Embroidering projects

I am doing some embroidering for a change,, pouches and key fobs, they are so fun, and addicting,, I am going to make more of the key fobs, they are really fast,, and pretty easy,, the pouch takes a little more time,, but it is padded,,  they both came from  http://www.embroiderygarden.com/store/index.php  Reen is a wonderful designer, and she has great ideas.

I am going to try monogramming next,, I can't believe I have had an embroidery machine for so long, (blush) and have never done that yet..

Where did she go,,,

She is still here,, just hiding,,
That's about what if feels like, it feels like I dropped off the face of the earth as far as sewing goes.. my sewing mojo took a trip and it didn't come back,,, :(..

Well hopefully it is back, I have been cleaning out my sewing room "again" not like it really needed it,, but,, you know you find something to do when you don't know what to do, so cleaning it was,,

I have found another part of my problem when it comes to sewing,, or maybe I just didn't want to admit it,, either way,, it is a problem,, making desicions, and being too technical about them,,

You see, my DS, is a VERY technical person,, not in the way of work,, but in thinking about things,, he over thinks in other words,, WAY over thinks,, well, he gets it from me,, for me when I start  thinking about  a pattern, I am probably like a lot of sewers, I find the pattern, material, ect, but for  me I  think,, I have 2 yds more fabric than this pattern needs,, so instead of just using the material, and having some left over, I think, what else could I make with this material that would use more of it,, and I start looking, and find a pattern, but am either not ready to do all the alterations that I know it is going to take,, or I am scared to try it, simply because of how much material there is, and how much trouble it would be to get it on my table,, get it straightened out,, and such.. so, I decide not to do anything,,, does this sound familiar to anyone....

New things

Uhggg,, see that procrastintor bug bit again,, don't have anything new to show,, well not that I have made anyway,, BUT I do have something that was made for me,,,, drum roll.....
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I am so excited,, my Ddad made me a table just for my embroidery machine,, how great is that,,, oh admit it you are jealous,,, ha ha, just kidding.. my Dd has been in the carpentry business off and on for about 40 yrs,, well in May I thought I would like to have my cutting table free of my machine,, to be able to cut things out on without having to move a machine around ever time I wanted to use it,, HA, now I just move junk around,, but thats another story,,, lol.. I knew my Dh wouldn't want to do it,, besides to be fair,, I don't think he has the tools anyway,, so my options were pretty limited,, then I thought of Dad,,
 
                                                   Click on pix for a closer look.....

It is 40 in high,, I know that may sound high,, my cutting table is 36 in ,,but, I got so tired of  bending over to thread the machine, or to see how it stitched out, or whatever,, I dont have to bend at all with this one,, it is actuall a little high for some things,, but I will  get used to that, that brown that you see is  formica (sp) it came from my Dbrothers, my Dd made his kitchen cabinets, and this was the formica he used,, you can probably tell I proud of this can't you,, it has also helped me to organize a little, I can put my stabilizer in it,, right now I have binders with pix of projects in there,,

It also has a  flap that folds down when not used, it is perfect for hooping or taking the hoop out and trimming,, or ever doing cutwork,, right now I have my Bernina 330 on it,, I am STILL waiting on my D1 to come home from the hospital,, its been over a month,,

Patterns

I finally found some patterns I like, well  I only got a few for right now,, it seems that lately I haven't found many that I like,, or that I have so many it is hard to find something I don't have,, lol... it seems I have weeded out as many as I have in the last year. I mean, just how many ways can you make a skirt or a knit top,, oh well never mind about the top...you can never have too many well fitting knit top patterns..


Anyway, here are a few of my recent additions McCall's. 5847

I really like this one,, I like embellishments,, and I can also use some of my scrap material  to make the ruffles with.

McCall's 6036

I thought this was a good play on the basic T. it also lends itself well to some embroidery?????

