A pinwheel block – foundation pieced using an embroidery machine. This one is done in four pieces and then joined together.

I finished testing my flying geese block – it took three attempts.

I made this block using foundation (or paper) piecing on my embroidery machine. I digitised the design using Embird Studio.

The final design size is 138.4 mm by 139.6 mm.

Read this if you’re interested in using your embroidery machine to foundation piece – it does make for very accurate piecing, but your limited by the size of the embroidery hoop.

I made these blocks into a cushion cover. I just added borders until it was big enough -the back has an envelope closure (no zip!)

Next time I must remember to finish the edges of the construction seams – it’s not something you do when quilting (because the raw edges will be inside the quilt sandwich) – and it didn’t occur to me until it was too late to finish some of the border seams.

This is my final card. The design is from here.

Just adding the design rather than trying to cover the front with fabric seemed to work better – not as crinkly.

I’ve been using my embroidery machine to make foundation pieced quilt blocks. This makes for greater accuracy. I wrote a tutorial about it a few years ago – you can find it here. There are also a few free designs available for download (hour glass, snail trail, water lily and picture frame).

I digitised the log cabin myself. In the past I have used Thred as my digitising software – it’s free and they’re heaps of tutorials on how to use it. However, the limited number of colour changes meant that I had outgrown it. So I purchased Embird Studio, which is the digitising plug-in for the Embird package. I’ve been using Embird for years to convert, rezize, merge, etc designs, so I feel confident that Studio will meet my needs.

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to find designs that I like – most are frumpy, over-filled, too sentimental and just boring, so I mean to design my own.

More felt hair clips.

I sewed my finger (with my sewing machine) while making these – the needle went completely through the edge of my finger. Fortunately the needle didn’t break and the machine stopped stitching – still there was blood.

These are quite fiddly to make and I am still not sure that I attached the owl to the base very well – I hand stitched them on, but maybe glue would work better.

The design is from here, but I am currently working on some designs of my own.

So I am continuing in my efforts to get these cards right.

Yesterday (when I should have been doing something else) I came across a tutorial on Urban Threads for making a card using machine applique, but they don’t stitch out the satin stitched edges – genius! The satin stitching is always do dense the fabric puckers and it always looks a bit too perfect – I prefer a less perfect more home made look.

This morning I stitched the above flower card (using this design). I stitched out the applique placement line, placed the fabric on the design, changed thread to a matching colour and stitched out the applique tack down line. I then skipped the satin stitched borders. I much happier with this look – it wouldn’t work on anything that needs to be hard wearing..

I’m still refining these cards. The first thing I’m trying to do is work out the best way of attaching them to the card stock. The embroidery tends to pucker the background fabric a bit and then I get crinkles when I sew the fabric to the card.

I could stabilise  more, but I don’t want the fabric section to be too thick – water soluble stabiliser perhaps? And then I really need to decide if it is worth all of this effort.

I’ve started thinking about Christmas.

I’ve decided to make some Christmas cards. These cards are quite labour intensive, so I shall be using purchased ones as well!

The above image is off my sewing machine stitching the christmas tree design, (Design is from here ).

Below is the finished card. I’ve simply sewn the fabric onto a piece of card stock.

I’ve made more coasters – they’re quick and easy and use up small amounts of fabric (I can make 6 from one fat quarter). This time I used a machine embroidery design from here.