Gift Towels

Here is the first gift towel. This is the hand towel size. It was challenging. I'm still learning my machine and techniques, and things to make sure I'm checking. Overall it was not as difficult as I thought and I'm very pleased with the outcome. 

Close up of the embroidery 

Practice towel embroider

I need to embroider some towels and I have never done it before so I needed to practice. I finally got the last supplies that I needed to be successful today. Spray quilt basting is what I used. The bobbin ran out part of the way through, that was my fault. Otherwise I'm happy with the result. This may look a little weird, it's damp. I had to dampen it to melt away the stabilizer.
It was a good lesson in several things, positioning on towels, using sticky stabilizer and h2o soluble stabilizer sandwich, and as always taking my time so that I don't miss steps. After I finish my gift towels I will have to embroider some of our other towels. This was really fun!

I wanna be just like Daddy

After work today Rocky needed to work on the mower to get it ready for this season. One of the many things he needed to do was sharpen the blades. As he was filing the blades Charmie asked if he could help. Rocky got Charmie his toy file from his toy tool chest and showed him how to "file" the dull blade. It was so cute to see him rubbing that dull piece of metal with his plastic file just like Rocky was, confident that he was sharpening the blade and helping. He's Rocky's mini me.

Shirt for my mommy

When I first bought my other embroidery machine I intended to embroider some t-shirts and never got around to it, probably because I didn't know enough about stabilizing and hooping placement to ensure that I A) didn't eat the shirt and B) got the placement right.
Today I experimented and stitched out a design for my mommy with a heart and her name on one of the shirts. I was wishing I had a larger color selection for thread, and I will in a few days, but here's the result with what I had. A few times the bobbin thread came to the front, I have to learn how to fix tension problems, but overall it stitched out very nicely. . . I'm going to have to do another shirt for me with this new machine. And the clothsetter made all the difference in the world as far as placement goes. It was wonderful to be able to hoop without fighting a tiny plastic template and having it pop out on me and shift across the fabric. 

Close up view of the design. 

Yet another sewing room redo.

Well it didn't take long. . . I changed my sewing room/office again. I am pleased with the layout. Basically I just rotated the sewing desk and new embroidery table 1/4 turn to the left. It was bugging me that I couldn't access my drawers in the closet without having to do acrobatics. So many times I would just give up looking for yarn or fabric because I was having to vault my sewing table to do it. Here's the first view from the doorway looking in. I have a 5'x5'' area plus the closet stash storage space within the "L" of my tables and implied imaginary walls that it would make if I turned the "L" into a box.
Though this limits the space we have while sitting at the computer desk, there's still plenty of room and it really defines my sewing area as a separate entity. I need to sew covers for my sewing machine and embroidery machine, sew a cushion/cover for my sewing folding chair, and a cover/additional cushion for my comfy chair as projects for the near future. I'm trying to decide how elaborate I want/need them to be. I'll be designing the patterns as I go. I'm sure I'll be adding or changing things at some point in the future. I'll take more pictures then.

Bookcase wall looking across the room.
Now that I have a dedicated place for my embroidery machine, and my new one is significantly larger than my old one I reconfigured the storage space in my sewing desk. On the sides I have my machine manuals and my quilting rulers, on top I have cut stabilizers, my embroidery hoops, CD's and cards, and then threads in the respective three drawers. In the bottom I have 2 totes, the top one for sewing WIPS that take longer than one day to complete, the bottom one has patterns.
To me the coolest thing about this space is that these storage containers cost me less than 50 cents! These were some of my garage sale finds. The top one was covered in icky lavender latex paint but some hot water fixed that and brought it back to the white and clear. The bottom two had writing on the lid in permanent marker but once again some chemical remover and hot water and they look virtually new! I say why pay high costs for storage when I can use that money for more yarn and fabric???

From next to the computer desk looking at the opposite corner. 

From the computer desk looking at the closet and the door. 

View of the books and my comfy chair from the wall that houses the sewing table. 

Thong 2

Here's my first successful attempt at lace. It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be especially since I no longer twist my knitting. I used Knit Picks Dancing yarn and size 2 needles. And suede laces for the ties. The back is similar to the first thong the lace is just on the front panel. It's difficult to see the actual lace in this picture due to the color changes in the yarn but on either side going up in a "v" are panels of lace and then the "holes" and then the center part of the thong is stockinette stitch.

Power Wheel Tow Vehicle?

Rocky was outside with the boys and I came out to ask him a question, when I saw this I had to get a couple of photos. Charmie and Mardie were playing in the yard with their powerwheels and Charmie had hooked the jeep to our camper with the chain and was trying to pull it! I couldn't help but laugh it was so ridiculous, yet so innocent and cute. My baby boys are growing up, trying to be just like daddy with his BIG toys and BIG interests!

Charmie gunning it, and an expanded view showing the size difference of the jeep and the trailer.

Charmie finally deciding to get out and push, and Mardie lending a hand. 

Another view of the chans attached to the jeep. 

Natural Science Center of Greensboro

We had to run to Greensboro on Saturday to meet the lady who had purchased my old embroidery machine. Before we left Rocky took the time to look up some things to do. He figured if we had to drive all that way we might as well make a day of it. We had an interesting drive to say the least. It was pouring torrential rain. But luckily Rocky is a professional driver so we were safe. Fifty one miles into our Sixty seven mile trip we thought we had a flat tire due to the sound the tire was making and the loss of control Rocky experienced while driving so we took the nearest exit and Rocky examined the car. The tire however was not flat! Meanwhile our pack of people that we had been passing had caught up with us so we saw them as we re-entered the highway. Four miles later (about where we would have been had we not exited) there was a very bad single vehicle accident. As we drove up we saw the driver laid out on the hood of his car as the only good Samaritan who would stop was frantically waving traffic and trying to call 911. I know CPR and first aid so though we had already had delays and were still going to meet up with the purchaser of my machine we knew we needed to stop and at least try to offer assistance. The poor driver looked dead, but as we approached we saw that he was alive, so we stayed until the fire/rescue, police and finally EMS arrived. I called his mother, by searching through numbers on his cell phone to notify her of his plight. We thank God that we thought we had a flat or otherwise we almost assuredly would have been involved in his wreck.
We continued to the meeting place and sold the embroidery machine, and then off to the Natural Science Center. We took the boys through the following displays: The 2 traveling exhibitions with dinosaur models and information, the Kid's Alley Island, Lemur Gallery, kid's Alley Boat, A show called Animal Idol (which BTW, don't EVER sit through a boring show at a museum with your toddlers!!), several bug, reptile, small animal areas and the marine gallery. We all had a lot of fun. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked too. Mainly because I was still in shock from the trip there, but secondly because we had a disposable camera instead of our regular camera and I didn't want to run out of film.
After we left we went to the hospital and found out our accident guy had been released, and on Sunday we called and spoke with his Mother who reported that he was very sore, but she was thankful that we were there to help. As it turned out, he is a student in Charlotte and was going home on a surprise trip so had I not called her, no one would have known he had an accident until he was able to call himself.
God is always moving!

Mardie petting the Tarantula. 

Cockroaches with my hadn for size comparison. Notice the GLASS containment. I'm not one of those freaky people who would wear these guys for pets! 

Leaping Lemur. 

Charmie just turning away from the Lemur display. 

Mardie having the time of his life whipping around this pedal thingie. The older boy with no shirt is doing all of the work, Mardie's feet don't come close to touching and Charmie can barely touch the pedals. 

Mardie trying his hardest to jump in! 

Can I get my feet over the edge? 

Charmie helping the older boy pedal.