And the Winner Is

I have a winner for my FSL give away.  It's Brenda @ Songbird Designs .  I've already got her address and will get these sweeties out to her later this week.

Thank you to all who took the time to visit and to leave notes.  It was a great hop with so many great items now added to the To Do lists around the world.

Black & White Blog Hop with a little give away

Welcome to 2019 and the start of my Blog Hopping Year.  When Carla over at createinthesticks put out the notice that she was putting together a Black & White Blog Hop I was thrilled.  I happen to have a huge stash of Blacks, Whites and Grays.  I didn't have a real plan at the time but knew I would have no problems putting something together after the holidays passed.

And then came this little beauty. It is my first ever embroidery machine, it's the Baby Lock Solaris which hit the market in September.  I knew nothing about machine embroidery when I brought her home, as I've mentioned in my  previous post, the gal in the quilt shop told me to go home and play and not be afraid.  A day in I decided to use the Black & White hop as a great goal for this  adventures kick off.

So I set up my machine with a chunk of white fabric and a chunk of black fabric and a bunch of black and white thread and the games began.

This is the very first piece I ran.  It is my sister's name in a border.  Don't know what she'll what me to do with it but she's coming to town this week and I'm sure she'll have a plan.

Then I wanted to make her a zipper pouch with her initials surrounded by a niffty quilt pattern.  Well this is the first attempt.

Attempt #2 went much better, not exactly what I wanted but until I take a lesson I will consider it a success as it made a great pouch.

Sissie is the one who talked me into the machine so she will get the bulk of the test items whether she wants them or not.

Then I saw embroidery on ribbon and thought I'd give it a try, why not.  The ribbon is white, the lighting left a bit to be desired.

Then while spending hours on Pinterest and YouTube I came across  FSL ( free standing lace). I love these pieces.  I love them so much I want to share them with one of you who takes the time to comment on this post. 


And now one more item for this hop.  I have a friend who has "volunteered" to take samples of my test items and give them a home.  Actually she and her hubby each got samples as part of their Christmas gifts this year ( see previous post) Anyway this week I decided I would try my hand at a tee shirt. 

I had tried out this sweet cat pattern with no specific plan and since  it turned out well and I still had time to add it to this post I decided to do it on a black tee and add it in.

This is the shirt both without and 

with a body.  I have a lot to learn but feel I'm off to a good start.  

Yesterday I took a class on edge to edge quilting on an embroidery machine based on the book by Amelie Scott.  I see some potential there that I'm sure will show itself in an upcoming hop or two. Next week I start my official classes on using the machine to learn 16 different embroidery techniques, looking forward to it.

So to make sure I stay interested in my machine and not that it turns into another expensive passing fad in my life I have decided to use it for some part of every blog hop I participate in this year.  That would be 12+.

So if any of you have any incite or ideas or any thing that you think would benefit an embroidery newbie I'd be happy to hear about it.

So now I want to list all of the participants in this hop.  Those before me in case you missed them and those following so you don't miss them.  Wonderful Black and White ideas at every stop. I also want to thank Carla for taking on another one.  We all so appreciate the effort and the ongoing camaraderie thats been happening for so long.


Black & White Blog Hop Schedule

Monday, January 21st

Just Let Me Quilt
Needled Mom
Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats
Life in Scrapatch
QuiltFabrication
Scrapdash
Bumbleberry Stitches
keepsake moments
Vroomans Quilts

Tuesday, January 22nd

MooseStash Quilting
SewFreshQuilts
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Quilts by Joanne
PamelaQuilts
That Fabric Feeling
Songbird Designs
Two Maker Chicks


Wednesday, January 23

Selina Quilts
Beaquilter
Quilt in a not-Shell
Patchwork Breeze
Adventurous Applique and Quilting
Kathleen McMusing
Cynthia's Creating Ark
Everyone Deserves a Quilt
Homespun Hannah's Blog

Thursday, January 24

Quiltscapes
Seams to be Sew
Storied Quilts
Kathy's Kwilts and More
Ms P Designs USA
Den syende himmel
Melva Loves Scraps
The Joyful Quilter
Creatin' in the Sticks

So I will pull a name from the list of comments on Sunday night for someone to receive 4 FSL (free standing lace) pieces. Thanks for stopping by.

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Catching Up - New Toy

First up on the list  would be this adorable baby quilt by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts . The pattern comes in this small size and a larger size that one has 6 giraffes of different heights. I finishsed this in October and never posted the finish.

 Then  The Tinkalong Pouch Sewing Pattern is for the 2 larger pouches, to get to the tiny one she suggests taking the smaller of the two patterns down to 65%, it works like a charm. This is what triggered the mini pouch frenzy from last month.

I was on a crocheted potholder kick as a filler gift for the holidays.  I think I made 4 sets and a couple of singles.

And then this happened.  It happened on December 13.  Things have not gotten back to normal yet. In fact it was good that the Christmas tree was up and pre lit when the machine arrived.  I didn't get around to putting ornaments on it until Christmas eve.

It's a Baby Lock Solaris Embroidery Machine.  I've never done machine embroidery before and if you had asked me at Thanksgiving if I ever planned on it I'd have said no.

My sister, who doesn't sew, (she can, she just does't need to cause she has me) talked me into it. I thought about it for a week and surveyed friends in 2 different guilds and went for it.

I got the machine at Sharkeys Sew and Vac in Wildwood, Fl.  They have a wonderful support staff and offer unlimited instruction with their machines.  As I was leaving the shop with the newest member to my family, Suzanne, who is fast becoming my new best friend aka embroidery instructor said to me "go home and play, do not be afraid".  Since it was going to be a whole week before I could coordinate our calanders to get basic instruction from her I went home and played.

Bless You Tube and Pinterest

Since this machine and it's twin the Luminaire by Brother has only been on the marked  since September and August specifics were a little bit tough to find but I managed the following embroidery trials

This was the beginning of a mug rug, before I grasped the concept of stabilizer.  Don't have a picture of the back but it has the stablizer on the outside of the backing tee hee

This was just too fun not to try.  It was to remind MJ that even though I was locked away in another room I was thinking about him, yeah.

This was a perfect attempt at scanning an imagine into the machine and sewing it out.

This was my first downloaded pattern. It is a gift card holder, front and back.

The red is the card pocket.

Meanwhile, once my sister saw that I could scan she sent me this picture of Mickey in a snowflake.

So I did an improve Christmas ornament

And then another roll of toilet paper.  Actually I did 2 rolls, one went to friends with a gift card tucked inside. 

The other thing I learned in the past couple of weeks is how to use was the wishlist on Santa's Amazon account.  He found it and pulled through, yep that's 64 spools of thread.

Thanks for making it this far.  Here is the last of the experimental stuff to post today.  

FSL (free standing lace).  Love it, love it, love it.

I am participating in the Black & White blog hop later this month with some more of my embroidery experiments. Hope to see you then.

If you have any ideas on anything that I should know about or places to go regarding my latest adventure please leave me a comment. I'd love to hear from you.