My sweet friend Nancy over at Patchwork Breeze showcased the oak leaf from the Embroidery Jam Fall set in the most stunning table quilt. You can see her work HERE.
Just look at all the beautiful free-motion quilting around the leaf that was done.
Nancy takes you step-by-step through the quilting process on the blog post and even uses her Scan and Cut machine. It really is amazing.
While you visiting Patchwork Breeze, be sure to poke around her blog a bit. She provides a wealth of quilting, sewing and machine embroidery information.
Thank you Nancy for using one of Embroidery It’s designs in your quilt.
You can find the Embroidery JAM Fall Set Here on Etsy and Here on Zibbet.
On Saturday I was so happy to get a chance to take mom to the AQS show here in Grand Rapids. Mom has been a quilter for over 30 years and I think some of the quilts she has made rivals many of what we saw. Friends, I wish I could have gathered you all here with me. What a fun day it would have been for us all to be together to see all the hundreds of quilts and to shop at all the vendors. Even the vendors booths were loaded with quilts and inspirational goodies.
Just sit back get a cup of coffee and enjoy scrolling through the photos. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of quilts and so here are different ones that spoke to me in different ways.
Finally, HERE is my post from my last year’s visit to the AQS show if you’d like even more quilty goodness.
What a rainy day we are having this morning. I’m thankful for the rain and the bit of coolness that it brings. Makes for a quiet day at home to embroider, and read.
I pulled out Mackinac Island Fudge coffee this morning for a pick-me-up and the girls like it too.
I want to remind you to be sure to pick up the free cross stitch letter “q” this week. I will be changing it out early Wednesday morning so you still have a couple of days.
Finally, and this is the first time I’ve shared this with you all, I’m working on getting Embroidery It up on Shopify.
There are several reasons for this. I think it is a good next step. I’ve still struggled with getting my own website shopping cart system working here. I just don’t know enough yet and if I had problems with the shopping cart, I wouldn’t know how to fix them. Shopify is more like Etsy in that they handle the payments securely and safely for everyone and I’ve heard wonderful things about Shopify. I think I can basically sell directly here on my website and then when you click to buy, it will take you over to Shopify. Still working out the details on that. On Shopify, I can arrange my designs in a way that will be easier for customers to navigate and find. Shopify will cost me less money. It is a monthly fee plus a small percentage that will be less than what Etsy charges.
It is a learning curve for sure though. Some of my pictures show up dark. I think I need a different photo editing software to correct this problem.
I won’t be leaving Etsy so for those of you who love Etsy, you will still be able to find me there. Etsy has a special place in my heart as that is where I started. Finally, I think it is a good thing to be a couple of places in that if Etsy ever decided to shut down for who knows why…I have a back up going. Or, if Shopify went away, I would still have Etsy.
Shopify will have a newsletter sign-up form and if all works as planned, it will merge with the one here so you won’t need to sign up again.
Update July 20, 2016 – At this time I’m no longer moving forward with Shopify. It still is not giving me what I want in a website. Pooh! I just need to get my own website here up and running properly.
That’s all for now…Have a wonderful day friends, no matter what the weather is like in your area.
Todays Birthday design set will give you the hometown country general store feel. Kitchen Emblems using mouth watering words will keep you thinking of the freshest ingredients, Grandma’s comfort food, and your best recipes. Use these designs on towels, aprons, placemats and all your kitchen linens to bring back that country nostalgic feel.
I embroidered the designs onto towels that I made out of Hardanger cotton fabric. The Hardanger fabric has the salvage edges finished off so all I had to do was cut to length and I cut them 30″ long. I hemmed the top with a simple roll-over hem and on the bottom I did a scrappy patchwork border using fabric and thread colors that matched.
You could cut your patchwork squares any size, but I cut mine at 1 1/2″ square and then stitched them together randomly using a 1/4″ seam allowance.
I just made enough for two rows to go the length of the towel. I finished off the back of the patchwork squares with white cotton fabric as my squares hang below the towel. In hindsight, I could have just stitched them directly to the bottom of the towel and that probably would have been a bit easier.
I must confess, these designs have been some of my very favorite. I think it is because they just special, what I call, trendy vintage feel to them. You can find Kitchen Emblems HERE in the Embroidery It Etsy store.
Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the home page and grab the cross stitch letter b this week. It is a free machine embroidery design and it is made in your 4 x 4 hoop. It is free this week only!
