Embroidery,

I decided to sew out some of my emb designs that I have had for a while,, now there are not samples,, these are good designs I purchased from a lovely lady, Kas from Designs in Stitches,, here

Funny how different threads work differently,, the yellow on the lower left is Wal-Mart variegated rayon thread, the white ones are Marathon rayon, the pink is Sulky rayon, and the dark pink top right is Isacord poly,,,,so maybe poly is the best???? hhmmmm...

The Isacord flower is the only one that is soft and pliable. I am going to make some more and see you they turnout...

Making lace, and a wadder!

This is kind of a two part post,, its about something that will be used now (lace) and something that will be used later, maybe, (wadder)..huh?  I shall explain, in a bit...First,, this was supposed to be my 2nd JAM, it is a twin set,, made out of maroon knit.. with lace,,, McCalls 4923 which is out of print,,

one problem with the material, it is heavy,, not just drapy, but heavy,, it would make a good winter top,, but too hot for summer,,,and since I am making a matching shell to go under it,, well,, enough said on that,, the other thing,, I forgot the stretch of the material goes against the grain, so the stretch is going down, instead of around,, I remembered this after I had it cut out,, it does have some stretch the way I cut it out,, but this material is so thick, after I put the front facing on, I graded the SA.,. I was going to understitch the seam,, well the seam is so thick and stretchy,, is that a word,, that I had to hand sew the whole thing,,  this is what I got done on the jacket... It isn't actually a wadder,, I will finish it, just not now..

Now for the lace,, this was fun, kinda,,, I have always been the "kind of person", that when I see a lady wearing a piece of clothing that has matching lace,, whether it be a knit top, or a nice dress,, i say, I can make that,, well I am learning a valuable lesson,,I don't need to be making everything I see,,  if I was persistent about getting something done, it might be ok to be "that kind of person" BUT,, being a procrastinator,, wrong,, I have been working on this top and lace for a month,, after a while it stars getting old,, now if I had kept at it,, and set a goal each day,, it might have worked,, right now I have, 2 1/2 yards made,, yes, that is made on the embroidery machine,,,

BTW, if you are wondering where to get this design, or to see more,, it is http://www.myembroideryhaven.com/shop/lace-edging-13-inthehoop-p-1052.html

                   This is a close-up of how I matched the designs,, so it would be endless...

                        This is how I secured the WSS so it wouldn't move.

The design I used fit in a 4x4 area, so I put it in my 5x7 hoop and put 3 designs per hoop,,,

This is where I am at now, I may have more to make,, but it is getting easier,,,

A teaser,,, making lace!!

Hmmmm, what's it for,, will let you know.....

Another purse,, well two....

Ok I need to do more of these,, they are fun, just choosing the project and the font is the hardest,, this was  an embroidery design I got from  
here  My Embroidery Haven,,, I omitted the ribbon,, and put on the font instead..

I decided to throw one more in, this is one I got from a  blog.. outside was easy,

The inside however was a little more tricky,, not putting the pockets in, but sewing the 'inside" up,, I had to take out some seams and make the lining smaller so it would lay flatter. or more flat... ha ha..

Embroidering projects

I am doing some embroidering for a change,, pouches and key fobs, they are so fun, and addicting,, I am going to make more of the key fobs, they are really fast,, and pretty easy,, the pouch takes a little more time,, but it is padded,,  they both came from  http://www.embroiderygarden.com/store/index.php  Reen is a wonderful designer, and she has great ideas.

I am going to try monogramming next,, I can't believe I have had an embroidery machine for so long, (blush) and have never done that yet..

Latte quilt part 2

Block is finished,, basically, I just have to wash it out, iron it,, and sew on these little white flowers,,

Latte quilt part 2

Ok this is NOT fun, not talking about doing the block in general,, but specific stitches,,,

This is the back of this block,, the problem is,, see all the thread tales,, those are theads that I have had to hand tie,,, there are 8 rows with 5 to 6 flowers on each,, so that is between 40 and,,,,, oh lets just say 40 flowers,, well each flower has 2 ties,, so thats 80 ties,, 80,,,, uuuhhhhhgggggg,,,, AND,,,, I have to do that AT LEAST  1 more time,,, cause for this quilt,, you make at least 2 of each block, one of the blocks you make 4 of,, and in the book,, that just happens to be this block,, uuuuuuhhhgggg, I think I am going to find a different block to make the 4 out of,, other wise I may not have any nerves left,, or at least any hair,,,,,

And yes I have looked and looked and looked,, did I say I looked for another stitch,,,,,,,,I have a D1 and my 1230 sewing machine,, these motifs are from my 1230, the D1 had nothing I liked,,well it did,, but the size of the flower had to be small, the flower it had that I liked, was way to big,,,, so,, I am stuck.......

