Argg, I need to organize my designs,,

I love embroidery,, but my designs are in such a mess, yes it is all my fault,, no one else here to blame,,

Here is how i got here,, we got the internet in 03, I already had the Deco 600,, so I was really excited about getting free designs,, I collected ANY that were available, cause I thought, there are so many free designs on the net i wont ever have a need to buy any..
Well over the years I have learned two things,, not all digitizers are the same,, and I don't need EVERY design that is free,,

So over the years I have cleaned my files out several time, but I have also added to them several more times, and I am not organized enough to put the designs in the place they need to be when i get them,, if fact some times, someone will have a good enough sale, (especially if I have been wanting several sets and get them all at once) that I will get several sets,,

I have over 650 files of sewing and embroidery related items on my computer,, and each file can have oh say between, 5 and 500( ha ha, thats laughable,, but probably accurate) designs or pieces of information, (directions and or instructions) in each one,, now I am NOT the worlds best organizer,, ha ha ha,, that is a laugh,, I used to get so many sets of designs at a time,, some in emails, some direct downloads,,

Here is where my problems come from,, first off my procrastinating ways are to blame for a lot of it,,,for the emails,, I started another folder in my Email Box labeled,, Designs,, If I got several sets, I would simply put them in there,, to be saved in my Net folder later,, if they were downloads, I would go ahead and put them in my Net folder and just save both for later,, part of the problem with saving them in the emails is I don't always remember to download them, or I don't alway remember IF I downloaded them ,which sometimes causes me to download them again,, ( this can be done ONLY if they are emails,) in this case, I have probably downloaded them already have maybe changed the name(long explanation, boring and hard to understand, maybe later,,thank goodness you say, you are right,, whew), and forgot where I put them,,so this leads to multiple copies of said designs,, which leads me to where I am today,, In a mess,

I have been working off and on, on cleaning up my folders since Dec,, my Fonts folder I think is the worst,,(almost 300 files in there alone) eih eih eih,,,

Now for what I have been leading up to,, I sometimes get to where I want to something, nothint in particular,, just something,, so, I desided to try coasters,, I go looking for them, uh which folder are they in, uh how many folders might they be in,, which one do I want to try,, which one need material and which ones don't, which one require materials I don't have,, ,, and so on , and so on,,

I would like to get them organized in a way that I could just go in there,, with an idea of what i want to do,, find it,, and go......

But instead and until then I have this mess,, argg....

Some embroidering done.

ETA, please bear with me,, I am trying to learn the updated version of Blogger,, will post more when I get the kinks worked out,,,
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I have been working on this doily for a while,, I am giving it to my G-mother,, she is the only person in my family that shares my love for sewing,, so I know she appreciates it when I make things for her,,,I got the set from here,,
From the needle of Anne


Using water soluble stabilizer, (wss) I sew out the design,, I then rinse it out with water till it is soft and flexible,,






then using the #10 foot, which is the joining foot (it has a little bar that makes it easy to butt two pieces of material up to, making it easier to stitch,,,)

as you can see, the pieces of lace go on each side of the metal bar,,

oops, I forgot to take a pic of the finished "ring", but you can kind of see what it looks like with the pieces all sewn together,,,, here I am sewing it with a zigzag stitch on the machine..

I used a pair of applique scissors to cut the exess fabric away,, you can also see the stitches,,,

I didn't know which pic I liked the best, so I just left them both,, ha ha,, and yes there is a wrinkle in the fabric,, linen does that when traveling,,,

Update, on Burda 7634

Yes I am still working on it,, do you ever do anything where you feel like you bit off more than you could chew, or, had one of those, what was I thinking moments,, well this jacket is getting to be both of those,,, 1st,, the center front,, which was basically the only alteration I have done to this pattern,, BUT that was all I needed to send me over the edge,, until I realized that that alteration affected the armhole as well,, THAT is what done me in,, almost,, I can figure out bust adjustments faily well,, but armhole adjustments,, we are talking going to School to learn that,, eyeyey,, the 1st change to the CF was adding the inch ..that made the armhole a little low,, yes I know all I needed to do was to raise it,, well I have a problem with messing with amrholes,, I make them either too loose or too tight,, that was the issue here,, so i finally decide to raise it about an inch..

Well either my measurements were off or I adjusted too much, cause then it was too, see I told you,, so I just started cutting, 1/2 in at a time,, now what is so much fun about

doing "little bits" at a time,, is you tend to forget to ether write the adjustments down, or you forget how many you made and how much each time,, this was trial and error time, well I finally got everything figured out,, got the jacket shell assembled, started putting the lining on,, and had the biggest duh moment of all,,,, you don't make something out of stretch material only to line it with non-stretch material,,, &&)*&^(&*))*)*

SO, now I am either going to have to get some stetch lining or, just wear the jacket as is,, will let you know,,

Burda 7634

I have wanted to get a tried and true (TNT ) jacket for ages,,

I have tried jackets that are what I call "boxy", the only shaping they have is a bust dart, very loose, and baggy. That is ok, but I like something more fitted,, not really snug, not hanging on me either,, so, princes seams will work. Besides, I have a sway back, so I need seams in the back,, and with boxy designs the hem usually hits me right at the fullest part of the uhum,, butt..so difinitely princess seams,,,

So I have decided on Burda 7634, and I am making it out of a stretch hunter green suede.

We have snow.

We had our first decent snow Sat,, we woke up to about 3 to 4 inches of the white stuff Sun morning,, these are pix from the front porch,,

School is supposed to start on the 5th,, but I doubt we will have School much this week at all, the back roads are bad enough that they can prevent us from having classes, cause the buses cant get around,, and the weather is too cold to melt much,, and we are supposed to get some more snow Wed.

So I guess I will get to sew some more,,, yeahhh,,,

A pic of one of our fur babies,, Tinker,, she is a Yorkie,, weighs about 5lbs,, this was her outside

yesterday on our porch,,, she is so cute......

New things

2010, are you one to set New Years resolutions,, not me,, those went out the door years ago,, being more active, losing weight, sewing more, and whatever else happens to be on the list,,well it just doesn't work for me..

I have been wanting to try some new things though,, one is I have been wanting to make a nice jacket for the longest time,, using materials like stay tape and hair canvas in the collar.. I have been reading Tany's blog a lot lately,,WONDERFUL seamstress, if anything can get me motivated its looking at her creations,, everything she makes looks professional..

Unfortunately my local Joann's doesn't carry either the tape or the canvas, so I will have to order it, oh well, there are a lot of things I have been ordering lately, so I will just add that to the list..

I am hopping to get patterns of a TNT skirt, button front top, and jacket done up, for Holly and myself soon, I have found that for tops for her, princess seam shirts and jackets are about the only option, I HAVE to have seams to manipulate to fit her,, the darts don't always work, unless there is enough of them, or I have to add them.. That way even if she isn't here ( I get home from work before she gets home from School) I can start on them anyway,, there is something so nice about knowing that you can just lay a pattern down on material and cut it out, and know that it is going to fit,, so for me right now, fitting those three style of patterns is at the top of my to do list...