Garden and Embroidery...

Do gardening and embroidery go together? Of course, they do! I love to ramble around in the garden. The garden is starting to get productive. Here's proof:

Yesterday, I picked wax beans, broccoli, zucchini, and yellow squash. Above is the wax beans. Aren't they pretty? The colors of nature can not get any better. They were pale yellow and purple. It's too bad that roaming around in the garden causes me to break out in hives. I always forget my long sleeved shirt. Guess I should put one by the back door with my gardening basket.

Here's the shirt that I embroidered for my son. It turned out pretty good. This is the first time I have embroider RTW with my new machine. Ok, that machine is almost a year old and I've finally gotten the nerve to use the embroidery part of the machine. I have a long way to go but I think it turned out well. The best part is I have another request from my son for another shirt with a flaming dragon. I think the designs that I purchased from the Embroidery Library are going to get used. At least I didn't waste my money on them.

Oh, for anyone who wants to know. The design is about 9" long and about 3" wide. I used an iron on tear away stabilizer with a soft lightweight cut away stabilizer. Hopefully, there is enough stabilizer. Only time will tell. The design can be found at the Embroidery Library by searching for a flaming guitar. There are different sizes.

Happy Stitching!

Next project

While I'm waiting for fabric to arrive for the projects that I mentioned yesterday to arrive, I decided to embroider a shirt for my son. It will not be anything fancy but I hope he likes it. He picked out an orange t-shirt and two shaded of blue thread for the design. Here's the design:

Isn't this a great design for a boy? It sure beats have a flaming skull. I don't really like the skulls on everything and so far he hasn't wanted the skulls on his clothes. I need to do just a little bit of research on placement. I already have the templates printed out. The design is from Embroidery Library.

Happy Stitching!

Looking towards the Holidays....

I always think that I'm going to find time to sew a lot of cute items for the fall and Christmas holidays but I rarely get anything made. I found this project at Embroidery Library:

Isn't this a cute napkin for Christmas? It doesn't have to have the machine embroidery on it. Hand embroidery could be done also. I know that there are lots of creative people out there who could whip these up very quickly. I'm going to attempt to make these for Christmas. I don't know if I'll take the time to put machine embroider on them or not. I need to start looking for the fabric. Here's the link to the project: http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elprojects/SimpleProduct_ELP.aspx?CS_ProductID=PR1522&CS_Catalog=Elprojects .

Here's is the project that I'm ordering from Connecting Threads: I need to replace some of my place mats. The kit comes with the pattern and 6 yards of fabric. This maybe a good opportunity to embroider some leaves.

Happy Sewing!

3rd muslin ...

I have officially given up for now. The third muslin was like a step backward. It looked like it needed a FBA again. I'm also tired of sewing this particular project. I used a very light weight gingham for this version and it was the most difficult fabric of the three to work with. I didn't finish this version as there were way too many problems with it. Maybe I'll come back to this at a later date. I really do like the pattern and think that it's well-drafted but I do think that it's drafted for a different body shape than mine.

We are officially on vacation now. Just waiting to leave for the airport. I think this is the longest part of a trip - waiting to leave and then the trip home is long too.

As much as I've been complaining about it being cold this year, we are headed to AR where the morning temps have been our afternoon temps. I think when I return I will appreciate the wonderful weather in PA when I return.

Happy Sewing!

2nd muslin complete

The 2nd muslin is complete and I'm not completely happy with it either. I made a couple of mistakes with the armhole. I actually second guessed the alteration that I made to the pattern and decided that I hadn't removed enough from the armhole and removed another 1/4" all the way around. This made the armhole too big. I also think that I stretched the armhole when I was putting the binding on.

I still need a little more width across the front. So, I have altered my pattern one more time adding 1" which will result in an additional 2" of ease. I also made a slight modification to the armhole. We'll see how the next muslin goes. I dug through the stash and found another cotton fabric that will make a good muslin. It's a mini gingham. Hopefully, it will turn out ok. I will admit at this point I'm starting to get discouraged.

Happy Sewing!