DIME Trapunto Seashell Table Runner – Supplies

Jun16

Designs in Machine Embroidery (DIME) has been so gracious to allow me to do an Embroider-along with you featuring a free table runner pattern that is featured in the May/June 2019 issue of the DIME magazine. The only catch was I had to wait until July 1st to share with you how to get the freebie machine embroidery patterns. The embroider-along will be like Embroidery 101. We will go slow with learning how to thread your machine and getting familiar with the parts of it. I want you to go dig around and find the manual for your machine. Yes, you have to take the machine OUT of the box! Then I want you to read that manual like you would a book. I guarantee you’re going to learn something. You spent a ton of money on this thing and it deserves better than remaining in a box. You have powerful tool in your hands and it’s time to learn how to use it.

Now, I CAN give you the list of supplies you will need. This particular pattern is for hoops larger than 5×7 however, I’m going to search for some free designs that can work in smaller hoops. No promises, but I’ll do what I can. I will post where you can get the free designs on July 1st and I’ll also post a .pdf of the directions on my blog then.

Here’s the supply list from the article. The links below are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase from Amazon using these links, I make a few pennies. Don’t feel obligated; the legal beagles make me tell you this. If the specific product name isn’t mentioned (like the painter’s tape, needles, and thread) those are my Amazon choices vs. coming from DIME).

  1. Floriani Wet & Gone or OESD Aqua Mesh Water Soluble Stabilizer
  2. 1 yard Pellon Shape Flex
  3. Six 6″ squares of batting (I’m using 80/20 White & Natural)
  4. Six 6″ squares of different pastel fabrics for the seashell applique
  5. Six 2.5″ x 6″ different pastel fabrics for accent rectangles
  6. 1/4 yard background fabric (42″)
  7. 1/2 yard backing fabric
  8. Quilter’s Dream Blend Batting (craft size)
  9. 1/4 yard binding fabric
  10. Painter’s tape
  11. Mark-B-Gone water soluble pen
  12. 75 embroidery needle
  13. Embroidery thread

Now, if you don’t have those special battings or that particular brand of WSS (water soluble stablizer), use what you have on-hand. I will be using my Sulky Solvy for my WSS. This is a learning exercise for newbies and I don’t want you to feel like you have to rush out and spend scads of cash on specialized products. However, for the best results or if you’re not sure, use what DIME recommends.

A note on the thread linked above. That thread is recommended for many machines and used to be called Embroidex. I have a couple of boxes of it and I’ve had good results and it gets good Amazon reviews. I originally bought it because name-brand thread is so expensive and I wasn’t sure if I would like this whole machine embroidery thing so I bought it to keep my initial investment to a minimum. Yes, I’ve had thread breaks, but I’ve also had thread breaks with Madiera. I’ve not had any thread breaks with Isacord but my quilt shop carries that for about $6 per spool. You use or buy what you have on hand or can afford.

OK, this should be fun! Again, I’ll post where you can get the free designs on July 1st! You have homework:

  1. Take your machine out of the box.
  2. Read your manual.
  3. Find fabrics you want to use.
  4. Choose your thread colors. You will need 3-4 per shell (see below) and one that disappears on the background fabrics to create the trapunto effect.
  5. Take a deep breath…YOU CAN DO THIS!! If you have questions or get stuck, comment on the post in this blog for that part, and I’ll respond. I’ll write it out and give a video demo if need be.

Also, DIME has provided a discount to my subscribers if you want to subscribe to the magazine so you can get TWO years for the price of ONE! YAY!! Here’s the link. No coupon code required. It is only good until July 31, 2019. http://www.dzgns.com/magazine/BT142

So excited!! We start in 2 weeks. This will be fun!

Villa Rosa Designs “Peace” Pattern Quilt Top Finish

Mar24

I was in Ganado, Texas at Two Chicks Quilting and found the most lovely Sunny Side Up fabric by Corey Yoder for Moda, and thought that the Villa Rosa Designs Peace pattern would be perfect for it.

