Too many interruptions ...

last evening! What you might ask? My brother called, the neighbor boy texted about coming over to bring me a couple pairs of jeans that needed some repair, my brother called again, the neighbor boy came over and then was interested in a couple of quilts I had laying around so we talked awhile, and had to water the seedlings and ended up talking to the neighbor and her two kids for awhile.

I still managed to get the Ballbreakers shirt done before all the interruptions. Yeah! one done - 18 to go!

I got the colors picked out for the next couple of shirts. I want to make sure each has it own color scheme and not repeat the same colors too closely together. After going back and forth, I finally decided that I would use a golden yellow and lilacs for this shirt. I got the A started.

The shirt to it's right is the back of the shirt and those colors will be

More than likely I will be adding more colors, but this is at least my starting point.

So close!

The Ballbreaker shirt is almost done. I was so close to being done, but I just ran out of time. I got the date stitched

I added a few stitches around the guitar to hold the center down

And then worked on the border stitching. I decided to try basting a row of stitches to be my guide rather than marking the quilt with tailor's wax. The tailor's wax disappears with heat, but with the shirts being sewn together with free cut edges, it takes a while to measure and draw the lines. With the sewing machine all I have to do is follow the edge of the shirt with the sewing machine foot. This method worked great! The basting came out easy after I was done with the embroidery. I got two of the three sides of the shirt embroidered. I will work on finishing this at lunch and after work. For sure tonight I will get to start on another shirt!

I used three different types of floss for this shirt - DMC cotton floss, DMC satin floss, and DMS sparkle metallic floss. I used three strands of each, but in the future I will only use two strands of the satin and metallic floss. Both of those are a bit harder to stitch with. The satin floss seems thicker so I think two strands will do. The metallic is a stiffer thread that doesn't slide thru the fabric as easy as the cotton floss.

I didn't water last evening because there was a chance of rain. The rain never came so I watered before I left for work. Here is yesterday's picture of the Shasta daisies and this morning's picture. Every day more buds pop open.

This morning I saw my canna are growing! Now these rhizomes we totally abused by me so I am so happy I am getting anything! In the second picture you see that dark area? Well since I water the canna almost every day the ground is soft and that dark spot is a hole made by a deer hoof. There is more growth coming, but it is hard to see in a picture.

The Shasta daisy seeds are just starting to break ground. The thistle are popping up everywhere with my watering so I will have to get out this weekend and pull those. The thistle are the bigger plants; look close and you can just see the daisies.

Last night the deer also bit off the top of a couple of the zinnias. It won't hurt them. This will just force the zinnias to send out branches. Crazy deer!

I also picked some strawberries this morning.

How many of these would it take to bake a pie? I put a penny in the picture for scale. These are wild strawberries that have taken over my yard - and you thought I had a strawberry patch! LOL!!

Slow going

I worked on one t-shirt all weekend and it is still not done. I finished up the AC/DC logo at the top. I bought some shiny metallic thread and used it for backstitching the inner row around the letters. It is hard to capture it in a picture, but it added just a bit of shine. While I stitched I had on a new channel that show a lot of martial art movies. This weekend was all 5 Kickboxer movies. They are pretty bad movies - lame story lines and bad acting. It was funny to see one particular actor that played one bad guy character in two of the movies and then he got brought back and played a completely different bad guy in the fourth movie of the series.

For the word Ballbreakers, I outlined the letters in the satin floss. This took hours and hours, but I like the way it came out. Here is picture of it in progress and then done so you could see the difference it made.

I used a running stitch or quilted the background following the rays of blue that came from the Angus figure in the middle.

I want to put the year the Ballbreakers album was released, so I found my stencil and with tailor's wax marked the shirt.

After I outline the date and embroider a border around the shirt then this shirt will be 100% done.

