The beauty of sewing is that you don’t have to work on the same project all the time. Some days you can work on something difficult. Some days you can switch to something repetitive and mindless. Some times you can try something new. And if you are just wanting to sew without a lot of planning and over-thinking you can K.I.S.S. And I’m sure we all know what the acronym stands for.
Nothing in quilting is super simple or without requiring some skill or knowledge. But some days, you just want to use what you already know and have something finished without a lot of hassle.
Riley Blake makes these monthly kits and my local quit shop had many of them on sale over the holidays. I always make something for Valentine’s Day, and I’m not sure why it means something to me. Growing up, it was just a day I sat home. And even after I got married, we have never taken this holiday very seriously.
Yet when it comes to sewing, I’m always inspired to do something for Valentine’s. Maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s the emptiness of the post-holiday household. Maybe I just want something bright in my house this time of year. I’m not sure.
It’s a fairly simple pattern. Although, of course, I found an error in the pattern instructions. You know that’s my favorite thing (sarcasm), especially with a kit, where you don’t have any room for error with the fabric you’re given.
Luckily I *am* someone who reads a pattern all the way through before beginning. Been burned way too many times not to. And it’s a simple fix. Even if you cut it wrong to start, you’ll figure out the problem by the time you get to the next step, and you won’t be short any fabric. I imagine that’s why there’s no correction on their website for this. I won’t tell you here. But if you buy it, drop me a line by commenting here or send an email to carol.edgestitch@gmail.com and I’ll tell you what to watch for.
I found some tiny little roses for backing fabric at the local shop. Thank goodness for them. Please shop your local stores so they stay in business.
That’s all for now. Just a sweet little 36 x 36 room brightener. Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate.
And if you’re sitting home with a box of chocolates–I feel you.
Whenever I’ve had a conversation with any professional seamstress–and I’m not a professional seamstress, I’m a quilter, who specializes in machine embroidery and software, and dabbles in garment sewing–they say, “I’d much rather sew from scratch than try to alter anything.”
I am now in that camp.
My sister works as a Corrections Officer in WI. (MINIMUM security). But they wear these heavy duty, government-issued work pants, with pockets in every direction, darts at the knees, etc, etc.
She was explaining to me that she now only has one pair of pants that fit, because she put on a few pounds over the last few years (who hasn’t?!) and her others no longer fit.
When she put in a request for a couple of pairs of pants the next size up, she was told that there’s a nationwide shortage of pants in that size. Seriously. She was just out of luck. And though we all think we can lose weight easily, let’s get real. Time goes by, years pass, and weight almost never goes away and stays away. (Your experience may vary.)
So as we gathered over the holidays, I told her to bring me a pair that was hopeless. If I ruin it, no big loss. She can’t wear them anyway. I thought, maybe if I look at them I could somehow let them out a bit.
Nice thought.
Once I got a look at them, I regretted every word and wish I had just sympathized and kept my mouth shut. Every seam was reinforced strong enough to withstand a drugged-up nuclear prison riot. Pockets were built inside of pockets and stitched to the outside of the pants. Belt loops were reinforced with some sort of indestructible thread. And flat-felled seams ran up the side that would make the most sense for adjustments. On top of that, her inseam was falling apart, the fabric was worn in some places, and the zipper was pulling away…we’ve all had pants we’ve tried to squeeze into one too many times.
I sighed.
I called my sister. “This is going to take longer than I thought.” Understatement of the year so far, but the year is young.
The first job was opening all the side seams. Once both pant legs were opened, I had my sister try them on, and I measured the distance I needed to add to each part of the pant legs. From those measurements, I created an insert that would start at the waistline and run down the entire leg. Obviously, both legs needed to be done. The insert was made of a cotton canvas in as close a color match as I could find. Then I lined the insert with SF 101 for body and strength. I serged it in to the side seams, and then came in with my sewing machine to give it a nicer and reinforced stitch.
In order to do this, I had to remove a stitched-on pocket that sat on the front of each leg, which was set right on top of the seam..
