My Blog Has Moved

Just a quick reminder note that I am now over at www.embroideryit.com
While you are there you can see all the fun things I'm up to such as:

Canning Jar Lids and matching Tags

Joyful Flags

My Alphabet banner in which I'm giving a letter a week away.
And so much more!
These days my Etsy shop is abuzz with activity.  www.embroideryit.etsy.com 
While you are there, be sure to sign up for the newsletter to stay up-to-date on all the Embroidery It happenings.

Happy Stitching!
Nancy

Free Design - Banner Alphabet Letter A

 
Dear Friends,

I guess I told a fib in my last post saying that it would be the last post here.  I'm still getting comments and e-mails from this blog so I guess I will post a rare notice here in hopes to direct any of you to my current website www.embroideryit.com  Embroidery It is where I am blogging and where you will get all the latest information on what is happening in the studio, aka spare room in the basement. 

For a limited time I am offering the Banner Alphabet "A" as a free embroidery design. It will be available for about 1 week and then I will replace it with a new letter.  Here on this blog site, I'm letting you know it will be available only until Wednesday night, tomorrow night so grab it quick!  Follow the directions below on how to get it as well as the rest of the free alphabet letters as they come out.  This will be your only notice on this blog about the banner alphabet.  My newsletter or website will keep you up-to-date with the remainder of the letters.

I am doing this instead of having sales as I feel this is a fair way to offer quality designs to everyone. Quite frankly, I hate purchasing something and then it go on sale a week later. That grates me. So, I want you to know to grab it free at the beginning and once it is removed from the free section, it will be offered for sale. For those of you who receive my newsletter, you learned of this several days ago. If you haven't signed up for my newsletter, consider doing so. It will keep you up-to-date when I have new and noteworthy information to share. The newsletter subscription is on my Embroidery It website. Now, for the banner alphabet...You will need a 5 x 7 hoop for most of the letters that will be offered. There are a few letters that will fit into a 4 x 4 hoop, but most extend beyond the edges so a 5 x 7 hoop is needed. It is available in PES format. The final stitches are the buttonholes. Your machine will automatically stop before stitching them so you may use these letters as an applique and just leave the buttonholes off.


To download the design, go to the "Home" page and scroll to the bottom. There you will see the link. Click on the link and then save the ZIP file. I hope you all enjoy!!!

Embroidery Blessings,
Nancy

Moving - My Blog has a New Home - Please find me at www.EmbroideryIt.com

This blog has moved to www.EmbroideryIt.com. 

Dear Friends,
I have been working hard at moving all my content here from this BlogSpot blog to my official website:

www.EmbroideryIt.com

I feel like I'm moving just next door or around the corner, not far from here.  The blog content is all over there and I'm working on the rest of the site.  Hubby says, if I do it myself I will learn more.  So I've done it myself and learn I have!  There have been times I've struggled, many times, and I've wanted to pull out my hair.  I've persevered.  It's just like moving the heavy furniture yourself.  Struggle a bit, grunt, push and shove and finally you get it where you want it.  It's far from perfect, but it's a start and pieces are slowly moving into place.

So this will be my last post here on my BlogSpot blog.  Please stop over at www.EmbroideryIt.com to find the latest happenings.  Just click on "Blog" at the top of the page.  While you are there, be sure to sign up for my newsletter that will keep you up-to-date with the current events at Embroidery It headquarters.  There will be tips and tricks, new designs, event happenings, as well as a bit about my family life.

Thank you so much friends and I will see you in my new home where you are most welcome to stop by and have a cup of coffee and chat with me.

With much love, hugs and blessings to you all,
Nancy

Embroidery It Forward Strong Goals Update

Dear Friends,
You may remember my post from January 1st this year (you can find it HERE).  I have been reviewing my goals monthly in my journal but wanted to give you an update in this post now that we are a third of the way through the year.  By posting on my blog it just helps me be more accountable.

FORWARD has been my word for the year with the word STRONG as it's modifier.  After having a difficult 2013, God has been using the word Forward to get me moving and on track.  Just like Moses leading the Israelites out of the desert to the promised land.  Unlike them, I have been trying hard to listen to God's word and obey His commands.  I don't want to take 40 years like they did.  Smiles

So I will quickly review my goals with their update written in red.  I have changed some goals along the way as I've felt the need.  As I mentioned in my other post, these goals are fluid and can be changed.  I'm ok with that.

