Zen Machine Embroidery with Sue Hausmann

The two fun-filled days came and went too quickly.

Here are some of the many projects that we completed:

A very useful carry all....

An beautiful dish towel....

Very lacy pocket....

Hummingbird and flowers on a nylon bag.....

3D Butterfly sewn onto the top of this little circular bag.....

Zen pocket and Scissor holder (which still needs to be trimmed).....

The best part of the whole experience was meeting the wonderful Sue Hausmann!!!

I've watched Sue, on TV, for years but never thought I'd ever meet her.

Sue is a down to earth and genuinely nice person.

Thank you, Billie's Designer Fabrics, for bringing Sue to us!!!

The Frank Tree.

I made this up as I went along to make The Frank Tree.

This special tree is a countdown to his birthday.  

I loved the Christmas Paisley as the background to the Silk Dupioni tree and ornaments.

The Moose was recreated out of wool felt.  

He made that with his bare hands and foot when he was almost three.

The back has a huge Houndstooth pattern (with wings).

Next time, I'll sew this a little different.

Again, no pattern, just my imagination and knowing my son will love the back.

There is also a dowel pocket at the top.

I made this for him because it was to be all about Frank.

Some grocery bags for Mom

This is with material close to raincoat material.  It's so tightly woven that a tiny crochet hook will not go through!  Perfect for grocery shopping.

One of the bags is insulated to make sure cold things come home cold since my mom lives 30 minutes from shopping.

Mom is over 75 and loves Harry Potter so I put her initial on the bag with that font using the lining fabric of the insulated bag.  Cool, huh?  I can't wait to hear how she likes it!

Sweater for my son

My son designed this sweater that I finally started in Feb. 2006. It was completed Dec. 30th!!

He wanted cotton so I used Wildflower DK. I had the help of EZ and Sweater Wizard to knit it in the round with phoney seams. Since I planned on using duplicate stitch for the diamonds, I left them off. I gave up after several attempts to make the stitch look good. I thought I was going to cry until my dear hubby suggested I knit the diamonds and use my serger to shape them. Hmmm, I thought, that sounds like it might work. Needless to say, I knit the rectangles one color after another and cast off. I sandwiched the piece between two sheets of tearaway stabilizer (thank you Nancy's Notions); stitched the diamond shape with the sewing machine and then serged the edges. An embroidery chain stitch holds the diamonds in place as well as, a little whip stitching with sewing thread. Voila!! Son has his sweater now and it is as unique as he is.