Pocket Keychain Holder

 I just love these Pocket keychain holders!  They are just so addicting to make, and fairly easy.  It was my first in the hoop project that wasn't a banner.  LOL  I just love the sparkly material I found, and luckily had a bunch of material to match.  Cause you know, I tend to pick out material cause it's cute, and I don't think of matching it to anything.  LOL

And here's a photo of Velcro I found on my camera, I just thought it was too funny.  She doesn't like it when I take photos of her, and always closes her eyes.  Luckily got this one!

Embroidered Owl and University of Super Villains

Today I actually got to use the owl applique on a garment.  I bought this jumper for my future niece a couple of weeks ago, and just thought they were a little plain.  So I decided they needed a little decoration.  And the owl fit perfectly!!

 (Yes, I think I need to take a better photo too).  LOL

 I think she's so darn cute and sparkly!  I just love how she turned out.  I might embroider "Lil' Hoot" on the back, but I'm waiting to hear if my niece is actually going to be a niece and not a nephew.  LOL

 I also embroidered the owl on a bib.  I think that turned out too cute!  I'm going to embroider her in different  colors within the next couple of days.  And I want to see what other designs she has to embroider.  I did find a cute turtle the other day, turtles are always cute.

And her's the blue owl close up.  I really like this owl!

 

So, last weekend we were driving around downtown and I saw this hanging from one of the bank buildings.  How cool is that!!  I tried to google what this could possibly be, but nothing yet.  Hmmm, will have to check it out!  Maybe it's Dr. Horrible??  LOL

Embroidered Owls and new necklace

 One of my nieces is very fond of owls. So I found this great program on etsy by artapli.  She has a lot of great designs on her site, and I really loved these owls!  The design comes with 5 owls in 7 different sizes.  I think that is so awesome!  I just love how she included all the designs.  Plus she included a free design in my purchase.  I know I'll be purchasing designs from her again!

 I'm really starting to like this applique embroidery.  I was a bit fearful at first, not knowing what I'm doing, but now that I'm getting more and more used to doing it, it's really very easy to do!

I'm also working on some jewelry.  I posted a necklace I made for my sister-in-law awhile back, and one of my friends said she wanted to order one.  And I took it to work, and my friend at work wants me to make her more jewelry. 

Now I'm getting inspired to create more things.  Check back to see what is next!

Urban Threads

 

One of my favorite sites to purchase machine embroidery designs is from Urban Threads.  I just love their designs, and there are so many different types of patterns.  Cute ones like the panda above, goth, steampunk, dragons, ninjas, fairies, monsters, and so much more!

One of my favorites is her breast cancer one.

 

 I have this on a sweat jacket, and I get so many compliments on this one.  I did change her hair to be black like mine, and for her complexion to be a tad more tan so she'd look a little more asian.  :)

If you're an embroiderer, check out her site, she also has some really great projects on it as well!

Raiders embroidery and Bullet Casing Jewelry

Anyone who knows me knows how much of a Raiders fan I am not.  My family has always been a big SF 49er family, that I think they would disown me if I ever thought to become a Raiders fan.  But one of my best friends from high school is a big Raiders fan, so I thought I'd make her a Raiders Scarf.

 The emblem I found online, and it was pretty big.  But it was the right size for the scarf.  I think it turned out pretty cool.

The scarf is a fleece scarf, so it was really easy to embroider.  I've learned to use tear away stabilizer, I really love the stuff, our JoAnn's stopped carrying it, so I'll have to search around for another source.

 

I also found some really cool teardrop shaped beads from my flea market bead seller lady, and they fit perfectly on the bullet casings that I'm turning into jewelry.  I did one of each color to see how they would look, now will have to either make the other side or use those as charms.  I really like how they turned out.

Laura's Baby Shower

 Yesterday was Laura's baby shower, and it was so much fun!  My friend Debi made so many cool and creative things for the shower!

 We were welcomed at the front door by the coolest Stork that Debi made herself out of paper mache.  I love how it turned out with the baby diapers!

I noticed on the table that she had a baby sticking out of a bowl of candies.  I thought that was so clever!! 

 One of the games we played was to decorate a bib for the baby, the best one would win a prize.  Course I had to make the Captain America one.  LOL

Just love all the cupcakes and cake pops!  Delicious and cute!!

 

I made Jackson this banner from Big Dreams Embroidery . I just love how easy they are to make and how nice they turn out.  I need to make them in all the different shapes and sizes now. :)

I just love how everything turned out!  Congratulations to TJ and Laura!!

Being a little more creative

After a non-creative January and February, I'm getting back into the swing of things thanks to one of the girls on our tournament softball team. She asked if I'd help them out with some embroidery for her high school team. Here are a few ideas that I came up with using a pawprint from embroiderydesigns.com and script font.

