Dad's Embroidery Project

Next month my Dad celebrates his 80th birthday.  So rather than the usual gift card, I thought "Hey,  how about creating a card.  I'll try embroidery."  Here's what I did:

First I selected a favorite photo.  Ok, Mom's eyes are partially closed, but this project is all about Dad.

You may know that I'm an embroidery novice, but am learning.  I brought the photo into Creative DRAWings.  Over 330,000 stitches!  By the time I was done with it, the stitch count was 27,000 - still a lot, but certainly more manageable.

I love all these beautiful colors of thread.  To avoid color confusion, especially the various flesh tones, I labeled the spools with thread change numbers on sticky notes.  One nice thing about the software was that it solved one huge mystery by suggesting the stabilizer.

You know that sinking feeling - "Oh no, do I have enough thread?"  Well about now I'm holding my breath hoping I have enough thread.  That spool is from my stash with no label - little luck finding the exact replacement in a day.  . . . .  Ok, I was able to exhale with thread to spare for another small project.

At 10:30 last night I had to stop as the next day was another work day.  This project is not done, in fact I may start all over again.  Stay tuned... I still have another week to finish this project, but shhhhhhhh . . . . if you know my Dad, don't tell him about this little project.  :)

http://www.creative-drawings.com/
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Oprah's Surprise Spectacular . . . A Giant Love Hug

Have to bump my Salt Lake City International Quilt Market update with OOOOOprah!  Yes, I got two tickets through the Oprah on-line lottery.  And spectacular the show was indeed.  Over 20,000 well dressed heart filled Oprah fans gathered to celebrate Oprah's 25 years.   The evening was well orchestrated and star studded - well there were a few blips, but who cares!  A few edits and the evening will be documented perfectly for TV.   The evening was memorable starting with Oprah signage outside the United Center. 

Fans were excited to be photographed and interviewed by the media.  Lindsay of The Hollywood Reporter interviewed my husband and I outside the Chicago United Center.  We talked about recognizing "a ha" moments, while kudos to my husband talked about being a fan of me, his wife, an Oprah fan.  It's so easy to adore my husband!

Fans with signs, portraits and even an Oprah look-alike paraded before the electrified audience.

I did abide by the rule of no photos during the performance, well not really.  Our seats were just too far away - only 2 rows from the roof, so the best photo I offer is me holding a gift issue of Oprah's magazine.  I'm wearing a black skirt and top with a beautiful sheer vintage floral embroidered shawl.  Thanks Rita!

Oprah is the ultimate communicator and educator.  Her dedication to education allowed over 62,000 young people to obtain their dreams of a better world through education.  The evening included a candlelight parade of seemingly hundreds of fine young men from Morehouse College who dedicated themselves to higher learning and now contribute to their worlds with service and knowledge.   The big show surprise for Oprah was audience participation in an organized book donation.  Over 20,000 books were donated for libraries across the country.

Who were the memorable performances?  Jackie Evancho, the 10 year old girl with the other-worldly operatic voice that won the hearts of America's Got Talent, Christine Chenoweth, Jerry Seinfeld. . . . And who brought the house down?  It's tough to decide Michael Jordon, Patti LaBelle, Stevie Wonder, Maya Angelou, Aretha Franklin singing Amazing Grace, Beyonce.  The evening was fabulous!  The United Center rocked!  What a night!  . . . . Loved Oprah's beautiful full length plum dress with aqua and turq bejeweled neck and waistline.  And for those tears of joy moments, every row in the United Center had a box of Kleenex - how's that for knowing your audience?!

Last night, two of the three final shows were taped.  They will air on Monday and Tuesday, followed on Wednesday with her final studio show.  I wonder if Oprah sews?  Seems like she should have time now. . . .

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What's In Your Spring Wardrobe?

Last week, Soni Grint, Creative DRAWings Director, and I spent 2.5 days embroidering nearly non-stop.  We created samples and promotional items for upcoming sewing shows using Creative DRAWings.  I have always dabbled in machine embroidery, but after this last session, I must say I'm hooked.  Creative DRAWings made it so simple!  I didn't struggle with stitch parameters or even stabilizers.  Creative DRAWings set the parameters for my fabric and suggested the stabilizers.  Whew!  Two mysteries solved right there.

These were our major projects:  I took a nice, but boring ready-to-wear suit on the left - a $200 suit marked down to $19.99 - don't you love a good sale -  and gave it some zip with embroidery.  Soni took a coat she had made and added embroidery also. 

 I wanted to do fully embroidered black lilies, but decided that doing just an outline was more intriguing - and faster too.

Soni combined milk and dark chocolate Ultra-suede to her appliqued trio.


 She choose earth tone and sky blue threads that created a lovely embellishment.



Here are our projects - not yet done, but at the end of our session.  I don't know what additional work Soni has done on her coat, but over the weekend I added even more black lilies to the back, front and sleeves and added satin dots, just to punch up the coat even more. 

Soni and I are meeting next week in Salt Lake City for International Quilt Market.  I will be promoting SCHMETZ, while Soni will be promoting Creative DRAWings.  We'll both be wearing our outfits and I'll take more pictures.