I don’t know if you can see it from the above image, but the front pockets were each in 3 pieces–an underpocket with compartments, and a larger pocket over the top, and a flap attached to the pant leg at the top to close the pocket. Every corner had super-reinforced seams.
Needless to say, in the course of unstitching all of this, the fabric gave out in one or two places. Not to be sidelined, I went to the computer, ordered some iron-on fabric patches from Amazon and kept working.
The patches actually worked beautifully and I think the fabric needed some reinforcements where it was getting thin anyway.
The final steps after all the unstitching was to put the waistline, the pockets and the hemline all back together again. My sister requested a little extra room in the waistline which was also a challenge, but I used a piece of fabric with some more interfacing (SF 101) again and got it done. (The waistline is elastic, with rubber-like covering, so your work shirt doesn’t come untucked.)
In this pic, I tried to lighten it a bit so you could see the strip down the side that was added to each leg.
All in all, it was a creative challenge.
That I really never want to do again.
While using the seam ripper at one point, it slipped and shoved itself up under one of my cuticles. Yes. It was as horrid as it sounds.
But I lived.
I still have to deliver these to my sister and have her try them on. I know they will be more comfortable than they were. And if they’re not? Well, it wasn’t a complete waste of my time. I learned about the construction and dissection of work pants. Leonardo DaVinci worked the same way, you know, taking apart dead bodies to study anatomy.
But the real lesson is that if my sister wants another pair of work pants altered, I will purchase a seam ripper for her.
I’m happy to do the sewing, if someone else does all the unsewing.
Finally, my Kudos to the workers on industrial machines in Mexico who apparently make these pants for a living (The tag says made in Mexico). I salute you.
These pants should be worth $10,000 in labor. I don’t blame you for stopping work, folding your arms and causing a nationwide shortage.
So here’s a very easy use of Kraft-Tex and machine embroidery to create a charming village.
I re-upped this border design which I used on my last quilt project. Some simple white Kraft-Tex and an exacto knife, and I trimmed the whole thing.
I attached it with crazy glue to a 1 x 1 block painted white. Honestly, the simplest of ideas. And yet, it’s really effective. For anyone who’s not familiar with Kraft-tex, it’s a tough, durable leather-like textile. It withstands a lot. It won’t rip. It’s washable, if that’s what you want to do.
But I just used a sticky-back tearaway stabilizer (Stabilstick) with a piece of the white Kraft-Tex on top. This particular design is ideal for this application. It’s not stitch heavy, but enough to hold its visibility.
I created three of these village scenes, added some fairy lights, with a backdrop of a white birch, which I already owned.
A bit of white filler which I found in the basement (for making stuffed shapes, pillows, etc.)
And when I was done, I had a charming village which would look lovely on a mantle. I have it on a book shelf in our hallway.
It took very little time to create this scenario, and of course, I wished there had been a series of these borders with other shops and scenes all in the same profile. But this worked out on its own.
I hope your holidays are peaceful and calm. May you enjoy your craft and create beautiful things. Happy Stitching!
But I really got hung up on the border. I wanted so badly to incorporate red and white buffalo checks. I tried it in so many ways. I wanted it to fit with my soon-to-be Christmas theme of red and white gingham. (Never mind that my whole house is going to look like a CrackerBarrel.) Anyway, you can see from the top pic that the red was jarring and annoying.
The village border embroidery, however, was adorable and I had to use a mid-tone fabric, so that the snow trim on the village would show up.
I finally landed on a layout that seemed calm, and simple and peaceful, like the images on the quilt.
Now for the snowflake quilting. The first thing I did was stitch out the design on pieces of cutaway stabilizer. I stitch out the first right side up, and the second upside down. Yes, I could have just turned it around in the machine each time, but I also saved the design in software both ways. So with each hooping, I could choose A or B, and didn’t have to fuss with turning the design upside down and back on the screen every time. I cut them to precisely fit the inside of the hoop and used it as a guide to hoop each design.