 

But, it is looking good,, except for this one thing, so far the block has been fun...

A close-up of the stitches,,

Something different.

I love embroidered quilts. I have several sets of designs laying in wait to be made, but ya no!!! One I have had for about 5 yrs,, there is it,,just setting in my hard drive,, waiting,,, for me to get up and get going,, well my going is finally starting to get up.. lol..

Introducing quilt #1, the Latte quilt by Kerri Hey, I absolutely love to look of this quilt,, and doing a search online last yr,, I found a class on it,, it actually started last Sept,,, yeh I know I'm a little late,, it is taught by Serena Smith,, she sends out info each month on each block,, I am actually glad I havent' started till now,, cause I like making the blocks one after another, instead of waiting each month for the next one,,,

This is what the completed quilt will look like,,

This is what I have done so far,,

This is the printed pic of the 1st block, I still have to put the umbrellas on mine,, hopefully by tomorrow I will have it finished and be ready for the next block...

Viking 5x7 embroidery hoop.

I am so excited, I have been wanting this hoop for over 6 mo. Ever since Viking started moving its warehouse from on state to another,(don't remember which ones), it has been next to impossible to get some things from dealers,, for me its been this hoop. So the only way to get one is to find on on the net,, well I found one on a Yahoo group  called, sewitsforsale,, I just got it Sat..

What to do,,

I just hate it when I have all day to do something, and don't do anything. I either couldn't make up my mind what to do,, or I just couldn't make myself do anything,,

So, I cleaned. And I am glad I did,, the photo at the right,, way up in the far left corner,, under the basket, see that white "stuff" well that is a ice cream basket full of wss,,but mixed in there,,

I found this,, more designs, I had forgotten about them,, I sewed them out sometime last year..So now I have something else to do,,, oh yeh!!

Update, and embroidery designs finished,,

In this post here I wrote about my Dbrother, well on Feb 6th, he passed away, he fought a hard battle. He once told me Dmother that he beat Pneumonia and a pinched Sciatic nerve,, but he wasn't going to beat Cancer. RIP Michael,

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This is the results of the embroidery designs,, I like the red and white, and pink the best,,




here is what is next on my list to do,,,

Sewing out samples.

After ranting about my embroidery designs, I decided to do something about it.

I am sewing out samples,, I am going throught my coasters and doilies folder first,, these are all FSL (free standing lace) and still have the WSS (water soluble stablilizer ) in them.. I will get them rinsed out tomorrow and hopefully more done, and post more pix,, this will let me know what designs I want to keep and what to delete,

The green design is ok so far, it had a few base threads showing around the satin stitching but not bad, the marroon and pink,, uh no,, I really liked the marroon one, it is a really pretty design,, but the closer you get to the center,, the more dense the stitches are,, and it is starting to get to be a mess, the pink one,, my machine just wouldn't sew it without the thread breaking too many times,, and I used two different threads,,,

The purple, red and white, and dark pink look ok so far,, tomorrow will tell though,,

Some embroidering done.

ETA, please bear with me,, I am trying to learn the updated version of Blogger,, will post more when I get the kinks worked out,,,
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I have been working on this doily for a while,, I am giving it to my G-mother,, she is the only person in my family that shares my love for sewing,, so I know she appreciates it when I make things for her,,,I got the set from here,,
From the needle of Anne


Using water soluble stabilizer, (wss) I sew out the design,, I then rinse it out with water till it is soft and flexible,,






then using the #10 foot, which is the joining foot (it has a little bar that makes it easy to butt two pieces of material up to, making it easier to stitch,,,)

as you can see, the pieces of lace go on each side of the metal bar,,

oops, I forgot to take a pic of the finished "ring", but you can kind of see what it looks like with the pieces all sewn together,,,, here I am sewing it with a zigzag stitch on the machine..

