Christmas for my mom

A Beautiful Gift from the Past for a Sewing Future

all the pieces

 How on earth do I say thank you for this absolutely lovely gift...no words to describe it. This was given to me by a co-worker who heard I wanted to go to school for fine sewing to learn pattern making and fine tune my skills. Life happens and things get in your way so that dream was not going to happen for some time, I enrolled then chose to not attend because of so many things on my plate and honestly financially it was not in the mix this year. My co-worker where I work came in and said "I have a gift for you...I learned how to make patterns from this and I want you to have it. You can study it and use it and most of all...love it, I know you wanted to go to school but you can learn a lot from this too, I did." OMG I cried, she cried I know it was a very emotional and special part of her life before we met. I almost hate to use it I want to preserve it and display it, its art in so many ways to me.

amazing original instructions this whole thing for .25

pristine condition

like new but well loved

look at those "adjusters" little brass sliders

I find this fascinating, these are for putting in the right amount of width for each panel of a dress.

 

Original owner customers measurements (1900's) 

Commit to 200 miles of biking and learn something about yourself.

I did this, I committed to 200 miles to be ridden in 30 days...and I did it.

It was the best exercise both for my self and for my business.

The Great Cycle Challenge

These were just one of my open canvas of ideas paths.

This is what my butt looks like now.

This pretty much sums up everything.

What I learned On My Rides:

You can make time for yourself its all about scheduling and it works with anything.

No music, no earbuds, you see more you hear more I would have missed some awesome

wildlife and scenery if I was "plugged in"

No matter how brightly clothed you are, nobody sees you unless you make eye contact,

keep this in mind when you are working with a potential customer or even a family member, or most of all the person on the phone at a right hand turn lane.

Say good morning to every person you can, it makes every persons day.

Rest, pace yourself.

On the day you strongly do not want to get up and do it, do it.

 It will be worth it.

Celebrate your success, we tend to forget we need to reward ourselves for the hard work.

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Whatever I want Wednesday: Silent Scream for Spring time in Paris!

 Whatever I want Wednesday: Silent Scream for Spring time in Paris.
Long long long long Winter this year, but as I get older I believe they are getting longer perhaps? This thrift shop find is one of my favorite silhouettes the classic swing coat, a lovely winter white wool unlined and perfect for a shot of Spring feeling on a bright cold day.

 The design inspiration came for another of my friendly talented digitizers Luiz he had this Eiffel Tower gem up for grabs one day and I pounced on it here is his website where you can purchase some very nice designs for your own inspiration. http://www.vitordigitizing.net/ the little poodles are stock designs from Embroidery Library Luiz did design a poodle for me but my thrift shop 50's poodle broach needed to be brought into the concept along with some double needle standard sewing machine embellishment. Tried to keep it simple and clean so show off the beautiful Parisian Blue thread and its simple satin stitch embroidery. Please go check out Luiz's website he does some very beautiful work and he can turn your art into thread for you also!

what does this say in French: "let's get back to our sheep" or basically lets get back on track to what we were doing...we all know how a shiny object makes my day so it seemed PERFECT for me!

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What can I make for you?

Carolyn

Good Afternoon! Today is the day before the big race for kids pro snowmobile racing...they had me make these jerseys for them and I think they turned out pretty awesome!
This is a great example of how you can incorporate race wear for your snowmobiling crowd and team wear for the supporters of your cause.

Thanks for Visiting!

What can I make for you?

Carolyn

Make something for the Halibut: Whatever I Want Wednesday

Make Something For the Halibut on Whatever I Want Wednesday!
Hey Long Time No POST!!!
The shop is hopping busy and I really really like it.
Working on widgets and custom embroidery for a huge fishing benefit prompted me to stop and just make something for the house.

  I get an urge to create when I get really stressed out I guess its like working out at the gym only I work out my creative side.

 

This is why I love working for myself....just so I can stop and create something for the hell of it.

