When life gives you lemons, you make embroidery sampler hoops! Ya! I recently took an embroidery workshop with Jennie Lennick of Jenny Lemons. Jennie designs, sews, block prints, and paints her uberly cute and colorful clothing line in her San Francisco studio. She also teaches fun workshops and creates playful embroidery + fabric art. Her foodcentric creations are my favorite.

I’ve taken an embroidery class before but learning from different teachers is always a good idea. Some stitches were familiar, others I had forgotten about, and still others were completely new. It was also great to learn new techniques for familiar stitches, and be inspired by Jennie’s projects and super helpful pro tips.

In this workshop we learned and practiced:

• Running stitch
• Backstitch
• Whipped backstitch
• Blanket stitch (or what I now like to call eyelash stitch)
• French knots
• Couching
• Satin stitch

Here’s one of Jennie’s sample hoops.

Class went by so quickly; I could have easily continued to practice stitches for another couple of hours. Jennie serves hot tea in her workshops, too, so I was all relaxed and in the embroidery zone. I really want to work on my satin stitch next; my attempt at a pineapple looks more like a mango (see right hoop below). And my lines could be cleaner, too.

Time to practice! What (new) skills are you working on these days? Share below!