Ode on the embroidered cat --

Since the embroidery machine has returned, I figured I'd use it to do some other Christmas projects.

Now days my dad wears sweat shirts quite a bit, so I decided to make one special just for him.

Being the "what if I screw it up" type, I decided I would do a "dry run" on the picture I want to put on that shirt. And as I watched the machine crank along, I also figured out that I can change the colors of the cats to suit my whims

Step 1

Now I know this is hard to see, but it's an off white on a white background

This bit of stitching creates the lighter coloring of the inside of the legs and the chest of the kitty


Step 2

now for the darker shadowing on the head and ears




Step 3

Now the main body of the cat -- the way the machine does this is to stitch the tail first, then the body and legs and the face last

All of that is important when considering the changing of colors



Step 4

Extra highlighting on the back of the kitty

This will be great especially on stripped kitties




Step 5

Outlining every little detail, putting in whiskers, eyes, nose and mouth

The program is very systematic about this, which again will be very useful for making different color cats


The plan now is to do 5 kitties across the front of that sweatshirt -- a black cat, a marmalade cat, a siamese cat, a tabby cat and a white cat with orange tail and ear markings

Today I plan to get the stitching done -- I did all of the marking prep last night

I'm beginning to think I will soon be wondering what to do with the sample blocks I'm stitching .

On the other side of this whole machine pleasure is the "dark side" of owning one of these machines -- actually the issue began with the salesman (think used car type!) that I bought the machine from in the first place -- he extolled the joys of the machine, let me play with it, told me it would do all the things I wanted to do -- he just neglected to tell me that there were a whole web of strings attached --

Anyway, since the machine is now working again, I've gone back to playing with the software that does digitizing and such, only to discover that I now need to obtain a floppy drive for my laptop -- fortunately for me, I have an in family computer help desk/hardware source, so this problem will soon be solved too.

Meantime, today while the cats are stitching, I'll be playing with the software to set up some new projects!

into the fray-----