With the first stitch out, I knew I was going to love the quilting.
Giant snowlflakes falling on a sleepy Christmas village. Yum!
But then I started to really worry about the darker color. Would the snowflakes be too busy? Would the embroidery design underneath hold its integrity against the quilting?
It worked just fine, I’m happy to say. The quilting adds texture, and if you look closely you can see the snowflakes. But they do not overwhelm the village, which was my fear. The quilting thread throughout is Isacord white. Top and bobbin. And it worked like a dream.
Do not try to do machine embroidery quilting with Aurifil. Look. I love Aurifil as much as anyone else, but it really is not designed for the high speed of machine embroidery. It breaks and you will want to scream. (Ask me how I know. Luckily, I learned that lesson on a prior project. Now I only use machine embroidery thread when using machine embroidery for quilting. Just imagine doing 40-some-odd hoopings, and you have to keep stopping for thread breaks. Trust, me on this one…use embroidery thread.)
And one more word of advice: Be sure to leave plenty of batting and backing around the outside of your quilt when you are embroidering. I had to do several hoopings that reached the edge of the quilt and stitched off. You need the room to let the design stitch on something as it runs off the end of your quilt.
In the end, the quilting turned out lovely, and I’m really enjoying the tiny details. It’s a “look closer” kind of quilt.
I want to encourage you to try machine embroidery for quilting. I know it’s intimidating, and 40+ hoopings sounds daunting. But each hooping took about 7 minutes to stitch out. So maybe 8 hours of work spread out over 2-3 days. I was able to precisely place each sequential hooping by using the 2 different cutaway stabilizer templates.
The look is exactly what I wanted. But let me tell you, along the way, I was never sure it would work. I guess that’s what makes it fun.
Happy Stitching to all of you, and Happy Holiday Season!
If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know I like my embroidery software. But I recently made a switch…for many reasons.
I switched to Hatch Embroidery Software. It is made by Wilcom, the same folks who create Bernina Embroidery Software. So if you have used Bernina, the user interface will look familiar.
They offer 3 levels of functionality, and I decided to go with the one that is basically the least expensive. I certainly could upgrade at any point. But for now, I’m very, very pleased. I found that I was not doing a lot of digitizing from scratch. In fact, most of the time I just purchased a design, added copy (or words) and was done.
I wouldn’t discourage anyone from using any embroidery software, as long as you learn to use it and then USE IT. What I found is that I was not using 90% of the software I was paying (quite a lot) of money for.
So I switched to something that is easier in functionality, downloads in a flash, is not encumbered by any hefty programs, and still does what I want it to do.
Reasons I use embroidery software:
–I like to see the order of thread colors that my design will stitch out.
–I want to personalize it by adding words or names. I do all my quilt labels in embroidery.
–I always want to know stich count.
–I like to be able to re-size my designs, or combine them on a screen that is big enough for me to see.
–I want to easily use the software on both my desktop and laptop. I keep my laptop near the sewing machine so I can refer to it, while I’m stitching out. But I purchase designs on my desktop.
Reasons to switch:
–I want to easily use my software on both my desktop and laptop, without it getting bogged down launching or freezing.
–I’m really tired of dongles and USB sticks for loading.
–Honestly, I don’t want to pay quite so much to upgrade every time for features I rarely use.
This is a personal decision and everyone has different software needs. And our personal embroidery software wants and needs change over time. Believe me, no one pays me to promote their software, so I am free to make decisions based on my own preferences.
But, of course, I wanted to share those things with you. Once I discovered this software, I was really pleased that it was an option for me.
Hatch offers a 3-tiered purchasing offer. The one I use is Personalizer. But they have 2 more upgrades which have more functionality.
You can use all 3 versions for a month for free, so you can decide which best suits you and the things you want to create. And heaven knows, they always encourage you to upgrade/update.
I find that this works for me at the moment. I reserve the right to change my mind.
And next time, it won’t cost me quite as much to do so.
How are you? What have you been working on? What have *I* been working on?