McCalls6164

I just thought this one was neat,, I don't know if I care for the piece that hangs down  from the front hem, but it might work good for using scarps to,,

Vogue 8671

Inspiration

I have tons of blogs in my favorites list,, most of them are on clothing, some are on embroidery, but a few are on quilting,,, Allie's in stitches  is one of them,, I can't remember the search I was doing that brought her blog to me,, but I am so glad I found it,, I have never really done crazy quilting,, but I think done properly,, it is gorgeous,, and I think for the most part, she does it properly.

I have several embroidery designs that are for crazy quilts, and have tried some of them,, but doing this on a sewing  machine compared to an embroidery machine, I think will be easier, besides,, my emb. machine is having a checkup done, so it won't be home for a week or two. 

So far this material left and bottom right, is what I have to make a quilt out of,, and the silk ribbon I think might fit in nicely..

These are samples of what I would like to turn it into,, pretty huh.. here   is the project she made, Vintage CQ.. I think it is beautiful,, I like the center more,, so I am going to try to go off that, for mine..

Alterations,,

Have you ever heard someone say, I hate alterations,, well it was probably me..I hate ripping out seams,,  I was given some clothes the other day,, and some of them needed to be altered, to fit either myself of Holly,, this was a dressy top, this is the first time I have put in an invisible zipper though,, I didn't even know if I had my foot attachment or not,, but I luckily found it.. 

Not only did I have to put in the zipper in, but I also had to deal with the fact that there was a little excess material,, I didn't feel like taking in the seam, and besides, I thought I could ease the material in a little,, the print material I figured would "hide" and puckers,, and it did... 

In the process of learning invisible zippers, I found out you can get too close to the teeth, the black thread shows where I actually stitched into the teeth,,so  #1 seam ripped out,,, now where the thread is also, is where the zipper is curled, where my thumb is is where I have "opened" it up,, like a normal zipper would be,, it may be hard to see, but and invizible zipper is actually where the teeth of the zipper has been curled around to back, so that when the zipper is closed all you see is material, as opposed to a regular zipper, where you can see the teeth,,

This is a pic of after I have sewed it in,, to the left  of my thumb, there is about 2 mm width of the zipper stay, that is the part that is sewn to the material,, to the right of my thum,, I got a little closer than that,, too close actually,, it probably would have been fine,, but it just didn't seem like the zipper layed as flat sewn that close to the material,, so taking out another seam,,

Much better here...

Done,, and the puckers don't show too bad,, yes I know the seam is a little off,, but in reality, it isn't that bad,,,

Re-uphostering chairs

This is what I have been working on for about a week,,,

We have had our kitchen set for about 15 yrs.. I think it was time  for a make over,, they have been bad for a while,, I just didn't know if I could redo them,, well this summer I finally decided to, I mean after all, I couldn't do much worse,, lol...

Ahhh, now this is better,, and it only took me a week,, I have never seen so many staples in my life,, at least until I put them back together,, "raised eyebrows",, I think I put back in  twice as many staples, I wanted to make sure these puppies werent coming apart,,, ha ha.. and yes  the seat is a different color,, the chairs are so old, Joann's didn't have the "exact color", which didnt bother me anyway plus, the back didn't need anything done to it, and we were trying to save money in the first place by  me doning it myself,, the chairs are functional and the look tons better, and no one is complaining,, I have even had some compliments form dear hubby, so all is good,,, :-)

Summer's here,

But not a lot of sewing going on yet,, just a lot of buying,, material and embroidery designs, 4 sets from,, here here here here all from, From the Needle of Anne,, and another one from My embroidery haven , now I just have to get sewing,,,

New fabric

My recent purchase from Fabric.com,, I haven't gotten anything from there is so long I was having withdrawls.. lol.. problem fixed though,,

On the left, is 2 yds of olive, right is 6 yds gray, and that bundle on the bottom, 10 yds of black,, I took advantage of this sale,, a $1.99 sale on twill, light weight twill at that,, the comments said it was light enough for tops... they weren't kidding,, I am used to skirt or jacket weight, this stuff is light,, I was originally wanting to make jean type skirts out of it,, may have to rethink it now, have to look through my pattern stash to see what I come up with, shouldn't be too hard,, I have lots of gored skirt patterns I think will be great on,,,