It’s a simple square-in-a-square design with lattice (sashing) in between the rows. Blocks are made up of 4 square-in-a-square sets.

I used a Jelly Roll and yardage for the yellow centers and 4″ outer border.

The pattern calls for 42 2.5″ strips which is exactly what was in the Jelly Roll. Two of the strips wouldn’t work: a yellow that matched the center and a white-on-white that wouldn’t work with the lattice. So by removing those two strips, I had to alter the block count. I figured I could have either just dropped a whole row of blocks, but I thought it would be more interesting to make a single row of blocks of two at the top and bottom. I love how it turned out!

The backing and binding are on the way! Can’t wait to get this on the longarm. 🙂

Streamlined Sewing with New IKEA Linmon Tables

Mar15

You may recall, we enclosed the back patio on our home to become my sewing room in this post. Here’s a quick look at how I had my machines set up before. I only had one machine on top of the sewing table and if I needed to use the serger or cover stitch, I had to perform all kinds of acrobatics to make room and move machines around in order to sew a single garment. It was so inconvenient and I hated it.

I searched all over online and watched tons of YouTube videos to get ideas of what I wanted and what would work for me. I finally decided to go the IKEA route and used Linmon tables to give each machine its own living space. I wanted an assembly line of sorts to be able to use any machine at any time without having to move them around. I purchased two sets of Alex drawers to hold all my sewing notions and placed one at each end of the assembly line. I also place a little bamboo box within each reach of the machines that contain scissors, seam rippers, rulers, and other notions I use frequently. To keep things neat, there’s a trash can next to each machine.

To get from machine to machine, I simply roll back and forth. It’s heaven! Yes, I need another chair, but for now, this is what I have. That’s a memory pillow on the chair made from a couple of my dad’s old shirts. He’s always with me when I sew. 🙂

From bottom to top: Brother Quattro Embroidery Machine, Brother PQ1500SL quilt piecing machine, Brother PC420 sewing machine, Brother 1034D Lock serger, and Janome 900 Cover Stitch.

My first garment using the new set up was a pair of Jalie Clara leggings and it was such a joy to roll from the sewing machine, to the serger, to the cover stitch. I even completed the project faster than I had ever sewn anything before because I wasn’t stopping and starting throughout the process. And for once, I hemmed my garment right away with the cover stitch because, well…it was right there ready to go!

I’m so, so happy with the new set up! I’m certain my garment sewing is going to really ramp up with more projects in the works!

Conversation Hearts Surrounded by Love

Jan13

I watched a video the other day from Lisa Capen Quilts on YouTube (you can learn anything on YouTube) and I fell in love with a wall hanging she was making themed around candy conversation hearts. First, I LOVE candy conversation hearts. I used to go through them in elementary school and make sure that any I passed out to my classmates for our Valentine’s Day party didn’t include one that said “cute” or “kiss me” to a boy who I didn’t want to get the wrong idea. C’mon!! We ALL did that. Admit it. 🙂

Lisa’s method was the traditional way to print or draw a picture of the design, use a light box to trace the design and words, cut out fabric backed with Heat-n-Bond, and then using a satin stitch on a domestic sewing machine, she appliqued the hearts onto a background. At one point in her video, she said it was “a little time consuming”. Ya THINK??

I really wanted to do this but have absolutely no desire whatsoever for all that work. Especially when I have a power tool, a.k.a my embroidery machine, to do it for me. And I have a very nifty piece of software called Simply Applique whose mission in life is to assist lazy embroiderers like myself. Here’s how I did it. Oh, and I’ve started a YouTube channel! I would love it if you would subscribe! I do not, and will not, monetize my channel so any products I talk about are my own personal opinion.

