The Desk and Supplies

Well, I was trying to list some of my new embroidery things on Etsy, but they are having "hiccups", so instead, I'll be blogging about my fourth child, oh, I mean my machine.

In the first picture you can see the completely awesome desk my dad made me when I was a little girl. If you look closely you can see that the top of the desk matches the green accents of my machine. Pretty cool, huh? Actually, the desk couldn't be more perfect for my machine than if I had one custom made.


In the next picture is my completely awesome machine. The awesomeness is debated among the embroidery world. A lot of embroiderists do not like this machine, but I did not have $3000-$10,000 to spend, so for the money I think this machine is REALLY, REALLY cool!



Here is my trusty laptop, a must for this machine as this is where you do your designing. I first plan out my design on the computer and send it to the machine in the same way you would "print" something in a printer.




This is a picture of the front drawer, be very prepared for awesomeness as this next part is one of the coolest parts.




My thread! My spools fit perfectly in this drawer so I asked Dave to make me a thread holder to hold my threads. And he did! It's so fun to plan out my designs on the computer than open up the drawer to pick out colors from my perfectly organized thread. Thanks Dave!




My needles fit very nicely in this built in pencil holder!




Next we have little scissors, seem rippers, nets, various sewing supplies, bobbins, and bobbin thread.






Behind the front compartment of the same drawer is a "secret" compartment, this is where I keep my manual and a binder of all my designs so i can see them in real colors.



Directly to the right of the front drawer is a smaller drawer where I keep my hoops and stabilizer. This drawer is directly under where my machine sits.



Under that drawer is where I keep my regular, non-embroidery, thread.



The side of the desk has four more drawers. In the top one I keep my fusible interfacing and under wonder or wonder under I can never remember which word comes first.




Under that drawer I have my supplies that convert my embroidery machine into a regular sewing machine. I don't use these much as I usually only embroider with this machine. I usually use my other machine for sewing. Often I have them both going at the same time.




The two bottom drawers are nice and big. In the top on I keep my "blanks" that are white. In the bottom one are my color "blanks".







Dave is pretending to fall asleep as I blog about this. So, sorry if I was a bit boring. My excitement has gotten the better of me.

Why I've been absent...

About a month ago I got this:

It has consumed my life. I don't sleep anymore. I embroider things...all...the...time! When I'm not embroidering things, I'm thinking about embroidering things. I know I need help, if anyone knows of any support groups out there please let me know. In the mean time, I'll be embroidering.

Next to come will be about the things that I embroider and my embroidery desk and organization of embroidery things. You'll all be thoroughly impressed when you see what Dave made me, well, maybe not "thoroughly", but it's pretty cool.

Baby Bunnies

So I was digging up potatoes in my garden when my friend and I found two adorable baby bunnies. Of course, I didn't think they were so adorable when they scurried across the soil as I was jabbing the pitch fork into the ground. I believe my initial response was, "AHHHH, A MOUSE". Thankfully, my brave friend, Lauren, was able to catch them so we could all enjoy them for a few hours. Thanks Lauren!

On really hot days...

Karilyn and Heidi have been playing outside with the girls in the neighborhood just about every day. It's been hot though lately, so sometimes they play inside. On this particular day they were all pretending that Diana was their baby, and Diana was cooperating very nicely.




Girls everywhere, not a boy in sight! Out of our 3 neighbors and us there are 11 GIRLS and no boys.

When you're just too tired to take off your goggles...

Karilyn and Heidi have been taking swim lessons Monday through Thursday. They are two little fish! Today Heidi fell asleep on the way home. Usually I take clothes for them to change into, but of course I didn't today. Anyway, this is what a tired little fish looks like:

Dumpster Diving is for Divas

I found a new hobby, apparently I wasn't busy enough. I'm really enjoying turning other people's trash into something useful. One day at work, I was Telling Diana, my co-dumpster-diving buddy, that I would really like to find some fun fabric for really cheap. After work, we went to check out the dumpster behind our office for more blinds, yes blinds, and we found these:

They are those fabric sample books for picking out fabric, you know, for people who pay full price for things like that. After I got my breath back from gasping in excitement, I took them home and started planning my next twirler dress.

They were exactly 4 inches in width, so I decided to make them 4 X 4 inches. I needed 129 squares, I had exactly 131 solid colored squares! I know, almost too good to be true, and it was true! I got the brown for the bodice out of my basement, then I got to work!


131 Squares!

cutting out the bodice:


Sewing on the first tier:

I'll leave you with a bunch of pictures of my cooperative model showing off the dress:

Today's Harvest

Yes, they taste as good as they look! Diana is eating them faster that she can chew! So much for her dress.