The top one is my favorite.
But I like this one too. We're still tweaking the design, I think we're going with this:

I'm so excited that I finally figured out how to outline text. Since I've been embroidering, it's been helping more of my creative juices flowing.

We've been looking at different ideas on etsy, and came across bullet casing jewelry. What's cool about it is that they use spent casings. Kind of recycling if you think about it. And luckily my bf had some that he didn't need anymore, so I decided to make some of my own.



These are some of the ones I came up with. I have more to play with, so I'll be doing a lot of playing, it's so good to be back in the swing of things!!

Italia Jacket

A friend of mine at work really loves soccer. He asked me to do a logo for him for the Italian Soccer team. It was one of the easier ones I did for him, I love how it came out. : )

And below is what it looks like on the jacket.

It was really cool cause now other people want me to make that logo for them. ;)

Paquiao

Tomorrow night is the big night. Ok, not a big boxing fan here, but I know that there is this fight with Paquiao tomorrow. One of my friends at work is a big fan, and asked me to do a special piece of embroidery for him. He drew the face of Pacquiao, and he had me digitize and embroider it on a couple of sweatshirts. One like the above, with Paquiao's signature.

And this one with Paquiao's signature larger on the hood. I wasn't sure how it would actually turn out, but I really liked it a lot. When you have the white background with darker thread, it doesn't look as good as having it on a dark background.




And here's a picture of Andre wearing the sweatshirt. It really does look very cool. If I were a Pacquiao fan, I might have to have one too. LOL

Lady Eagles Softball Embroidered logo

I can't believe I haven't posted since February. I think you need to blame those darn Angry Birds. LOL Ok, Angry Birds, Words with friends, Boggle, oh, and of course Farmville and Cityville. Darn those Facebook/Ipod apps. Can you say Time Suckers?? LOL Well, that plus with working full-time, life's been pretty busy.

I was in a creative funk. I get so tired after work that I really haven't been very creative, choosing to play games instead. But thankfully my niece Alex has gotten me out of that funk. :)

She asked me to do the embroidery on the American High School Softball's Varsity team's warm-up jackets. Alex never asks for anything, so of course, if she asks, I'm doing to do whatever I can to do what she has requested. Cause she's my Alex! :)

So we started with a photo of the American High School logo (which coincidentally looks like the Philedelphia Eagles logo), and redrew it, then digitized it on the computer.

This is what the logo looks like digitized above. I always like taking a screenshot of the logo just to show everyone what it is going to look like. Then I'll stitch out a sample. Below is the actual logo stitched on a jacket.

I think it looks really good. I did find out that stabilizers really do matter. The stabilizer from JoAnn's worked out a lot better than the WalMart stabilizer. So guess who has to stock up on stabilizer while it's still on sale. LOL



This is one of the jackets. On this style of jacket, there is a net lining and a zipper that is on the inside. I still have a problem understanding why you'd need a zipper. There's no pocket there, and it doesn't unzip the lining from the jacket. So now when I do the names, I'll have to unzip the zipper, then baste the lining to the jacket so it won't move while stitching.

It's always a challenge to hoop different items. I hope that the girls will like them. :)

Happy 3 day weekend!

I'm so glad it's a three day weekend, but kinda bummed that I caught the office cold. So I've spent all today sleeping and recouping. I'm thinking tomorrow will be the same. But at least I don't have to miss a day of work.

Life's been kinda busy lately. I haven't done a whole lot of anything. I did get my sister's blankets done for an event she had last weekend.
They came out pretty well. And after I had already done all of them an idea popped into my head. So I'll have to work on the idea. ;)

My cousin is now selling Avon, if you're interested check out her website lots of cool stuff. :)

Was going to sit down and get some embroidery done this weekend, but I think I'll try and do stuff next weekend.

Will keep you posted as to the new things I do. :)

New Car! New Embroidery!

I have finally found my new car! Who would have thought that car shopping would take so much time and be so tiring!! It's so way different than it used to be. I love the fact that you can go on the internet and find who has what make and model.

A few times we were a bit too late, and the car had already been sold. We found that used Subaru Foresters are very hard to find. And when you do find them, and if they are in good condition, they get snapped up pretty quickly.

So when we found this one, we snapped it up as well. And I love my Forester!


