Always looking for a better way to make patches, I went to a local fabric shop at the behest of a friend to get buckram. I purchase a yard of the buckram and came home. Okay, I picked up a few other items and fabric, too. At home, I decided to do a bit of research on buckram. Buckram is used in many way but usually by milliners for hats and to make the covers of books. It is used in making patches. So, I did a bit of research on the patch making. Then I began reading about plastic backing for patches. We frequently use plastic backing for our patches and the article I was reading said the plastic backing is the best. Then I saw that the latest greatest thing in patches is a hot knife cut. I've ever used a hot knife before, so I looked that up and found that many of the patches with intricate detail in the outline are cut out with a hot knife that melds the plastic backing, with the poly fabric giving a very secure and long lasting finish to the edge of the patch. Well, at this point, I decided that I need to get me one of those hot knives. I began the hot knife search and started getting a lot of sites for heat presses. Just looking around the heat presses will secure the hot fix rhinestones as well as other types of embellishment. I caught myself before getting in way over my head, but those heat presses seemed pretty intriguing. So, I went to a company that I use for a lot of my embroidery supplies. Yes, they have the hot knife, but ooooh, they have the heat presses, too, and a machine that applies the rhinestones. I was a gonner at this point. I ended up purchasing the whole patch kit which includes the hot knife. Then I couldn't resist and purchased a real cheap-o rhinestone applier thingy. George and I decided that if the cheap-o one works, we can always revisit getting something more pricier. All of that because I bought a yard of buckram. The kicker is that I haven't made a patch since I got the buckram home.
Since rhinestones were on my mind, I decided to break down and do the rhinestone motif on that adhesive plastic that I purchased with the 70 gross of rhinestones. It just never made any sense to me that you put the rhinestones upside down on the adhesive, with the glue end facing you, and follow your design which is taped underneath the adhesive. Then once all of the rhinestones are in place, you replace the backing to the adhesive enveloping the rhinestone motif that you just made. You turn it over and take off the backing and iron the motif onto whatever you chose ironing on the adhesive plastic. They say the plastic won't melt but when the ends start to curl, you know you are done. Following the directions, I did a little mermaid motif. Isn't she cute. Now I have to figure out what I'm going to put her on.
I've been digitizing so much this week that my eyes were hurting last night. Today I decided that I just want to embroider for the fun of it. George hung out my hummingbird feeder that one of the girls gave me for my birthday. The hummingbird book, which was also part of my present, gave the recipe for the home made hummingbird nectar -- sugar and water. So, I had the hummingbird book out and it was very interesting and we kept reading about hummingbirds. I finally decided to embroider a hummingbird. I embroidered it on a white fingertip towel. It turned out so cute. Now I'm waiting on the hummingbirds to show up.
I digitized the logo for the Mystic Krewe of Fruitcakes. It looked good on the computer simulation but not so much when I stitched it out. The lettering has 3 colors in each letter. My problem was that I ended up with over 100 trims which caused the back of the logo to have strings everywhere. The problem with that is that they tangle and can jam the embroidery machine. It also takes time and causes the needles to come unthreaded. This little 3.5 inch, 11,000 stitch logo took an hour to embroider. That will never do. I was just exhausted and took last night off. Now that I've had time to digest this design, I think I've come up with another way of achieving the logo without so many trims. Not today, though. I'll do that one later.
No one won the contest that ended Tuesday night at midnight. The author of "Beat of an Island Drum" is Ms. Jane Waters Cooper.
The first person to email me at peggyhenshall@yahoo.com with the name of the famous actress who passed away today at 79 years of age will win a set of 4 napkins embroidered with your initials/monogram. This contest will end tomorrow, Thursday night at midnight. Good luck:>)
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