Super Exciting - my first digitized item

Okay, so I know it's not that exciting for most people, but for me it was a doozie. I digitized my first embroidery design, using FREE software.

I'm currently working on a quilt, using the embroidery machine to do the quilting.  I kept getting stumped, not finding the size I needed for the blocks I was wanting to use.

With my first attempt coming out this good, I think I might be able to figure this out just fine.

The free software is called SophieSew and there are YouTube tutorials out there that have helped a lot.

Now I just have to learn how to perfect it, but just getting my machine to read it was a big accomplishment and I had to share.

Lovely Ladies Quilt

My first quilt is complete, and I have to admit that the binding is PERFECT.  It's been a long time, but I haven't lost my touch.

I'm not putting closeups here, if you want to see the closeups, they are in the Picasa photo album I use, which I'll link to.  Just click the image I guess.

The "Art Nouveau Ladies" can be found at Embroidery Library.
The dragonflies were from Embroidery Designs (a freebie too)
The quilting patterns were also from Embroidery Library in the Quilt section under feathered quilts.

Just a SneakPeek....

I thought I'd be done with my little quilt top today...oh my, I'm so naive.  But it's pretty much done, it could have been considered done if I hadn't decided to add a few more doodads to it.

So what I have to show right now is a sneak peek at what I've been doing.

You'll have to wait for the final unveiling, but that shouldn't be long now.  Of course I say that before I've attempted to put on a binding.  Now...how many years has that been???

The concept of quilting ~ I'm not lost

Once upon a time, in the far far past, I used to quilt.  I loved quilting....it was what I did....it was my escape.  Then my husband died, and I was lost, and I never quilted again.  That's the short and sweet (not so sweet) story, and that was ages ago, over 15 years actually.  This is the last quilt I did:

This is not a good photo at all.  I took this before I even had a digital camera, so there is no detail at all.  Let me describe it, because all sewers/quilters can relate to what was actually involved.

Many of the blue sky fabrics were actually dyed by hand, by me.  The eagle is all done as hand applique, I used some awesome fabrics to get the tonal shades.

And I just realized in this photo you are missing all the mountains and lakes. I'll have to take a new photo.

It is also all quilted by hand.  Most of my quilts were hand quilted, though I was quite good at machine quilting...or what was considered "good" at that time.

Today I'm blown away by the quality of work out there, but it is what it is.

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So you might be wondering what I'm even posting about...ha ha..this new embroidery machine has got my creative wheels spinning again.

Like I said, I haven't quilted since my husband died, and that was in 1998, and that quilt above, was for him. So now what, I'm kind of interested in quilting on my new embroidery machine.  I have a small quilt top already done, but I'm not ready to show it yet as it hasn't been finished.  And now I have to find patterns. It's actually a lot easier to just plan hand quilting designs than working with what's already out there in machine embroidery designs, but I guess that's not the point now, is it?

So hopefully I'll be able to share a new project in a few days.

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Garment sewing has kind of faded away for now.  I do have plans on working on a new jacket out of a felted wool (it's in the machine right now) and I'd like to put some embroidery on it too...go figure.

So stay tuned.

Max's jacket is done, but the closure is wrong

I keep hoping I'll eventually get better at this "sewing thing."  My jacket is done and fits well, but the closure is too small and boring.  Plus, it would fit better if it would overlap (on other words, the jacket is a little bit big.)

I see what I come up with in the next few days and then photograph it on me.  But here it is for now.

Metro Embroidery Thread....look at all the pretty colors

Like others new to embroidery, I'm totally overwhelmed, but I want EVERYTHING.  I did some reading on thread and everything I read said Brothers are not very picky on thread.  I also read positive things about Metro Embroidery thread so I took a gamble and bought a big old box of it.

It came today and I went to work on sorting and organizing.  Right now it's still all sitting on my cutting table, I need little drawers to put it all in to.  Guess I'll go shopping this weekend.

This is where I was overwhelmed.  First I sort of organized them by color, but I finally decided it would be easier to just do them based on numbers and the charts.

Here they are sorted based on the printed out charts.  I also want to print out charts from the other companies to compare with.  There are lots of online conversion programs to play with too.  I was using the one from Metro Embroidery to start.

I did my first embroidery with these threads and it turned out great.  Not a single break or snag or nuttin'.

This is my very professional set up for thread and the conversion numbers for the next sample I'm working on.

This is not an "official" review as of yet, since I'm just starting, but so far I'm pleased.  For the price it did a great job.  I really don't have anything to compare to yet.  I'm sure I'll eventually start collecting thread from other companies too.  Maybe in a couple months I'll do my official review.

My first embroidery project ~ Two-sided pillow

Well, this was a fun little project.  I only have a few colors of thread right now, and I wanted to go "big" so I found the two larger images on the machine and went for it.  Then I sewed them together to make a two-sided pillow.  I think it's a wonderful idea and I think I'll be doing more two-sided pillows in the future.