Apron with Heart, Greek Flag

As the Greek festival approaches, I was thinking of Greek embroidery designs. I made an apron in the traditional blue color and an embroidered heart of the Greek flag. I also made a few more designs that can also work well on an apron or tshirt. I’ll definitely be wearing one of the designs at the festival.

• “Greek Chick” — I’m thinking my daughter will love this one on a pair of jeans or jean skirt.
• “Peace, Heart, Spartan head armor” — I love the simplicity of the three icons, and the symbolism which goes with the Greek expression  MOLON LABE. (Μολὼν λαβέ), “Come and take them” spoken by King Leonidas I in response to the Persian army’s demand that the Spartans surrender their weapons at the Battle of Thermopylae.
• The other Greek flag design includes typography and has a nice rhythm to it.

View my post on etsy to place a custom order for yourself, or a greek event.

Digitizing Logos for Embroidery

I have recently started to digitize designs and logos for embroidery. I am using PE Design Next and a Brother PR650. What I am learning is that underlay, stitch direction, and density are important factors in digitizing. Underlay is more important than density in many cases. Also manual punching seems to work best for me. I am working on the logo, 500 Guy, for Angry Diesel Mechanic.  With embroidery, stitch count matters in cost savings to your client, time to sew out, and hoop size that fits closest to final. With the hat hoop, there are size limitations so it’s best to know this before beginning to digitize. I will need to use a much smaller font, about 5mm for the hat hoop.

This logo is more illustrative. I had to edit out parts and simplify the design for embroidery. There is a combination of satin and fill stitches. The image is off my computer screen in 3D view.

This logo is meant for a hat, therefore, I will need to organize the layers so that stitching begins from the middle and goes outward in order to keep the hat embroidery from pulling or puckering of the threads. I will be re-editing and will post final on the product itself hopefully soon.

This step is the stitch out to see how the embroidery machine translated the digitizing from the software. As you can see the fabric makes a huge difference as the stitches pull on the fibers. It is important to digitize with different stitch directions and to allow pull compensation which I did at 1mm and 2mm, later edited to 2mm and 3mm to fix a few problems. It is also good to try out different fonts to see which will work best on the type of fabric and also to match your client’s look. Below is a test after many trials. The facial features were created with a running stitch and the eyes are made from a star to try and keep them round.

Today was the final test on how I did with the digitizing. After a few more revisions, I made the first hat and found that I needed to give more density to the stitches. I had density 4 and went up to 4.5 and probably could have gone with a density of 5. There was some pulling even though I clamped the hat tightly and clipped on the sides of the hat hoop. I placed stabilizer on the hat to give more support. I am happy with the result as this was a great challenge for me to digitize, hoop and embroider the hat.

The client requested a flexfit hat, white, and structured. The structured cap is a bit hard in the front but it holds up well to the stitches. I used a #11 needle.

LOGO embroidery

This week I had the pleasure of working with WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide to embroider their logo onto shirts. There is so much to learn with my new embroidery business but the staff there is wonderful and gave me my first business shirts to embroider for them. Thanks Liz and Kathi. Hope you enjoy the shirts!

The soft green shirt is a Cubavera and very soft and can be ordered through me. The tan shirt is  from REI. The bandana is for fun. View my online catalog for apparel and accessories at http://www.wearables4you.com/index.cfm?genid=dandelion

For those of you out there who love birds and travel, visit the WINGS site at http://wingsbirds.com/
One day I would love to book a tour with them.

Pirate Towels

Aye Aye Captain, did you see those beautiful towels? It’s Matey Sam and Ollie bringin’ in the treasure! And here comes Parrot Petey from afar warning of pirate ships headed their way.

What child wouldn’t want to have his own personal towels? Make this a special gift for someone you know. Personalize with a name for $2 each letter.

Other ideas these pirates would look good on are bandana’s, tshirts, hats, jeans.

Cost to embroider: bath towel $28 on etsy  / washcloth $15 on etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/people/dandelioncreative

 

Vac Yum Scents

Worked on some product photography for Mulqueen Fabric and Sewing. These scents are wonderful and make your vacuum bag smell like your choice of pine, gardenia, spice, vanilla, and so much more. I worked on the jars first with studio lighting and then thought why not go outdoors with the photography. It was a hot day today but am really happy with the results. If you’d like to find these, ask for Darren at Mulqueen 480/545-0778.

Starbucks Aprons Personalized – Embroidery

You all know how much I love Starbucks and especially the one on Cooper and Warner in Chandler, AZ. They are amazing and beautiful people and the service is the best! I am very happy to embroider the staff names on the aprons. The aprons are beautiful and the names embroidered beautifully.  Thanks so much Denise and Jordan.

Note: These personalized aprons are only for Starbucks.

Institute of the Environment, UA, reception

Today was a great day because I got to meet the staff and other photographers from the 2011 “Eye on the Environment” competition. We talked technical, met exciting people in all fields, took photos, and were awarded our certificate and a gift. The reception table was beautiful with fruit, cookies, and refreshing drinks. I am so thrilled to have been a part of this and can’t wait till next year! I love the Institute of the Environment at UA! They are a great group! Thank you for offering this opportunity.

View a few photos from the reception. The artwork will be on display until December 2011 at the Marshall Building on the 5th floor at the U of A campus.

Sherry’s Headshots

Today was a very busy and exciting day. It was a pleasure to see Sherry, an engineering student, and to photograph her. I just loved her outfit and she is so adorable. We took a lot of photos but here is a sneak peak at some. Thanks Sherry!

Michelle and Wolfgang

Only 42 days to go and these two will soon be married. In the meantime, a little time for some engagement photo fun. These two first met at The U of A campus at Theta Tau. Wolfgang earned his engineering degree and Michelle completed her Law degree. Congrats to both of them.

We went back to Theta Tau to begin our photo session where they first met at a rush party. We followed with sunset photos at one of the most beautiful places, Gates Pass in Tucson, AZ.

Below are a few of their lovely photos.