What I did on Sunday all day and most of the night!

Talk about a non productive day! Well, it is if your unit of measurement is tangible items. Sunday I worked all day on creating labels. I think I may have a keeper! It is such a complicated software to use. There's so much to learn and most of it is by trial and error.

I will admit that I had a phobia regarding embroidery mainly due to the plethora of stabilizers, which explains why I've barely explored my machine's capabilities. There's so much out there and how do you know what you should be using. So I decided to use explosive therapy on myself and get into it. I tested three types of stabilizers: easy tear, water soluble (that I bought for machine applique, they don't give that stuff away!) and sticky stabilizer. I will say that sticky stabilizer changed my life! I have conquered my fears and I may be looking to embellish my life with embroidery!

In the first label, I played with various designs. I thought it would be nice to add a border to embellish the label. It took me quite a while to actually design this label. So many tools and so little knowledge! Although a tad dense for what I wanted, I will say that it is cute. Did you notice that I even copied and pasted a Gecko in the writing portion? (gleaming with pride) The font used is called Quilting Text. I need to bring the letters closer together. They are too spaced out! The spacing is automatically set by the software, therefore I need to make manual adjustments and test things out. The label measures 6" x 6", which is acceptable for a lap size quilt onward. Oh I did come up with a name for Carolyn's quilt "Funky Horse Pasture".

This label uses a different font and as you can see, the letter are much larger. The label measures 8" X 5.24", which is a tab big for my Old Friends wall hanging. This size wouldn't be so bad for a queen size quilt but not a small wall hanging. The flower embellishment could be brought down or placed on the top. By the way, I took a crooked picture! One of the problems with the fonts are the minimum size that can be used. You can only reduce them so much before they become unreadable.

This label measures 6" x 6". The font is Comic Sans MS at .17 with a spacing adjustment. I didn't cut the connecting threads as it's quite tedious and since I haven't decided if I shall use the label, I want to wait and devote my time to doing more testing. The label size isn't bad for the lap size quilt. This is one of my favorites for the time being. I may experiment with a longer flower and see how it comes out.

This last one measures 4" x 4 3/4". I used water soluble stabilizer and did cut the connecting threads. What I like about the water soluble stabilizer is that it has no stiffness. This would work best for baby and lap quilts. The label actually looks better in real life than in imaginary cyber life. It is the same font as the first label but with a spacing adjustment and less dense embellishment. This size would work for a wall hanging label.

As you can see, I've been quite productive but not in a tangible way. I did learn quite a bit about the software. I have barely explored the numerous possibilities! I'm figuring a little bit at a time.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this rather long label process. I'm off to experiment a bit more. I want to perfect this label project. Tips, suggestions and opinions are most welcomed!