Showing posts with label ballcap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ballcap. Show all posts

Monday, March 4, 2013

Cajun Corner - Vol. 5, No. 8


 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 8 – March 4, 2013

 

Bon Jour!  Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, and, www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:



Our customer loved the ball caps; however, we forgot to take pictures.  Luckily, we took some pictures when we were working on the design in the beginning but it would have been nice to have a photo or two of all 65 ball caps. 

Now we are working on a towel order.  The customer wants a peace sign, mermaid, and fish embroidered in all white on her bath towels, wash cloths, and hand towels.  George is working on this order, too.  He is quite the little embroiderer.  The designs worked out well except for the little fish that the customer requested.  The fish is an outline type design and the lines were so thin that the loops in the fabric covered the outline.  The design had to be altered to thicken the lines.  They are working fine now.  To hold the loops in the terrycloth down to embroider, a special overlay stabilizer is required.  The stabilizer is basically starch made into sheets.  Once the embroidery is done and the tearaway stabilizer is removed from the back, the towels need to be washed to remove the stabilizer on top.  Recently in one of the embroidery periodicals that I read there was an article on this suggesting using a thin plastic, rather than the water soluble overlay.  That would not work in this situation because of the outlining in the designs.  It would work nicely on fill or appliqué designs.

What have I been doing?  Mardi Gras put me terribly behind on all of my birthday gifts for the girls.  I have everything to make the gifts but there are a few steps to the project and all I can say is that I’m working on it in my spare time. 

In the meantime, I’m combining a couple of projects.  When I use my Embird digitizing program to download true type fonts, they usually look great on the computer screen.  That does not mean they will stitch out okay.  In fact, when I send anyone a “computer simulation” of a design, any design, that is exactly what it is, a computer rendition of the embroidery design.   A computer screen does not have depth or drape or any of the issues involved in hooping and stitching.  The computer simulation could stitch out horribly or beautifully.  You just never know until you stitch it out.

Nevertheless, I have recently downloaded a whole bunch of true type fonts.  They are more in thee area of antique, heirloom type fonts.  It takes awhile to create one of the samplers, so I decided to make little in-the-hoop purses with the girls’ initials in some of the new fonts.  In addition to that, there are fonts called ornaments and wingdings.  If it is a true type font, I should be able to change it into embroidery stitches.  Some of the ornaments that were downloaded are beautiful curly cues and swirls to enhance the monogram.  I am using some of these around the monograms on the little purses to see how they look and stitch out.  One that I did actually stitched out pretty nice but the columns were so thin that it kept breaking the thread.  Remember:  not everything done with pen and ink can be duplicated in embroidery. 

The purses themselves are a design that I created.  The entire purse is made in-the-hoop.  Once the purse is taken out of the embroidery hoop, the only thing left to do is attaching the handle/strap with grommets and attaching the snap.  It is a really awesome process and we can make these purses up to 10” square.

Now that the house next door a/k/a the green house is remodeled, we are working out decorating ideas.  Our garage still has Mama’s apartment furnishings in it.  I never had any place to put her stuff, nor did I have the heart to go through it.  Now is the time. 

The house is going to be a multi-purpose house with Cajun Stitchery occupying a portion.  So, it will be a semi-business, semi-home thing.  It needs to be available for my Nereid girls to meet and spend the night, so, beds are going to be important.  There are a lot of beds, tables, ottomans, chairs, drawers, etc., that George is going to have to make for me if I cannot find what I want in Mama’s apartment, or at the Salvation Army or Waterfront Mission.

In addition to the furniture, there are 20 windows that need curtains and I will make those.  There are rugs, towels, etc., needed.  All sorts of things that I need to buy or make and, of course, embroider.  If you are local and want to get rid of tee shirts, send them over.  It doesn’t matter if they are ripped or stained.  I plan to make some rag rugs out of them.

We have had a few cold days lately, down into the low 30’s.  Today is like Spring and absolutely beautiful.  None of our newly planted seeds have sprouted yet.  That’s probably a good thing since the sprouts would have been injured by the cold.

If you are not a subscriber and would like to receive Cajun Corner weekly, please email cajunstitchery@yahoo.com and let me know to put you on our email list. 

