MR. SKELETON

Purple ash in our backyard

Several years ago, I purchased a pack of machine embroidery designs from OESD titled “Halloween Couture.” The pack included a skeleton in freestanding lace to be stitched out piece by piece and assembled. While Mike traveled, I was inspired to make six of them – one for each of our children and one for us.

One of our sons recently told me that he wanted to hang Mr. Skeleton, but his sternum had come loose from his spine. (Somehow I’m not surprised.) In addition, he was rather limp – I suppose from several years in storage. Initially, he dissuaded me from stitching a new Mr. Skeleton, so I instructed him on how to re-starch and he tried to re-attach the sternum, though he admitted he isn’t good with needle and thread.

Well, I decided if he cared that much, I just had to make him a new skeleton. After all, I bought the design, and it’s good to use it. I can truly say I got my money’s worth out of this design. So, I stitched on Sunday and again on Monday – it takes a long time to stitch out all those pieces – and following the advice of Chris, my embroidery guru, I used the Bernina machine instead of the Brother for better control of machine speed. (At least, I think that’s the reason.) Lace designs need to be stitched rather slowly.

 

Mike left this morning to hunt birds in southern Idaho / Oregon and will visit the son in question, so I sent along the new improved Mr. Skeleton. Previously, I stitched the skeletons with white thread. This time I used glow-in-the-dark thread. Sh-h-h-h! Don’t tell him. I want to see how long it takes him to discover it. KW