Latte quilt part 2

Block is finished,, basically, I just have to wash it out, iron it,, and sew on these little white flowers,,

Latte quilt part 2

Ok this is NOT fun, not talking about doing the block in general,, but specific stitches,,,

This is the back of this block,, the problem is,, see all the thread tales,, those are theads that I have had to hand tie,,, there are 8 rows with 5 to 6 flowers on each,, so that is between 40 and,,,,, oh lets just say 40 flowers,, well each flower has 2 ties,, so thats 80 ties,, 80,,,, uuuhhhhhgggggg,,,, AND,,,, I have to do that AT LEAST  1 more time,,, cause for this quilt,, you make at least 2 of each block, one of the blocks you make 4 of,, and in the book,, that just happens to be this block,, uuuuuuhhhgggg, I think I am going to find a different block to make the 4 out of,, other wise I may not have any nerves left,, or at least any hair,,,,,

And yes I have looked and looked and looked,, did I say I looked for another stitch,,,,,,,,I have a D1 and my 1230 sewing machine,, these motifs are from my 1230, the D1 had nothing I liked,,well it did,, but the size of the flower had to be small, the flower it had that I liked, was way to big,,,, so,, I am stuck.......

 

But, it is looking good,, except for this one thing, so far the block has been fun...

A close-up of the stitches,,

Something different.

I love embroidered quilts. I have several sets of designs laying in wait to be made, but ya no!!! One I have had for about 5 yrs,, there is it,,just setting in my hard drive,, waiting,,, for me to get up and get going,, well my going is finally starting to get up.. lol..

Introducing quilt #1, the Latte quilt by Kerri Hey, I absolutely love to look of this quilt,, and doing a search online last yr,, I found a class on it,, it actually started last Sept,,, yeh I know I'm a little late,, it is taught by Serena Smith,, she sends out info each month on each block,, I am actually glad I havent' started till now,, cause I like making the blocks one after another, instead of waiting each month for the next one,,,

This is what the completed quilt will look like,,

This is what I have done so far,,

This is the printed pic of the 1st block, I still have to put the umbrellas on mine,, hopefully by tomorrow I will have it finished and be ready for the next block...

Well I wanted to post "something"!!!

No I am not dead,, I feel like it sometimes,,ha ha, the sewing bug just flew out the window.. it seems to do that a lot to me,, I almost envy these ladies that can post all the time, that have so much so say, me, I don't sew everyday, or embroidery for that matter,, shucks, if it weren't for my sewing room being part of my bedroom,, there would probably be days I didn't even come in here at all.

Tonight I am looking for a disk,, I have a set of designs from here , clasic embroidery, I have several of the purse sets, but the one I am trying to work on now is the quilted handbag 4x4, when I tried to load the designs to my D1 floppy, the software said some of the designs were currupt,, so I got the hair brained idea that maybe it could be the software is having trouble reading the designs,,so on to looking for the stuff for my Deco 600,, it has a Buzz box,  so I find the Buzz box, plug it in,, and forgot the software hasn't been installed on my laptop,, so i am in the process of trying to find the disk for that,, well back to looking,,,:-)

Treasures treasures,,,,, galore

I am on several message boards.. no make that a LOT of boards,, and one thing I hear a lot is that ladies wish they had a Grandma or Aunt or some such ralation that they could inherit their sewing stash from,,, well I had one,, a Grandmother,, Grandma Miller past away in March,, she had lots of stuff,, LOTS of stuff,, NOT like most people do,, Grandma had a way of packing things,, my Ds has a saying now,, it was Grandma packed,, or you are learning to Grandma pack,, Grandma never worked,, she helped my Granpa Miller raise 4 kids,, I sometimes think part of her lot in life was to learn how to pack so she could move everything everytime her and Grandpa moved,, cause he told her one time,, I am not moving this stuff again,,,it makes me think of the reality shows,, that people come to you're home and teach you how to do things,, well they wouldn't have anything on Grandma,, she could teach them, ha ha,,,,, Anyway, I do have pix, lots of pix,, and what I have right now, I am told by my Dm that is just part of it,,, oh boy......                                          

This box is still half full..