Just a sneak peek here at the new free alphabet coming up. It will be starting in just a few short weeks and I am hoping to get the word out early.
Please let your friends know the alphabet will be starting soon. As a heads up, your quilting friends are going to be super excited about this alphabet.
I finished the garden flag I had been working on for my dear brother and Sister-in-law. I embroidered the design onto ogsnaburg fabric which you can find at the store located with the utility fabrics. Then I stitched on the ribbon stripes and finally backed it with duck cloth. When turned right side out I did a bit of topstitching around the edge as well. I didn’t use a pattern, just kind of winged the design myself using an existing garden flag for the approximate size. For the finishing touch I added a bow out of the same ribbon that was made the stripes. I think I need a bit of bow making practice. 🙂
This was the first one I made and have now made a couple more since using burlap which was fun to stitch on. In hindsight, I wish I would have bought some purple Kansas State wildcat fabric to create the monogram letter R. Maybe I will just have to make them another one next year.
The small font was built into my machine but the applique letter “R” is from 8 Claws and a Paw.
This past Saturday I drove over to the East side of the state to teach a class for the Michigan Embroiderers Fall Fest. My class was about embroidery on jeans and I will be writing a blog post about that within the next few days.
For now though, enjoy a few pictures of the day and may it inspire you to create something.
Actually today will be more show than tell. I have been participating in the Farm Girl Vintage quilt along from the Fat Quarter Shop using Lori Holt’s book Farm Girl Vintage. I love these scrappy country quilts. In this quilt there are 42 blocks! That is a lot of fabric cutting friends. 🙂 I post my quilt pics on Instagram if you would like to follow along. For now though I hope you enjoy the handful of pictures I’ve selected for you here.
Humming the tune of “Rawhide” in my head. Sewing, Sewing, Sewing, the bias tape keeps growing, da da da da de da Rawhide!
I’m sewing the bias tape on the 20 boy scout neckerchiefs. Each neckerchief takes a full package, 4 yards. That’s 80 yards I’m stitching on. I’m on my 6th neckerchief right now. Just needed a break!
Have you seen a presser foot like this? It is a “binding foot” and it hold the bias tape open and in place and the fabric fits in a little slot that feeds it right down the middle of the tape. Sure makes it easier to sew as there is no pinning required and it catches the bias tape neatly on both sides.
So I keep plugging away singing my little diddy. Actually, I’m listening to podcasts as I sew. Have you ever heard of Daily Audio Bible or Merry Ministries? Those are two great ones to listen to, and they are free!
Hugs and blessings,
Nancy
ps. Want to know a little secret? I have produced some podcasts myself. Back in 2010 I made several podcasts that you can find on iTunes. My podcast was titled “Making Our Home a Haven.” In my very own home, I have always strived to make it a haven. I don’t always succeed, but I do always strive for it. 🙂
Last spring/summer I took a quilting 101 class. My mother and mother-in-law are both quilters and that is one thing I had never tried my hand at. What you see is my very FIRST quilt I have ever made!
Yesterday I was doing some spring cleaning and working on the garage. While in there I pulled out the Easter decorations. I set the dining room table for Easter and then put away my winter quilts that my mother has made for me.
As I put away the winter quilt that I had on this wall, I was excited to pull out my quilt. I actually finished it before Christmas this past year but tucked it away until now.
As I was assembling this quilt I really wanted to do more with butterflies. I found all the butterfly designs you see on this quilt at Embroidery Library with the exception of the one you see below, the one in the corners of the quilt. I received that design in one of my embroidery club classes at our local sewing store and it was given to me by the instructor. I don’t know who to credit this design to.
The six butterflies in the center were embroidered on Floriani’s “No Show Nylon Mesh Non-Fusible”. To use this product, when the solid design is finished stitching, cut close to the embroidery design. Then use a heat source such as a mini iron, stencil burner or wood burning tool to melt away the edges of the mesh from around the design. ***Caution***Don’t touch the embroidery design with the heat source or your thread can easily melt. Do this carefully!!!
Then I stitched the butterflies onto the quilt by hand for a 3-D effect.
For the antennae, I used dark brown embroidery floss and tied knots in the end.
I used monofilament thread to quilt this by stitching in the ditch between the larger red squares and the 9 patch squares.
All the remaining blank red squares were quilted with this Embroidery Library design. These designs on the red squares were embroidered with cotton quilting thread.
Thanks everyone for looking. I hope you enjoyed this!
Happy Embroidering and spring blessings to you!
With Love,
Nancy
