Weekend Project

We have needed curtains in our bathroom since we moved in, but I refused to buy any and didn't take the time to make them.  (For clarification the window is one of those you can't see through.)  Over the summer I decided that I was going to make the curtains one of my summer projects.  It took me forever to find the fabric that I wanted.  I looked everywhere.  I decided to check out Etsy.com and it became my new addiction.  I spent countless hours looking at "stuff."  I did find the perfect fabric and ordered it weeks before school started.  It sat in the sewing room for weeks.  Yesterday I had a fun filled day.  I worked on Sarah Kayte's birthday gift, but that didn't turn out so well.  I then went to Sarah Kayte's first birthday party...with NO gift.  Then I came home and finished all my school stuff for the weekend.  I then decided that I was going to make the bathroom curtains.  I started about 8:30.  I went to bed at 11:30ish and decided to finish today.  After church, I convinced my sweet husband to take me to Alabaster to get a curtain rod.  I worked on them for a couple of hours this afternoon and we just hung them.  I love them!  I will admit they aren't perfect, but I've come to the conclusion that you can't be a perfectionist while sewing.  So, here are my bathroom curtains.

First "Real" Project

So, a friend of mine thought that I was perfectly capable of completing my first "real" project on the embroidery machine.  Oh, I was so nervous.  I only have three fonts on my machine that you can use the keypad and of course they are not very fun fonts.  I searched for hours last night for fonts and a program to help me put letters together to spell a name.  I really had no idea (and I still don't) what I was doing.  I wasn't comfortable with the font that a practiced with so I settled for a flower with an "R" in the middle.  I practiced on several pieces of fabric before I finally prepared the dress on the machine and hit the start button.  It is not perfect, but I'm not sure what I did wrong.  This is what I came up with...

If anyone has any tips for using an embroidery machine, classes you can take, programs to use, websites, etc. I would appreciate the help.