How to Turn a Home Into an Embroidery Pattern

As you may very well know I recently up and moved a good 700 miles away from home. Though I was born in Texas, where I now call home, I still feel like an Okie and I miss my old home every. single. day. I thought that by now I’d be over being homesick but it’s still there. When we went to visit the boys for Spring Break we also visited one of my specialists up in Oklahoma City since after months I couldn’t get into a specialist in my new location (and still can’t we have to drive to Houston!) When we left I had the hardest time not turning to head back “home”. Instead I got us on the highway to go back south, the way we came, back to my sister’s house. With my nephews in the car and Rob, who already feels guilty about my sadness and really shouldn’t, I had to put on a brave face even with tears burning my eyes.

It’s kind of amazing because I came to resent this house so much. Things got bad financially and I got stuck there. I first lost half of my hours when my job was made part-time during the real estate bust and then I was laid off altogether. All of this happened within the first year of owning my own home even after I asked “is my position secure here?” before even considering purchasing.

There she is… my first home looking absolutely nothing like the way she was when I bought her. With 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths and 1,200 square feet it was an amazing purchase for a single lady.  With the help of my father we turned her from a dark, lipstick covered 80’s-tastic place into a gorgeous, modern home and when she went on the market, I was so proud of her. Saying goodbye was truly very hard.

But it’s getting better and I’m getting used to calling my new house in my new city in a new state “home”. When I decided I wanted to turn a house into an embroidery pattern I first went out and snapped pics of the new house. I quickly realized I don’t have any kind of attachment to want to commemorate this home in stitches, so I went back and found a pic of my old home and set to it. Now you’ll need a decent quality image, not something crazy pixilated. Print your photo in black and white. If you have a program where you can increase the saturation do that. Make the whites super white and the blacks and black as you can.

Tape a piece of paper on top of your photograph on a window that gets bright sunlight shining through. Take your time and trace the image. Now you don’t need every single detail. Notice how I drew in an occasional brick for the brick-work along the bottom half of the home and an occasional line to show the paneling of the wood just above that brick?

Bushes should become blobs and tiny things omitted. I kept to that except for when it came to my sun, moon and stars (something my neighbors would tell me they felt made the home very “me”) and my house number. Oh, and I definitely had to include the bench my dad and I made out of an old bed that has been passed on to the new owners!

Cut out a piece of fabric (I chose patterned white fabric) and hoop it up. Since my house was long and skinny I went for an oval hoop I stashed away after a vintage hoop haul from Ebay!

Get your pattern on however you please and begin stitching it on. I went with Sulky stick on sheets that dissolve in water (get the tutorial for that here). You can also trace the design onto your fabric using the tape and window poor man’s lightbox method we used to make the pattern to begin with!

Stitch that baby up as you please. I wanted to make sure my colors were as accurate as possible and pored over grays to use for my roof and concrete. Granted it was a bit extreme but I’m so happy with the finished piece in the end I couldn’t care less!

Again, only stitch in the occasional line, shape or squiggle for bricks and paneling and roof tiles to keep the piece from getting bogged down with the details.

Once you’re done you can hang your masterpiece up and in the coming years, when you don’t call this house home anymore, you can look at it and remember how fond you once were of the old gal! Because even though I miss living in my old home, I’m so happy with my new life that soon any sadness will only be a memory.