Hot Air Balloon Fabric Embroidery

Up, up and awaaay! My grandmother gave me this beautiful hot air balloon fabric from her extensive sewing stash. When I saw it, I immediately dreamed of embroidering over the lines to make the balloons really pop off the fabric. Inspiration in the greatest of places.

The problem?
I had never done any embroidery before.

To be clear, I've done oodles and oodles of cross stitch projects, which is a form of embroidery. We know this. But doing that super cool thing of stitching beautiful shapes on fabric? Never.

So I pulled up Sublime Stitching's Tutorials online and gave it a whirl!

I used the full six strands in my embroidery floss and did a simple backstitch. Here's what came out:

Not terrible, right? I wish I had used less strands (maybe three or four) instead of six. I also need to work on my spacing and consistency of stitch length, but otherwise, for a first try, I think I did a good job. Even better, it was a fun! It's faster than cross stitch, which is a huge plus when I get the itch to stitch but don't have a ton of time. And when I'm feeling particularly impatient about completing projects.

I'll have to do a few more hot air balloons. The balloons on the fabric vary in size, so it would be cute to do three finished in wood hoops and hang them together for decor. Better yet, this gave me more ideas for fabric I have stored away.

Have you ever embroidered on fabric like this before? How did it go? Do you have any embroidery tips for me?