Just finished embroidering my daughter's goodbye note and had to share

I did the same thing with my son's note to the tooth fairy a couple years back, complete with the spelling of 'fairy' that had an extra r in it. Stitched it in dark red on natural linen and hung it in the hallway where he sees it every day. He's nine now and half his spellings have corrected themselves, so that piece is basically a time capsule. For lettering I found a shorter hoop helps, something like a five inch one, because you're constantly turning the fabric as you follow the letters and a big hoop gets awkward to reposition on your lap. I also switched from back stitch to split stitch partway through his name and the split stitch lines look smoother for curves, especially on letters like s and e. One thing that saved me was keeping the original paper note taped inside the hoop with a clothespin so I could check it without hunting for it every time a letter looked off. And I stopped trying to stitch for more than an hour at a sitting because my tension went sloppy when I got tired and the words started looking wobbly.

Already planning the next one with my daughter's shopping list, which includes both 'cat food' and 'more cats', so that shoud be fun.

I went a slightly diferent direction with handwriting after my mum passed. She had a shopping list stuck to her fridge for years, just odds and ends in her loopy scrawl, and I stitched it onto a piece of cream quilting cotton last winter. Chain stitch instead of back stitch because her writing was thick and heavy with pen pressure, and I wanted that weight to come thru in the thread. Used two strands of DMC in charcoal grey rather than a proper color, felt more like pencil that way.

Instead of tracing paper I taped the fabric to my kitchen window with the original underneath and traced straight onto it with a disappearing ink pen. Worked fine for short words but anything with a curve came out wobbly, so I redid half of it, which taught me to trace lighter than I thought I needed to.

One thing I would suggest from experience: photograph or scan the original before you stitch over it or store it away. Mine faded more than I expected once it was handled, and I was glad I had a clear copy to work from when I had to retrace letters. Hers is in a rectangular hoop on the kitchen wall now, right where a list would hang anyway. It makes me smile every time I go to write my own list underneath it.

This has me thinking about the birthday card my nephew made me, it's just a lopsided cake with 'HAPPY BIRTHDEY' across the top and honestly I'd frame that spelling mistake if I could. Never thought about stitching it instead though. Does the water soluble stuff work okay on cotton that's not white? I've got a bit of denim I want to try lettering on and I'm worried it won't show up well enought to follow.