I used a pair of applique scissors to cut the exess fabric away,, you can also see the stitches,,,

I didn't know which pic I liked the best, so I just left them both,, ha ha,, and yes there is a wrinkle in the fabric,, linen does that when traveling,,,

Bowl finished

Bowl is finished and washed out,,,

Finally,,,

Oh it feels so good to be embroidering again,, I finally got my machine back,, after being gone for about 3 weeks,, Viking is in the process of moving I guess part of thier facility,, so it took longer than usuall to get the part it,,, but,,I also found out,, my bobbin tension is off AGAIN,,, you would think this machine and I have a love hate relationship,, humph, I actually really love my machine,, it is the best one I have ever sewn on,, I guess I have done pretty good that in about 10 yrs this is the most problems I have had with one,,, but I am very lucky,, I have a great, great, GREAT,, tech,, he is just wonderfull,, he has been sooooo helpful,,, never treated me like it is just me,, , you know the feeling i am sure,,,

Anyway,, here is the project I am on now,,, I haven't made a bowl in a long time,, so I thought why not,,, this is a new set anyway,, and I need to get some of this old emb. thread used,,( I am getting it a big order this week),,,I got this set from


myembroideryhaven

It's done,

When will I ever learn,, probably never,,, I finally got the tablecloth done,, plus placemats,,, well one for now,, the other has wss (water soluble stablizer) rinsing out of it,, so I can put the last 10 pieces on it,,,

This is how it looked embroidering the edging,, the hoop size is 150x240,, I think I got 5 or 6 pieces on each hooping, then moved the stabilizer and rehooped...

It was a little trial and error,, but I figured out the best way for me to sew the pieces together,,, at first,, I just left the stabilizer on the designs,, (after cutting as close to the edges as possible),, then I tried putting the pieces together,,, but as I lapped the one piece over the other,, the stabilizer got in the way, and I couldn't see where to sew them together well enough,, so, I wet just the edge of the lace,, the dense edge that curves,, well some of the pieces may have gotten a little more wet than others,, but , next pic

this is what I was intending,, you see how leaving the stabilizer on the "bottom" piece allows for more stability,,, this way, I just match up the lines, and sew,,,

I wanted to use a contrasting thread to show the exact way I stitched,,,

This is after I have sewed the edging all up,, I sewed a loose running stitch (about 4mm) in the upper edge,, I re-wet the lace down,, to make it more pliable,, and easier to gather,, if you look close, you can see the pins in the outside edge,, I simply, but carefully pulled the threads up enough to make the lace lay flat,, then gently steam pressed it, then I starched it,, and layed it on the material..

This is after the lace is sewed down,, no, it isn't quite circular,, but I was getting tired, and just wanted to get it done,, and yes,, I sewed down both outside and inside,,

You know how when after you have started a project,, and it is already taking a while,, and you realize you still have a lot left to do.. you start wondering if it is going to be worth it,, well this placemat is where I started thinking that,,,I forgot to take pix of how I embroidered it out,, but it was a lot like the edging,, any piece of wss I could find that had some room on it,, I used it,,,

In the placemat,, there are 28 pieces,, 10 half pieces,,(these are the 3 on top, and bottom, and 2 on each side) 6 circles, and 12 I guess you would call them square pieces,, although they aren't literally square,, they do have 4 corners,,, 4 of them actually make up the corners,,my biggest concern was stability,, I mean, this is not a dense set,, the digitizer made it that way,, but I was concerned about how well it would hold up,, but when I got all the pieces together,, I was really supprised, and happy,, it was holing up pretty good,, I did also starch it some,, but,, the designs are tacked together about every 1/2,, or everywhere the two piece meet closely,,,and at first,, i trimmed the threads,,(on samples that I did) but on this mat,, I left them,, I didn't want the tacks comming out,,,oh,, the color variations are because the darker places are still wet.

This pic was taken by my DH,, he has a much better camera that my simple digital,, plus he took it into Adobe,, and took out the glare,, now you can really see what it looks like,,, :) Update,, well I thought you could see a closeup,, I will try to get this figured out,, cause DH said I should be able to click on it and make it larger,, if anyone has any ideas, let me know......

The finished tablecloth,, I didn't realize until I loaded the pic, that my feet were showing,,, oops,,and yes, I am fully dressed,,although it may look like I am trying to cover something,,, lol....

This is the table setting we put together at G-Mothers house,, she really likes it,,,