An Embroidered Holiday Diary: New York City

Hello! I am very happy to say that my embroidered souvenir of our recent trip to New York in the summer holidays is finished and joins it's companions on the wall in the dining room. The weather here on the south coast has taken a wet, windy and distinctly autumnal turn over the last few days, and so it's especially lovely to indulge in some holiday memories before my thoughts turn more towards crocheted socks and lighting the fire. 

This project has been an absolute pleasure to create from start to finish. From dreaming about what I'd sew while we were on holiday, to sketching out a plan when we got home, and then each day finding an hour or two for a little embroidery during the summer break.

Starting with the US flag as a central point I worked outwards, including Central Park, with it famous rocks and lake, a bowl of ramen noodle soup, and a doughnut.

On the opposite side I sewed a brownstone building, plate of waffles, hat-wearing theatre symbol and a hot dog.

A little lower down we have the Subway sign and the Guggenheim museum....

...with the Brooklyn bridge on the other side.

And at the bottom, the Empire State Building, a slice of pizza, a taxi, baseball bat and ball, tub of ice cream, and the Statue of Liberty.

There are seventeen motifs in total, and each one represents a particular day or place or moment; the hot dogs we ate at the baseball game, the taxi we took to and from the airport, the subway trains we rode everywhere, the bridge we walked over in the midday heat, the trip to see Wicked at the Gershwin theatre, and Red White and Blue waffles for breakfast in a diner. So much fun and happiness and memory making in all those little French knots and shiny satin stitches.

The images are topped and tailed by the place and the year, sewn in the New York typeface which was tricky to copy, let me tell you.

My inner perfectionist, always my loudest critic, says that the composition isn't perfectly balanced. To that I would say that it was a fairly organic project, with me not knowing exactly what I would sew or how big it would be until I started sewing it. It's not like I planned it all out on the computer before I started. I framed this one myself, saving around £50, but with that I have to accept that it's not as beautifully framed as it would be had it been done by a professional. It's a smidge too small for the frame (another inch either side would have been ideal but I didn't have a frame that exact size) and, despite stretching the fabric as hard as I could, it's not as drum-tight as it was in the embroidery hoop.

But this sounds like I'm not happy with it, and I am, I absolutely am. It was so much fun to sew and it was, without question, the best family holiday we've ever had, and those memories are forever there on my embroidery wall to be enjoyed by us all.