Creative Energies

Hi Julie and all our friends,

There is nothing better than to be surrounded by creative people. While in London, we were able to spend a lot of time sharing our love for embroidery software with friends from around the world. As you pointed out Julie, people love the Encore feature. It amazes me how you can take one embroidery, click Encore, and this design takes a new shape.

Liberty Fabrics was in what appeared to be in its own little village right there in London. Not only do they have beautiful fabrics and trims but it was a great place to get inspiration as well as share a cup of tea with our collegues. There were so many people shopping for fabrics on a Sunday afternoon.

Andrea, who is from Germany, and I chatted about the ExpressPortrait Wizard found in Family Portrait. While many of us focus of creating embroideries using pictures of our friends and family, you can use pictures and cliparts. The resulting design can be so realistic! Julie, while I know your beautiful children are great subjects, I imagine your 2 dogs would be great subjects for ExpressPortrait Wizard. Right now, I am making a wall hanging of cars. Since my fiance admires from afar old cars, I thought it would be fun to use some of the dream cars on his wish list for this project.

While I love the ExpressPortrait Wizard, it reminds me of many projects I did using PictureStitch. About 6 years ago, I was given a picture of my father when he was 19 and thought it would be a great sample. That sample traveled everywhere and people were amazed that this was created using only one thread color. I had just made a copy of the sample to give to my dad when get became very ill and was hospitalized. I quickly packed, got on the plane, and one of the only extra things I packed was that picture. When I arrived at the hospital, I placed that picture on his bedside stand. He smiled and was so proud of the picture and told all his nurses and doctors about that picture. Today, he has that picture along side his chair. The funny thing about that picture was that after the design was stitched out, I was suprised to see how much my son looked just like my dad. Others that know my son also commented on that. I guess I never realized that before. Perhaps it was because I don't remember my father with hair!

Julie, now that we are back home after braving a few snow storms, are you working on any special projects?

Kathy