No time to read Cajun Corner?  Visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and click the Odiogo button to hear the computer read the blog.

Did you know (found at http://www.funfunnyfacts.com/Fun-Amazing-Facts.html):

66% of home based businesses are owned by women.  
Insulating your attic reduces the amount of energy loss in most houses by up to 20%.
Rain contains vitamin B12.
Real diamonds can be made from peanut butter!
Recycling one glass jar, saves enough energy to watch T.V for 3 hours!
Rubber is one of the ingredients in bubble gum.
Salmon can jump as high as 6 feet.
Snails breathe through their feet.
Sound at the right vibration can bore holes through a solid object.
Sound travels fifteen times faster through steel than through air.
Surgeons who listen to music during operations perform better than those who don't .
The American Film Institute has named composer John Williams score for Star Wars as the greatest film score of all time.
The average American/Canadian drinks about 600 sodas a year!
The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.
The banana tree cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man.
The Bible is the most-shoplifted book in the world.
Peggy Henshall
Cajun Stitchery
(850) 261-2462
P.S.  You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Cajun Corner - Vol. 5, No. 2


Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 2 – January 13, 2013

 

Bon Jour!  Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, and, www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:



This past week was full of puff embroidery.  Actually it was more the perils of the P.  We digitized a beautiful P monogram that was to puff.  Around the bottom of the P were some floral designs.  I guess they were too tiny and in a fill stitch, rather than a satin stitch.  Those little tiny pieces of foam just would not go away completely.  No matter how many times I stitched that thing out, there were little pieces of foam that refused to come off or hide beneath the thread.  By the end of the week, I just threw my hands in the air and decided this design just would not be a puff design.  A nice weekend away with the girls and I have a new plan for the P that I will try out.

As a business, you must be flexible.  The products in our Etsy store were going to be limited to scarves and handkerchiefs; however, those little in-the-hoop purses seem to sell very well.  At least so far they do.  The two little purses that have been listed each sold within a couple of weeks of the posting.  A third one was listed last week.  Time will tell how that goes.  The store may have three categories, rather than two.  The only thing that is bothersome about the little purses is the shoulder strap.  The shoulder strap should be strong enough but flexible, so webbing was used.  The webbing is attached using metal grommets.  The perfect place to attach the webbing would be on opposite sides of the purse but the seam gets in the way.  The strap has been placed in the back of the seam, in the front of the seam, on the inside of the purse and on the outside.  No one has complained so far about the placement but it does bother me.   

A friend of mine commented the other day that I was continuing Mama’s tradition.  Since Mama was known as Madame Queen, it is only proper that I should become Queen, too.  So far in my reign we have had a fabulous time.  The krewe is going to be my Court and each member has received a Royal title.  It is not fair that the King and Queen are the only ones with crowns, so, the krewe has each received a tiara from the Queen – much smaller than my crowns, of course.  That’s only proper.  Yesterday we went to Dynasty, which is a company in Mobile that sells rhinestone pins, jewelry, crowns, scepters, etc., to many krewes from Florida to Louisiana.  There I purchased my Krewe Krown.  It is a gorgeous fleur de lis crown.  The fleur de lis is my royal signature design.  This coming Friday evening is our Moon Pie Party.  It is open to the public, so everyone should come out to the Sandshaker on Pensacola Beach and join the festivities.

Speaking of crowns, when I purchased the tiaras for the krewe, I simply had to purchase another crown for me.  They were so pretty.  I have a cute little tiara that I’ve had for many years.  Well, to make a long story short, I now have 4 gorgeous crowns.  Frankly, I do picture a different crown for each day of the week.  Not to mention that they do look good on me.  I think my head was built to wear a crown.  I haven’t found one that wasn’t extremely comfortable.

Although my signature royal design is the fleur de lis, I thought it would be appropriate if I handed out smiles, rather than beads, for Mardi Gras.  I purchased little foam smiley faces in the shape of a star as my special hand out.  The intent is to spread smiles across the beach.

We are picking tomatoes and bell peppers in January.  Can you believe this weather?  This past weekend was shirt sleeve weather in the 60s and 70s.  

Last Thursday night was the Champagne Queen party at a friend’s home on the beach.  Everyone was to decorate their champagne glass and the winner received a prize.  One of the prizes was a little pink purse that Cajun Stitchery embroidered.  It was so cute.  A good time was had by all and we hope this party becomes an annual tradition.

