Keeping busy indoors

Since it's mostly been rainy here, there hasn't been a lot I can do outside.  That is aside from continuing to keep refilling the yard waste container every week with the piles of branches and buckets of cut back plants that I have.  I think I finally cleared the last bit and the huge pile is gone.  That means once Christmas is over I can go back to cleaning up my garden.  Most of the "decorative" seed heads and "winter interest" have already lost their appeal thanks to the huge amounts of rain.  Now they are mostly just slimy and picked over by the birds.

Winter always feels especially long when it's raining and I'm tired of doing housework and other chores to keep busy.  But I had no idea what I could do.  I learned how to do all sorts of needle work from my mom when I was younger.  In fact when I was around 12 or 13 my mom and her friend started a 4H group, and they taught my sister and me and some of our friends all sorts of different skills that I'm so glad to have learned.  We sewed, baked, canned, embroidered and more.  We entered or projects in the state fair, and I even baked in front of judges once.  Most of the skills I sort of ignored as I grew up.  But I'm so glad now that I have at least the basic knowledge to fall back on as an adult.  I can still thread a sewing machine and have helped Sweet Pea on some small projects.  
Over the years I've been interested in many bloggers other talents and hobbies that keep them busy year round.  I've always loved seeing Flower Lady's needle work, and she inspired me to try doing some myself .  Last winter I was in a craft store and found myself wandering the embroidery area.  I bought a very basic pre printed kit.  It was fun to relearn the stitches.

This winter I've started doing a couple more projects.

  One is a pillowcase for the Littlest Gardener.

 Then some chickens on a flour sack towel.  Technically I think the one of the left is a rooster, but I'm calling it a chicken and did colors matching our loudest chicken Tina Fey.  I can't wait to work on more.  I love these vintage style patterns and have ordered some cute garden ones to try too.

And here's something else keeping me entertained indoors.  I have a couple of Amaryllis getting close to blooming! 

I wish I would've started doing embroidery again earlier, it's really fun and relaxing.  I also need to make sure my daughters learn some of these skills.  Sweet Pea learned how to knit from my mom years ago and now wants to try embroidery too. 
If any of you have any suggestions or recommendations on good websites or good places to find interesting fabric to work on I would love to hear them!
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.