Mary Corbet of Needle ‘N Thread has been posting tons of pretty monograms on her Pinterest lately.  They are all beautiful and classical.  She then posted this frame on her website; it’s so pretty! I wanted in on this monogram stuff.

So what to do?  My initials?  Nah, I have the same initials as Kraft Dinner.  Not so hot.  My husband and I?  No.  It’s either Kraft Dinner or Donkey Kong.  Sigh.

Then I had a flash: a vague memory of an awesome monogram font I had seen, somewhere online.  It took a while, but I found it! I really love how this font looks.  It’s from 1923 but it still feels snappy and fresh.

Traditionally, you use the first and middle names on either side, and the last name/word last.  So the name Mary Beth Smith would be mSb, for example.  While that is adorable for names, it doesn’t really read for acronyms, so I decided to throw that convention out the window when drawing up my monogrammed acronym.

My satin stitch…  Needs work, I know.  Maybe something slightly less rude next time.  AFK? BRB? LOL? OMG?  So many choices!

First off, look at that pretty chain stitch.  So pretty!  Now prepare to have your mind blown: it’s backwards and it’s easy.  Boom!

Jenny Sublime recently posted an awesome how-to chain stitch on her blog where she shares a trick a student showed her.  To get chain stitch to be tidy and to get it exactly where you want it to go, just follow her easy tutorial.

This free Czech Inspired Folk Flowers pattern is from Mary Corbet’s Needle’n’Thread.  Look how good the chain stitch filling looks!  I started them with a tiny stitch at the bottom of the flower and they took the curve super well.  My french knots now…  Well, let’s master one stitch at a time, all right?

I signed up for Wild Olive’s Summer Stitching Club last week, and I am already having a blast with it. I decided to go with pinks and yellows for the surrounding hexagons, and to alternate cream and pink cottons for the embroidery. Hopefully it’ll be cute!I’m not sure how I am going to finish this quilt, since I really like how the unfinished edges look. Maybe I will have to try something completely different to what is in Mollie’s pattern, which will be cool too.

Make sure to check out how everyone else is doing on the Wild Olive Flickr group!