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.

I learned a lot today

This morning I went to computer club at Bestway. The lesson was on using QuickFonts to make applique letters and thanks to my experiments on Monday I was right up there in following the method. Learned a couple of new things as well, including how to get rid of a font you have made and no longer want, and some sources for free fonts. There was some great show and tell too.

Then I went to Teena's and had lunch at her cafe. There were 5 0r 6 Scquilters there as a result of an offer that Bobbie made on the list. She gave a demonstration on the Wondercut rulers, showing how easy they are to use and what different and great results you can get. Now I have no excuse not to make the quilt I have been promising my daughter these last four or five years. The design we selected is based on half-square triangles and I was procrastinating. I made a queen size quilt using these triangles made the conventional way. All that precision sewing and trimming - ugh. I feel much happier about them now. I have had the fabric for the quilt for ages - a selection of Klimt designs in golds, reds and browns. I just hope she still likes them.

I finished something!

I decided to use the letter outlines I had customised and reversed yesterday to make a T shirt. I copied them on to vliesofix, delved into my scrap bin and tried to arrange them. They were a tad too large, but there was NO WAY that I was going to repeat the customising exercise. The result is pictured below, finished except for hems. I did the satin stitch manually - much easier than hooping, and I would have had to redo the entire design anyway to stitch it out digitally.

I said yesterday that I was disappointed with the density of the lace in the customised bell. I was going to have another fiddle today, but got a bit carried away with T shirt construction. When I looked at the bell again I saw a tassel head. So that is what the bell became.

Software Adventures

I have spent a lot of time today working through some 3D Studio customising exercises from Computer Club. The next meeting is Wednesday and I want to be able to follow this month's exercises easily.

I first attempted a line of letters, appliqued. I managed to produce outline sheets to use with vliesofix (I even remembered to reverse the letters - how good is that!), but I am not happy with the automatically generated satin stitch. Even though I tried to improve it in the editing program, I think I will do the project the old-fashioned way and just manually satin stitch the applique pieces. I know that I learned a lot by this fiddling, but to be honest I could have done it a lot quicker by printing off the letters I needed.

Then I worked through the exercise from the last club day back in November. It was lace Christmas bells and I actually stitched out and constructed the bell. The lace is really really dense and I am not happy with the result, so I will have another fiddle tomorrow.



The next lot of computers for Zimbabwe are finally packed. I took a picture of them loaded on the trailer. Kevin tried to get rid of them today, but there was no room. The container is full of student chairs which have just been dumped in there. This is only a temporary container and it is not worth the hassle to repack the chairs when they would only have to be moved and packed again. So we still have a dozen boxes to put somewhere until the real container returns from its last Zimbabwean trip.