not my typical crafts

I've been doing quite a bit of embroidery and crochet lately. I'm helping make a quilt for someone, and I have at least 2 squares to embroider. One's already done, and I have one to go.




I'm thinking I might re-use the swallow from Sublime Stitching that I used on a hankie. It turned out so well, even the satin stitch which I had never really done before. I have yet to really master stem stitch, and chain stitch is just beyond me for some reason.

I've also been doing quite a bit of work on granny squares. I'm up to about 80. It's fun to be able to put together crazy color combinations without having to worry about it being "too much". It'll only be one square, after all! I'm still trying to figure out what yarn to use for the border. I'm planning on doing another granny row around each square and then a row of single crochet around the whole thing, all in black. The only question is which yarn to choose. I need it to be something cheap-ish because I am going to be using a lot, and acrylic blend at least for ease of washing, but who wants to snuggle with Red Heart?