99 Bobbins of Cotton in the Box

I started this posting on the 10th April, but unfortunately I've been too busy to upload the photographs and finish off, so I'll apologise now if the timeline seems a bit weird. I've finished all of the Pottery Painting workshops for this school holiday, and I've taken lots of photographs of the items. I'm hoping to do a long posting on this during the week especially for those who have painted with me and haven't any idea what happens between painting and me delivering the glazed item back to the schools.

Ok ... back to my sewing post ........

So, maybe 99 bobbins of cotton is a bit of an exaggeration ... but there's a lot! I decided it was time to wind all of my empty bobbins this morning .. and boy did it take a while. I've been embroidering like crazy over the last week or so and didn't realise how many I had empty, despite the fact that they were right there in front of me and I kept taking one out every ten mins or so LOL. But the dreadful job is done now and these should last me quite some time. I think there's around 50 that I've done!

When I last purchased some new embroidery threads, I decided to purchase 2 x 10,000m cones of sewing cotton. I honestly thought that I would never get through it, or if I did it would take me years to do so. With that in mind, goodness knows why I decided to purchase 2 of them. BUT during my bobbin winding marathon this morning, I've finished it! I can't believe I've used over 10,000m of thread, I knew it was starting to get low, however I was sure that it would last me a long time. I've now broken the seal on the second one and have it ready and waiting for the marathon sewing of bags today......wish me luck.

I've been wondering why my sewing machine is playing games with me today. I've had 5 broken needles within the space of about 20 mins ... very unusual as they don't break that often at all. Then the penny dropped when I looked properly .... Stooooopid me had been putting embroidery needles in there when I was sewing - no wonder they were breaking d'oh. Once I changed to a 'proper' sewing needle, the machine worked perfectly.


I was very proud of myself last weekend when I was able to post all of the bags that had been ordered. I thought it was going to be touch and go for a while as I've been so busy working, however they went out on Saturday and were received mid week after the Bank Holiday. All customers were very happy with their wares.
Little Ruby has been carrying hers around the house completely empty and won't let it out of her site ... bless her. I understand that she's going to pack a few things in it and take it to nursery with her next week.
I made this one as an Easter present, her mum has asked me to make some party gift bags with the same designs for Ruby's birthday at the end of May ...... I have an idea in my mind as to how I'm going to do them, I just need to get cracking on them soon. (it's in my task master list to ensure that I don't forget).

Nicki is getting married soon and saw my auction on eBay. She asked me if I could do a Greek Flag design for 2 children and then 2 tote bags for the Mothers. I came up with these, I received a lovely email from Nicki saying how pleased she was with them. Don't they look fantastic all together there in the photograph? The one at the bottom is an additional gift I did for Nicki for her large custom order.


The last bag was made for another lady who purchased following my auction on eBay. She asked for a rainbow which I found amongst my vast collection. The photograph doesn't do this one justice, the colours are much brighter in 'reality'.









I haven't got around to finishing off our laundry bags yet. The above ones took priority over my own sewing. I think I mentioned in my last posting that I've got them all embroidered, they just need finishing off which shouldn't take a huge amount of time.

I did however, have a play with my machine yesterday (on my one day off this week) making some labels to put inside any future bags that I make.

This is a picture of them all together and shows you how many I can make per hooping. i.e. 3 large, 4 medium or 6 small ones. I've included a £1 coin in the photographs to give an indication of sizing on the close up photographs.



These are the 3 large labels. I have my own favourite, however before I comment on any of them, I would like other opinions.

Although these labels do look ok, i was very unimpressed with how the machine stitched the border on them. I've never known it do this with anything else, but it only stitched around once and didn't knot the ends properly. As you can see in the photograph on the right, they are coming undone at the start / end point. If I decided to use this size, I would change to the border used on the smaller ones below which stitched around the whole border 3 times and knotted properly.



I love these small labels with the reel of cotton on them. I played around with these for quite some time. I didn't want to make them any bigger as I liked this size to use on the inside of Party Favour Bags. Unfortunately, however it did mean that I wasn't able to stitch the website address on one line. So, I decided to make a feature of it and spread it across 3 lines. I thought that it would be nice to stitch some in both blue and pink rather than all the same. I had images of boys opening their bags and throwing a fit because it had a pink label on the inside LOL. I like the effect, however I'm open to constructive suggestions and comments.

Gen is back to school on Tuesday, and I'm going to go off to quilting class where hopefully I can finish off Jo's quilt. I haven't been for a few weeks and am really looking forward to catching up with everyone.

Sewing & Quilting

What a productive day I've managed to have. Here's a few of the tasks that I've got through -

1. Cut up enough canvas to make 10 .. yes 10 PE bags!


2. Embroidered a beautiful rainbow on a PE bag for a customer
   
3. Embroidered a 'Cute Monster' to use as a sample for boys -


4. I've taken photographs of a lot of my equipment - isn't it surprising how much stuff you actually have when you take up a hobby


5. I've place the order with my ceramics supplier - should be delivered sometime tomorrow


6. Oh yeah, I also managed to watch Gilmore Girls, Neighbours AND also keep Twittering and update my blog .... what a day!!

Glad I'm going out tonight . .I think I need a rest lol

OK now for the fun bit, I've taken loads of photographs this morning. I know Kerry will faint when she see's what I've done LOL.

The folded squares on the left are what I've cut up this morning , the fabric on the right is my 'stash'.

I now always cut fabric using a rotary cutter and quilting ruler - it ensure that a straight edge is achieved. Much easier than trying to do it with scissors. Using a rotary cutter does need a little practise to get used to, but once you've used it, you won't want to go back to using scissors for cutting again!

This is the rainbow that I have embroidered for a customer. This design took around 50 minutes to stitch out. I'm waiting for the personalisation details before I make it up into a bag.

