Tidbits-October 26, 2008
A decade! You’ve come a loooong way Babeee!
Yes, Indeed! It has been ten years since I first became involved in the world of Machine Embroidery. The journey has been an extremely interesting one, not just the learning process of the machines and softwares, but also an insight into the world of machine embroidery. . I’ve seen digitizers from the home market bring the art to a pinnacle never imagined, and on the other hand, I’ve also seen so many home digitizers leave the arena to be never heard of again. I’ve seen the manipulation by digitizers and organizers in the field to satisfy the need of a few and on the other hand, I’ve also seen self less digitizers and organizers who whole heartedly to this day, pave the way for future development of the home market. I’ve seen ridicule and embarrassment as well as encouragement and support. There have been ups and downs and through it all, I’ve survived the first ten years! The one thing that can never be surpassed by any other is the camaderie and the friendships and encouragement that I have seen in the field. A love that cannot be measured and is an amazing gift that I cherish from all my friends around the world. From the time of my first debut of giving free samples for a voluntary price of $2, to the constant flow of emails and suggestions that pour into my mailbox every day….the journey has definitely been the most wonderful and amazing of any other that I undertook. My sincere thanks to each and every one of my friends around the world. Let’s go for another ten, shall we.
Looking outside the box….
Can be a bit challenging and ofcourse a bit nerve wrecking. That is how I have felt for the past few days. Personally, I’m always up for a challenge and a dare but I have to admit I finally met 
one that brought fever blisters galore! A dear friend’s daughter is getting married shortly and the challenge was to embellish an Eastern outfit that would be used for one of the wedding festivities. The fabric presented to me, a color between olive green and celery, was the most slippery and thin type of silk that I have ever seen. In the past, I have always had the luxury of prescribing the fabric, the colors and the design, but in this case I was presented with the works. One of the conditions placed upon me was to use a bright pink shade of thread for the embroidery and the lace borders from the Irish Vintage Lace. Another request was to put on the bling in plenty.
I have to honestly say that I was not impressed with the color of the fabric, the choice of the pink thread and lots of bling. Friends, beware the perils of taking on work that is dictated by your customer. I finally remembered why I do not take on custom works….a bit late, though.
Well, I had to work it all in and figure out how to create the best I could. My friend had expressed desire in the Marrakesh designs but I just could not see how one color, pink, would work out, so I selected Bahar designs. The first picture is of the sleeve which was the first piece I tackled. Murphys law is well and alive and lo and behold when I went to wash off the vilene from the laces which were attached to the fabric, 
I learned that the fabric dye was not exactly perfect. Groaning and positively sick to my stomach I called my friend who informed me that she had the fabric dyed to that specific color. How nice!
One of my favorite ways to blend fabrics together when creating a quilt is to place all of them together and cup my hands to view how they all look through a tiny opening in the hands. I decided to do the same here and selected an apple green thread for the green vines in the Bahar designs. LOL. Yes, surprisingly that shade of green did wonders in blending the pink to the background fabric! The hemline of the dress was a larger blending of one design spread out as a border on top of the Irish lace edging. Using sequins and small seed beads I then set to work on embellishing. The results as you can see are not really bad. As a matter of fact, I believe I learned a lot from this experience and yet managed to please my friend as well! The picture of the sleeve shows the fabric color to be a bit lighter than the actual fabric color, that is simply my camera. The real color is the one in the larger picture at the bottom.
A word of advice to friends….if ever taking on work from others. First of all, before any work is undertaken, test the design on a piece of the original fabric. Wash it and dry and present to your customer for approval. In my case, my friend had belief in me but I suddenly realised that I was using someone else’s resources (fabric) and it was not a kind of fabric that I would use for any of my works. In the end, everything worked out but the week long process left me exhausted and questioning myself at various times. My friend had wanted lots of bling everywhere but I put my foot down and did a sprinkling of it, which surprisingly gave a completely different look to the design. A
