I Love Lucy {Inspired} Mystery Challenge - Lucille Ball Quote Embroidery

I love the I Love Lucy show - who doesn't?!  So the opportunity to create something inspired by Lucille Ball or the I Love Lucy Show sounded easy, fun and exciting.  And, while things for this project certainly did not go smoothly, the final result is a helpful reminder both in sewing and every day life!  I am a complete novice when it comes to hand embroidery, but I created a design using a quote I found "One of the things I have learned the hard way is that it doesn't pay to get discouraged." ~Lucille Ball    If you happen to like my design, you can find it below for your own use!


I am participating for the first time in Mystery Challenge - a group of women sewing bloggers who choose a theme, then are randomly assigned a partner from the group to give a specific prompt based on the theme.  The May 2015 theme is Moments and People Throughout History and I was given the prompt Lucille Ball or I Love Lucy. (Be sure to check out the complete list of participants and topics - each is hyperlinked and will take you to their project once it is posted on their assigned date)



I'm not sure if the show and reruns are as popular worldwide as they are in the US, but who doesn't immediately picture Lucy and Ethel stomping on grapes in Italy, Viteamitavegamin, the Chocolate Factory, the fur coat episode, and so many other iconic scenes and episodes from the show?  She also starred in Yours, Mine and Ours which is a new favorite movie I recently watched with my kids.  So it should be easy, right?

In the show, Lucy is constantly dreaming up grand schemes and then while trying to execute them she encounters unanticipated roadblocks and comical errors that usually keep her from achieving her plan.  My project certainly held true to that inspiration!  I had grand plans for a completely different project (projects) and things didn't go as planned.  Even when I decided to scale down and just embroider this quote, two days before my deadline I realized I had made a couple errors (particularly in size and font selection on the original design) and lost another day's work.  Then when I got that squared away, I found that one of the threads I had chosen to use was too soft and it kept pulling apart as I stitched. Discouraged?  Yes.  Some days (a lot of days lately) I am tempted to sell all my sewing supplies and quit.


In the end, my project (although still unfinished - I do plan to complete the satin stitch all the way around the heart frame) was not only fun to do, it is a good reminder for me and a great opportunity to work on one of my resolutions for the year.  Learning to hand embroider is one of my goals for 2015, and this is my first completed project.

The reason I chose to embroider is that embroidery projects are portable and easy to pick up and take a break from without leaving a huge mess.  I do not have a dedicated sewing room, and I do have five kids - so delving in to sewing projects has become more of a luxury than a habit the past few months.  Embroidery, although I know very little about it, gives me the freedom to be creative without requiring so much space and time commitment.

Supplies and Design Image:


Here is the design I created.  I had originally planned to have the heart incomplete - then decided to finish it when I was embroidering it. You are welcome to print this for your own use - please refer others to this post for their own copy.  Thank you!  (click here to go to the full size image file)
 Download Full Size Image

And don't miss the other Mystery Challenge Posts!


Participant list
6/3│ Mae & K - TeslaPretty Little Blog - Moon LandingKnot Sew Normal - Lutie Eugenia Sterns

13 comments

  1. It looks really good! I love the quote that you chose to embroider. Will you continue with other embroidery projects?

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    1. Thanks, Linda. I do want to keep embroidering - I'd like to work on getting my stitch length consistent and practicing other stitches. I really like that it is something I can take with me and even do in the car.

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  2. This is sew great!

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  3. Ha! I was browsing through the Project Inspire{d} link-ups (after correcting the code in my post that your eagle-eye found!), and yours was the first I clicked on! I adore I Love Lucy and your design is so sweet. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  4. Such a true comment for the world of crafting and creating! Love it! I can definitely vouch for the times I have wanted to just sell everything!
    Love handwork projects, especially portable ones! I would love to learn embroidery.
    This is so great! Thanks for participating!

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    1. Even though it wasn't one of my first thoughts, I'm really glad I did this project. And I've already learned so much more about hand embroidery in the week since I completed this. So much more to learn, though! Thanks for organizing this challenge.

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  5. I just came across this whole mystery challenge group via House of Estrela's blog.
    I think the satin stitching left unfinished really works to say the things you stated in your description of Lucy and then the setbacks you encountered. I would leave it as is! As you said, you thought to leave the heart incomplete in the first place.
    All the best with the embroidery journey. It is a wonderful world!
    Sandy in the UK

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    1. Sandy - I'm so glad you took the time to visit other posts on the Mystery Tour. And I think I agree with you. I am going to leave it as is. It is another version of the incomplete heart I had envisioned. I appreciate you commenting and I hope you visit again!

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    2. Sandy - I'm so glad you took the time to visit other posts on the Mystery Tour. And I think I agree with you. I am going to leave it as is. It is another version of the incomplete heart I had envisioned. I appreciate you commenting and I hope you visit again!

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  6. I like it with the stitching unfinished! I was just coming to say the same thing Sandy said above, the quote really speaks with the unfinished heart :)

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What do you think? I would love to hear!

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