Exhausted But Ready to Embroider

What a weekend we had.  Friday night was the Nereids Moon Pie Party.  That was a blast.  Thanks to everyone who came out to support us and join in the festivities.  Then Saturday (I was still aching from Friday night) was the Junkanoos Chili Cook-Off.  Yes, we made it there with our chili and won 1st place.  It was so funny because last week I embroidered the aprons that we won.
George and I wore our tux jackets with the new mylar embroidery cuffs on the sleeves.  The reason I changed the cuffs from sequins to mylar embroidery was because the sequins catch on everything and I was always pulling threads and losing sequins.  Eventually, the sequins and cuff look tattered.  Well, the mylar embroidery held up great.  Just like I planned.  The problem was the satin stitching around the mylar embroidery caught on everything, just like the sequins.  After looking at our jackets, it appears that the side of the cuff facing our bodies are the part causing the problems.  They usually catch on the pins that we wear.  So, I'm thinking about putting some clear drying glue over the satin stitching in that area.  It will probably require several layers of glue.

Those two parties were about all I could handle for the weekend.  I am getting old.  Next Saturday is the Nauga Party.  Required attire is pajamas, preferably animal print.  This will be the first Nauga party that we've attended but I understand they are a hoot.

The cabbage, onions, carrots, chard, and broccoli are looking good in the garden.  The broccoli has a head on it and we need to start eating broccoli.  George planted celery, peppers, and several other things in the garden yesterday.  We usually don't plant in January but this year we want celery and, I guess, he just planted other things at the same time.  I love our garden.  I didn't get any pansies or petunias to add color to the yard this winter.  Except for the occasional camellia bloom, everything is green and brown -- more brown.

The embroidery studio is a mess.  I need to get in there today and straighten things out.

An embroidery friend suggested rather than using tearaway stabilizer for making patches, to use a plastic that she gets from the hardware store.  I purchased the plastic and can't wait to get started on those designer pockets and other patches.

This month I've learned digitizing.  I know, I have a long way to go before I can hold myself out as a really good digitizer, but I did learn to digitize lettering other than block type lettering using a fill stitch.  Doing my own digitizing gives me a great freedom to create my own designs. 

I've had so much fun with the towels that I've been giving as birthday presents this year.  The 9" tall diva design is just captivating to me.  The digitizing and creating the background applique is a lot of fun, too.  Applique sure saves a lot of stitches and comes in handy on fabrics, like terrycloth, where you would otherwise need a backing of some sort to prevent the threads from popping through the embroidery or the embroidery from sinking and disappearing in the pile.