I love reclaiming abandoned projects !

Found a green acorn, complete with cap, and matching leaf in Emmy-car’s driver’s seat today. Fall’s definitely on the way – and I need to remember to close the moon-roof from now on !

I was going out to the car to retrieve a large felt owl I’d bought at Dollar Tree a few weeks ago, intending to zip-tie it to Beloved Hubby’s truck grille. I swap out silly holiday decorations, usually tinsel-based, and from DTree, and see how long it takes him to notice. He actually complained that the July 4^th glitter-star was on a bit overlong. Turned out, the owl was too big, and would cover too much of the grille – last thing I want is for him to overheat on the interstate – so it was banished to Emmy-chan’s trunk. Few weeks later, I found a shimmery pumpkin much like the others, and it was installed that night. Poor owl’s been in the trunk for about two months.

But today, I saw how someone had jazzed up similar DTree felt pumpkins with a bit of machine embroidery (flowing monograms, for the curious), and decided to do something simple to save my owl. I actually liked him, or I wouldn’t have bought him in the first place, after all – I was just at a loss until I saw the photos. Pulled up a lettering program I bought in 2009, typed up a short slogan, and a half hour later, I had an embroidered owl, and he was hanging up on the front door. Owl was too big to hoop, so I stretched out some cutaway stabilizer and pinned him to it. Several times, ‘til I talked m’self into believing it was centered well enough. Not the best solution, it moved too much for my satisfaction, but I still liked how it turned out. The Autumn-colored ribbons I tied around his neck camouflage some of the felt bends and slight off-center qualities. Even used the plastic hook DTree used for stocking to display him. Yaaay !

I’d like to get fancier with future endeavors, the first one is always the biggest challenge. I confess, it’s been a long time since I embroidered anything larger than my hoop ! Probably use the spray adhesive, possibly with or without the pins. Brody will ‘air draw’ a square of how big the design is before the first stitch is sewn, which helps. Now I’m hoping for felt turkeys and Christmas trees and ornaments to appear at DTree soon. . .