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.
Category Archives: Machine Embroidery
Machine Embroidery Design – Log Cabin block
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.
Filed under Digitizing, Foundation Blocks, Machine Embroidery, Software
Owl Hair Clips
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.
Filed under Machine Embroidery
More Machine Embroidered Cards
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..
Filed under Applique, Machine Embroidery
Machine Embroidered Cards
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.
Filed under Applique, Machine Embroidery
Christmas Card – Tree Applique
Another Christmas card. The design is from here.
Filed under Applique, Childrens Craft, Machine Embroidery
Christmas Cards
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.
Filed under Childrens Craft, Machine Embroidery
Quilted Coasters
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.
Filed under Machine Embroidery, Sewing
Hair Clips
I’m trying to find something quick (and reasonably inexpensive) to make. Miss A is having a party soon and I want to put something that is not cheap plastic rubbish in her party bags. It is also a ‘fete year’ at school, so something quick and cheap to make would be good for the craft stall.
These butterfly hair clips are felt covers for normal snap clips (the kind you use for holding quilt bindings in place). The design is from here.
A few tips – the colour of the bobbin thread does matter (despite instructions to the contrary), machine sew the butterfly to the clip cover (rather than hand sewing or gluing) and finally use a tear-away or wash-away stabiliser (I used calico and it means there are little cotton bits sticking out of the edges).
Filed under Machine Embroidery
Sampler is Finished
I finished this sampler – I’ve blurred the name and birth date in the middle.
Here is the back …
I used 2.5 inch strips to bind the quilt. This worked much better for me than 2 inch strips.
I quilted in straight lines using a stitch length of 3.5mm – the normal setting for my machine is 2.2mm – I think the longer length does make for nicer quilting.
Filed under Machine Embroidery, Quilting, Sewing Machine