Hang it up!

Do you have a favorite item displayed in your "space" that makes you smile?

This quilt hangs over my desk and greets me each morning as a reminder of joyful occasions: the lace from a wedding dress, silk scraps from past classes taught, little ribbon flowers that I found challenging, lace trimmings from travels in Europe.

Today's sewers love challenges, enjoying new techniques, shortcuts and styles.  This quilt serves as the cover for the CookiesCreationsWebsite fan page. It is very easy to make, and after several requests over the years, the directions can now be found on the fan page under Projects for a limited time. Very pretty in cottons, microfibers and more. So go ahead, give it a try and hang it up!

53 Papers - Foe or Friend

Help, I am drawing and I cannot stop! If you have followed this blog, you know how much I love apps that center around sewing, embroidery, quilting, card making and photography.

But let's add to my "appiness" with a drawing app: 53 Papers! How many ways can you use it? To scrap cards, create drawings to digitize, create quilt templates and you certainly could be practical and write lists, work on quantum physics formulas... Oops!

When Embroidery Friends Gather...

Left to Right: Barbara Hershey Handler, Dianne Pomeroy
(Event Coordinator), Michele Murray and Cookie

Every year since 1999, embroidery enthusiasts have gathered at the American Embroidery Conference.

Over the years, people have gathered and shared their enthusiasm for embroidery. Many friendships were formed and several teachers began their careers on the floor of the AEC. Special memories of late night chats with Dianne, Queen of the AEC, over web changes and laughter over the antics of AEC mailing list members who kept everyone on their toes. So many people helped to make the AEC special.

Although the AEC draws to a close, the spirit in which it was started continues on.  Emails fly around the world between friends who met at the conferences.  Teachers gather at private gatherings to hone their skills and laugh over the crazy things we did at the shows. Attendees will continue to shop and promote the vendors they have come to know.  And Dianne will actually take some time to sew and who knows what else?

Oh Judy, you are quite the shutter bug!

And with crazy things being the theme of my own classes this year, I left bodies lying around my classroom and not a tear was shed!

The Evil Twin Dress Form Class was quite the conversation at the conference and we certainly had a blast in the classroom creating our body doubles. Imagine walking into a room that has two twin beds and your supplies were duct tape, bandaid surgical scissors, spray foam and a long T-shirt. We had fun and managed to complete our dress form tape-in for both classes.

  

Special thanks to Michele Murray, Stevie Doughty, Ann Huffman and Amy Webster who helped in the birthing of the Evil Twins!

Growing Flowers and Transplanting them, in your embroidery world!

 My daisies collected have grown in size so "naturally" it is time to transplant them...

Featured on Cookiescreations.com

I can't grow flowers in natural lighting where I live due to gorgeous trees, so growing them by embroidery machine has proven to be a successful adventure.  Putting them on pins makes "transplanting" easily. It is fun to stitch them with all types of thread and as you can see.

For headbands you should sew them securely on for babies and toddlers, as you would for any child's garment.  If the child isn't into tugging (referred to from this point as neat-nick kid) then you could use velcro to transplant flowers easily on headbands.

Loving all the colors, and types of threads available.  Not too fond of the striped one unless you had funky striped tights to go with it, perhaps!

Just a quick update on my progress! If you are one of our customers who is growing our flowers, I want to thank you for ordering the ITH Thread Painted Daisy Machine Embroidery Design!  The email responses have been wonderful. The design will be at the introductory price for a few more days.

PS - Lost my solar thread and that is my next hunt.  The glue gun is my new best friend for barrettes and pins. If you want to try a fringed flower, there is a free one on the CookiescreationsWebsite Fan Page! The design will be changing it in a few days. This lovely knitted and felted purse is from the book Pursenalities and it is well loved as it is a special gift.  The pins just keep it fresh!  Cookie

How does your garden grow? A 4 step method for coping with thread addiction.

In my real world, my garden doesn't grow flowers that crave sun because our home is surrounded by trees in a wooded lot. But I love flowers as much as anyone. I do grow flowers but with my embroidery machine!

Available at Cookiescreations.com

With my wall full of threads as my palette, I can make daisies quite creative as these are made out of 100% embroidery thread.

I plan to embroider more daisies using threads I haven't touched until now.

Do you purchase pretty striped threads because the colors appeal to you, and yet they are still sitting unused after 2 years?

I'm a thread-a-holic, as if being a fabric-a-holic  is not enough. Maybe these collections are just a fashion statement of how my mind works.  Delighted with the results of this flower has made me sift through my drawers to see what other unusual threads that may prove interesting.  So now I have stripes, twists and solar thread.  I may need to walk the solar thread outside first to see if it still turns to bright colors in sunlight.  I heard a rumor that it has a shelf light.  I sure hope the "experts" are wrong because the set of thread I am looking at are in their original packaging.

Solar thread, do you own it, too?

So what are the four steps to growing a creative garden with this design and enjoying all that thread you have been storing?

1. Grab all that thread you have been collecting
2. Load the daisy design into your machine
3. Follow easy directions to stitch them up
4. Rinse gently

I will let you know how the solar experiment works out, as I am planning to make some headbands with them for Mimi's favorite baby!

I also love herbs, but unlike flowers I don't want them out of thread as my goal is to cook with them! This is an Aero-garden filled with spices. Thank you to my daughter who empathized with my plight. I am  sharing these gardening tips with you just in case you have similar challenges. Remember, "Where there is a will there is a way!"

Fresh Basil Pesto