finished designs

I finished the wall hanging designs, there will be 4 embroidered blocks 7 x 9. I'm already to stitch the first block out, hooped and all.

I forced myself to do the polo shirt job first today. I even wrote out and printed off an estimate for the work, per shirt. I even included cost per baseball hat and added an option to go with long sleeve polos. I delivered the estimate and two stitched out samples, one for the owner and one for the daughter. The daughter runs the office. Now the hard part is waiting until next week for an answer.

I made a neat little template for laying out the location of the logo and the employee's name on the shirt. It's hard to see but I put holes in center and every inch on the cross hatch. To use the template I line it up with the button placket and using a chalk pencil, mark the center and two holes each direction, then remove the template I connect the dots. I found it is good if I also mark the inside for the shirt, that way as I add stablizer, I put it in the right place, and less waste.

I had to run a few errands and ended up in Joann's for backing fabric for the wall hanging, stablizer and thread. This sweet pink flowered fabric will be the backing.

I might even make the same fabric be the sashing fabric. Decisions, Decisions.

I have to tell you about this book I got. I got crazy and spent all my crafters choice points at once and got nine books (9) in the mail. Maybe I'll tell you about a book a day.

On the front cover is a table runner with Irises on it. My dishes have Irises on them, so I'm gonna make placemats. But because I don't want to hand stitch all the pieces for the placemat, I'm going to practice my skills and have the embroidery machine applique the pieces down.

Uffta, time to go cook. (Uffta is a Norweigian phrase that has no real definition) My definition is that uffta means "Ohy M God". Because you use it the same way, with that inflection. Okay gotta cook.

Custom Tote Bag

I made a custom tote bag.

I did not use a published pattern, I've been designing this pattern in my head and in tote bags for a while. The ladies at church really like it and I've made a bunch. Each bag's embroidery and color's are for the recipient. I even had one lady pick out the fabric online for her bag.
Each bag has 3 large patch pockets and four folded inside pockets. I always like longer straps, so the straps are 28 -29 inches long. I have been writing the directions for the pattern and should be finished this weekend.













I took a ton of pictures as I made this bag, for the tutorial. This time I actually wrote on the parts with a chalk marking pencil so the pieces were easier to see in the pictures. The only hard part is that this bag is black, with a black lining. The chalk showed up almost yellow.

I spent yesterday morning working on designs on the computer. I finished laying out a baby gift wallhanging. I want to spend this afternoon stitching out the parts. I mixed up the printed pages, so I need to go back and relook at the colors, I taped the wrong color charts to each of the four embroidery blocks. I'm happy with the designs, I decided to quilt the borders with. Now to cut and starch the basic blocks and sew. I'll post pictures as I finish.

I also finished a design for a polo shirt. I need to stitch that out today. All in All yesterday was a good day. I even picked up my new glasses. A few minutes of dizzy, but it went away quick. The bio-focal is a little higher than the last pair.

PDF for Notebook

Okay I'm having trouble adding the PDF to the sidebar. Here's the Tutorial. I'll read up on the stupid PDF thing and fix it.

Suede Notebook cover

This cover is made from Ultra Suede. Fits Spiral Notebook 6 1/2 x 9 1/2

Materials:
One piece of suede 10 by 26
Small clothes pins
Embroidery Design of choice Max 6 x 9

Cut 1 piece of suede 22 wide x 10 tall (cover)
Cut 1 piece of suede 3 1/2 wide x 5 tall (pocket)
You can make two pockets like shown in pictures. Mine were 3 1/2 x 4.

Mark large suede for embroidery between 12 and 18 inches from left.

Hoop sticky tear-a-away stabilizer in hoop. Lay suede over top of hoop, smooth suede down to sticky. Stitch design. Trim all threads and extra stabilizer.

Place pocket 1 inch from bottom edge and flush with right side edge.
Option 2 pockets, place both flush with right side and layered.

Sew ¼ inch seam around each side, stay stitch each corner.

Fold pocket to the wrong side of the suede 4 inches and sew each raw edge. Fold opposite side in 3 inches and sew each of the raw edge.

Stitch ¼ inch around all the outside edges to finish notebook cover.

Suede happiness

Yes, I lost 2 weeks again.

Look what I maded. I got a new Dakota Collectibles CD of embroidery designs, "Quilting". I love celtic designs for their simplicity. I love this ultra suede in sage green. Much better than the cheap purple plastic cover of my notebook. I added two pockets to the inside cover.