Family Goals

• Spend quality time with family when they are home.  Say 'yes' to family games and movies. YES - Doing this.
• Visit Katie and Emily twice a year Visited Katie before she left for Kuwait.  Will see Emily this summer

Home Goals

• Remove paper from the home and keep remaining paper organized (#1 goal and more on this below)  Making progress
• Tidy home daily  Yes, for the most part
• Clean home weekly Yes, for the most part
• Grocery shop one time a week- instead of several times a week I have been getting better and better at this and have been doing it well over the past 6 weeks.
• Menu plan weekly Ugh, No - I need to do this
• Go to bed with a clean kitchen About 50% of the time

Spiritual Life Goals

• Continue habits of Daily Audio Bible and weekly adoration in addition to Sunday church YES
• Become actively involved in the women's group at church Not yet but plan to. I have been attending another activity that conflicts with the date and time the women's group meets.
• Read St. Faustina's Diary No
• Attend a women's retreat like Captivating No
• Notice God's blessings daily Yes and I've started journaling about God's blessings

Finance Goals

• Pay bills every Thursday No, they get paid, just not on the schedule I'd like for them to.
• Pause before making purchases Yes
• Balance checkbook and reconcile credit card statements monthly No

Friendship Goals

• Become actively involved in the women's group at church Not yet, see above
• Join Crafters with a Cause Not yet but plan to this summer
• Maintain monthly contact with friends from New Mexico and other locations we've lived YES
• Grow online friendships on this blog Yes!!!

Creativity Goals

• Take one art class or attend a quilt guild meeting - monthly  I did for only a couple of months.  Going to Michigan Embroiderers Spring Fest in May.  I take online digitizing classes weekly.
• Learn a new craft I took a quilting class
• Learn to digitize embroidery designs  Yes!!!

Knowledge Goals

• Learn a new craft  Took a quilting class
• Learn to digitize embroidery designs  Yes!!!
• Learn to set up a true website  Currently in the process of doing this

Business Goals

• Follow written business plan and get my business up and running (stop talking and start doing here) YES! One other thing I have been doing is attending GROW, Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women, and through it I have been learning all the in's and out's of running a business in  Michigan.  My business has started as you  know I've been getting my designs up at Embroidery Ranch and sales have started trickling in.  BIG Smiles!  Also starting in May I am taking an online business class geared specifically for crafters selling their work.
• Create a true website Currently in the process of doing.  I need to focus more though on really getting it up and running.
• Learn to digitize embroidery designs  YES!!!
• Blog 2  times a week  No but I strive to do this.  I've been focusing more on digitizing.
• Listen to Entrepreneur on Fire  Sporadic
• Develop a newsletter  Not yet
• Create a contact list  Not yet

Personal Goals

• Clean eating  Working hard at this.  Still like candy too much.
• 10,000 steps a day  About 50% of the time
• Classical stretch daily  About 5% of the time
• weekly creative time  Most weeks
• New Personal Goal - Lose 20 pounds - Those pounds are stuck to me like glue.

Community and World goals

• Choose a cause to support  Plan to join Crafters with a Cause this summer
• Blog  Yes, but would like to more often
• YouTube videos  I have not made any new videos this year
• Women's group at church  Not yet but plan to

My all time #1 focus goal this year is to get the paper out of the house.  I mean ALL paper. Working at this.  I have made some strides in this.  I know of course that I cannot get ALL paper out, but working to make sure that all paper here in the home has a place.  It honestly feels better not having so much paper around.

Finally, I wrote in my journal earlier this year that it is all about LOVE.  God is Love.  Jesus commands us to Love one another.  "Faith, Hope and Love, but the greatest of these is Love."  Nothing else truly matters than Love when you look at the great big picture of things.  I try to keep that focus in everything I do, for my family, home business, self, etc.  Sometimes I'm not sure how to show love in my business.  Quite honestly that has been a conflict for me.  What I will say is that if you ever need a prayer, send me an e-mail and I will pray for/with you.

So, I keep reviewing these goals and reminding myself of them.  I'm pretty happy with myself that I've accomplished what I have so far.  My business goals are what I've moved forward with the most.  I have learned so much in that area and it is where I can see the greatest strides being made.  When I see the goals that I need to work on, I remember my words of Forward Strong and I try to keep those goals at the front of my thoughts.

