A New Year is Here
January 1st is here for all to enjoy. I am not one to make resolutions. I do intend to try hard to maintain the health and home that I have been blessed to have. I know I can count on new challenges to present themselves in 2023. Taking one day at a time with a positive attitude is all that is in my power.
The sun is out with a balmy 35 degrees. The snow has had a chance to shrink before more is added. That may happen by tomorrow at this time.
Dennis took a long nap and I have finished what I have been working on in the studio. I had goofed up one piece of man-made suede that needed to be tossed. I was left with the one remaining piece that was spot on for a small pillow form that I had. 16″ x 12″ was the pillow form. I knew I would need every bit of the 18″ x 14″ of the red suede piece. No screw ups. Over time I had downloaded the alphabet design pack from the OESD embroidery site. I was determined to use this fabric up.
I have always had a challenge when it came time to position things straight when it really counted. One quick glance was all that was needed to see the item was off by a hair or two or three. On this red suede, I measured more times than I can recall. Placing each letter took time as the letter would be embordered right onto the suede. The first step was stitching on the Tartan plaid with a piece of fabric larger than needed. The outline stitch then allowed for the extra fabric to be trimmed away as close as possible to the stitching. The gold satin stitch was the last step for each of the individual letters to encase the plaid fabric edges, which by the way, is a woven fabric, not printed. The Tartan plaid is used for the envelope back.
I had seen this pillow in an advertisement and it piqued my interest. What had been then done to the pillow was the letter “O” was filled with with all sorts and sizes of red buttons. I took a scrap of the plaid stitched onto the suede to see how well it played with buttons glued onto it. I will know more tomorrow after the glue is totally dry. I do have buttons from the Fairfax button tree to use if I decide to go that route. The glue I have is a powerful one. The buttons glued on would withstand a lot.
So many decisions sure can keep me guessing and going. What I can share is that I have always used January to work with making Christmas items. No stress on a time frame.