Category Archives: embroidery

O the Weather Outside is Frightful

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Table runner

Table runner with text on a path, applique, free standing lace and an embroidery from the new collection Urban Doodles:  Lilies with Spheres.

Not really.  The weather outside is not frightful at all.  In fact it’s quite delightful.

However, in the world of quilting and embroidery, we’re already thinking ahead to fall and winter and gearing up for the holidays.  If I waited to start my fall quilting projects until it’s really fall, I’d never get them finished on time.  So, we quilters and embroiderers start getting excited about new holiday fabric right about now.

This particular project involved embroidery text set on a path. This month in the August Software Sampler, Amanda Whitlatch will cover all of this in detail and much more, so be sure to visit Sew Generously or your local Bernina dealer to attend or find out more.

Using V6 embroidery software, go into Art Canvas and set up a vector shape for the text to follow.  See below. You don’t have to use a spiral, you can create a freehand line, or use a rectangle or another shape.  I just had some fun with the spiral.

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Next, click the text icon on the left, then go to the text menu and click “Fit Text to Path” .  Type in your text.  Select all.  Then click the icon on the left that says “Convert text to embroidery.”  This will open embroidery canvas, and your text will be converted.

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Be sure to check your text to make sure it is large enough to stitch out properly.  You can always increase the size, but at this point it will be treated as a graphic and not as text.

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I want to create a couple of mug rugs to match the table runner using this text below.

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Have a little fun with this, and be sure to visit your local quilt shops soon.

The Northern Illinois Quilt Shop Hop is still on until the end of August.

You can still enter drawings, get 15% off your purchases, and best of all, most of the shops now have the newest holiday fabrics in store!  So start planning your projects–  because as soon as the kids are back in school and that first North Wind begins to blow, we both know you’ll be itching to get behind that sewing machine!

A Rose is a Rose

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The upcoming Software Sampler from Bernina features some of the gradient and blending tools in the V6 Designer Plus software.  I needed to create a sample and wanted to spend my time on something I could use…not simply a store sample.  So I decided to create a design of roses that would in some way match up to the peonies I needle punched some time ago.  I thought maybe I could use up more of the wool and embroider some matching designs.

This is not an intimidating thing to do, it just takes the courage to map out a sketch and think through the order of the stitches.  For those of you with machine embroidery capabilities, it also takes some software.  But the truth is, if you can trace something in pencil, or draw it freehand, you can easily turn it into machine embroidery.  All it takes is a little time and practice.

flower sketch
As you can see, I started to test out some colors and blending ideas as well as just the basic shapes.  At this point, the sketch does not have to be perfect, the drawing only has to give you a basic idea, although, the more accurate here, the less guess work in the software.

The scan of the artwork is then loaded into the V6 software, and you can simply begin to create the shapes right on top of the image.  Once the basic shapes have been digitized, just delete the image from the background.

Digitize section by section, piece by piece, in the order that you want the design to stitch out.

Digitize section by section, piece by piece, in the order that you want the design to stitch out.

 

On this design, I was particularly careful about stitch density. Since this design was being created in the jumbo hoop, it had the potential to be very stitch-heavy.  I wanted to keep the count down.  The way to do this is to go into object properties under the fill tab and make adjustments to the fill stitch size and spacing – on each shape as you digitize.  This can be time-consuming, but is so worthwhile.  The total stitch count on this design was under 17,000 stitches.  Without adjustments, it could have gone up to 30,000 or 40,000 or more.

A good look at the stitch spacing and length. You can see this will not be a dense design.

A good look at the stitch spacing and length. You can see this will not be a dense design.

The test stitch-out was successful.  I highly recommend using slow redraw to check the progress of your design as you digitize BEFORE actually stitching. I think I will make a few changes before I do a mirror image of this design for the other side of the peonies (see below.)

Stitching in progress.

Stitching in progress.

 

 

 

 

 

Roses and peonies.

Roses and peonies.

Obviously , this quilt is still sorting itself out in my mind.  But it’s beginning to come together. Machine embroidery possibilities are endless.  It just takes a little time to learn the basics.  You can do this too, I assure you – with almost any image. I am clearly not a master digitizer.  The only requirement is a willingness to jump in and try things.

 

 

Machine Embroidery Digitizing — An Experiment

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I love machine embroidery.  I love it because of the technology involved.  I love it because it is mesmerizing to watch.  And I love it because I can design and create my own work, and, though I learn from others, the field is wide open to creative possibilities.

But I wanted to try some slightly different things, and have a little fun with my machine and software.

