Tackling Reality

When it comes to crafting, I’m like a kid in a candy store; a very young kid with the blissful ignorance of limitations in the candy store. I see things; I’m sure my eyes light up; I think ‘ooooohhhhh’ and I stockpile the stuff necessary to complete the treasured project. But, like that kid who can’t taste everything without hitting the wall, I can’t seem to finish everything that in the moment I think I’ll just whip out. In reality, I work amidst piles (and piles) of unfinished projects. However, I’ve managed to finish a few things (woohoo!) to share.

The two T-shirts are for someone who signed up for the 2013 Creative Pay it Forward. The recipient does cancer walks and has mentioned she’d like a shirt with a checkbox that says “other” (the non-pink cancer survivors are “other” when they register). Teal is for ovarian cancer.   Purple ribbons are for Alzheimers.

Other items are a little pouch that holds coffee filters on the wall right by the coffee machine; a reader case front (tree), back (it was a dark and stormy night) and pocket (tudor wildlife design); wine charm earrings for a neighbor who pours at the winery; an owl and a dream catcher on denim shirts and an “in progress” Poe phrase raven that I’m planning to incorporate in a laptop case. You can click on any of the photos for a larger view in slideshow.

The details for crafters (non-crafters skip this paragraph): Thin fabrics don’t support dense embroidery designs well. There are many ways around this, for wearables I like to use something like Light and Soft Fuse-On.  

• Determine your design size and placement
• Cut a piece of the fuse on a few inches larger all around then your design
• Follow their directions and iron it on to the inside of your garment

The Light and Soft Fuse-On drapes well with your fabric. A heavier stabilizer doesn’t drape and can look odd. With the T-shirts and blue shirts, I then hoop them with a light/medium tear away and stitch my design (these were Pellon Stitch n Tear). The embroidery designs are from Embroidery Library (Celebrate Life – my glitch on the “C”, Awareness Rose, Dark and Stormy Night, Quill and Paper, Tudor Wildlife, Retro Coffee, Dream Catcher and Owl) and Urban Threads (Poe Raven and Tree).

The glitch on the “C” happened because for that small ribbon design near the neck, I used Sulky Sticky+ – an adhesive tear-off stabilizer in the hoop. Hooping with part of the neck in the hoop, part out, part of the seams in the hoop, part out would have been a mess. You just press the design area of your shirt to the sticky part in the hoop. But, with sticky stabilizers, or even if you use a lot of adhesive spray, you need to use a larger needle. The needle pokes a hole and the thread goes down and up. If the poked hole is tiny, the thread rubs against the stickiness, get gummy, bunches up, and if you’re lucky it breaks, if you’re not lucky things might get more stuck. I forgot to put in a bigger needle until after the thread on the “C” bunched up and broke. The T-shirts took multiple hoopings, three for the Alzheimer’s rose, with a 6 x 10 hoop. You can still see the hoop marks, but those come right off these fabrics. The shirts are deliberately big, loose and comfy. In the photos the designs might not look centered, because if you wear a shirt too big part of the design would end up scrunched by the armpits. I placed the designs a bit more towards center. If I were to do it over, I would have more space between the celebrate life ribbon and the checkbox and the text on that shirt would be white.

 All phrases on these pieces were done with the fonts available on my machine (SanFran for the reader case Go Paperless, Art Deco for the “other”, Bremen for the “I wear purple..”. The reader pouch was hooped with cutaway stabilizer, Warm and Natural batting and linen, and then stitched. Its inner pocket is linen with cutaway stabilizer.  All embroidery was stitched with Sulky 40 weight rayon embroidery thread. I should add that I get zip, nada, zilch for mentioning specific brands, but they are something machine embroiderer’s get excited about.

The next big order of the day is deciding what to tackle first amid the piles of “things I could do”.

This post is participating in Unknownmami’s Sundays in My City and the Gallery of Favorites put on by a Alea of Pre-Meditated Leftovers and April  at 21^st Century Housewife.

