Archives for February 2011

Miscellaneous Monday!

Posted by on February 28, 2011

Sinus update: the ENT put me on 10 days of antibiotics, a month of steroids (they taper off the last 10 days) and I’m weening myself off of decongestant nose spray one nostril at a time! Yes, people CAN get addicted to it. Not an addiction like ‘I have to have it’, but an addiction as in ‘I can’t breathe without it’ and if you use it enough, your sinuses and nose get addicted and never get better! 🙁 I can only use it on one side until the other side clears up, then I quit cold turkey! So far all is going well and I have only used the nose spray on my bad side last night – none today and none yesterday during the day! HOPEFULLY this will all work (both fingers crossed)!

Here is the sailboat patch (not listed yet). I took this photo inside because it’s late in the day and the sun wasn’t out at the time. I seriously need some type of photography light to take pictures inside! My lighting is HORRIBLE! The sun popped out for a second so I just took another picture and will try again tomorrow for a clear bright picture! Is there such a thing as this light I’m envisioning??

Here is my YIKES moment… this has become naptime in Mallory’s room. I guess playtime in her room (so I can get a little work done) is better than no room time? Sometimes she will crawl in her crib eventually and go to sleep (usually late so when it’s time to get up she is CRANKY!

Today I put her down around 1:30 and heard almost 2 hours of singing (on the above cat piano – thanks Granmommy) and playing. I finally heard her knocking at her own door and she was “let out” at about 3:15. No nap and cranky!!

Here is a shot of the trees in our neighborhood! No wonder we’re all having sinus trouble! They are pretty blooming! The boys think it looks like POPCORN!

Lastly, I cleaned out my bobbin case today and it was YUCKY! A lotta lint!! Sewingmachine.com has a great video on the proper way to oil your bobbin hook (and clean it). You can see the video here: http://www.sewingmachine.com/info/videos_prmaintenance.

That’s about all the randomness I have for today! Our Women’s Retreat was fabulous! I did 4 shirts today and the above sailboat sample. I have lots of work piling up to keep me busy for a few weeks.

House news: We did show it Saturday but nothing to report. We also found out from our realtor that only 5 houses have sold since September in Sturbridge. I don’t know if that is good or bad? There are lots of houses for sale….

Filed Under: Family, How To, Misc | Tagged: Tagged With:

Patches and Paper

Posted by on February 24, 2011

Crazy week! This is a quick post before I head out the door to visit an ENT Doctor. I haven’t been to him since like the day I found out I was pregnant with Mallory (literally!! I think the X-ray nurse knew before Jeff)! I’ve been struggling with wanting to surgically remove my sinuses for several months now, so I finally made an appointment to go see him. We’ll see what the outcome is!

Below are some PRECIOUS shirts done by Kate at Sew Initially! She is on my blog list and when I saw these I immediately asked her if I could borrow the pictures to post. This is the AC Simple Bunny on a circle patch (also available at AC). So simple and yet so stinkin’ cute! The blue seersucker is perfect! BTW she stitched the pom pom on by hand.

Here is the AC Shamrock on a circle patch. Again, so simple and so cute! Love the bright colors! Applique Frenzy Grins & Giggles font I think.

For a boy – I love the navy and green (which I think may be great colors for Spring!) MWP Tipsy font.

Here is her girl version ~ again pink seersucker is perfect! Check out her blog and she is also on Facebook!

Sew Initially again, the AC Carrot on a circle patch. Love. It. Everything is cuter on a patch!!

I changed modes yesterday from Embroidery to PAPER! My church’s womens retreat is tomorrow and I was in charge of name tags. Easy? Not exactly! My brain would not work with 3 kids, so I had to enlist the help of my graphic design friend Summer. I bought the template off My Grafico, but it took her to put it together on a sheet for me to enter the names and get them all printed. Last night I cut them all, punched holes today and now I’m going to string elastic so they will go around the neck. They are super cute and this is the inexpensive version of name tags! I had the card stock paper and the template was $4.95.

While I was busy working on this, this is what became of my Sissy! Nothing like a (no nap) dirt and Cheetos face!

Off to the ENT…

Filed Under: Applique Cafe | Tagged:

Satin vs. Fill Stitch

Posted by on February 22, 2011

I had someone ask me after my Stabilizer post yesterday what the difference is between satin stitch and fill stitch. I mentioned that when I monogram towels, I like to use a fill stitch (and that is my personal preference, not a requirement). Maybe this will help? Basically a satin stitch is the same as the finishing stitch on appliques. It’s a back and forth FLAT stitch and this is what it looks like below. When you see the fill stitch photo hopefully you will see the difference! This is Monogram Wizard Plus Serif Block.

Here is a 3 letter monogram done in a satin stitch. I use Monogram Wizard Plus and the below font is Arabesque. When you’re using MWP, it gives you the option of fill stitch or satin stitch for your monogram (below ‘system functions’ box where you save your files). If you buy font files off the internet, then they may come either way (probably) depending on how big the letters are.

Here is a fill stitch and this is also MWP Serif Block font. As you can see, it’s not a back and forth stitch, but rather a filled in stitch (hence the name?). Hopefully you see the difference? Fill stitch requires more thread and takes longer to sew, but for certain projects I prefer a fill stitch (like I mentioned ~ towels, blankets). It really depends on how big the monogram is – if it’s big and you’re using satin stitch, then you run the risk of the thread looping or getting caught or pulled.

Here is a fill stitch 3 letter monogram ~ same as above MWP Arabesque. As you may see below, parts of the R look a little more like satin and it does sew that way if the font is thin enough. I upped the boldness of these so you could really see how filled in the monogram was.

Hopefully that makes sense? Like I said, MWP gives you the option of satin or fill and some other programs may do the same. But, if you purchase fonts from websites who sell them, they usually come satin and/or fill but you can’t change them. Here is a font from www.jolsonsdesigns.com, and as you can see the bigger letters are fill and the smaller letters are satin. Here is the font: http://www.jolsonsdesigns.com/servlet/the-330/305-Georgie-Girl-Satin/Detail.

I have several fonts from Jolson’s and they all stitch great! They are really affordable too and I just found this picture on their website! This may better explain what I’m trying to explain:

I have also heard the term ‘column stitch’ and based on what I’ve read, that is another name for a satin stitch. I have also seen fonts that are so thick the sew in 2 side-by-side attached columns, so I guess that term could apply there as well!

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