Hugs and Blessings to each and every one of you,
Nancy

Heart Applique Quilt Block

Machine Embroidery Painted Flower

My latest design is up at Embroidery Ranch.  It is very light and perfect for knits.  I had a lot of fun creating it using the fluid contour tool in Generations.  Under stores click on Embroidery It to get to this design.  I did it with one color stop so you can choose to do the swirl with either the same color or choose something contrasting.

How is spring coming along in your neck of the woods?  We had another 2 inches of the white stuff a couple days ago.  It is melted now and there are flower buds poking their heads up through the ground.  Being that this is the first spring in our new home, I'm anxious to see what has been planted here.  I'm thinking tulips, daffodils and maybe crocus?  Flowers coming soon and I cannot wait!!!!
Blessings everyone,
Nancy

Generations Challenge using the Satin Tool

For this month's challenge over at You Can Digitize the only tool we were allowed to digitize with was the satin tool and to use the features built into the satin tool.  I used the border feature to create the outlines and the feather stitch feature to create the eyelashes.  Everyone in the challenge used the same unicorn artwork.  I'm not a cartoon gal when it comes to my embroidery.  I prefer more realistic designs, but this made for good practice.
Blessings,
Nancy

Getting Ready for Easter

My latest design is up at Embroidery Ranch.  It is two designs in one.  The first comes with the words, "Happy Easter" included with the design.  The second is a blank for you to fill in with words and font of your choice.  I used a built in font from my machine to stitch "KATIE".

The design fits a 4 x 4 hoop and would be perfect on a liner used in an Easter basket.  Each recipient would know whose basket is whose.  :-)

As for what else has been happening, Timothy and I took the Amtrak to Hutchinson to visit my parents this past week over his spring break.  It was a lovely visit with perfect weather.  We've returned back to Grand Rapids and the snow is all gone except for where it was in piles from the snow plow.  Best of all....I see some flower leaves poking their heads up through the ground.  That makes me very happy.

Hugs and Blessings everyone,
Nancy

Working on New Website

Dear Friends,
I know just enough about computers to be dangerous.  :-)

I'm working on building a Word Press website that will eventually become the home of Embroidery It and I hope to have a shop on there to sell my designs.  I'm doing this myself rather than hiring a website designer to do it for me.  I did call around and got quotes from $1,000 to $2,000 plus more for monthly support.  YIKES!  Maybe at some point when I'm making a bit from my designs I can go in and have a professional polish up my website but for now it is what it is.  Most importantly, I'm learning something new and learning provides me with a lot of satisfaction.

Right now I have the domain www.embroideryit.com pointed to my new website through my new host.  Using Blue Host if anyone wants to know.  This blog will continue using Google's blogspot so you may notice in the URL it says www.embroideryit.blogspot.com   If, by chance you do happen to go to www.embroideryit.com, there is nothing there at the moment.  You can pop over from time to time if you like to see my progress, maybe cheer me on.....

Quite honestly, this post is more of a test than anything as I want to see if the feed from this post will be delivered to your inbox.  I'm not sure if my feed is connected with blogspot or not.  Boy this is a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo. 

As I continue to work on my website, I will be posting the occasional photo here of what I'm working on.  Hopefully it will be a little eye candy for you.  :-)  The above photo is my latest applique creation and is my own design.  I hope you enjoy!

Embroidery Blessings,
Nancy

Celebrating First Day of Spring with a new Machine Embroidery T-Shirt

Embroidery design from Embroidery Library.

Dear Friends,
So it is the first day of spring!

As I look outside my window I see a blanket of snow that is still a good 12" deep.  The streets are clear though and under the trees where the branches protected the ground I am seeing grass!  :-)
The chipmunks, or ground squirrels, are out as of a few days ago and I watched six of them scamper back and forth over the snow.  The robins are showing up as well as more birds singing.  I know this winter won't last forever.  As I walk our dog more life is showing.  Even when we had the coldest of winter days, God gave me some beauty to look at.  There were beautiful red cardinals and deer would walk right up to the house.  Poor things were hungry and I'd set out carrot peelings and cores of cauliflower and cabbage.  I'm sure now they are finding more food.  Oh, and I saw two swans in the river now that the river is not frozen over.  Beauty!

So in celebration of the first day of spring, I made myself a long sleeve t-shirt with a robin.  I hope you are enjoying spring in your neck of the woods.

