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.