On being Productive.

My weekend was most productive- just the way I like it!
There was an order for 13 bath towels to have names embroidered on them- all done- one LARGE tick on my TO DO list for that one.....I caught up on my ironing....how does it mount up so fast? I'm sure I didn't wear ALL those clothes! Another tick!

Did the usual household chores, it seems MOTH is incapable of doing any of these off his own bat through the week, which leaves me to run around & get them all done when I'm home. Are all MOTHs like this- or just mine?

Played around with some red work designs-these are to fit in the Aida insert on tea towels- there are absolutely no designs suitable out there (if there is please email me & let me know where!)- there is a market out there for some clever digitizer to produce designs in this size.

The wedding in Kuala Lumpar was lovely- the bride looked gorgeous- the groom was sporting a fractured clavicle- the dog (a rottie) knocked him over the night before-he had a matching arm sling to his tuxedo at least!

I spent my week getting over the 2 flights in quick succession & the jet lag from doing a red eye flight.....I'm disliking the flights more & more these days, but love visiting when I get there.

There is no service in economy anymore. Throw your meals at you & disappear, if you can call them meals- breakfast for me was 2 dry rice cakes- I handed them back. I dislike eating polystyrene even when it has something on it- but naked- no thank you! Even the orange juice- the only choice- was that powdered stuff you add water to. Talk about cost cutting. I've said to MOTH its time we moved up into premium economy on these longer flights, if only to have a little more leg room.I doubt the service would be any better.

I did buy myself a 'little something' while we were away, I'd been hankering after a Sony Vaio for a couple of years now & MOTH always buys me Acers. I have nothing against the Acers-I love my Acer.....but....I really wanted a Vaio....its just a mid size one for travelling. My friend, Carol ,suggested I call it Goldilocks-not only is it gold, but its 'just the right' size as well.
Ah.... then there was the new flash ring for the camera-hopefully to give me better illumination of my macro shots.

Not done much on the knitting scene- the baby jacket is progressing ever so slowly-guess at some point I will finish the body of it. Oh, & I did buy some lovely yarns in KL as well. Italian pure wool. This will be one well dressed baby, if I manage to get anything finished for it.

Back to work tomorrow- there are days I'd love to be retired, but then I doubt if I'd get much more done than I do now- when you only have 2 days off. you know you have to get things done! That's what my retired friends all say!
Until next time, Happy Crafting,
Oz-Tralien.

All Wiped Up-Tea Towels

This week has seen me embroidering on tea towels....it started while we were travelling-I managed to do 3 by hand- applique Christmas ones from the Heart to Art series by Nancy Halvorsen. I had picked up the Peppermint & Holly Berries book when in the US earlier this year and had ear marked the 3 teat towels to do. I love to decorate the house at Christmas time & always have Xmas themed tea towels & hand towels out.

Then while we were in Wagga Wagga I found 2 really lovely tea towels with Aida bands on each end of them....so I thought I'd give machine x stitch a go on these. The 2 towels were a bit pricey at $14.90 each, so you'd not be getting a set of 3 as a gift from me!, but for someone special-absolutely perfect. The shop owner had one on display & I thought how lovely it looked- little did I know that this would hook me!

Picked up 10 cotton ones in Melbourne & found I had a stash of tea towels, after embroidering on a whole lot a couple of months back!

When we returned home from our road trip I managed to get a few free days to get in & get some done, by the time I returned to work I had done 17 tea towels.....I ordered more from a really great shop in Queensland- ordered them Thursday & they arrived Friday-6 more with an Aida band at one end...what is it with me that I just have to keep on adding to what I have?LOL


I have scoured the net for simple machine x stitch borders & have found nothing- they are either too wide for the band or way too involved with a million colour changes, which I'm just not into.

Machine x stitch was one of those things I tried when I first started with the embroidery machine- found it too tiresome with all the colour changes & jump stitches & never really did more than about 2 designs.

Now that I want simple kitchen borders I can't find any anywhere- even had my friends looking & asking for me as well. There is a market there I'm sure for designs for the machine that will fit in the width of an Aida band.

My attempts at producing x stitch designs in my software have been a dismal failure-so many stops & starts it drove me crazy & it never looked any good when I finished- I knew there was a reason I didn't digitize! Just proved it with this attempt.

I found a couple of designs & played around with them & was really pleased with the outcome, mind you not enough to do a large x stitch at any time in the future, but definitely on these towels!

One thing I did do was a piggy back hooping with 3 of the tea towels. I have done this in the past with small terry hand towels.

This technique works when you are doing small items or long narrow ones like the borders. I have not done it with bath towels simply because the weight of the towel tends to pull on the stabilizer & its too much bulk to deal with around the machine.

You need to hoop up your stabilizer only-load the design into the machine & with tea towels-move the design to the far left of the design field-baste out the position or check if you have an orbiting feature for placement.

The bulk of the item needs to feed over to the left or to the back of the machine if you have placed the design at the top of the hoop. So make sure the design orientation is correct. baste the item to the stabilizer.

When I'm doing the Aida insert ones I do my basting stitch in a dark colour on the stabilizer as it will show up through the little holes & make placement much easier from the right side. If you line up the needle with a hole in the Aida it will stitch out pretty much like hand x stitch- a blind man on a galloping horse would be pleased to see where it doesn't go in the little holes! Stitch out the first design.

Send the second design to the machine & move the design so it stitches out next to the first one but not on it-check with the orbiting feature if you have one,baste onto the stabilizer, then baste the item to the stabilizer as above.Pin the excess of fabric back out of the way to leave the stabilizer clear before you start.

The next design should come in on the far right of the hoop & you repeat as above- the bulk of the towels will go to the left, the fabric under the machine border will be pinned back out of the way.

Doing it this way saves re-hooping after each stitch out & saves on stabilizer as well-when you are only using such a narrow strip anyway. I did try patching the hole with a sticky stabilizer but found that the tension on the stabilizer was not as taut as I like-so played around & worked out this way. Anything to save time!

So my stash of emroidered tea towels is growing- the cotton ones are all embroidered as well-just with designs I had purchased & never got around to using at the time....so now I have lots of ready gifts on hand!