It is far easier to embroider when you have a long piece of fabric than trying to clip your hoop up inside a bag and ensure that you don't get any of the edges stitched into the middle of your design! And YES I know from bitter experience, I've been there and done that one! I left something happily stitching away whilst I went into another room for something and when I came back one of the edges had moved and become caught in the middle of the design ... very frustrating having to start all over again, especially if you've made the item too :-( ..... BUT I have learnt my lesson and I now pin the edges to stop them moving if there's even a slight possibility that it may happen again.

I've stitched this little guy before for Gen to give to one of her friends on their birthday. I loved him then, and he hasn't dissapointed this time. He is absolutely adorable.

I did wonder last time I did it, what he would look like stitched out in pinks rather than blue and green. Does he look a lonely fella? Maybe the alternative colours could be a Mrs for him.... now there's a thought for another day maybe.

This fella took me around 1 hour and 10 minutes to stitch out.

I talk a lot about my embroidery and needlework (sowwy!!!!). I thought I'd take the time and photograph a few of the items that I keep very close around me when I'm busy sewing.

SEWING MACHINE

Of course the most important thing is my sewing machine. I couldn't really get very far at all without it now could I? I have always owned brother machines since I bought my first one almost 20 years ago. I have found them to be extremely reliable and very easy to use. This one is a Brother Super Galaxie 2100. I purchased it about a year ago from eBay. It had been very well looked after and doesn't dissapoint on that Brother quality that I have come to know and love. It is a combined sewing and embroidery machine. The machine itself doesn't hold many images, and the ones it does are quite small and not very interesting at all. However, I have a library of 1000's of designs on my laptop which I can transfer over using my PE Design Basic and blank memory card. You can also purchase memory cards from Brother which contain various designs, however I have found them to be extremely expensive (around £60-£80 per disk!!!!!). There are many sites on the internet where you can purchase designs at very reasonable prices.

EMBROIDERY FRAMES

Next on the list are my embroidery frames. Again, I wouldn't get very far without these. I do have 2 more than shown in the picture, the large one was in the machine at the time and the giant hoop didn't fit in the pic very well so I didn't bother with that one. It's also one I don't use very often as I find it difficult to line up with the multi-positions. I tend to use the large one more than anything. They are made up of two pieces which 'sandwhich' your material and stabiliser inbetween ready to clip into the machine.

THREADS

With so many threads on the market these days which one do you choose? I have a wonderful array that I use depending upon what I am doing. The colours on the left are high quality rayon thread used for machine embroidery. They have a beautiful sheen to them and give the designs a little something special.

The threads on the top right hand side are polyester threads. They are suitable for machine embroidery, although are rather dull in comparison to the rayon. I use polyester threads for general sewing.

The second picture on the right shows my limited selection of quilting threads. I am adding to these with each quilting project that I do. These are a very strong cotton thread which is ideal to hold all the pieces of your quilt together. The colours on these are variegated (i.e. they have different shades through the reel). They give lovely effects when sewing decorative stitches too.

My bobbin stash now, although as you can see from the picture I desperately need to wind some of them up. I had 11 left when I took this picture earlier, I now have only 8. You can purchase pre-wound cardboard bobbins, however I have found them to be very expensive in comparison to winding them yourself. I know it can be a bit of a pain to do so many at once. However, I would rather spend an hour winding them than paying so much more to have them done for me. I always make sure that I have enough to do my project before I start a design. There's nothing more frutrating than getting half way through and have the machine bleep at you telling you that your bobbin has run out when you don't have any left.

STABILISERS

A stabiliser is absolutely necessary when embroidering. As the name suggest, these 'stabilise' the fabric and make it stronger to take the embroidery stitching. There are many different kinds, here are 4 that I use myself.

The big one at the back is the one that I use the most often. This is called 'STICH AND TEAR' is it placed on the back of the fabric in the hoop. Once you have finished stitching, you 'tear' away the excess leaving stabiliser where it matters .. under your design. The picture is of a new unopened 200m roll as I only have a tiny bit left on my other one.

The roll just in front looks a little like strong cling-film. However this is a 'WATER SOLUBLE' stabiliser. It has many 'brand' names to it also. This is used when embroidering on 'nap' fabrics e.g. towels. It allows the design to be stitched on top of the towel rather than sinking and getting caught in the loops. Once finished, you can tear away the excess, any remaining will dissolve when the item is washed.

The item on the right is a 'CUT AWAY' stabiliser. This is usually used for stretchy fabrics. To me, if feels like tumble dryer sheets but a little stronger. Idea for using on t-shirts and baby items.

The final one on the left is a 'SELF ADHESIVE' stabiliser. This obviously sticks to the back of your fabric. I tend to use this mainly when I have a design that is made up of smaller components where I need to re-position my hoop several times. This is most valuable when I'm stitching the latte blocks (more on this in another posting).

U.F.O.'s

Before you start thinking of such things as StarTrek and Area 51, a UFO does not have anything to do with flying objects when you mention it to someone like myself who does a lot of stitching. It does in fact stand for Un-Finished Objects - of which I have several. Currently on the corner of my bench there are :-

The start of 2 latte quilts - One made of a dark pink/purple satin which you can see on top. The other is blue on cream cotton fabric (more to come in later postings).

Two cushion panels that I can't decide whether to make into bags or cushions. I have already quilted them, but they need to be finished off.

A shopping bag that I was making for my weekly shopping - this is a very large bag suitable to take boxes of cereals, or loaves of bread etc that you can usually only get one or two in a carrier bag.

There's also a few cut up pieces of cotton to make needle books and pin cushions that I just haven't had time to complete.

Now if only I could make more hours in a day then maybe I'd be able to get everything finished off.

Have fun and HAPPY CRAFTING :-)