer harvest. I already miss the lack of good berries and stone fruits in the stores.

I tweeded the floss for the fruit to get a more "natural" tone, I backed this one with a more classic fruit n' flowers fabric.

This one I'm planning on using more as a mini-table cloth sort of thing. If I can bear to put anything that might stain on it!

I still have about ten more of these babies. It's nice to know that if the crafting blahs set in again, I have a pile of ready-made projects waiting for me.