Embroidery and Toast

I recently got motivated to try out some embroiding as a change from knitting and crochet. I got a hot water bottle (heart shaped!) to help a certain someone keep warm through the winter, and I decided it ought to come with a hot water bottle cozy. I love cozies for inanimate objects. Like, "Keep the cell phone warm! It's shivering!" Though in this case, for both comfort and heat conservation, it makes some sense.

Long ago I had noticed some fantastic embroidered felt items on the website of my then-coworker Jess Hutchison, and they always stuck in my mind. (Looks like the photos of the felt things are gone now - she had an embroidered Airstream image, a little tiki guy, stuff like that - but now she has lots of strange and wonderful little knitted individuals, which are very worth checking out.) So I decided to take that approach. I had also recently come across the work of My Paper Crane's Heidi Kenney, and found myself charmed, even mildly obsessed, by her sad burned toast. Yes, it is sad because it got burned.

So anyway, this is what I came up with, my fledgling attempt at embroidery.