embroidering

 I'm working on a quilt for my son for his birthday.  He wanted pandas and I found a design using mylar.  I've never used it before and the first three designs gave me such troubles with the thread breaking.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong.  It is so frustrating when things don't work right.  The mylar is plastic, like you use for gift wrapping and it goes under the thread and makes the embroidery design sparkle.  You don't have to use sparkly thread to make a sparkly design.

I got these designs from charmingstation.com and they are really cute!  My son picked them out and I know the quilt is going to be really cute when finished.

I'm not sure why, but today when I started stitching, the machine decided to behave and I was able to stitch out 4 designs with only breaking the thread twice.  Yesterday the thread broke at least a dozen times on only one design.  I even broke a needle!

Only 5 more designs to stitch out and then I can start sewing the quilt together.  Hopefully I can get it done before his birthday on May 10.