Yep Old Miss Mable will be all over this by the end of the day loosening up those stitches and snuffling on it.

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Thursday Thoughts: Loss, Heavy Metal and Mom's Love

  There are some projects that are more than just an embroidery job, this is one of those projects that made its own path.
 These T shirts were brought to me by a dear customer of mine and I was really honored that she wanted me to work on this for her.
 I can't imagine the pain of losing a child let alone deciding what items that were the most dear to them and honor their life, loves and hobbies.
  Her son was a lover of some pretty heavy metal music and his mom brought to me his most beloved t shirts that he wore daily. She admitted that these not her favorite images but they were his and he loved the music and it was the one thing that made him happy.
  This was a long thinking process for me over the last four month (yep...4 months) I started out many times trying to put them into neat squares or lining them up in some kind of order step by step and it just was not happening, that's when I just let it go and did what the shirts compelled me to do. So I let every wrinkle every thread break and every skip happen, embroidery wasn't backed to keep the rough look and colors were randomly choose from the spools on the machine. The center image was the only one that received special interest as it was the most thread bear to the point of disintegrating and probably his most prized so the collar and the image were kept together.
 The wings on the center image are a story in itself, three times I tried to do this and it came out of the hoop twice and I lined them back up in the computer program but still ended up uneven, so I said dang it, you deserve wings and then let it be and after this it ran the rest of it just fine.
 I will roll this up, give it to his mom and let her look at it in private at her home on Saturday.
I don't know if this is what she was thinking but I hope that her son is represented in my interpretation of his life. I do know his life was not perfect and there is beauty in that in its own way just like this piece...not perfect but creative and hopefully sentimental.

Thanks for visiting....

Carolyn

embroidery designs by Urban Threads

Mitten Monday: Westonka High School Homecoming Week

Yep get back on that horse Carolyn!

Best Piece I Ever Embroidered: A closer look

Stitches Magazine was a very nice honor to have my Dogwood Dollar Jacket in this last edition in the "Best Piece I Ever Embroidered" feature. stitches magazine September Issue.
I have had a few people ask if they can see some better images of this jacket and how it was done.

Here they are! This one dollar rack number was a fun fix and I was able to use some items from my old machine knitting days a fun way to incorporate texture into designs is to trap the "loose" pieces between the garment and solvy. Once it is all embroidered you can peel away the plastic and see the lovely fun thread showing through the designs.

The design choose for this jacket is an open work created by Erich Campbell and you may purchase this item here!
Erich's Dogwood Flower

Thriftshop Thursday: Fall Feathers

A nice denim number that was found on the dollar rack, this jacket sold in August and I hope she is wearing it on these crisp Fall days.

I love to work in texture with embroidery, so much of it is just flat on the fabric and there are so many fun things that you can embroider over using up all kinds of scraps and odd items.  This fabric is a nylon that is used for kites and it was just the right orange for these fun feathers.

The feathers were hooped individually then cut out by hand and fibers pulled out for the edges then sewn down separately on the jacket.

There are many times that I like to connect designs by just free sewing in my standard table machine I think that it gives a nice touch to the pieces that incorporates unstructured freedom to the designs and keeps the "clip art" look from happening it connects everything together nicely.

If you would like this The Ostrich Fall Feather design is from Erich Campbell's collection and you may purchase it here for your own fun project!

Thanks for visiting!

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Carolyn 

See more of what I do!

Thriftshop Thursday: These boots are made for loungin

 Needed a little art therapy today: so I like to hole up in the shop with music and just Mabel sleeping on the floor. Been thinking about making boots and some moccasins so when  Face Book friend Luiz Vetor Mendez Digitizer sent me this I was thrilled!

Luiz lives in Brazil and makes beautiful art for clothing designers. The boots are 100% wool and a suede sole on them. This was a great break in for me so now I know what I would like to do with leather and embroidery plus...put a heal on them....excited!

Thanks for visiting!

Carolyn

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