Handmade Christmas Victorian Santa Stockings

More Victorian – My sister’s town does a Dickens Christmas event (which I think must be so cool!). Used their “proper names” to go along with the times. I might try to make the exact same set for myself for next year – Love them!

Osnaburg (poor man’s linen, a sturdy 100% cotton) is the base, heavy duty cut away is the stabilizer, Sulky embroidery the threads. Stitching the fabric to stabilizer around the design before embroidering (on my machine it’s “fix”) is something I highly recommend.  You remove the basting stitch when it’s done. The designs are from Embroidery Library  (Victorian Santa and Victorian reindeer 1); the lettering for the name is from my machine (Husqvarna Viking).

Pieces were stocking front and back, cuff, lining front and back. (There are oodles of free stocking patterns on the web if you need one). An upholstery weight micro suede (faux suede) is the cuff with a light Christmas cotton the lining (I didn’t want anything that might show through the osnaburg, light color and light design deliberate for the lining).

Using both red and burgundy lets them tie together their new home color and their existing holiday reds. You’ll note I didn’t want a seam along the “front” stocking edge of the cuff, but used one long piece to wrap around.

Stitched the top inside edge of both the stocking (right sides together) and lining (right sides together), then stitched the cuff (right sides together) to the lining and the cuff to the stocking (right sides together).

Fold lengthwise with right sides together and stitch all the way around, leaving a gap large enough for your hand on one of the lining sides. You can see my gap on the calf back.

Pull the stocking through the gap to get it right side out. (Stitchers - are you admiring my collection of embroidery threads in their handy, closable (read dust proof) cases that I pick up on sale (or with coupon) at Joann you get a glimpse of in hte background?)

Then push the lining down into the stocking and allow the cuff to fold  a bit into the lining side as well.

I leave the heavy duty stabilizer in so they’ll hand nicely when empty. I also didn’t stitch the gap in the lining closed – it might be easier a few years from now to press them inside out. If these were for children, I would’ve stitched the gap closed. Next time I’d flare out the stitching for the cuff a tad.

Finger smooth and press the cuff, use an iron to smooth and lightly press the stocking now that it’s right side out. Wrap.

Hoping you’re all having a lovely holiday season! A free stocking pattern is here at Moda Bakeshop. This post is participating in Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou and Metamorphis Monday.

Creating a few Masks

Having fun creating some masks lately. I’ll begin the post with the ‘finished’ versions so that those of you who don’t want the down and dirty of how to do them can skim the instructions. ‘Finished’ is in quotes as I may come back to them. One consideration is to do more of the Venetian thing and attach them to decorated pieces of dowel.

This is how the Dragon mask stitches out – they are beautiful “as is”. Each of these is an Embroidery Library design.  

I’m able to stitch out two of the half masks at once. Fitting them in the hoop and redoing colors to fit my whim is done on the embroidery program. I haven’t stitched out the mask on the left yet as I substituted that with the raven.

The machine does the work. With mine I have to stay close enough to change thread colors or hear if the stitching pace signals a problem such as the threads getting all knotted up (called nesting)  or thread breaking, running out of bobbin thread and such.

These were stitched with Sulky embroidery thread on black craft felt using two pieces of black stabilizer, Ripstitch # 15 from Allstitch.

The masks are pretty cool as is, but I was inspired by Niamh’s example at Urban Threads to do just a bit more (check out her steam punk mask tutorial). If I planned ahead, I would’ve shopped feathers first and then chosen my thread colors to match. Joann’s didn’t have a large selection of feathers and I was lucky to find a few within the mixed packet that would match my Dragon.

To match ring colors on the chain, I simply undid pieces of the larger chain as my rings. They’re stitched to the back of the mask with a dab of glue added for extra security. The feathers are glued with Aleene’s ‘Okay to wash it’ fabric glue. I created a sandwich gluing the feathers to a piece of black felt and then the feather plus felt combo to the back of the mask. This prevents the pokey end of the feathers from scratching your face or eye.