The hearts are an image I grabbed from Google Images which I printed and scanned into my Brother Scan-N-Cut. Once scanned, I uploaded it into the Brother Canvas Workspace to resize. Then I downloaded the image back to the Scan-n-Cut to cut out the hearts. The hearts were cut from fabric already backed by Heat-n-Bond. The background dimensions are 10″ x 26″ Kona white and then I needed a few extra inches all around the outside of Warm & White for the batting and I chose a dark pink solid for the backing and binding. The hearts are from a fat quarter bundle of solids from Free Spirit and the border is a mini-charm pack called Surrounded by Love from Moda. All the fabrics were from my stash.

The interior stipple is from a stencil I have and I used a Frixon marker to draw out the stipple design, because I’m lame and cannot do a freehand simple stipple. If I had been thinking ahead, I’d of stippled the background first on the embroidery machine because I have several stipple designs. Or even a background heart design would be cute. I just did a simple “X” on each border square.

Here’s the final product! I think it turned out absolutely adorable!! (If I do say so myself!) Now I have a cute wall hanging to remind hubs how I feel about him this coming Valentine’s Day. 🙂

Merry Christmas 2018!

Dec25

As promised, I’m going to show all the quilting and embroidery gifts I worked on throughout the year for my grand kiddos. The quilts were quilted on my King Quilter using a Butler robot. And before you wonder if I spent my Christmas morning blogging, no…I wrote this a few days ago and scheduled it to post at 7 AM on Dec 25.

The first is a quilt for my 10 y/o step-granddaughter Lyric. She is all into that Monster High that young girls are into now. I found this Grimsely’s fabric and pattern at Mes Ames Quilt shop in New Orleans. I blogged how I finished the top in the RV before we even left the camp site! Sorry, I didn’t get a photo after I quilted it.

The next was for Aiden, my baby grandbaby who just turned 2 in October. They call him Aiden the Destroyer because he’s already built like a little linebacker and doesn’t mind giving a stack of toys (or a person) a tackle for no reason at all. It’s called Woodland Friends and was just a simple panel with borders. The quilting is Puffy Clouds from Intelligent Quilting. It has an 80/20 Warm and a poly batting to make the clouds extra puffy.

My local quilt shop had this kit on the wall – all except for the backing which I found on Etsy. It’s called Corner of 5th and Fun and I just fell in love with it. This one is for Callie my 5 year old granddaughter with the Christmas Birthday. I wrapped the quilt in Christmas paper to set it apart from the unicorn she got for her birthday. It too is a panel that’s cut into 3 parts and then pieced with strips of pinwheels and blocks in the border. The quilt pattern is Bunnies from Urban Elementz. I didn’t want it too dense so it might take away from the images on the quilt.

And last but not least, the Cute Monster Quilt from Craftsy by Wendi Gratz. If you haven’t already, please check out my YouTube channel for details on how I made it by using the Brother ScanNCut for the applique pieces. This one is for Calvin, my 7 year old grandson, and I was originally going to make him the Bjorn Bear quilt by Elizabeth Hartman. However, I started too late and decided the monster quilt would be quicker. I’m not entirely sure that was true! LOL I quilted it with Spirals Squared (a pattern that came with my robot Butler). If you notice, one of the monsters has blue glasses just like Calvin does! Third row/2nd monster. The glasses pattern is from the Bjorn Bear quilt pattern and I scaled it down 55% to make it fit. I cut them out on the ScanNCut as well. The fabric is from a fat quarter bundle designed for the Bjorn Bear quilt. The backing is a light gray Grunge. I had SO much fun making this quilt and it’s by far my favorite of all my quilts I’ve ever done. That’s my lucky gecko on the ceiling!

For Callie’s birthday present, I embroidered the Unicorn Embroider Cubbie. I blogged my acquisition of this adorable creature at the DIME Stitch Lab in Houston last Sept. It’s a little crooked…just like me. 🙂 I also made her the Reading Pillow as a Christmas present. I show it here on YouTube. It has an embroidered unicorn on it and the pocket contains a Little Golden Book The Night Before Christmas and an activities book. The back of the pillow is a minkey scrap.

