{"id":50430,"date":"2014-07-14T00:09:51","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T07:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=50430"},"modified":"2014-07-14T00:09:51","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T07:09:51","slug":"embroidery-merit-badge-expert-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/50430","title":{"rendered":"Embroidery Merit Badge, Expert Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/a>, now with 5,929 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20148,474 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/a> \u2026\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For this week\u2019s Stitching and Crafting\/Embroidery Expert Level Merit Badge<\/a>, I took advantage of some down time (that\u2019s what I call it\u2019s-too-hot-to-go-outside-and-it\u2019s-too-hot-to-turn-the-stove-on) and got out my collection of embroidery floss. What\u2019s floss without needles naturally? so I got those out as well.<\/p>\n

\"Embroidery1\"<\/p>\n

And of course, what are you going to do with a bunch of thread and needles and nothing to stitch them to, right? so I crawled into my linen cabinet.<\/p>\n

Yes, literally.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a really deep cabinet, girls.<\/p>\n

And somewhat unorganized, I confess.<\/p>\n

Ahem. Is there a badge for closet organization?<\/p>\n

I admit to being something of a pillowcase hoarder, but today is the day where my irrational love of rectangular shaped cotton covers was finally going to pay off. By golly, I had a place to put these puppies now and it wasn\u2019t the back of the closet with last year\u2019s Halloween decorations, 12 rolls of wrapping paper, a set of curlers (for my hair \u2026 not the sport you see at the Olympics), and a case of toilet paper bought from one of those warehouse club places that will last me until approximately April of 2064.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I seem to have gone off on a bunny trail there. My point was this: I had recently rearranged my living room to include a lovely window seat. (Talk about needing a badge for that one, am I right, girls? I\u2019ll be covered in badges in no time.) Well, really, it\u2019s an upcycled set of cabinets, turned on their side and placed strategically beneath my large picture window. But if you didn\u2019t know better (pretend like you don\u2019t know better), you\u2019d say the architect was a genius.<\/p>\n

Why, thanks. *blushes*<\/p>\n

And as we all know, window seats are made for pillows. Or pillows are made for window seats. Or something. All I know is, I had an awesome place to sit and nibble cookies and people watch, and I needed some cushions to do so in comfort. My pillowcase collection was about to be put to good use!<\/p>\n

Of course, it wasn\u2019t as simple as all that. Just pulling a stack of fabric niceties out of your closet isn\u2019t going to earn you a badge \u2013 sorry to disillusion you. No, this badge was all about embroidery, remember? (Why you keep getting me off track with all this talk about toilet paper and Olympic sports and architecture is beyond me. Try to focus!)<\/p>\n

My plain, slightly boring pillowcases needed a makeover, and I had just the floss, needles, hoop, and nimble fingers to do it. Since I knew this windowseat would be excellent for reading novels, I used some of my favorite quotes to decorate my pillows. You can print out fonts and iron them on, or use stencils, or just free write them with a pencil.<\/p>\n

\"Embroidery4\"<\/p>\n

Here are a few things my friendly pillows have to say as I snuggle in with them. Can you match the quotes with the novels?<\/p>\n

I am so glad to live in a world where there are Octobers.<\/em><\/p>\n

To live would be an awfully big adventure.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wish I\u2019d done everything on earth with you.<\/em><\/p>\n

You have bewitched me, body and soul.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin by taking a smallish nap or two.<\/em><\/p>\n

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Answers: Anne of Green Gables, Peter Pan, The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice, Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,929 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20148,474 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ\u00a0 Wondering … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}