I’d love to say that my summer was smooth sailing and glorious. But let’s be honest with each other here. I had some minor health issues, and was struggling to find our son a car in time for him to go back to school. Once kids are no longer first year in college, they aren’t necessarily guaranteed a dorm room…at his school at least. So he made arrangements for an apartment, and it’s crazy to prep a 20 year old for his first apartment–long distance.
And the car? Have you tried to purchase a car lately? Dealers will take a deposit, and then you wait for the manufacturer to deliver whatever they have the parts to build. Seriously. Used cars? Ha. They cost as much as new (well, almost). My husband’s car is now worth more used than he paid for it brand new two years ago. Crazy times.
But for now, we are somewhat on track. He moves out again next week to his own place with a functioning car.
And in my spare time, I have been consumed with the vegetable garden.(And the bugs, the weeds, the critters, the watering). For whatever reason, the tomatoes have gone nuts this year. No kidding, the plants have jumped the shark.
Shown are Supersweet 100 cherry tomatoes, San Marzano Roma, Early Girl, Big Red and Beefmaster. All varieties are as disease-resistant as I could find. But things still nibble on them once in awhile. An old gardener once told me “If the nothing else will eat it, neither should you.”.
I have roasted tomatoes, given them to friends, forced my family to eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner. And this is after the cucumbers exploded. I planted *one* cucumber plant, knowing that would be just enough. But the plant produced well over 40 cucumbers. All in the span of a few days. I made jars and jars of fridge pickles, bread and butter pickles, carried armloads off to the Salvation Army Food Pantry and we had cukes with every meal.
Dear readers, I am suburban. If I were capable of canning I would certainly do it, but it scares the h— out of me. I don’t want to poison anyone down the road. I know how to cook and freeze things. I’m not afraid of letting things pickle in the fridge. But guaranteeing a seal with a water bath and all that jazz? Mmm…No. So this weekend, is Tomato Sauce Weekend. I will be spending my time making two different types of sauce and freezing them in meal sized portions.
And on top of that, I planted cantaloupe on a whim.
Now I have 5 cantaloupes in the fridge to eat (and counting…still some on the vine). So far, they have been tasty but not super sweet. I would have liked them to get a little sweeter, but I did as YouTube instructed me, and waited till they easily came off the vine. Some are delicious and some I throw out the back door into the woods for the squirrels. An experiment for sure.
And I have two watermelons. I really have no idea when those should be picked. They resemble what would be referred to as Black Diamond or Blackjack watermelons. Which just means they don’t have the traditional watermelon stripes. I am clueless. The name was not on the small container when I purchased them and now it’s just an interesting game. I am not invested in these being tasty at all…just curious as to what I’ve grown here. They look like black soccer balls in the garden.
Here’s a little recipe for you. I’m sure you can come up with your own way of consuming cherry tomatoes. I grew Supersweet 100 cherry tomatoes this year. I highly recommend them as they are disease-resistant and prolific.
These are roasted. Simply cut in half and arrange on a baking sheet with the cut side up, parchment paper lining. In a separate bowl, combine 2-3 tablespoons of good olive oil, 2 cloves of minced garlic and a teaspoon or so of Italian seasoning. Mix it up and meticulously spread it little by little over the top of every teensy cherry tomato half.
400 degrees in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
Toast some crunchy bread (I use gluten free), top with some goat cheese and then pile on the tomatoes. Chop a little basil if you have it. This year I grew Amazel Basil. Totally worth it. I’ve been harvesting for weeks and weeks.
I’ve been pounding out the pesto too.
Finally, every few days I get an amazing display of zinnias.
Here’s a two-gallon bucket full of them, just one morning’s trip. They are blooming so profusely that if I don’t cut the flowers and bring them inside the plants will begin to fall over from the heavy stems and blooms.
So have I sewn at all? Not a stitch. Though I have been knitting a tiny bit for stress relief.
