embroidery – Page 6 – the long thread

September 24, 2008September 24, 2008

Machine Appliqué Designs

I turned the squirrel into a machine appliqué design and was thinking of selling some of these designs on Etsy. I’m just not sure what kind of demand there is for machine embroidery designs. I just know that when I started my embroidery business I was not satisfied with what was on the market, so I started creating my own. Now that I have Adobe Illustrator, this process is much simpler.

Anyway, here’s a photo of the squirrel with my all-time favorite Japanese fabric, My Folklore by Lecien, which just doesn’t seem to be available anywhere. I bought some fat quarters of the series here.

August 24, 2008August 25, 2008

Felt Hair Clips

More hair accessories. Whew, those are bright! I sewed some more of these flower hair clips for the girls (with the embroidery machine). This is a design that I created last year for my Etsy shop.

And then I took my owl design and shrunk it down. But I think I need to try another color for these, because this is just about the color of their hair. Since I am lazy, I just glued these onto the clips, which seems to actually work pretty well.

August 9, 2008August 9, 2008

Moleskine Embroidery

No sewing machines were harmed in the making of this journal. In my continuing effort to break a needle my machine remains unfazed. Since this machine can embroider canvas and other thick fabrics, I thought I’d give it a go. Other than a few tension problems, it worked out pretty well. And I really like the textural quality of the embroidery. I was inspired by all of the great moleskine journals on Etsy and this needlepoint sketchbook kit, available at purl.

I may try some appliqué next. I think these journals embroidered with little animals would make nice gifts for new mothers. It’s nice to have a place to write down all of the precious things your baby does.

July 31, 2008

Seahorse Hand Towels

I love the seahorses that are all over the place and remembered that I had this seahorse machine embroidery design. So I made these hand towels for our guest bath. Sort of makes me feel like we’re at the beach. Um, except that our backyard is filled with mounds of red clay right now. So not really.

June 11, 2008July 29, 2008

California Vacation

This is unrelated to crafts, but here’s what we’ve been doing lately.

Here’s the front of my husband’s Elvis running outfit for the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. And here he is after the race under the JCPenney sign (he’s the little speck with a wig off to the right side). Long story. A man who has run 26.2 miles dressed as Elvis can frighten customers.

Sprinkles cupcakes in L.A. before and during consumption by our three-year-old. The mocha flavor tasted like a Godiva truffle. It’s understandable why this place had a line out the door.

Our first visit to The Getty Center in L.A. The beauty of the architecture and setting actually seem to overshadow the artwork. Love these sculptural trellises with bougainvillea.

Our vacations always include baseball, so here’s a photo of Petco Park in San Diego, which is family-friendly and even has a sandbox in the bleacher seats. And Dodger Stadium in L.A. has an interesting ’50s vibe as you can see from the corrugated metal overhang. My Encyclopedia Husbandica tells me that it was actually built in 1962.