Well it took a year but the wall hanging is ready for Christmas.  I first saw the designs at the Anita Good Designs Embroidery Party last October.  Started the squares but had trouble with metallic threads that I wanted to be part of the design.  Lucky - Lisa Shaw - a great machine embroidery teacher lives not far away.  She gave me a bag of metallic thread and told me to see what brand my machine likes.  It likes Superior.  At Puyallup in February I purchased my metallic treads.

I worked a bit on this in the summer.  My goal was to get all the squares finished and arranged and then sew it together.  Finally a couple of weeks ago I took the finished squares and put them together into 2 panels.  The hanging is 4 panels sewn together.  Yeah - something to look at.  Once I saw some results the rest was easy.  There is enough snow on the ground I think I can hang it now.

I really liked the big pieces where the design was created with the words for songs.

(Wall hanging.jpg)

Wall hanging.jpg (135KB - 1 downloads)

Once I went to Superior Metallic I've not had any problems. I don't even have to slow down the speed or touch the tension. I put it on the top of the machine and run through the thread guide above it. Superior comes in cones.

 I also use Titanium top stitch needles for all embroidery.  A note - they break,  not bend, so if you are watching the embroidery wear protective glasses.