But once that first cool breeze hits, I promise, I’ll get back to sewing. Suddenly, in the car this morning, I had an idea for something I’d like to try with fabric scraps.
Enjoy the last days of summer before the routines all change. My experience in the garden has been that lately, summer lasts through mid-October. But once the kids are back in school, even the plants are ready for a change.
And once I dig out from under these tomatoes, I’ll be back at the sewing machine. I’m feeling something new coming on. Happy harvest!
With the lack of rain we’ve had recently, the weeds haven’t yet had a chance to overtake the whole thing.
My community garden plot is currently doing…OK. I am growing tomatoes, onions, kale, peppers, some lettuce (I already harvested some), cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, corn, basil, and zinnias around almost 3 sides of the borders.
I’ve kept everything pretty wide open this year. Some of my tomatoes are not disease-resistant, and I am noticing sign of fusillarium wilt. This is a soil-borne disease, and I really can’t do much about it except to plant resistant tomatoes.
I made a quick run to the local privately owned nursery to see what’s left, and lucky me, they had some disease resistant tomatoes. I purchased a 4-pack for $1. Seriously. $1. And I got them in the ground as quickly as possible. The new tomatoes will likely start to produce sometime in September, but who cares? That still works.
I have already harvested some cherry tomatoes. I’m waiting for the others to ripen. For some reason, the cucumber plant produced one early cucumber and now I’m wondering if it will continue to produce. There seems to be some other starts on it, but they are tiny. Usually cucumbers all come in at the same time. I am having some pollinator anxiety because I simply have not seen a lot of them yet. And I have a neighbor across the way who uses every possible chemical on his area. His veggies are not troubled by any insects. But we are supposed to be organic. Who’s gonna tell this old gentleman that he can’t use Sevin whenever he wants?
The zinnias are taking a little time to begin blooming regularly, but most of them were from seed so I can be patient. I am hoping that by the end of July I’ll have blooms all the time.
I hope you are having a relaxing summer. I’m not sure that I am, to be honest. I’m just trying to get from one day to the next, just like everyone else. I focus on what’s in front of me, and I’m not sure I can do anything else.
As for sewing? I haven’t really touched a thing. But I did set aside an old sheet that I think would make a nice late-summer skirt or a top.
May we all find strength and peace in the season. Right now, around Fourth of July, I tend to begin focusing on Fall projects. I’m sure the sewing inspiration will return. Until then, eat healthy things, take care of yourself and love the Earth.
I wanted a clean-lined quilt for my newest great-nephew. His mom had mentioned that the colors of the baby’s room were tan and forest green, with woodland creatures.
The curved piecing was very reminiscent of leaves, so the first challenge was rounding up all the fabrics that I thought would work for my project. I didn’t want to go with the grey background and thought I might be able to substitute a tan and still get the same transparency effect.
In keeping with my effort to only purchase organic fabric, I found some that were nearly perfect from Hawthorne Supply Company. Many of their regular quilt fabrics have an organic option.
So the above fabric was the inspiration, but I knew it would just be on the back. I really loved the idea that the quilt would have this slick modern look/feel on the front but still have an element of the baby’s room and theme on the back. It’s always nice to have something that will extend beyond just “baby”.
At any rate, I was a little concerned about the curved piecing, but to be honest it was pretty simple. The directions and graphics in the pattern are very straightforward. I made a copy of the template on some template plastic that I had hidden somewhere for years. (It was perfect for the task.)
And I set about piecing and laying out the quilt. It had plenty of white space so overall it was a fairly quick assembly. The hardest part was all the planning in order to get the colors just the way I wanted them.
The result was an extremely cool pattern and vibe.
I ended the quilt with some machine embroidery which I put on the front of the quilt next to the binding in one straight line. It added an element of interest, like a painting signed on the front. I don’t have a pic of the quilt label, because I don’t want to make all the names public. (sad face emoji)
From this pic, you are seeing the bottom half of the quilt as it hags over the railing, so it’s about twice that high.
