The Embroidery Sewing Machine

Some of you will know that my mum and I share an embroidery sewing machine. It usually lives at mum's and she is three hours car journey away from me, so I don't get to play with it very often. It is a complicated little beast and each time I go and play I have to learn how to do it all over again. I am on annual leave at the moment and the beast is living at my house. One of the main reasons for having the machine is so that we can both make tidy hands for dolls. We both find it difficult to make them using an ordinary sewing machine. I now have a fool proof method of preparing dolls patterns and turning them into patterns that can be read by the machine. I've also created a set of videos so we can both review them when we have forgotten to how to do it. I've stitched a pair of arms with it today and will be putting them together with the rest of the body tomorrow.

The other thing I have done is prepare a vermicelli pattern and also some shapes to make brooches (pins) and necklaces.

This is still work in progress. You need to use stabilizers in the hoops when using such a machine. It stops it from puckering. I used a layer of water soluble stabilizer followed by a layer of white silk. Next came some fabric and thread scraps, along with bits from a white plastic netting bag. Purple organza was then put on top along with another layer of stabilizer to complete the sandwich.

The vermicelli pattern is one that I designed and converted into a sewing machine pattern. I stitched it in purple and then moved the pattern two stitches to the right and stitched it again in pale blue. I fancy doing a small piece with vermicelli where I move the pattern a few stitches along and change thread each time until it gets too thick to work with. Finally, I created another pattern of shapes, added a layer of felt to the bottom of the sandwich and used the machine to satin stitch around the edges. These will now have some beads added and probably some stiffening. The finished results will be posted here some time soon.

New Inn, Blagdon

Yesterday we were taken to the New Inn in Blagon in the U.K. The view was absolutely gorgeous. The pub is very nice as well. You should book in advance if you want to eat at the weekend during the summer. You can see it in Google maps here.

Click on the picture to see a larger view.

Trip to Bideford

It is lovely sunny here in Bideford. The sea gulls are squawking.

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Playing with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10

My friends know what gadget freak I am. Dragon Naturally-Speaking allows you to speak into your computer. it is a vast improvement on earlier versions. But I can't see us all speaking into a computer's memory in the office, imagine how noisy it would be. I did have a bit of difficulty with this blog's post and probably could've typed more quickly but the software hasn't had a chance to get to know me yet. The instructions tell you to remember that your computer is not a person and that there is no point yelling out to it or speaking more slowly and something else I don't remember.I think we have got used to soundbites or "write" bites. Blog posts and e-mails are a lot shorter than documents and letters.

Edith Flack Ackley

Mum and I have just made a couple of dolls using the embroidery sewing machine. They have to be personalized but were quick to make.

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Jewellery Play Day

A couple of friends and I had a play day recently and we decided to make necklaces. Caroline and Ann hadn't made necklaces with crimps before so they had fun. Unfortunately I learned via a you tube video a few days later that we didn't do it properly because we didn't have a crimp tool or beads to cover the crimps. Next time I see them we will have to reconsider restringing the necklaces.

I spent my time fixing necklaces that I had either made or bought which had fallen apart.

These are Caroline's:



The necklaces here were made by Ann and the ear rings were made by Caroline:



And these are the ones I fixed:

Great Danes - Altered Book

Great Danes, originally uploaded by juliestenning.

The ABEurope altered book yahoo group currently has a round robin. We each chose our own theme. This is Eileen's book and her theme is "Great Danes".