It is red like my truck. And it drives really well. I am totally in love with it! And so is Phil. He even offered to take me to JoAnn's today when I needed to go. LOL


And now that my car shopping is over, it's back to work on embroidery. I have 33 blankets to do for my sister. Yep, you read right, 33. Here is what it looks like digitized. Pretty simple. I'll take a photo of the finished project once I'm done. :)

Playing with my embroidery software

So I was playing with my embroidery software. I'm finding out more things, oh like I can choose more colors of thread. LOL I had no idea that I could click on a pull-down menu and get all the different thread colors. Yep, should have figured that one out a year ago. LOL,

Had to do a Giants logo. I really want to do the scripty one, but this one will do for now. ;)
This one is for a soccer team, the Millionarios. Or Millionaros. I'm bad at spelling.
And the cowboys. Not a fan here, but I know someone who is...
And Pacquiao. A friend of mine drew this up, it looks really cool!

Anyway, plan on doing some more designs this week. none of this is for sale. Just practicing. :)

Getting back into it

It's been awhile since I've had the time to do much creating. Mainly because I've been working. And we've had a few big jobs that we have been working overtime on, so much of my free time has been spent just trying to relax. And of course to farm, farmville is too darn addicting. Just gotta farm farm farm. LOL

A friend of mine at work wanted a couple of designs embroidered. He's in our art department, so he actually helped me out to draw out these designs. It was a big help for him to actually draw it first so that step was eliminated! :) Then all I had to do was to digitize it.



The top design is for the league and the bottom one here is for the team:

I just now have to stitch them out.

I have one more bicycle design that I'll post after I stitch it out tomorrow. It's been so long since I've actually done anything on the machine. I'm so glad that I have the time to get back into it now. :)

New Thread...

So I tried this new thread yesterday for embroidering. I've been using Rayon thread since I started. And I just found out that Polyester thread is supposed to be better for embroidering. It doesn't fade as quickly as Rayon will.

So, I thought I'd try some Poly thread. I had to do new jackets for FGSA, so I thought I'd try it on that. OMG, they're not kidding when they say it's better thread. Now I have to replace all my thread. I just LOVE it! it stitches out so nicely.

So now, I'll be spending a lot of ime at Eddie's Quilting Bee replacing all my thread. LOL

Embroidery tips and tricks

So, two weekends ago I took a class with my friend Debi that was called Embroidery T-N-T, tips and tricks. And it was a fun class. It really was a big sales pitch for this uber awesome machine that we got to use from Bernina. We all thought it would be more geared towards tips and tricks, not lessons on how to use this new machine, and by the way, would you like to take one home?

Sure, if it wasn't for the $10,000+ price tag on it. LOL

Three of us shared one machine. So each of us got to do one project. Mine was this one, it was one of those cut out types. It was cool, I loved the font that was in the project. The next project was a reverse applique, and the last project was one on monograming.

I learned a bit about stabilizers, and would like to take another class on those. It made me want to do some more embroidering though. So I think I'll spend some time figuring out some designs to do.

Softball Logo

So, one of our local softball teams wanted a logo done for their coaches shirts. They gave me this picture to create the logo. So I redrew it in AutoCAD, and digitized it.

This is the final product. I liked how it turned out. Their school colors are purple and gold, so we did the girl in gold, the swoosh in white, and on a lovely purple shirt. We also put each of the coaches names on the shirts.

I have to figure out some more softball logos so I can do more things with it.

Lady Titans

This weekend we finally got the computer desk put together. Well, after trying to figure out where we put all the parts. You know how hard it is to remember where you put screws and desk legs 3 weeks after moving your whole life?? Well, we would have found them sooner if we had remembered that the parts were in one of the dressers. LOL

So this is the first embroidered logo I've worked on since we've moved. It's for the Lady Titans in Fremont. They gave me the artwork, I redrew and digitized it. I think it doesn't look too bad. I just have to stitch it out tomorrow to see how good it looks.

This weekend was filled with a lot of stuff. We had the plumber over cause I noticed there was a leak in the basement. One of the pipes was breaking, so we had a little leak. Well, when the plumber was putting the new pipe in, another old pipe broke. Thank goodness he was the one who broke it, cause can you imagine? We'd have to have him back. LOL So we're all better now that it's fixed. I felt bad for him cause he was here for about 9 hours! He probably wanted to start his weekend many hours ago. LOL

Yesterday was filled with organizing, and spending time with family. It's good to be back home, Phil and my dad enjoy talking every night. And I get to spend more time with my mom. He's doing really good after his shoulder surgery. I'm so amazed at how quickly he's healing. He'll have a bad day here and there, but overall he's healing quickly!

Latest Embroidery projects

Here are my latest embroidery projects. The one above is a take off from the Wedding infinity embroidery I did for a couple of friends. Since these will be done on towels, the lettering needed to be bigger, so we did a full infinity symbol with the lettering underneath. I think it will come out quite nicely.

And since my friend Sandra gave her tennis towels to her team, I can now post how they came out. I really liked how they turned out, and I think I need to do this on some towels just because.