Blessings,
Nancy

Embroidery It designs at the Embroidery Ranch

Clay's Choice Applique Quilt Block

 

Dear Friends,

Today has been a very big and exciting day for me!  I have launched the first two of my very own designs! 

 

Barb at Embroidery Ranch has got me set up with my own little shop, Embroidery It!  She and I have been working together over the past two months and she has waited patiently until I got my designs perfected.

 

Nine Patch Applique Quilt Block

I have been working hard at digitizing and have put together these sweet applique quilt squares.  I've worked on getting the in's and out's just so and making sure the cover stitches cover like they should. 

This was all done by me by hand.  I drew out the design and created the rick rack cover stitch by hand.  No auto digitizing here.  I wanted to make sure you would all get the best results!

Currently they are available only in PES format and the designs fit in the 4 x 4 hoop.  Can't you just imagine these on an apron pocket or kitchen towel?  How about the pastel nine patch below on a baby blanket or burp cloth?

 

I have many more quilt squares planned that I am working on.  I must say, I have a new appreciation for digitizers and what goes on behind the scenes to enable the designs to get to you! 

Most importantly though, I have been having fun.  We are still up to our knees in snow so digitizing has kept me busy this winter and I can't describe the good feeling of satisfaction I've had in watching my very own designs go from imagination to stitching out.

I will let you in on a little secret.  I'm also working behind the scenes here in getting my very own website up.  Squeal!!!  It may be some time yet, but I'm working on it. 

Thank you for letting me toot my horn here.  I look forward to sharing more of my creations with you.

Warm hugs and Embroidery blessings,
Nancy

Generations March Digitizing Challenge

Dear Friends,

This month, over at You Can Digitize, the Generations challenge has been on using the area tool.  We were all instructed to digitize this fish which certainly reminds me of Nimo.  He is a happy little guy!

 

I used a zig-zag pattern in the fish that I hope will be interpreted as fish scales.

 

The only two tools in the program that we were allowed to use were the area tool and the line tool which we had used last month to digitize the redwork teapot.  HERE is a link to my blog post if you would like to go back and see the teapot.

 

These are good challenges as they get me really working with the software and learning all the idiosyncrasies of what is involved in digitizing.

I'll have more of my digitizing to show you very soon!!

Finally, with all this crazy snow, and I think we have had about 120" now, we have had some leaks in our basement since the snow is starting to thaw.  Unfortunately they have been in my sewing room.  :-(

I've set up a table in Emily's bedroom, since she is away at college, and set up my embroidery shop there.  She has a large window that faces the front of the house so stitching in her room is really quite pleasant. 

The leaks are thankfully slow, just a seepage, but still.  Frustrating.  Mike cut out some of the drywall in my sewing room and we have the floor trim pulled off and carpet pulled back.  Just as we were finishing the other work in the basement remodel this happens.  Always something.  The leaks should be sealed this next week then Mike can replace the drywall and trim.  We will put new carpet padding down and I'm hoping a professional carpet clean will do the trick and the existing can be replaced.

That's it for today.  Here in Michigan the sun is shining and only a medium weight jacket is needed this afternoon.  Yeah!!

Embroidery Blessings Everyone,
Nancy

Embroidery It - Time of Lent

Dear Friends,

Today is an important day on the Christian calendar as it is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.  It is a time of preparation for Easter the highest of Holy Days. It is a time of repentance and prayer. Many people use this season to give up something as a sacrifice and to offer that sacrifice up to God. For many years, I have taught religion, this year to first graders, and I would speak to them about Lent and having a Lenten resolution. Those children can come up with some thoughtful answers. "I'm going to share my toys every day." "I'm going to help my mother every day with chores." "I'm going to pray every day." Some I'm sure have heard their parents speak about what they are doing for lent and will say, "I'm not going to watch TV," "I'm not going to eat candy," and so on. I really stress to them, and to my own children that this is a time not just of sacrifice, but a time to keep Christ first and foremost in our thoughts and in our actions. It is a time to work on becoming closer to Christ and becoming a better person.
I've been giving prayerful consideration over the past few weeks as to what I would do this year for my Lenten resolution.  For the next 40 days I've decided to focus on surrendering.  Surrendering my day to Christ to let His will be done through me, surrendering that His will be done, not my will be done.

Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness in preparation for what was to come.  May we use this season of Lent to prepare our hearts for Christ's ultimate gift, his death and resurrection so that we may have eternal life with Him.  May Jesus remain at the forefront of my thoughts and may His light shine through me.

Last night we had a beautiful celebration as our son Tim was confirmed into the Roman Catholic Church.  I am so incredibly proud of him as I am of all our children. 

 

Our daughter Emily was his sponsor.  She flew in from New Mexico for three days to be with him during this holy event.

Finally, Mike and I have just returned from Oklahoma City to visit our daughter Katie.  She deploys to Kuwait tomorrow.  She is proud to go, but mama here is not so excited.  I guess Kuwait is probably one of the safer places to be deployed to so for that I am grateful.  I am keeping her picture up here on the blog.  When you see it, would you lift her up in prayer as well as all our service men and women.  As I've read, "Home of the free because of the brave."  It is so true and I am so thankful for their service. 

 

As for machine embroidery, I've done bits and pieces and I'm working hard at digitizing that I will be sharing with you soon.  For now though, I'm enjoying precious time with family.

 

Love and blessings to you all,

Nancy

Teaching Machine Embroidery

 

Dear Friends,

I'm just beyond thrilled because I am going to begin teaching machine embroidery at our local sewing shop Lakeshore Sewing.  Teaching is a true passion of mine so to teach machine embroidery has me over-the-moon with joy.  My first project will be this personalized casserole carrier.  What a fun way to bring a dish to your next pot luck.  The carrier also serves as an identifier so everyone knows who brought the yummy dish and operates as a hot pad while the food is being served.  The carrier is perfect for a 9 x 12 casserole dish or cake pan.

 

 

Focus will be on design placement and using our machine specialty fonts and stitches to personalize.  And if you forgot how to make buttonholes - never fear, we will get some practice with those as well.

The design I used here is from Julia's Needle Designs and is in the freebie section. 

 

The wooden spoon cleverly holds the carrier together.  This idea was inspired by Janay.

 

As a bonus, we will personalize our wooden spoon handles.  Wouldn't it be a sweet gift for someone by baking them a cake, then personalizing the carrier and spoon for them as complete package.

 

For those of you in the Grand Rapids area...or if you would like to travel....Class is March 25th at Lakeshore Sewing at the Knapps Corner location.  Just click on the link to contact them and register.  We will have so much fun and I would be thrilled to see you! 

 

Embroidery Blessings,

Nancy

 

A Great Thread Tip for Machine Embroiderers

Dear Friends,
I have learned a thread tip that I'm implementing right away and here it is...

Limit your thread selection.

What you see in the photo above is my thread collection.  Actually that isn't even all of it, I have about another 40 spools that aren't on the pegboard.  I guess I have a thread addiction and it needs to stop.  You can easily see in the photo that I have quite a few pinks and reds.  Why, oh why, do I need every shade.  I don't.

I'm using up my thread and then I'm limiting the colors I purchase from here on out.  I'm limiting them to 50 colors - tops.  Four shades of one color is sufficient.  I don't need 50 shades of gray!  I have my favorite colors I often reach for and many times, the other colors just sit and collect dust {not good for our sewing machines.}

There are several benefits to cutting back on all the color choices.  By limiting thread colors, this will save me time on thread selection.  I will easily know which colors I need to re-order.  When someone visits and wants something special done for them, fewer selections will make the selection process easier for them as well.  It will save $$$ by not buying willy-nilly and then just having the colors sit unused.

Have you ever considered limiting your thread selection?  I've heard of several people doing this with good results and I can really see the benefits of doing so.  Definitely something I am doing.

Embroidery Blessings,
Nancy

Valentine's Day Machine Embroidered Towels

Happy Valentine's Day Friends,

As a Valentine's day gift for Mike I embroidered these towels.  Our old towels were at the point you could almost see through them.  Mike mentioned how we should get some new ones and he wanted some that were oversized.  I found these at Sam's Club or Costco.  I'm sorry I don't remember which as I bought them a month ago.  The towels are really large and called a bath sheet.  Oh they are so soft.  I couldn't give them to him without a bit of machine embroidery bling!  :-)

The designs come from Anita Goodesign and the CD is titled Vintage Elegance.  The birds and parts of the flowers are applique and I chose some pretty scraps of fabric that remind me of spring.  The picture below was taken in our backyard yesterday.  I haven't been complaining about the snow but this is getting a bit ridiculous.