Here's the link to Creative DRAWings, a graphics based software for machine embroidery:  www.Creative-DRAWings.com. 

Dressed to a T ...ree!

What signs of spring do you have in your neighborhood?  The grape hyacinths in my Chicagoland garden are still shivering, too cold yet to take on their role as soldiers of spring.  I've always had a few of these little purple guys, but last year I planted 200 bulbs and I'm waiting, waiting waiting for this new army of spring to usher in warmer weather. 

Last week Rita Farro and I met at the Morton Arboretum.  Lucky for us we sat outside on the Visitors Center patio to review new SCHMETZ educational materials and to discuss upcoming SCHMETZ projects. 

Over Rita's shoulder I noticed unexpected color, lots of color.  Oh my, the tree has color spots!

As we got closer we spotted clues that we were in for a special surprise. . . .

A dance of color among the forsythia . . .

Wow!  What a delight!  A dressed tree!  Someone has done some serious branching out with their crocheting!

Who could guess that even a tree could dress up in anticipation of spring? Is this the only tree dressed for the season?  I can hardly wait to find out if more trees will be dressed in Nature Unframed, an upcoming contemporary sculpture exhibit at Morton Arboretum, May 20 - November 27, 2011. http://www.mortonarb.org/

This tree reminds me of one of my favorite blogs - Advanced Style, see the link in the right column.
Be colorful . . . . regardless of the season!

Enjoy spring!

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2011 The Haute Couture Club of Chicago

Hooray For Hollywood was the theme of yesterday's annual Haute Couture Fashion Show and Luncheon featuring unique, finely-crafted garments created and modeled by club members.  The workmanship and originality of garments was remarkable.  Garments were inspired by several silver screen classics including  Out of Africia, Dr. Zhivago, Around The World in 80 Days, Devil Wears Prada.  I'm sew inspired!  Take a glimpse at a few favorite garments:


Katarzyna Grzesik
Red formal tulle dress with ruching and ruffles
Katarzyna won a 2010 Fashion Group International scholarship.



Sheril Hughes'
Ocean blue Thai silk cocktail dress 
The stunning sleeves are removal and convert into a shawl.

Brenda Rogerson wearing a wonderful rectangle skirt designed by
Rhonda Buss wearing a stunning vintage vogue dress. 



Tammy O'Connell of Peacock Patterns
Love the shimmering silver fabric!
Silver hologram panne velvet evening dress

 

Maria Curciarello
Red/beige metallic hand beaded cocktail dress
A lovely rival to the traditional little black dress



One of the joys of this show was seeing "real" women with "real" body - curvy - shapes wearing beautiful, colorful, custom fit garments. They all strutted on the stage, comfortable with themselves and their creative endeavors.  So many of us that sew, quilt or create wearable art are no longer a size 8 or 10.  Take a fitting class or join a sewing guild.  Fashion sewing is fun!  Don't let your dress size keep you from the wonderful world of haute couture. 

I'm sew inspired!  Soon I'll show you a few garments that I'm stitching up...

http://www.hautecoutureclubchicago.com/ .
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007 to the Rescue

Wow! What a terrific product!  007 Bond.  Not James Bond, but 007 Bond as in Bonding Agent.  For quite sometime a tear has needed a repair in my comforter.  Since I didn't do the job immediately, the tear had grown to about 4".  Repairing a rip is not sewing, and like alterations . . . . a burden, but never fear 007 Bond to the rescue!  I had seen this product and the demos at many sewing shows, but only recently did I figure out this 007 Bonding Agent was perfect for the job.

The Problem -
4" Rip in my Comforter

Look closely. . . 007 was sprinkled onto a fabric patch, then sprinkled with water.  The patch was inserted under the rip.

Heat sets the adhesive powder. 
A Bo-Nash Pressing Sheet protects the fabric and the iron. 

Voila!  After setting for an hour, the rip disappeared!

I Love 007 Bonding Agent!

For more information on 007 Bonding Agent visit http://www.bonash.com/. 

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Back to Puyallup - 2011 Sewing & Stitchery Expo

Four days of inspiration, friendship, stitch madness and some mighty good freshly baked scones with raspberry jelly - thanks Karla! - was just the beginning to the 2011 Sewing and Stitchery Expo.  Take a look at a few favorite shots from the floor.  I wish more photos could be loaded in this blog, so will just have to make several postings.

Luveta Nickels, The Junk Jeans People with
 Rita Farro, Publicity Director, 2011 Sewing and Stitchery Expo
chatting before the crowds overtake the show aisles.

The back of Rita's jacket.
Rita's sister is an embroidery maven.  Lucky Rita had 2 or 3 wardrobe changes daily just to show off the embroidery and special embellishments provided by her sister Deb.

Donna, WonderFil Threads wears a wildly wonderful jacket of whirling WonderFil Threads.

A delightful embroidered floral bouquet hat reminds us that spring is near.

Threads and fabrics dancing on this jacket.

I just realized that most of these pictures are the back side of the wearers, so I"ll be "back" later with more front side pictures.

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