This came out of the box above, the green on the lower left is a box this pile is setting on,, to give you and idea of how much is in the pile,,,

Grandma did  a lot of hand embroidery,

The back.

Lace, this is old,, and some of it is in the round....meaning it doesn't have a cut edge, like knit ribbing,,

The two peices 2nd from the bottom are the same,, this is an example of lace in the round,,

This is interesting, the stitches are slightly raised...

And here is the back,,

And oh the material,, I got about half way through this and that is when the thought hit me about having someone to inherit stash from,, and it made me realize I was sad that I didn't enjoy her as much as I could have,, and that I was sooo glad Mom was able to save some of her stuff,, a story for later,,,,

These are something different,, dont think I have ever seen this before,, these are I guess you would call craft kits,,I have three, this one is  the pic in the middle, the mirror and vanity case,, the mirror is the piece i  have,,

the one on the left is a victorian picture frame.

This is  a note niche,, i think the piece on the left is whats in the box.

They all came in boxes like this one....

Not a lot going on yet.

I guess I am in a sewing slump,, I haven't done anything in about two weeks,, In March 6th my Grand Mother passed away, she and I were the only ones in the family that sewed,, she didn't do much,, and least not any more,, and our styles were different,, but she had some awesome linens,, had embroidered pillow cases, that she crocheted edgings on,, I have gotten just a bit of her stuff so far,, there is supposedly a "bunch" at my Mothers house,, ,, so will have to post pix when I get them,,, Will hopefully get something done this week, Spring is here and need to start using up some of this stash so I can buy new,, plus need to get to doing some embroidery,, too much to do,, too little time,,,

Trying to get going again.

I am trying to make a skirt for Holly here I started it a week ago, well since then I have been babying her,, she had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled Thurs,,  so from Friday on it has been hit and miss for me to be in the sewing room,, but I am determined to get it done,, besides,, poor girl needs some clothes,,, lol...

Viking 5x7 embroidery hoop.

I am so excited, I have been wanting this hoop for over 6 mo. Ever since Viking started moving its warehouse from on state to another,(don't remember which ones), it has been next to impossible to get some things from dealers,, for me its been this hoop. So the only way to get one is to find on on the net,, well I found one on a Yahoo group  called, sewitsforsale,, I just got it Sat..

Time for a change.

Changing fabric that is,  fall/winter is going out, spring/summer is in, well most of the fall fabric is out,, some that could be used for either season stayed, the lighter weight, or sheer stuff stayed.

These are the bins of spring fabric..

Some of the winter is on the left, spring is on the right, I roll up the fabric and put it in the bins as I get he spring out and roll it on card board for fabric.

Now to start planning to use it,,,

Christening gown II

Apparently you can only post so much on each page? so I am having to finish on this post.

For the lace, I lay the lace on the skirt, straight stitch each side, turn over, cut the material down the center, open each side and iron flat, on top, I zigzag where the fold is about 1/8th in over on the material side, this helps prevert the material from unraveling, and stabilizes the seam, which with voile, you really need it.

I made the dress out of Voile, which is very sheer and of loose weave, I don't normally stabilize buttons on a dress, cause I usually use more sturdy material , so I didn't think about stabilizing the buttons, oops. So I dug put some linen, cut 1/2 in squares out, then I needed to finish off the edges, they were too small for serging, so I used frey check. I used a pin to hold them, worked perfect.

The result.

More pix of details, the skirt has 3 sets of 6 pintucks. 1 puffing strip, and one lace strip, I didn't originally plan on putting riffon in the lace, but someone suggested I "bring" some pink into the skirt, it can be removed or use white instead.

Close-up of bodice.

Close-up of waist, I used the fabric, folded it in half, used a shell stitch from my machine to make the waist trim.