The small holes on either side of the mask for inserting elastic fit precisely over my glasses in the dragon mask so I can use about half inch pieces on each side. Don’t want to lose the masks themselves in too much decoration, so I’ve been reigning in the desire to add beading or other trims. Had been playing with red and black beading in addition to the chains on the bat mask, or complementary beading on one lower edge of the dragon mask, but nah. If I change my mind, I’ll post updated pics. If I attach them to dowels, I’ll glue a craft stick (think Popsicle stick) to the back of the mask for added strength.

Have one other Halloween themed embroidery project I need to finish up and post. For local folks, I don’t sell but Bandera does embroidery and would be happy to stitch up an Embroidery Library pattern for you.

So, how do you spend your Sundays? Check out Unknown Mami’s Sundays in My City to see what other folks do on their day off in their neck of the woods. The majority of the folks there are fantastic photographers so it’s a beautiful stroll.

This post is participating in Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home, Frugal Friday at the
Shabby Nest, Fridays at Remodelaholic, Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors, Sundae Scoop at I Heart
Naptime, Show and Tell Saturdays at Be Different Act Normal, Fridays at Remodelaholic, Sunday
Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming, The Tablescaper, Gallery of Favorites at 21st C Housewife, and Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous linky parties.

Thanks to Alea of Premeditated Leftovers and April of The 21st Century Housewife for featuring this post on their weekend blog hop: Gallery of Favorites.

Primitive Macabre from Urban Threads

Urban Threads has some of my favorite designs – they call them quirky and offbeat, designs you’re not going to find on the mainstream sites. Designs are offered as a digital stock art (for paper crafters, mod podgers and more), hand embroidery designs or for machine embroidery. Their blog shares attention-grabbing examples of tattoos many followers have had inked from their art (in addition to projects and contests). I’d shared one of my all-time faves, their Queen of Hearts design, here.

Now, I am breaking a promise to myself to post some craft or topic other than machine embroidery; folks new to the blog may not realize that there are other items I blog about (just check out categories folks). After an extended break from machine embroidery I’m back and gung ho stitching up a few things the week.  

These images are from their primitive macabre line. My current plan is table runner. They’re stitched on the linen remnant I have from a different project. When setting out to embroider, you can always change the thread colors on your designs. I dragged out my Halloween runners and apron and chose thread colors to match.

Of course, the moment I step away my project overseer comes in to check out how things are going. Amazingly, the male cat never comes near my projects.

I really wish their color changes had let us choose to have ‘Pumpkin Man’s’ outer jacket, hat, face and pants in different colors (they’re all set to one). When I have the time, I might try and fuss with my software and see if I could put the color stops in the right place (you have to think in terms of one stitch at a time, a few stitches off and blech). As these are dense designs, I use a cutaway stabilizer. Mentioned before, starch the linen like crazy before hooping.

I do love these designs. From the ‘I should have thought this out better’ category I jumped right on taking the machine basting rectangle out of these for the photos. But now I want to put decorative stitching in a rectangle around them and I could have used the basted stitch as a perfect inner guide. Plan is to fringe up to the decorative stitching rectangle and then tack them to either a black or dark purple runner with a few other designs added in. Ah well, I’ll just have to get out the disappearing ink pen.

Our exceptional local fabric store, Country Cloth, has a few designated workshop spaces where you can simply bring in projects to work in a community environment. As the first embroidery machine I got was so temperamental and I’m so relieved to have one that works well now, I won’t travel with my machine. I’ll drag my cutting, stuffing, hand stitching or sewing with my old clunker to the classroom space. So, stocking up on a bunch of embroideries to attach to projects later isn’t a bad thing. If I can take nab few hours off work, I’ll grab my project bag and head down to Angels Camp.

For step-by-step instructions, visit Embroidery Library’s Tutorial on Linen.

