Photos and Failures

Here are the photos of the shoe bag:

I changed the greens and the pinks to make the shading more subtle; test pieces are a good thing! LOL I would never have been happy with the colors I chose for the test. The closure is heavy satin ribbon. She loved it; it got many compliments from her guests and a few "oh, it was done by machine." comments. I think they thought that the embroidery was something easily done, not realizing I spent over a month perfecting the layout, adding the lettering and designing the actual bag (there was no pattern, just my imagination, my trusty ruler and a rotary cutter). The embroidery itself took over an hour on the machine, not counting the time it took me to hoop it, select thread or change colors. Oh well, I had a ball making it! *grin*
I actually found some time to make a matching set of napkins and a bread cloth to go along with the bag; I love the way they turned out! I'm going to make a set with fruit on them for our kitchen. I found the perfect designs to go with the fruit plate I got in Mexico a few years ago.

I have officially failed at my attempts for Ravelympic glory; I haven't finished a blooming thing! *sniff* I've been working on my Monster Socks and the Star Aghan off and on but I've been so busy working on the embroidery, cleaning, organizing, and getting ready for the start of school on Monday that I haven't had a lot of time for my knitting or crocheting. Oh well, maybe I'll achieve victory in 2011? LOL There's always the Winter Olympics in two years, too...LOL

I have to get busy on the baby balnket and my hubby's aunt's tablecloth. The cloth needs to be done by September 13 and the baby's due in October. Yikes!

I'm off to finish organizing the kitchen cupboards; we rearranged the kitchen yesterday and I thought a complete cleaning was in order too. What on the world was I thinking?!? I still have to cook dinner (Chicken Pad Thai) and clean critter cages. *sigh* I wish I had another me! LOL