I have not made a real start on the pinch purse summer challenge project for my embroidery guild. I need to figure out what fabric I am going to use, and then I need to select a design for the embroidery embellishment.

I cut the templates, and I cut off a scrap of batting to use to pad the sides of the pouch. Although the tutorials I’ve read say you can pad both the smaller, inside piece and the outer piece, I will probably just add the layer of batting to the larger outside pieces. But, I cut off enough batting here to all of the pieces if I change my mind.

I started pulling some fabric from my stash. I would like to use an ivory fabric for a nice, neutral background to show off the ribbon embroidery, but I don’t have any nice neutrals in my cotton quilting weight fabric. I kind of like the green or the pink fabric above, but the pink ribbon will disappear on the pink fabric, and the green ribbon will disappear on the green fabric, so I don’t think either of them are great choices.

So, I may pull some linens from my needlework fabric stash. I am only concerned about using something with a high enough count so that the undersides of the stitches don’t show through, if that makes sense. So, we’ll see. I’ve got lots of needlework fabric. I’m sure I’ll find an evenweave or linen that will work.

Then I can start tracing the shapes onto the fabric so I can start planning the embroidery design for the two outer sides.

The experiment continues…