I showed the lion monkey tiger Husky to dd and she was delighted with it, Elizabeth. Her next projects in Craft and Design class will be knitting, and she says to tell your dd she just wishes she could do that well for an assignment.
I wish it could be crochet because I can do that. Neither dd or I have knitted. I don't hold out much hope for her enjoyment anyway, unless this teacher understands the yarn arts better than she does the floss arts. I would suggest that dd learn online a little bit, but she is overwhelmed with hand embroidery every spare minute right up to the project change.
Attempt to help dd hurry along with this 14x14 hand stitching project -
I had dd use Heat n' Bond light by placing a square of it underneath her project (paper side down) on my ironing board. She "traced" one of the larger, elaborate shapes using a hat pin to perforate * * * * * * * * * * * * * through the exact design line on her fabric, through the Heat 'n Bond, and into the foam of the ironing board cover. Then she could "connect the dots" on the paper side with a fine pencil.
Using my best small scissors, we cut inside the shape about 1/8th inch all around, and also left a "bridge" of the Heat 'n Bond across the middle for stability. Ironed to the wrong side of her chosen fabric (teacher had agreed to 3 cotton fabrics she brought in to show) and then cut out directly on the line, removed the little 1/8th-inch of paper, and super-carefully ironed this down in the perfect place on her project.
Just as we started to do this step, dd asked me, "Gesso doesn't suddenly burst into flames when it's heated, does it?" It seems the project was covered in Gesso - I don't know why the teacher did this - something about stiffening the project fabric (which was already pretty thick) or keeping the design lines protected? We stared at each other a while and decided to chance it. It worked. Just 1/8th-inch of edges were secured - everything else very soft - and she could cover the edges with a fancy embroidery stitch over them, knowing nothing would shift.
Adding this to all the hours of stitching she's done so far, I'd say the project is not even 1/4 done. It will probably take her the whole class period today to do this edging. But maybe with knowledge of this technique she can move forward faster now. She has more done than anyone else in the class and they are all starting to panic. She says everyone is saying they "hate" embroidery.