I made another heart !

Hope you had a fabulous first Friday of February ! I had some fun, still playing with stuff, and I downloaded at least five more freebie embroidery designs, including two that’ll be great on doll shirts – if I ever get off my big ole backside and sew ‘em ! I’ve discovered that I really enjoy using a design, however I obtained it, then posting a photo of it to the designer. They love to see their stuff in use, and yeah, I get some much-needed praise.

That said, my latest effort didn’t get much, but the photo isn’t the greatest, so I’ll just take what I can get and be happy ! Ya’ll know one of the things an embroidery machine can do is stand-alone lace – basically, the design is engineered to stitch out on stabilizer that washes away, leaving just the thread hopefully holding the design’s shape. If it’s programmed well and stitched correctly, you have a really cool doll prop, pendant, earrings, bookmark, napkin ring, ornament, gift – all sorts of uses. (grin) Little did I know, back in 1987, that the ‘lace’ initials and figures I bought in Belgium were exactly this. If you want, you can stitch these out on, say a shirt, and *not* make it stand alone, but it’s a lot more stunning when it is !

I’ve had quite a few failures figuring out how best to stabilize Free Standing Lace (FSL), as it’s commonly called (personally, I think it should be ‘free standing thread’), and I’ve spent waaay too much on incorrect stabilizers, but now that I understand the often misused terminology, my luck has vastly improved ! And I’m learning to use the surplus materials. Last night’s freebie, from the courteous coffers of Just Sew Sandy & Debora, was a small heart with a ‘shine’ hole in it, complete with a bail for a necklace chain or ribbon. And it came out pretty well, especially considering I reused some of my stabilizer ! Only took 15 minutes to stitch out, plus the usual hour of printing, prep, hooping, and photography. But I have my very own green heart. Go, me !