I made a PDF of the directions, see the sidebar.

Oh the Hubby called it's Date Night. I have 10 minutes before he honks. Love that Man.

Spats, Spits and Sputters

Wow, I look up and a week has gone by.

Spats:

I got asked if I would help make Spats (Shoe Covers that look like boots) by a friend, who is a director of a childrens theater. I found this great link to a U-Tube video on how to make Spats from Thread Bangers.com.

http://www.threadbanger.com/episode/THR_20090603

Spits:

I embroidered 18 t-shirts for our scout troop to go to camp.

Before, During and After.

I also got volunteered to make name tags for the girls' bags for camp. How this keeps happening to me, I really don't Know. My husband and I used to have an agreement to not volunteer each other for things, but some how, it now only applies to me volunteering him.

Any way this is how the Name/Luggage tags turned out. I am really proud how easy and how nice they turned out. I found a font on the Internet and using Quick Fonts, I didn't have to position the braille dots by hand. So each tag has the name in English and then in braille on the other side. This way the two girls who are visually impaired can find out whose bag is whose easily.

I laid out each name in English and then in Braille. Stitched out on some blue ultra suede, fold in half, sew around the edges, trim. Using the Crop-o-dile to punch a hole and the grommet part to squish the grommet. Quick to thread a snap key ring on and Finished.

Sputters:

I sewed out a polo for a job and the font was not dense enough, and the highlights on the chef's hat were too light. I fixed the design so I can sew it out tomorrow. I don't like to test sew out a design. I just go for it. Then if it doesn't work, I just used the messed up shirt as a test shirt. I have one polo that has a dozen designs going every which way. Funny.

not really lost

I'm not really lost. Since the 1st of June I have been running my tail off. During our trip to Minneapolis to get one of the guys for the canoe trip. I got a phone call from my step-mom that my Dad was in ICU. He had a stroke. We have learned since that his altzheimers caused the stroke. I grabbed the chance to rearrange my schedule and drove to Tennessee to see him. I think next time I'm going to fly and rent a car in Nashville. My Dad lives 2 hours from Nashville. The 18+ hours in the car was rough. I stopped at about 13 hours and spent the night in Illionis. My GPS unit kept me to US Highways, but doesn't allow for traffic.

The visit was good, his speech therapist said that the reminising and going through pictures was good for him. He lost the connection with names, of people and things. He knew who they were and could describe where they met, but lost the name. Wehn the doctor asked him to name items, like his watch, he called it the clock on my arm. Most people woud just nod and think he was having one of those days when the word is on the tip of your tongue and you can't grab it. Until it is a name of a person. My step sisters look alot alike and he mixed them up back and forth, looking at pictures, but when the sisters were in front of him it was okay.

I finished the Coon 'n Crocket Muzzle Loaders patch and delivered it. She was so happy. I gave her each piece as a design, what I mean is that I digitized the rifle and the tree stump and the ax separately, and save each item in multiple sizes and then combined them for the final patch. I did that for me, so I can use the different pieces in other designs. So when I gave her the disk it had 12 designs on it. She was so happy. I need to get my butt in gear and finish uploading my stuff to QuickBooks so I can make sales slips. Plus I need to write an Art Release form. A friend pointed out that the art if not mine, but the digitizing is. So I need a realease form spelling out usage and have the individual statement that it is their originial art work. Any ideas ?

This month I helped organize a young women sewing night at church. The girls need tote bags for the annual summer camp. I set up the sewing night so each girl had a adult sewer and machine to use. Every girl finished their bag in 90 minutes.

Tonight I'm going to make name tag/luggage straps so we know whose bag is whose. We have two girls who are visually impaired. I decided to sew their names on one side and their names in braille on the other side. I'm kinda excited to see how that turns out.

So today is another crazy day, We are refinancing the house at a lower interest rate, dropped 2 % points. We have to sign everything today. The paperwork has also run me all over the place trying to get finished.

I got a new phone and have been playing with it the entire trip it came in handy when we were in Nashville. I just clicked a couple of buttons and we had a list of restaurants within 2 blocks of where we were standing. How cool is that? I also was given a website, where i downloaded a free software to make my own ring tones. I made the Purple People Eater chorus and the chorus from All I wanta Do (Sugarland). I need to make more.