Civil War Bride Block

I've really been slow getting these blocks done. But 4 out of 20 is a good start. To me this is relaxing to do while watching TV. I have never been able to just sit and watch TV with nothing to do with my hands. If there is nothing in my hands then I start picking at my fingers putting off the polish or making hang nails. Just awful. So when I'm not watching TV I'm doing other things like sewing, machine embroidering or working on family history.

FAMILY HISTORY
It's my turn to teach a family history class this Sunday. I hope everyone has registered on new.familysearch.org. We are all learning to use the features on this site. My lesson will be about recording the information of our family on the site or on paper.

MACHINE EMBROIDERY DIGITIZING




I have digitized another picture for machine embroidery. In fact I have digitized two pictures, one an Easter Basket and another a MardiGras Mask. I joined a group on yahoo called rose cottage and there are instructions given each month on a new picture. This instructor though does not use the same software I use so the digitizing is a little challenging. Maybe someday I'll be able to do this effortly. Who knows. Right now, I don't think the Easter Basket turned out too bad for one try. I just had to get the angles of the basket to look real. But the Mask was more difficult. I did this in two tries and it is still not right. I had problems knowing what density to use for the stitches in the first place. I did a satin feather stitch. After I stitched it out I could see more things wrong - of course. If you look real close (its hard with this photo)you see that the small feathers (orange, red and purple) stitches are going in the wrong direction on one side. I will have to correct this before turning it in. Well, that pretty good for only 3 times digitizing.

RELIEF SOCIETY
We had a very good Relief Society Birthday in our ward tonight mainly about visiting teaching. Sister Gail from the Stake RS gave some very inspiring stories. This was just what I needed. I've be pondering a problem I've had for the last year (really longer than that) and even though I'd found the answer she gave, tonight it hit home.
"You have to love to be loved" Now how do I do that?

The Bride Is Finished

I finally finished the third block of the Civil War Quilt. This is the bride herself. At some time I should add a face to her. I wonder what happened to the groom. There is no block with just him or both of them in it. Some quilters have added a groom to their quilt. They made him look like a farmer. I haven't decided to do that. This bride must live on a farm though with all the plants, apples and cherries. Now on to the next block which includes grapes and a bird. (Little circles for grapes, how fun.)

I have been doing other things. I have been working on the Latte quilt and have seven blocks embroidered. I'm learning the stitches on my sewing machine and have a block finished for the Stitchers Garden and two blocks finished for the Block Party quilt. Plus a made a Valentine Table Topper and I'm finishing up an Easter table topper. I will show them soon.

The Chart Chick

The Chart Chick

I Am Learning to Digitize Embroidery Design

I have been taking an online class through Rose Cottage Yahoo Groups and digitized my first design. A picture or drawing was given of a butterfly, then through a software program I use with my embroidery machine, I was able to digitize the picture. It came out pretty good. It is a cutout design which means a washout stabilizer is used and a portion of the fabric is cut out. The problem most people have are the little bars that hold the cutout area together. I had no problem with them but--a tiny area on top of each wing came loose. That is probably because of not digitizing the stitches further in on the fabric or perhaps its the muslin fabric I used to embroider on. Muslin is not the best to use, so at this point I'm going to say that is the problem. Any way, it took me forever to get some of the stitches figured out like the tiny zigzag under the stitches and getting the satin stitches even. Unfortunately I missed one bar on the right wing, a grid line was right on top of it and I didn't see it. But I'm proud of myself and will try something again for the next lesson.

Here is my stitch out of the design.