My First Customer

A childhood friend - who is now a Facebook friend - contacted me and asked if I would be interested in embroidering a towel for her daughter's birthday. I was REALLY excited...AND nervous...like I had a big solo in the school play, only instead of singing I would be holding up my work for the world to judge. This would be my first sale and I wanted it to be perfect.

The design was simple, cute, and girlie. I held my breath, prayed, and anxiously watched as each stitch was made...and heaved a sign of relief when the machine behaved itself (every once in awhile it decides to do something weird). The design looks adorable. I hope Miss F and her mom love it as much as I do!

 Miss F loves pigs and her mom wanted script letters in girlie pink.

I think the pig is absolutely precious!

Sooooo, even though I hadn't intended to go down this road so soon, it looks like I'm open for business! I am excited about where we might be going. Thank you to Miss F and her mom for being my FIRST CUSTOMERS!!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Jackson!

I just finished this shirt as a gift for a friend's little boy...his birthday is this month!

Love, Love, LOVE the dalmation...maybe it's because we stayed in the 101 Dalmations building at the All-Star Movie Resort. The girls lit up when they saw the design...and then they started asking when we could go back! :)

Finding Nemo

When I was originally publishing pictures, I could not locate a photo of my favorite towel. Here it is.

I made this Nemo and Crush towel for Finn as a Christmas gift. Can you guess where I hid a mistake?

My First Christmas

Well, not actually my FIRST Christmas, but my first one with my embroidery machine. I set out this year to make everyone's Christmas gifts. I figured it would be fun, good practice, and a way to save some money but still give everyone special personalized gifts.

I began working in earnest in October and when all was said and done I had produced 36 pieces...not including some extra non-Christmas projects along the way. When I started, I was proud of myself for getting an early jump on the Christmas season. LESSON LEARNED: When you have 3 small children and a full load of other responsibilities, October is NOT early enough! Start in January!...OK, well maybe not THAT early, but at least by summer, if you want to avoid a stitching frenzy that takes you right up to Christmas Eve. :)

In the end, I was pleased overall with my work. There were a few projects that had gone awry, but for the most part I had been able to get things back on track or at least hide the mistake. I learned some tricks along the way and definitely got faster at hooping my blank (article of clothing, towel, etc. on which you will stitch your embroidery design) and setting up my machine. Here are just a few of my favorites from the holiday season:

 Hand towels for teachers and family

 ECU Pirate shirts for my parents

 Prince and Princess-wear for our trip to see the Disney Princes and Princesses

 Pirate Mickey and Princess Minnie

I am already mentally planning for next Christmas. I would have liked to do more for our extended family and by starting earlier I hope to be able to complete some of the pieces currently swirling around in my head.

I'm taking a brief hiatus from my machine to recover from all the holiday fun and to get our house reorganized and back in order. After that, I am looking towards projects for our annual Sunset Beach trip, birthdays, and maybe some special surprises along the way. More to come...

The Beginning

On September 16, 2005, I became a mother. Before we were married my husband and I agreed that I would stay home when we had children, so I quit my teaching job and dove into the world of stay-at-home mothers. Four years later our home was hopping with 3 active little ones. All the responsibilities of house, home and children, combined with the contracting I do with our local school system, left little time for a hobby. Heck, if I ever had any free time I just wanted to sleep!

Last summer (2009) that changed. I yearned for a new challenge, an opportunity to stretch myself in a different way. Ever since I was a child, my favorite gifts have been those that are personalized with my name. I love to give those kind of gifts too, but having something embroidered at your local mall kiosk is incredibly expensive and limited to the small number of designs they have available. Several years ago my aunt, an accomplished seamstress, purchased an embroidery machine and I watched with fascination the limitless possibilities. I secretly wanted my own machine, but cost, lack of time, and fear of failure kept me from expressing these thoughts outloud. I am not especially crafty or creative...what if I invested lots of our money into this venture and I couldn't master it?

After some research, I discovered that for a fairly reasonable price I could purchase a sewing/embroidery machine. It was by no means a top-of-the-line machine, but certainly more than adequate for a novice such as myself. With my husband's encouragement, I took the leap and was thrilled to discover that - with some invaluable instruction from my Aunt Brenda - I could quickly figure out the basics of embroidery design. More than that, I LOVED EMBROIDERY!!!

So, that's my story. In this blog, I want to share my designs, ideas, and what I learn along the way. Right now embroidery is just a hobby, but perhaps the future holds more...supplemental income for my family, a home business? Time will tell.

This is me. My name is Tracey and I love embroidery. :)