Cat toys, machine sewing

Just for fun, and because Talyn really likes to chew (and destroy) traditional cat toys, I made a few today out of a nice tough cotton canvas. I made three squarish pillow puffs and a long rectangular "kick stick". Talyn was happy to model them.I'm very much a novice at machine sewing, and complex shapes were aggravating me, so these were the order of the day. The squares are filled with fiber fill, but the "kick stick" is filled with some leftover cotton batting from a previous machine project. So far, all three cats seem to be enjoying them!

Adventures in transferring

I had a first today. Normally, I use a transfer paper and pen to trace over the design I want to use, and then iron it onto the surface I want to embroider. I have an old towel on my ironing board, and my fabric and transfer paper get laid on top of that for ironing. I had my transfer paper carefully placed onto my fabric and was happily ironing away when I checked a corner of the design and realized it wasn't transferring. Hm. Odd. I cranked the iron to its highest setting and went over the design again, scorching the transfer paper. Still no transfer. Frustrated, I lifted the fabric off the towel and low and behold, there was my perfectly transferred image. On an old towel. Huh?! It went THROUGH my working fabric!
I am entirely stumped as to how this happened. I have transferred numerous designs with no issue whatsoever! I've written to Sublime Stitching, the makers of my preferred transfer paper with my dilemma and am awaiting a response. I'm not quite sure how to proceed. Was it the fabric? I hadn't washed it..Could that have caused some sort of issue? I just don't know. I hope Sublime gets back to me soon with some possibilities for what might have gone wrong. Until then, I'll re-ink my transfer paper so that I have a nice, clear image for transferring (hopefully not onto old towels!).

Welcome

Welcome. I'm no writer, but I am an amateur stitcher, needle point worker, embroiderer. Whatever you want to call it. Sewing is my "zen". It's my happy place, wherever I may be. I love to create things and gift them to people. Here, I will post thoughts, ramblings, past, present and future projects as well as other entirely random tidbits.