For those of you who have been affected by the severe storms throughout the country, please know our family is praying for your safety and that you may have heat and electricity.

So, Mike was quite happy with his Valentine's day gift.  I moved the dining table over in front of the fireplace and made him an extra yummy, romantic surf and turf supper and He gave me a box of chocolates and a card.  Sweet man.  He even helped me with the dishes.  I'll keep him.  :-)  I hope you all were able to share Valentine's day with the one you love.

With love and blessings to you all,
Won't you please be my Valentine?
Nancy

Be Mine Snowflake

Dear Friends,
I've been busy playing and learning my Generations digitizing software and making these fun word flowers and snowflakes.  Look closely at the picture above.  Can you read what word has been used to create the image?

In the coaster here I thought "Be Mine" was appropriate for Valentine's Day.  I stitched both of these on felt and for the bottom one, I've attached some white rick-rack to the edge for a sweet look.

Embroidery Blessings!
Nancy

Machine Embroidery Applique LOVE Towel

This was a fun applique towel to make.  Fabric is from JoAnn's.  Design is from GG Designs Embroidery and it is one of her free designs.  What I like so much about it is that the applique is not done with just a plain satin stitch.  I like the decorative stitching around the fabric.
Perfect for Valentine's Day!
Embroidery Blessings,
Nancy

Machine Embroidery Valentine Card

I belong to a group in which there are new digitizers {like myself}.  Sometimes people in the group will offer their designs for free.  It is a great way for digitizers to learn and test and get feedback.  You can see in this design that the filled part of the red heart does not match up with the outline around the heart.  It is a learning process and this girl or guy who designed it is off to a great start but it just needs a bit of tweaking.  I'm learning there are a lot of things to consider when creating a design and it all takes practice.  Even though this isn't a perfect design, I'm still in awe because I'm not at that level yet.  I'm learning though and I'm thankful to all who share because each time I learn something new.

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm doing the digitizing challenges over at You Can Digitize and this month the challenge is on doing redwork.  Here are a couple of practice teapots that I digitized!  Yes, I'm doing the happy dance because I did these teapots from scratch.  I'm going to work on them some more today.  The above were stitched on some junk scraps of stabilizer. 

Here is my finished teapot stitched out on white cotton.  I'm ready to submit it for the challenge.  I added a bit of steam and I changed the flowers just a bit in the center to me more to my liking.   BTW...everyone in the challenge did this teapot.

 

Every day I learn more and more about my Generations software and practice makes perfect or at least close to perfect.

Happy Embroidering,

Nancy

Machine Embroidery - Custom Order

I've been busy doing a bit of custom work these days.  Font was built into my Brother machine.
Blessings,
Nancy

Generations Digitizing Challenges

Hi Friends,
Just a note to let you know that Holly and Larry over at You Can Digitize are hosting  a challenge a month starting now in Feb. and continuing through the end of the year to help us improve our digitizing skills.  The contests are open to anyone with Generations software.  I also belong to their digitizing membership group to have access to their webinars, videos and forum.  Generations software certainly has a learning curve to it, but it is one of my goals to master, well at least work on, this year.

I've been working diligently on my digitizing skills and am excited to be participating in the challenges.  It's getting me using my software and learning all the nuances about it.

Let me know if you are joining in on the challenge so I can say "Hi" and we can help support one another.  Barb at Stitch n Mouse has joined me.  She is a sweet lady and already knows and uses other digitizing software and is now learning Generations.  Golly, I'll be happy to learn just one software well.

Embroidery Blessings,
Nancy

Machine Embroidery Valentine's Day Cards

Dear Friends,

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and I've been having a ball stitching up these Valentine cards for the loved ones in my life.  I can't get over how  well the small heart fit perfectly on the flap of the envelope!  Just makes me smile.  I know I would love to receive a card like this in the mail.

These designs are from  Michelle at Needle Little Embroidery.  I'm so pleased with how they turned out.

To get the heart centered on the flap, on this particular design, the outline of the heart stitches first.  (That is one of the nice things about Michelle's designs.  This helps prevent puckering if you are stitching on fabric by doing the outline first.)  So I hooped my stabilizer and stitched the heart on just the stabilizer.  Then I held the stabilizer up to the window and placed the envelope flap right where I wanted it.  I used the light shining through the window to guide my placement.  Then I used just a small bit of masking tape to tape the envelope in place to the stabilizer.  I backed up my stitching and stitched the outline again along with the rest of the design on the envelope.

