Thursday, November 6, 2014

My New Loves

Ever since Little Britches (aka Tinsley)  was born, I have dreamed of having an embroidery machine. I would see monogrammed onesies and cute appliqued outfits and fall in love. I so badly wanted one of those machines, but knew I would have to save up for it. I didn't want just any machine, I wanted one that would last me years and would serve its purpose well.

Well....exactly a month ago my life changed forever!!! We were in Kansas City for the wedding of one of my besties, Natalie. It was Sunday after the wedding and we were at Natalie's parent's house eating lunch.  It was getting time for us to leave as we had to drive half way home that afternoon. (It's a 12 hour drive total) We were sitting around talking and dreading the goodbyes when Natalie's mom, Julie told me she needed to show me something upstairs. Julie has what every girl dreams of, a bedroom turned craft/sewing room. It is glorious!!! She quilts the most beautiful quilts you have ever seen and sent me the cutest monogrammed burp cloths when Tinlsey was born. I say that because I just assumed she was going to show me a project she was working on until she asked me if I had a certain amount of room in our car and told me she knew I had wanted an embroidery machine. I think at this point my mind was racing and I was speechless. She had inherited a Baby Lock machine from her aunt that was just sitting in her closet and she wanted to GIVE it to me. I was in SHOCK to say the least. It was at that moment the 12 hour drive instead of flying made it so worth it. I will never be able to thank her enough for her generous gift. So, the past month I have been getting the machine serviced, reading up on the machine, collecting free downloads from the internet for applique and trying to figure out software issues. Hopefully, this time next week I will be able to applique something. I did manage to practice a monogram last weekend. Maybe it will turn into a little side business one day. Ha! There is so much that goes into it and it makes me appreciate those hefty price tags on some of children's clothing now. You have to have this and you have to have that. Needles, yarn, fabric, backing, stabilizer, spray, etc. etc. etc.



Not only am I learning to embroider, I decided I wanted to learn how to knit. We have a knitting ministry at my church and the sweet ladies there have gotten me started with the basics. I completed my first project last night. I made Little Britches a hat for the winter. It took me about 5 sittings to finish the knitting part of it. Now I want to add a little ruffle at the bottom of it. At least it is Little Britches approved!  Sorry for the poor photo quality!






It is probably against most "crafting rules" to try to learn two new things at once, but hey, I'll roll with it!

I found the perfect blog for knitting, so if you ever want to learn and don't have anyone to show you, I highly recommend Lisa over at http://purllin.blogspot.com/ She has some awesome tutorials! So check her out!

What are some of your favorite crafts or projects???? Leave me some love below! Until next time....