That’s all for now. Enjoy what remains of your Christmas season and Happy New Year!

Dec1

December 1st!  Somebody tell me where the year went!  Y’all, I have to tell you that 2018 has been a blessed year around our house and I hope it was at yours as well.  Here’s what I’ve been up to for the past month.

Check out the cutting mat I picked up at the Quilt Festival in Houston last month.  This thing is like a football field!  I absolutely love it.  I got it at the show price of $75.  I’ve been butting up two large green Olfa mats for some time now and inevitably they come apart in the middle and the rotary cutter won’t cut there or if overlapped, they were like a ski slope.
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I’ve wanted a heat press for some time as well, and I picked up this 6″ x 7″ for just $99 along with a mat and pressing sheets on Amazon on Black Friday.
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I don’t do a whole lot of heat transfer vinyl (I don’t have the room in my world for that craft)  but the girls at work decided we’d all look the same on Fridays this month and we all got this bling design to go on black t-shirts.  I needed an iron right?  My blogger buddy Joy would just love this!  wp-1543668259831..jpg

Sorry Joy, when we bought the bling pieces at work, you and I weren’t in contact yet or I’d of made one for you.  I’ll think of you every time I wear it though!  Isn’t she a peach?  You guys have to go check out Joy Bernhardt on YouTube and her blog at Joyful-expressions.blogspot.com.  Joy is bubbly, happy, and always up to something.  I just love her videos and following her around in her sewing room.  That’s a new BabyLock Solaris hiding under the new cover she made for it.  Can’t wait to see what she starts doing with that beauty!
Joy

When I went to the DIME Stitch Lab in The Woodlands in Sept, I bought a piece of software called Word Art in Stitches and let me tell you, I love this thing!  I’m a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (I have like 13 American Revolutionary War ancestors) and my local chapter wanted to have matching embroidered blouses that we could wear to public events where we wouldn’t normally be wearing our ribbons like in chapter meetings or State conferences.  I came up with this design and I’m testing it out right now on “like” fabric to see how it’s stitching out.  The micro-fonts in WAS are exactly why I purchased this software.  The lower case letters are about 1/4″ tall.  Look how clear they are!
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Not sewing related, but would you look at the price of fuel here in South Texas?  WOW!
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We had an amazing feast for Thanksgiving at the Hurricane in Port O’Connor.  There was so much food with great friends.  The restaurant provided the turkey & ham and everyone was asked to bring a side.  I brought two homemade pecan pies.  We had a wonderful time and I didn’t have to kill myself cooking and cleaning.  Perfect!  Keith gave the blessing and it’s got almost 400 Likes on FaceBook.
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While we were in POC, I stopped by Beefore It’s a Quilt in Port Lavaca, and picked up a kit for this quilt.  It’s just perfect for my house in LaVernia.  It’s really lovely and the photo doesn’t do it justice.  It’s a Villa Rosa pattern and sometimes the simplest patterns make the prettiest and most satisfying finishes.
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I made a couple of these embroidered toilet paper rolls as a gag and Keith took them in to the office as a show-n-tell.  Now I’ve got orders for 5 of them!  Thanks for adding to my to-do list!  Ha!  If you want to know how to make these, there’s a bunch of videos on YouTube.
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The Christmas Scenes quilt is off the longarm and bound.  It turned out so pretty!
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My local quilt store, Scrappy Quilter in Schertz, Texas is moving.  They found a place twice the size across the street from their old shop.  I stopped by to lend a hand and they put me to work moving about 100+ bolts of clearance fabric from a huge pile on one end of the store into a display on the other end.  I had a blast!
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I’m working on a quilt for a grandchild for Christmas.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute.
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I’ve got to get this finished, longarmed, bound, and mailed in the next two weeks.  Yikes!  I need to quit blogging and get sewing!  What are you working on?

 

 

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