Land That I Love Embroidery by Amy Barickman!

Hi all! Amy Barickman is here today to share with us one of her best-selling embroidery books – Land That I Love! This is a great project book that is super customizable for any of your favorite towns, states or colleges. If you are looking for a great way to preserve your summer travel memories – or kickstart your holiday gift projects – look no further than Land That I Love – it is available in both paperback or a new downloadable PDF, which are easy to take with you wherever you love to create – home or away! Take it away, Amy…..

Hi everyone! My name is Amy and I am so happy to be back, sharing one of my favorite techniques with you – hand embroidery. I love to travel and whether I am on a plane, train or automobile, I love to bring a project along with me. I just got home from a few weeks in Northern Michigan, where I have been going every summer for most of my life! It’s truly my home away from home (home being Kansas City).

One way I love to savor my travel memories is to make a bespoke keepsake – something special that you couldn’t find in a store. They make perfect gifts – I make them for hostess gifts, birthdays, graduations or even ‘just because’. Everyone always appreciates that they have been made especially with them in mind.

The history of state linework goes back a long way! As I was researching this book, I found endless inspiration in vintage travel coloring books and even in old children’s textbooks. The simple illustrations are timeless and we’ve included both vintage and modern fonts to choose from for your project.

If you would like to learn more about the story behind the book and my signature Vintage Made Modern style, be sure to check out the video below. I also share a little textile history and show you a ton of finished examples!

One of my favorite features of this book is that it includes line art for all 50 states. That includes the shape of the state in two styles and sizes, the state name with font choices (plus the state slogan!), state flowers, birds and major cities…. even collegiate pennants. There is also a color key for the designs in case you need a jumping off point!

If you are wondering how to get the designs off the page and onto your fabric, I recommend Colonial Patterns’ Aunt Martha’s Tracing Paper and Transfer Pencil. Personally, I love these and they are both great tools for tracing any line art from, well, anything! Just trace with the pencil and iron on for an easy design transfer. Look at some of these fun examples we’ve made…. By the way, that blue and white towel is available on the Missouri Star website if you would like one for your own project!

I am a Kansas City girl through and through, so for the pillow project below I included all of the Kansas options. I didn’t want to pick sides (but I am a Jay Jay Jayhawk) – so I added both the premier Kansas college pendants, for K-State and KU. Applying your embroidery project as a patch to a pillow is a great way to use some of your favorite vintage fabrics (I used Ticking!) or a fun coordinating print in state colors.

The Kansas state flower is the Sunflower and the turquoise tea towel project shows how a colorful background can really highlight your stitch work. My next project is going to be our neighbor, Missouri… also home to Missouri Star Quilts! I think my friends in Hamilton deserve their own city call out, don’t you?

For the Missouri embroidery, we hand-traced our design on a Sulky Stick N Stitch Adhesive Wash Away Stabilizer or, if you don’t trust your tracing skills, you could print your design on Missouri Star’s new Peel & Stitch: Printable, Wash-away Transfer Sheets with your at home Inkjet printer! Either of these wash away stabilizer transfer sheets will make your life so much easier!

Now a little shout out to the Lone Star State. For our Texas set, we used a contrasting fabric (try using denim chambray!) for the back and flange. Some of my favorite aspects of the Texas projects are that we (on the pillow) outlined the state with a variegated thread of red, white and blue – and for the tea towel we did a double outline. I love all the details that you can add – a single design or combination of a few – it’s totally up to you!

For more inspiration (and to see a lot more stitching examples!), be sure to read the new blog post on my site AmyBarickman.com about this book and its techniques. We also recently added the book to my website shop in its complete form as an instantly downloadable PDF! This is a super easy way to have the entire book at your fingertips while traveling – just print the pages you need as you need them.! If you prefer a paperback version, it can be found here on the Missouri Star website!

Oh! And before I forget… I was just in Hamilton for the “Airing of the Quilts” event and a quick visit to the Missouri Quilt Museum. I stopped by Missouri Star’s Quilted Home store to see some friends and was loving their fabulous selection of embroidery kits, stitching tools and supplies! I even got to set up a little display of some of my favorite embroidery samples from The Land That I Love book – it’s hard to choose, but this might be my favorite shop in Quilt Town! I hope you get a chance to stop by and enjoy all this store has to offer!

Thanks for reading today! I hope you are feeling inspired and I can’t wait to see what you create!

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If you loved this project and are looking for more books, projects and patterns – visit AmyBarickman.com. While you are there, be sure to sign up for her weekly newsletter which is full of sewing patterns, seasonal inspiration, and fun projects for needle and thread. Be sure to stay social and follow along with Amy on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

Amy Barickman is a creative arts entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the craft industry. Over that time, she and her designers have released over 1000 pattern titles and published 80 books – including her most popular book – Vintage Notions. Amy has always been inspired by all things vintage and has curated a personal collection of fabrics, quilts, sewing books and patterns, notions that she loves to share. She is passionate about helping others find inspiration for handmade projects and to cultivate more joy in their everyday living through needle and thread.

Be sure to check out our Nancy’s Notions Homepage, where you can find links to over 60 different categories of sewing and quilting topics! That’s over 400 articles! Click here!