In general, it was one of the most satisfying quilts I’ve done. Matching the colors to the back, maintaining the theme, and still incorporating craftsmanship and interest. I wanted it to be a quilt that could be washed and washed and loved to pieces.
Don’t be afraid to walk away from your usual work or traditional quilts once in awhile. You might be surprised to find a fun and interesting new aesthetic. I never want to be boxed into a corner or predictable in this craft.
If you’ve been plugging along, feeling like you are in a rut, try something completely different. In fact, try the opposite of what you normally do. I’m personally feeling like I need some improvisational quilting these days. Structure is feeling a little uncomfortable.
I guess we’ll see what comes next. Happy stitching, friends!
I thought I would share the final version of this quilt.
Looks like I’m ready to move on to a baby shower gift. The next one will be a modern quilt. I’m busy cutting out pieces at the moment and will share it with you as soon as I get a bit further.
But here’s a little idea for those of you who do machine embroidery and drop food on yourselves. Wouldn’t you like to see the Venn diagram for that?
Anyway, I do both those things. And so I had a stain from something delicious on a shirt that I made during the pandemic. The fact that it has held up for a few seasons and many washings makes it even better. Nevertheless, I had some kind of drip down the front of it that the washing machine and dryer just made permanent. I’ve never been good with stains and I will take any and all suggestions. I don’t remember quite what the stain was on this shirt, likely some reddish fruit juice. (That’s not a euphemism for wine. I only drink white, and that’s rare.)
So I added an embroidery design. I wanted it to be light weight…and it needed to be the shape of something that dripped while I was eating or drinking…or cooking.
Luckily, I found this collection from Embroidery Online called Heirloom Birds. Turned out to be the perfect design. Lightweight, easy and quick to stitch. I purchased the whole collection. I am a healthy eater, so there’s bound to be more where this came from.
Anyway, I hope you are enjoying your craft. Don’t be afraid to use it to your advantage. None of us is perfect. But a little embroidery goes a long way. (That has to be in a Jane Austen novel somewhere.)
Happy Spring! I’ll be in touch as my next quilt gets further along.
I started working on this quilt last year, hoping to send it with my son as he headed off to college. Now, after spending some time on it, he will likely see it when he gets married. Some day.
Just kidding. Sort of.
I’m in the final stretch, but it has been quite a journey. Thankfully, my son loves the pattern, and has been patient.
It starts with hundreds of half square triangles. The pattern is Les Petales from French General. I managed to scrape up enough of their fabric to use as well. I’m not even getting into the hours spent cutting all the fabric before a single stitch is sewn.
Here is a look at it from above, before it was completely pieced. At this point I thought I was getting close to being done. Nope.
Once the bulk of the quilt had been assembled, I went to work on the border. How hard could it be, I thought. Ha.
Have you ever pieced a quarter square triangle border? There is just not a single intuitive thing about it, and the pattern did not give any specific instructions.
An acute angle sewn to a right angle SEEMS like it would be an easy and quick thing to do.
Not so. Or not sew.
Every piece needs to be measured, marked and pinned, almost like a Y seam. On the acute angle, you must measure 1/4 in. from each side, and the pin goes at the intersection. Same of course for the right angle…which is much easier.
In the next step, it’s the mirror of the process, and so on, and so on…
Here is a link to a video that I found very helpful from Fons and Porter.
At one point she refers to part of the process as an “idiot check.” I’m not going to take that personally. No, I’m not. And if you try it, you won’t either.
A quarter square triangle border is a lovely thing.
But it takes forever to piece. And even when you are working very hard to get it right, you will still have some points that are not perfect. But you can fix them as you assemble as long as they are not off by too much. Don’t ask me how many I ripped and redid.
Finally, I am at the quilting stage. I want the quilt to be soft, washable and survive a lot of uses, so I am going with a simple quilt pattern.
I’ll give you another peak once it is complete.
I hope you are challenging yourself with new patterns and new techniques. It’s all about process, isn’t it? When it’s done, it’s just done. But the learning journey and the persistence to follow through…that is the thing.