I did cook a little, did some laundry, a little walking, washed dishes, and watered the seedlings also. The Shasta daisies are looking good

The poor daylilies are being ravaged by the deer. They come in the night and eat the flowers! You can see here that this group has flowers only in one area because the deer have eaten the rest. They also stepped on my zinnias and one of the plants was halfway pulled out of the ground. I stuffed it back in, but I didn't have time to give it a drink of water so it might die.

Working that needle!

I finished the "Let". Here is what is looks like now.

I managed to get a lot done on the next shirt. I think I will outlining the letters again right along the letters. I am thinking about going to Pat Catan's and getting some of the shiny fuchsia to add an little extra bit of interest. It is fun to play around and see what happens!

We got a downpour for a half hour yesterday. I mean it poured! There was some flooding around town, but I had no issues. The humidity levels are very high though. This morning I went to look out the windows in my studio and the condensation was heavy.

I am so glad it is Friday! You know what I will be working on this weekend. Hope you have a great weekend!

Nose to the grindstone

It got up to 87 yesterday so as soon as I got home from work I had to give the seeds and canna a drink. After I was done it was down to the studio to embroider. I also embroidered at lunch time and a bit this morning before work and this is the result - the "there" is done and part of the "Let" is done.

Once the "Let" is done I will move on to the next shirt. I still have the area in the center of the shirt that I don't know what I am going to do. It needs some stitching, but what? I will figure it out eventually, but in the meantime I will keep stitching.

The plan I had last year that worked well was to get some stitching on each shirt, then go back and keep adding more as time permits. I have 64 days to get this done plus I have a t-shirt quilt to get made for a fundraiser which is the day after the AC/DC quilt is due. I can see me taking some vacation to get both of these projects done.

A little progress

After work I headed to Pat Catan's (a craft store) with a 50% off coupon. I wanted some of these floss holders as I could not find the ones I had bought years and years ago. I want to hand dye some floss so these hold the floss so it doesn't get all tangled.

I saw this floss. I bought one skein to see how it stitches up. It is a bit shinier than the regular DMC floss and I think it could add another bit of interest to the AC/DC piece. It comes in about 10 colors so if I like it I will have to get more. The hot pink and purple were gorgeous.
I am showing it next to the regular floss so you can sort of see the difference.

I spent way too much time wandering around Pat Catan's. I finally made myself leave and next thing you know I was wandering around the library. I had some books, a CD and DVD's that I took back, but then I wandered over to the new books and then to the CDs, etc. Next think I knew it was twenty after five! I headed home gathered up trash and the recycling for todays pick up, watered the seeds and canna, cooked some dinner, did some dishes, and did a load of laundry. Yes, life was interfering with my stitching time! I only managed to get the "BE" done. I say it is better than nothing!

Her are a few pictures of the flower beds. With the water the zinnias are getting because I am watering the coneflower seeds, the zinnias are growing like crazy. I know they are hard to see in this picture, but this is what they looked like on Saturday. You can just see them toward the top of the pictured mixed with the leaves from the daffodils.

Here is what they look like this morning. They have double in size since Saturday. I will just have to keep a watch out for the beetles that like to eat the leaves. I think they show up in July.

My Shasta daisies that I planted from seed two years ago are just covered with buds and have just started to bloom.

That took how long to embroider?

No messing about last evening. After I gave the seeds and canna a drink of water and threw the sheets in the washer I started working on the AC/DC piece while I watched reruns of Top Gear and the Tony Awards which I had taped. So let's call it 4:30 to 8:00 and this is what I got done - I finished the 1977 area. Aren't those blue stars cute?

Then I started working on the lettering that says "Let There Be Rock." The ROCK is done. The texture that the backstitching gives is wonderful. I wish you could feel it! Here it is and the next picture shows you the different the embroidery makes to the letters. It just makes me smile! I was on the fence with the light blue/green on the outside of the lettering, but now I like it.

I saw another doe in the backyard this morning having breakfast. She looks pregnant to me so there may be another fawn shortly.

This morning I had a few minutes so I added a few more pieces of fabric to the baby quilt that is on the design wall. Here is what it looks like now.