Special thanks to Amanda Whitlatch, Bernina of America Educator, who teaches their Software Sampler webinar. It will be available Jan. 19 to the public.  Find out more here www.sewgenerously.net

I was determined to digitize the new 780 machine.  I started by creating a sketch from a decent photograph of the machine. I wanted  something like a mechanical drawing of it, since I knew I also eventually wanted to create a stitched outline (or redwork) of the machine, as well as an overall embroidery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the V6 software, I added colors and a store-bought background design (Damask Etchings) for my first attempt.  That design took over 2 hours to stitch out and I learned a great deal about the limits of the software and the limits of my patience.  Still, it stitched out OK and I certainly have a useable design.  If I were to stitch it out again, I would go back into the software and “tweak”.  A lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As part of the Software Sampler project, we created a notebook cover for a pad of paper, playing around with different fonts.  But since I wanted to make further use of the machine design, I included the outline design of the machine. As you can see, the front/back cover is linen, while the inside picks up the bright colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally,  I decided to re-digitize the machine in a little cleaner way and add it to the outline designs to make a tote bag. You can see the result. Here is also a pic of the machine sewing out the embroidery design of itself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have so many other ideas of things to digitize, I almost don’t know where to start.  It is somewhat time-consuming, but what craft or skill is not?  I find that as I get excited about a project, the time flies.  Experts would call that “flow,”  that time when you are challenged enough to lose track of all time, yet not so frustrated by the project as to give up.

So many people now have told me that sewing is their therapy.

I hope that you, too, have something in your life that causes you to lose all track of time.

Snowflakes for Sandy Hook

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I’m sending some snowflakes to CT.

The PTA there is collecting them in order to decorate the new school for the kids when they return after the holidays. This much I can do.  I can send snowflakes.

And while I will be advocating for many other things after this event–mainly gun control, mental health awareness and the toning down of a culture of violence–the main thing I can do RIGHT NOW happens to be something I would gladly do any day.

And so I will make snowflakes.  Big ones, small ones, doesn’t matter.  And if you would like to contribute, you can make some too.

Here’s the address:

Connecticut PTSA, 60 Connolly Parkway, Building 12, Suite 103, Hamden, CT  06514

And here’s the website for more information:

http://www.ctpta.org/SANDY-HOOK-FUND.html

 

Just Like Grandma Used to Make – Almost

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This time of year, I really long for some snow.  Like everyone else, I’m really sick of it by March, but late November, early December, give me a little bit of holiday cheer in the form of weather.

At a recent community supper, I was lamenting about the lack of snow and how much I wanted to see it this year and global warming, blah, blah.    A friend looked at me and said, “As long as the weather stays moderate, I can work outside.  Working outside makes for a decent income.  When weather gets cold, we need different kinds of contracts–indoor work.  And while I can still get that, it’s never enough.  The longer I can work outside, the better.”

Oh. Now I see.  (I was blind and now I see.)   I don’t need the weather outside to be frightful, even though a fire is so delightful. I’d rather see people keep their jobs and income.

As for snowflakes, I can make my own.  Grandma used to make wonderful doilies by hand, some of them no larger than the palm of your hand. I still have a few.  But times have changed a bit, and now I can make ornaments with basically the same look, only they are done on an embroidery machine.  Free-standing lace is what they are called.  No teeny tiny crochet hooks.  Though I love the look of handwork, too often, I just don’t have the time.

I used two layers of Aquamesh  Washaway stabilizer.  Once the design stitches out,  cut away the bulk of the stabilizer, and rinse the rest under warm water. It disappears almost instantly.  I prefer Aquamesh over Badgemaster, having used them both now.  Badgemaster has a gummy, gooey feel to it as it rinses and does not seem to rinse as easily.  But in a pinch, it will work just fine.

Then just lay them flat and pin them onto a piece of styrofoam.  They dry out overnight, and maintain a slight stiffness.  Whenever I do this part it reminds me of the way my mom used to wash out doilies (she made plenty of them too).  But she had to starch them to get them to hold a shape, while mine will have a slight residue of the stabilizer to keep them in their shape. It’s a little hard to see the pins in the photo, but they are essential to maintaining the shape and flatness of the ornaments.  Free standing lace embroidery is everywhere these days, and I’ve seen some gorgeous designs for the holidays.

Most of these came from a collection by OESD called Snowflake Elegance #12429.

And I guess they are still homemade, though I have been contemplating exactly what that means.  If it’s made on a machine, is it really made by hand?  When I ask myself that question, I think about what Grandma might have done if she could have gotten her hands on a machine like I have.  I think about my mom and her knitting machines.  And the question then becomes not whether or not I should make use of technology, but with my heritage, why wouldn’t I?