The design above is stitched on cardstock but honestly I wouldn't recommend it.  I was just lucky here.  The satin stitches were beginning to tear and I put everything carefully in place for the picture.  Just too many needle punches through paper to do satin stitches.

 

 

Much love to all of you and I want to thank each of you who leave comments or send me an e-mail.  So glad to have you reading.  Sending you a {{{hug}}}
Nancy

Embroidery It on Pinterest

Visit Embroidery It by Nancy's profile on Pinterest.

I have had a love affair with Pinterest from the first day we met.  I've heard people say, "I just don't get the whole Pinterest thing." If that is you, let me describe how I view Pinterest.  Maybe you will see why I like it so much.

The way I look at Pinterest is that it is like my own personal magazine.  I buy a lot of magazines.  I love to read them, I love the inspiration I get from them.  I tear out articles, recipes and ideas from their pages and those torn out pages usually get moved from place to place in the house creating clutter.  Eventually they either get filed or thrown away.  Then it always happens, I can't find the article or recipe when I want to lay my hands on it.

With Pinterest, I'm able to collect those inspirational tidbits from the web all in one place and I can easily locate them when needed.  I just create a board for each subject that I'm interested in.  When I want to be inspired, I flip through my Pinterest boards and there is always something to spark my creativity.  By the way, I've got plenty of machine embroidery inspiration on my Pinterest boards.

Have you tried Pinterest yet?  It's free and it's fun!

Click on the Pinterest logo above or click HERE and it will link you to my Pinterest site, follow me if you like, and you can see what inspires me around the big wide web.  It just might inspire you too!

Blessings,
Nancy

Machine Embroidery on a Long SleeveT-shirt for Me!

Dear Friends,

I was going to my quilt class and wanted to jazz up my plain outfit.  I thought a sewing machine was perfect considering what we were doing.  I'd had this design for some time but had not used it on anything.  Today was the day.  :-)  Embroidery design from Embroidery Library.  One more quilt class this week then I will show you the finished table runner.

Blessings and as always stay warm!  We've had another 6 inches of the white stuff here in Michigan.

Nancy

 

Machine Embroidery on Thermal Shirts

Today is my sweetheart's birthday.  I found a couple of thermal shirts at our local Meijer, on clearance no less, and stitched an airplane on it.  The plane design was from Embroidery Library.  Then I added some words using my Generations software.  I used cut-away stabilizer underneath the design and a Solvy wash-away stabilizer on top.  Mike got his pilot's license last year and loves flying.  I've got the shirts wrapped up and will give them to him tonight at supper.  It's a good day.  "Happy Birthday my sweet Mike!"

The above shirt says "PILOT."

 

Stay warm friends!

Embroidery Blessings,

Nancy

Machine Embroidery On a Pocket

Hi Friends,
Yesterday was a sad day as I put our Emily on a plane to head back to Albuquerque for school for another semester.  I have so enjoyed having her home for the past month.  She is such a blessing to this mama.  Keep her in your prayers as well as our daughter Katie who is getting ready to deploy to Kuwait in early March. 

Quick post here.  I embroidered several items for Emily.  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of them all and these are just a couple of quick shots.  She got pajamas for Christmas and wanted her initial on the pocket.  The only way for me to get it on the pocket and still keep it as a usable pocket was to remove the stitching on one side and across the bottom.  This allowed the pocket to be placed flat on the embroidery hoop.  Once the "E" was stitched out I then re-sewed the pocket to the pajamas.  I was really pleased with how well the pocket looked as I don't think you could ever tell I took some of the stitching out.  The pajamas have some silver metallic thread stripes in the fabric so I stitched her initial in silver metallic.

The letter "E" was one that was built into my machine.  The pajamas had been through the wash and not pressed for this picture.  Sorry for the wrinkles but take my word it looks good.

My oldest baby Katie getting ready for deployment.  She is one tough cookie.

 

I'm so proud of my girls and love them so much.  I miss them terribly.  I know life isn't meant to stay the same but gosh I'm having such a hard time letting them go.  Life is not the same with such an empty house.  Sigh.

 

Many blessings,

Nancy