Machine Embroidery

We will skip that portion of the day which has to do with adding coolant to the car, finding the line at Acme Bakery more than 2 blocks long and quick stops at both Safeway’s Community Market (nee Andronico’s) for a few items and Peet’s for some much needed coffee.

Months ago I accumulated a variety of clothing and other blanks on which I was going to experiment. Adding embellishments and otherwise embarrassing the recipients with my largess. Because, of course, it would be what I wanted to make.

Then I peeked around the door into my studio space and observed chaos. There was no way that I was going to be able to get anything accomplished unless I spent some serious time cleaning up and organizing.

2 hours later, 3 bags of trash and some sorting done, I was ready to start. But for one small issue. My sewing machine informed me that there was a firmware update. Oh, joy. Restart the machine and watch as it downloads, and downloads, and downloads.

But wait! I can still play while it is doing its thing. As I found out, most of the designs on the machine were too large to place on small bibs, so I had to go with bagels and bunnies). For the piece de la resistance, I was going to do a unicorn (see yesterday) for Dani. It is not a small file, nor a few stitches. Rather than place it on a shirt that would not be wanted or appreciated, I took one of the hand towels and decided that would make a good test run.

One long list (26 color changes and an insane amount of converting from Madera threads to the Isacord colors that I have), 39k worth of stitches and it was finished. Good thing that I did the test. She was fine with the towel but didn’t want a shirt or sweatshirt. Not even if I changed the pinks to purples.

But I had a fine time testing out everything.

Now I just have to clean up the mess…. again!