Homework

Tomorrow is Computer Club so I decided I needed to do my homework. At the last Club day Pam demonstrated how to use the QuickFonts facility in the 3D software to make embroidery designs. You need to download wingding type fonts first and put them in the font folder, then QuickFonts can access them and in place of a letter you get a little design.

I was all enthused and came home, searched for, downloaded and installed about eight different free pictorial fonts. I even printed them out so I had a reference. I played with a few of them and made some designs, none of which I stitched out. Then I did nothing with the technique for the next seven weeks.

Today I played with a font called Easter Art. The letter g is an outlined Easter egg. I copied it four times, adjusted the way each egg sloped a little bit and combined the designs into one. The original version I made has four different colours, one for each egg, but I used a multi coloured thread and stitched it out twice without colour stops on a cheap teatowel ($5.99 for 6 at IGA).

I am not completely satisfied with the result, for a number of reasons. I should not have prewashed the towel because that made it fluffy and the stitching sinks into the fabric. I should have used a water soluble stabiliser rather than a tearaway - there is so much small detail that it is almost impossible to get rid of all the paper on the back. I should have taken a bit more time and looked at the stitchout in the editing page. There are unnecessary jump stitches that could have been eliminated and the starting stitches could do with a tidy up.

However, I have learned a useful technique. Plus, I can feel smug at tomorrow's show and tell because I did my homework.