Quilter's Prank Fail

My last post had photos of two tote bags I made for a friend.  There was one with no embroidery and one with a black and white Daisy Duck. 

There was a reason for the black and white Daisy. I offered to make the tote bags for my friend.  We went into my sewing room to check my stash of fabric.  We wanted to see if I had any fabric she would like.  The first comment that she made was "Think you have enough thread?!!!" with an eye roll at the spool rack.  Hmmm, does she think that the colour in the embroidery is put there by the sewing machine???  I jokingly threatened to make all future embroidery patterns that I did for her entirely using white thread.

Fast forward a day or two.  We are at Fabricland selecting the fabric she wanted me to make the totes with (I really didn't have the right fabric - and any excuse to fabric shop...).  A customer at the cutting table mentioned she better remember to buy thread.  My friend, not remembering my threat of all white embroidery, says "You should see how much thread SHE has".  That's it....game on.

So I make a tote bag with no embroidery.  And she is happy with it.  Then I make two embroidered ones. 

I also made a patch with the black and white Daisy to sew over one of the embroidery designs.  I call my local quilt shop to ask if they have any water soluble thread in stock.  That would have been perfect for my prank.

I wouldn't tell my friend that the real embroidery was under the patch.  I would wait until she had used the tote and it was time to wash it.  The black and white embroidery patch would fall off and she would see the "real" design.  Unfortunately the shop did not have any water soluble thread.  So I ended up using a long basting stitch that would be easy to remove.

I gave her the last two bags last night and she loved the black and white Daisy!  Prank fail.  Although I do think she almost had a heart attack when I pulled out a seam ripper and went to work removing the patch.  Fortunately she likes the embroidery that was underneath. 

But now what to do with the black and white Daisy?  I should have known.  She wants it added to the plain tote bag.  So here I am at 6am sewing the patch onto the plain tote.  When will I learn?