Valentine Gift and Snow

I made a small wall hanging recently to give to Zach's teacher. She is one of those "special" teachers that a child never forgets.

I stitched out the heart design ( Urban Threads) on white fabric and then added the borders.  A wise person might have quilted the background first.  I started quilting and decided to take the borders off.

Unfortunately I used a very small stitch length and it was very difficult to remove the stitches so I opted for cutting off the border.  You can see in the photo above a bit of the fabric remained.  Good thing I own all the best tools because I was able to get that line of fabric off with the tip of my Seam Fix and Famore Micro Fine Tweezers.  All I did was pull a bit at the fabric with the tweezers and then rub with the tip of the Seam Fix and all of that fabric came off.  If you can believe this....the white Kona fabric didn't fray :)

Nice to be able to get all those threads out.  I didn't bother with those that would be beyond the border.

The wrinkles in the fabric will come out with  a bit of steam.  I put a extra layer of wool batting just behind the heart so it would pop and then I used my regular sewing machine to go over some of the stitch lines to give extra dimension.  A bit difficult to see in the photo but I think it came out nice. 

You might be able to see the dimension a bit better in this photo.

The Seam Fix and Famore Micro Fine Tweezers are available at I Have A Notion, Inc (IHAN)and below are the links if you are interested.

Famore Micro Fine Tweezers-
http://ihavea-notion.com/store/item_2838/Famore-Micro-Fine-Tweezers-3-12-in..htm
Seam Fix Mini-
http://ihavea-notion.com/store/item_3633/Mini-Seam-Fix.htm
Seam Fix Pink
http://ihavea-notion.com/store/item_3493/Seam-Fix-Pink.htm
Seam Fix Teal
http://ihavea-notion.com/store/item_3494/Seam-Fix-Teal.htm

How about all that snow we are getting here in Ohio?  I'm a snow lover so you won't hear me complain.  The boys have been out of school and today had a two hour delay.

 

All 4 of us shoveled our driveway and front walk 4 times on Sunday....yep.....4 times.  It was a ball!  The neighbors all use snow blowers and the boys always ask why we don't have one.  I say the same thing every time....until we can no longer use our arms and legs we'll continue to use a shovel to remove our snow....they roll their eyes....giggles.

Yesterday I took them and a friend sledding at a local hill.  The wind was so cold it was burning our faces but the kids didn't seem to mind very much.

Good thing I remembered our thermos of hot chocolate.....oh what a good time we had.

Cold Smiles,

Kelly

Talk About Addictive

Addictive in a good way....naturally! :)  I know many of you are not into Machine Embroidery but that doesn't mean you can't appreciate the results...right?  Right :)

I had a wedding shower to go to last Saturday and I knew I was going to be giving a gift card because the couple live out of state and they'll be moving soon...a gift card is just the right size and weight for travel.  I still wanted to give them something fun to open at their shower.  Check these out.....

I used Floriani threads because I love the way the colors have a shine that just pops the design.  I didn't want hoop marks on the towels because I was them the same day so I used Floriani Perfect Stick stabilizer.   I just hooped the stabilizer and positioned the towel, pressed it down and I was good to go.

 Call me corney if you must...but I have always liked hand towels and kitchen towels that have a pretty design on them.  I think they are sort of decadent....clearly not required....but fun and frivolous to have.  Like kitchen / bathroom jewelry if you will.

What I'd like to know is how on earth anyone does Machine Embroidery without excellent tweezers and a pair of very fine pointed and sharp scissors?  I used my Famore Micro Fine Tweezers and my Dovo Embroidery Scissors to cut the fine threads from the back.  All the other tweezers I own would not pull just one or two threads....and I needed to do that here and there....so I'm thinking if anyone who doesn't have a pair of Famore Micro Fine Tweezers needs to get some lickity split....no kidding.  By the way, if you do order them from IHAN and decide you don't think they are the bomb I'm telling you they are....I'll refund your money along with paying the shipping too.   The tweezers were great to get that little bit of stabilizer off the back in the tiny spaces too.

This is another one I made for them....I loved the Eggplant design.  Naturally I made them others and in my race to the finish line I didn't take photos.  I literally finished the towels within a 1/2 hour of needing to leave to go to the shower.  Do you know anyone else like that?  :)

Switching topics here....I've gotten a lot of e-mails asking how the Flamingos are doing.  They are just fine and in the same place that I showed you last time.  When the folks who own them get around to moving them...I'll be sure to get another photo to update everyone.  I was thinking about sneaking over there and doing something funny with them to give the owners some pleasure and humor....but then I was afraid it might not be the best thing to do....I'd be trespassing....so I didn't.

While tutoring at my co-workers school last week, a little girl wanted to show me the book she had just written.  I asked to take a pix and she let me.....and since it isn't identifiable....I'm posting photos here to share with you a few moments of joy and humor that was written by a 9 year old little girl.
 

 

I hope you can read each page....

Smiles,
Kelly