This week we are going to begin embroidering caps for a really nice order that was received for a gentleman’s fraternity alumni.  The order is for 65 ball caps.  This may be our biggest ball cap order yet.  Can’t wait to get this one done.

J

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler

J

If you are not a subscriber and would like to receive Cajun Corner weekly, please email cajunstitchery@yahoo.com and let me know to put you on our email list. 
No time to read Cajun Corner?  Visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and click the Odiogo button to hear the computer read the blog.
Found the following at:  http://www.printmyribbon.com/shipping

Dior Bow Tie





Materials: three yards of grosgrain ribbon, one 12 inch piece of grosgrain ribbon, one thin piece of ribbon or floral wire.


Step 1: Begin the Dior Bow Tie by winding the ribbon back and forth to form three loops. To do this, first form one loop. Holding the loop at its midpoint, wind the ribbon underneath to form another loop that is slightly larger than the first. Now hold both of the loops together at their midpoints and wind the ribbon underneath in the opposite direction to form a final loop, again slightly larger than the previous.


Step 2: To secure your loops, tie a knot around the midpoint with a thin piece of ribbon or floral wire.


Step 3: With a separate piece of ribbon about 12” long, wrap around the knot you just made, tying a double knot on the backside of the bow. Pull down a piece of the extra ribbon on each side of the bow to form the bow’s tails.


Step 4: Trim the tails to your desired length. Use crimping scissors to add a decorative finish on the ends of the tails.


Step 5: Attach the bow to your gift with double-sided tape or tie the bow directly to another ribbon on your package.

 
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C’est tout, mes amis
Peggy Henshall
Cajun Stitchery
(850) 261-2462
P.S.  You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Banners, Pillows and COLORS

George has been working on our banners for out tent at the Arts & Wine Festival.  You may recall that last year we took photos and later realized there wasn't one thing that said we were Cajun Stitchery.  Ahhh, learning experiences are so much fun.  Ha!  We will have two 10 foot embroidered banners saying "Cajun Stitchery" on the 2 sides of the tent.  Inside will be the Cajun Stitchery pillows hanging from the back.  "Cajun Stitchery pillows?" you might ask.  Yes, that has been my project.  I have made little pillows for each letter of C-a-j-u-n-S-t-i-t-c-h-e-r-y.  Each letter is about a foot square, I guess.  They have D rings in the top and we plan on suspending them from the back of the tent.  If that isn't enough, this year we are bringing our CD player and playing cajun music.  That is all in addition to the Cajun Stitchery aprons we wore last year.  See.  We can learn.

When I finally got to the machine yesterday, I stitched out some Who Dat luggage tags that we plan to sell at the festival.  I have a few more cell phone pouches to make but that should do it for the cell phone pouches.  Then we are all into luggage tags.  There will be several designs but I do plan on having several Who Dat tags, gator tags, and possibly some Vietnam Vet tags.  Then I need to make the bottle aprons.

George has some more ballcaps to embroider.

All of that is on top of and keeping up with our day-to-day orders and trying to stay on top of the Etsy store.  Yes, it's a lot of work but we love working together and we love what we are doing.  We really can be quite creative, given the chance. lol

While I was waiting on the machine yesterday, I was piddling on the sewing machine and made some, shall we say, unusual handkerchiefs.  Two of them have been listed on Etsy.  I plan on listing the last one later today. 

I'll be leaving early this evening, actually late afternoon, to attend COLORS at the Grand Marlin.  COLORS stands for something that I never remember.  It really is just an excuse for the beach people and friends to get together once a month at different bars and restaurants on the beach. 

After COLORS we are going to our usual Wednesday night girls dinner.  Tonight is one of the girls birthdays.  I am so excited because I can finally give her the pillowcases that I made for her and then, later, show pictures of them on the internet.  When I embroider for gifts, I am free to go all out and not be constrained by the price of the stitches.  George and I worked it out and the embroidery alone on these pillowcases would be over $88.  They are unique and beautiful.  That leave one more set of pillowcases that I haven't been able to share over the internet and those should be delivered next week.

Stay tuned.
C'est tout, mes amis.