New equipment!

One of the reasons for my lack of posts last month was a very exciting one.  As you know, Debbie asked if I could make 24 backpacks for the children of Casuarina House, for their Christmas presents.  She asked if each bag could have the child's name on.  I decided it would also be great to have the Casuarina House logo on each.  So I planned what to do and began embroidering on my little Brother Innovis embroidery machine.
Well, it was taking ages.  My machine is rather temperamental, very basic, and needs the cotton rethreading for each colour change.  There were six colours in the pattern, and 12 colour changes.  The names all had to be created manually, one letter at a time. Each square was taking about two hours to complete.
Then Debbie said the children really needed new t-shirts with the logo on.  I had made a set of these previously and took them out when I visited Kenya in January 2011. I wasn't surprised that they needed replacing, but I was a bit daunted at the prospect of making 30 more (enough for staff as well).  Just to add to the pressure, the projects needed to be completed by November so that Paul could take them out to Kenya on his next visit.
I mentioned this at Church, and one of the people who overheard suggested that I "talk to Jamie" - who, it turned out, has a business doing custom embroidery.  Taking a deep breath, I did that - and asked whether Jamie thought it would be possible for him to embroider the t-shirts for me if I provided said t-shirts, thread and pattern.  He said it would, but then suggested he had a machine he could lend me.  He duly brought the machine round:

I have had a few teething problems around strength of thread and tensioning, but now seem to have largely overcome those, and this is a boon.  It is a top level home / bottom level industrial machine, and absolutely perfect for what I need.  I have started making big embroidery panels which are incorporated into bags, have finished the Casuarina House bag panels and am gradually working through the t-shirts.  Each logo takes about half an hour to do, and I can design embroidery straight onto the machine, combining the patterns I already have.  I am getting through thread quite quickly, but it is worth it!  Watch out for more projects featuring embroidery.  The first one appears on Sarah's Blissful Bucket List blog today; I will post a tutorial for it soon.
I have found lots of free patterns on line, bought some pattern CDs from ebay and downloaded some paid for pattens online as well.  I have even designed and made my own logo, which I am now incorporating as a label in all of my bags.  I will post a tutorial for that soon as well!