Punch Embroidery

One of the bad things about having a lot of unfinished projects is that it is sometimes difficult to keep all the pieces of the project together long enough to finish the project.  One of the good things about having a lot of unfinished projects is that when I need a change of pace, I can usually find something in the craft room that I feel like working on.

I was having one of those evenings tonight where I just didn't feel like sitting down at the sewing machine.  I still felt like crafting, though.  So, I wandered into my craft room.  On the floor, mixed in with a pile of fabric, was a Debbie Mumm punch embroidery project I started a couple of years ago.  Tonight, it seemed to suit my mood.  And, amazingly enough, all of the pieces were in the ziplock bag!  Well, except scissors, but that really wasn't a problem.

I pulled everything out to look at.  The pattern is of a penguin on skates.  I like penguins, which means this is a theme that will crop up over and over.

It probably has been a good 18 months since I last worked on this project.  I'd actually made fairly good progress before I put it away the last time.  It shouldn't take me too long to finish it.  What a concept:  a finished project!

It took me a minute to remember how to thread the needle punch.  But, I was soon working away on the penguin's right arm.  I quickly finished the right arm and moved on to the left skate.  And, then it was on to the mittens.  Or, so I thought.  I realized that I was having problems with the needle punch.  Every time I put the needle onto the fabric and started to punch through, the needle folded itself back up into its holder.  After trying several times to fix it myself, I handed it over to my husband.  He had glue within arms reach, and after verifying where I wanted the needle, he glued the needle to the tool and I was back to work on the mittens.  Yes, this does mean that I now only have one loop length available, but it was better than putting it all back into the ziplock bag and putting it back in the craft room.

It is, however, time to stop for the night.  I'm leaving the project out.  It'll be a good project to work on during the week...