Wedding DIY crafts and other Sunday stuff

Happy Super Bowl Sunday. As of right now it looks like Baltimore is going to win. I'm happy for those routing for Baltimore. As for me... Meh, neither team moves me so no big deal.

My first half of this day SUCKED, big time. I laced awake in bed last night until 4 am and I do not do well with no sleep. I don't think I finally sort of woke up until after 5 pm. The rest of the day I was sort of in zombie land which just makes me feel crappy and cranky.

I was supposed to be at a Super Bowl party but my husband went without me so I could rest. I rested and I also finished up my blue hand beading piece. Still have not completely decided on what to do with it but heavily leaning on turning it into a small bridal purse for my daughter to use in her wedding. She loves it, keeps oohing and ahing over it. It would make me happy for her to use it and it would give her 'something blue'.








I also worked on other wedding crafts while I was parked on the couch! We have found a need for some tags for wedding guests, these will be attached to gift bags that I have made. The general theme of the wedding is vintage travel and going along with that I have taken plain purchased cream colored tags and embellished them with stamps, embossing and inks to give them the vintage one of a kind look that my daughter is going for. The back sides have been distressed and will eventually have guests names on them and on the bottom ticket portion will have the wedding date stamped on them. Then they will be attached with jute string to the bags.









I think it is fair to say that we, my entire little family, is really enjoying the creative side of the wedding. We really all get to put our hands into making various things to make this event be a dream come true for our little girl. I really can't wait to share the entire thing with everyone!!

And Baltimore wins!
I am praying for a good nights sleep!!!

- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Location:Lisle, IL

From Montreal for work to HOME for some geeky sewing fun!

I got home late last night from Montreal. I think it was just about midnight when I finally crawled into bed next to my hubby for a blissful night of sleep!

My work trip was jam packed crazy busy schedule but it was very successful and I was grateful to be able to get home last night. Montreal had full on winter weather happening! I think when I flew out it was at 4'F. When I checked in on Thursday afternoon it was overcast but clear and within a couple hours the wind was whipping and not only was the snow coming down but so was the temperature. Brrrrrrrr.... All I can say is thank goodness for cuddle duds under my suit :)




I had some great views out my hotel window in Montreal. I find Montreal to be a very visually interesting city. I love how things reveal themselves between the buildings. For example this beautiful bridge framed between buildings.




And the view of this cathedral from above is beautiful. The colors on the roof bleeding together are great.



Now onto the FUN part......

This morning I attended a seminar on the new Brother V Series machines. It was given by Sharon Taylor, National Brother Educator at Linda Z's Sewing Center.

It was basically a 3 hour show and tell. Sharon, a very engaging speaker, shared her enthusiasm for this new series of machines.
She had a sampling of different examples displayed. I personally identified with several of her examples. Her artistic design felt very similar to mine.

She spent the first half of the seminar going through the new and very cool innovations of the sewing portion of the V series. The second half showed off all the super cool things in embroidery portion of the V series.

The Brother V series has 3 machines; the DreamWeaver XE that does sewing and embroidery, the DreamWeaver, sewing and quilting only machine and the DreamMaker XE which is embroidery only.

I have the DreamMaker XE, embroidery only. I have never had an embroidery machine before and I must be honest that I had a very narrow and limited view of what an embroidery machine was capable of. After spending several hours with Sharon Taylor... I am now very excited about all of the creative possibilities of my new machine.

My friend, who bought her DreamMaker at the same time as me, was so enamored with the DreamWeaver sewing and quilting machine that she traded in her Viking sewing machine for a new DreamWeaver! I think she fell in love with the laser!!

Geeky sewing is a very awesome thing :)

During the break Sharon spent her free time with any of us that had more questions or wanted to see anything more in depth. As an added bonus she was happy to let me take pictures and discuss step by step construction technique. I loved it!




In the example below, she showed us how to make our own appliqué 'puffy' designs using only the machine edit features.


My favorite part was using the laser pointer along with the stylus to line up designs and how to use the included border features to make beautiful borders that looked amazing! I was so enthralled that I forgot to take pictures of her beautiful border examples.
See.... Very geeky!




- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Location:Linda Z's Sewing Center, Arlington Heights, IL

Playing with my Brother DreamMaker

Yikes... I can't believe it is February! January has been a difficult month for me and I am glad that February is here and that the days are getting longer. After all, how can one not love February... It is the month of Love. :)

Worked has picked up again and my travels have increased again. It was so very nice to have so much time to spend at home over the Holidays! I suppose this next 3 months will be quite busy as we have just entered the 4th quarter of our fiscal year. Always a rush to try and get business finalized before next fiscal year!

On the sewing front, oh how I am itching to do some garment sewing for myself!!! I have lost a little over 27 lbs in the past 3 1/2 months! And it feels great but I want to MAKE something, I have plenty of things that I can alter and take in but I am thinking that a stylish boxy jacket from Cynthia Guffey is calling very loudly to me! And when I get home, I have to check my stash because I think I have a perfect fabric in mind...


I have been doing lots of sewing, mostly wedding projects for my daughters wedding in July. So most of it I can not share until summertime. I did have one leftover project from the holidays, another of the Star Wars lunch totes. No picture... It looks just like the last 2 I did!

In the meantime while I am busy doing wedding projects on my serger and symphony, I am playing with my new Brother DreamMaker. Mostly doing more basic, but fun, stuff as I get used to the nuances of machine embroidery.
My latest project was a set of four bar towels for my husband with drink recipes embroidered on them. He loves them and they make him quite stylish while he plays host to our friends!









Here is a sneak peak at the latest wedding project :) my Hubby and I have also been working on some DIY crafts for the wedding. It's been quite fun!


Happy Sewing!

- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Location:Montreal Airport