Post 200

Well, this is my 200th post - a red letter day. Thanks for sticking with me. I'm still really enjoying it, although I haven't posted as often as I should lately. It's been such a roller coaster, what with Julia and the books. Workshop on the Web is now put to bed and we have the funniest article on a day in the life of Art Van Go. Still lots of the usual workshop articles but this one is a bonus.


I understand that a 'giveaway' is in order so if you would like this small embroidery, from my Shrine doors series, leave a message on this blog. I'll be drawing it on Wednesday, so that gives a few days. The textile is nine inches by seven inches and is mostly paper, metal and stitch. Reminds me of a book I once wrote!









One of the articles in WoW is on using stuff built in to your sewing machine, in particular, what you can do with embroidery machine motifs. Since I've had this Vista laptop, I haven't been able to use any of my digitising programs and I decided that it was time to remedy this. So I upgraded my Bernina Artista software and installed it, together with the patch for Vista. To my surprise it worked really well, first time. Hooray!

I had to take the laptop to the machine, which is a pain, so I've ordered a Bernina memory stick which can be read by the sewing machine - so much easier.

I tested it by placing some letters on a page in Paint Shop Pro. Used the Jokerman font, which is a bit recognisable but probably not when I've finished with it! I am making an installation, titled ebooks, for Cyber Fyber so I used lots of eeeees.



This was then brought into the digitising software and converted using the automatic feature.

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Stitching it out on water-soluble was not easy - due to the furry paws of the helper. He had to be removed from the scene.








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Finally it was finished - the ultimate test, using metallic thread on water-soluble film. No problem! I'll dissolve it later today and show you the result.
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.Don't forget to leave a comment for a Shrine Door.