Busy, Busy. But a Good Busy!

With my sew-jo is back in full force, there has been quite a bit of action in Julie Pickles Land. 

I have been getting myself acquainted with my new embroidery machine. It's taken me a lot longer than I expected, that's for sure. Heidi and I have been working through some kinks in the whole embroidery process together, she's been a fantastic help for me as a beginner. As we were discussing an issue in a little group we're a part of, another friend commented that, based on our conversations, she never wants to try her hand at machine embroidery. Heidi was all like "Hey, it's not sunshine and rainbows, that's for sure!" I'm paraphrasing actually, but that was the gist. And I have to agree! I'm an extremely tenacious person though and tackling things head on is what I do best. 

The biggest issue I have had is with puckering while embroidering on quilting cotton. Quilting cotton is just not strong enough to withstand really dense stitching and well, that's what I'm going to be embroidering on most!

This was one of the first things I tried embroidering.

A hot mess, right? Besides the puckering, there are places where the stitching doesn't even meet because the fabric had shifted so much. According to Facebook, I posted that picture in March 2, so I had only owned the machine for a week or so at that point. 

This is one I stitched over the weekend.

SO smooth!! It's amazing what some starch, the right stabilizers and a basting stitch can do! I'm ready to tackle that first design again!

I also figured out how to make monograms over the weekend through my digitizing program. And one evening I decided that I needed a new pouch for my Kindle. I had put it in one that I had already made when I bought it, and it was just too big and not protective enough. I wanted to be able to drop my Kindle in my purse and not worry about it bumping around in there. 

So I came up with this pouch. It's padded with soft and stable and the Kindle fits nice and snug inside.

As you can see, I made this one before I figured out my puckering issues with the embroidery.

I was showing it off in my little group when one of the girls, and a very good friend, piped up that she wanted one too! We discussed monograms and she asked for the same outer fabric as mine so this is hers.

Her pictures are nicer as I needed some really good photos because these covers are now listed in my etsy shop! That poor shop has been set up for 4 1/2 years and the only thing I have ever done is list fabric destashes in there. I promised the husband that I would put the embroidery machine to work if he let me get one so I finally got off my rear and did something with it. I couldn't until I figured out the puckering issues and now that I have I'm ready to branch out and do this. I'm still not confident enough to do other things yet, like custom embroidery for people, and shirts and stuff. I'll get there, but this is a start. 

You can see I have added mine and Bree's etsy shops up at the top in the tabbed area. Come check us out!

And since I have your attention, today is the last day for me to link up (scratch that, my brain quit working apparently, I missed the link up!) my June goals for A Lovely Year of Finishes. The last thing on my list for this quarter of the 2013 Finish a Long is to finish my cathedral window sampler, so that will be my June goal. 

It's pretty heavy already because of the cathedral windows. I'm pretty sure I'll use batting but I can't decide how best to quilt it. If you have any advice, I'm all ears! I actually thought about adding some tabs across the top and making it a wall hanging. Yay or nay? Seriously, any advice on how to finish this one up is very welcome!