This post is participating in Skip to MyLou Monday , Tutorial Tuesday at Hope Studios and Tuesday at Coastal Charm, Wednesday at Blue Cricket Design, Wednesday at SewMuch Ado, Tuesday at Tip Junkie, Wednesday at Someday Crafts,  Catch a Glimpse Thursdays, TransformationThursday, Today’s Creative Blog, SomewhatSimple Show and Tell Saturdays, Saturday at Funky Junk Interiors and Sew Cute Tuesday at the Creative Itch.

Getting my Groove Back

Finally getting back my crafting groove. The Celtic raven embroidery broke the log jam – I absolutely love how that piece came out. Had not turned on the embroidery machine for more than a year! Having to refresh my memory on a few key points. This morning’s endeavors, although lovely, reminded me of settings that I don’t want to forget. So, for Embroidery Library “it’s not you, it’s me” in this design.

Their sale ends Tuesday night – what I call their uber Christian designs. A bit preachy for my taste, but with a sale price of $1.49, editing out parts and keeping other bits of the design is time well spent. Grab a locket to add to steampunk style stitching (skip stitching the Bible verse) or beautiful flower panels that also easily stitch out sans verse. The two angels are part of their echo series. I decided to simply stitch out ‘color one’ for the toile like angel and delete the rest of the design. Considered a more traditional toile color as I have thread that exactly matches a toile spread in the guest room. But, decided these would be great for the winter holiday and red would make them pop. Did make a mess of things when the bobbin thread ran out (oh yeah, always check the bobbin thread before you begin). I usually back up a few stitches when restarting after replacing bobbin. Oops, hit prior spool not prior stitch. Unfortunately, my machine can only go forward or back one stitch at a time. It doesn’t remember where its last stitch was. That one mistake meant I had to sit and backtrack the design over 2,000 stitches – hitting the little button and letting it register over 2,000 times. When the design stitched out, it was missing the lower right corner. I was off in my stitch back up (arrggh). Thinking I can still use this piece as the center for something like a crazy quilt square where I’ll angle fabric over that lower right corner to cover my boo boo, or play with trying to stitch something into the space.

These were stitched out on a remnant of linen from another project. Starch like crazy. I chose tear away stabilizer as the design is light. Fix (the baste feature for my machine) tacked the linen to stabilizer – a step not to be ignored as my leftover piece of linen didn’t fill the hoop.

Overall, I’m pleased with them. I may put a charm of a Christmas wreath in the one angel’s hand or embroider something. They’ll either be pillows or center panels for patchwork Christmas stockings. That decision is to come.

I’ve begun stitching out some fun Urban Threads designs, so stay tuned.

This post is participating in the parties linked below.

Celtic Raven

Sharing another quick machine embroidery project today. I love the comfort of denim shirts (one size larger to layer) and they’re such an easy canvas. When I saw this design over at Embroidery Library, I just knew I had to use it on something.

My heritage is strongly Irish – dad emigrated from there and I also have a tad of Scott and English in the bloodlines – just about 100% Celtic. I live in a town called Murphy’s. So, Celtic themes and imagery (think Celtic knots more than leprechauns) are among those I enjoy.

Ravens appear in many mythologies throughout the world. From travels to Arizona and New Mexico, plus fantasy aka Urban Shaman by CE Murphy, I’m more familiar with and enjoy the Native American myths of Raven as creator or trickster. From the time I was in junior high through college, someone I knew died every year. The Morrigan fascinated me for a while. This design puts the raven and celtic knotwork together. How perfect!

Executing a machine embroidery project

1.   Figure out what you want to make – there are so many designs I love and projects I want to complete that narrowing the list down to what to do now is usually the hardest part for me.

2.   Select your fabric / item – a dense design with a lot of solid fill would not be a good choice for very light drapey fabric and an outline design might not show up well enough on a fabric with a pattern.

3.   Select your design.

4.   If your embroidery program lets you, resize and recolor the design to suit your tastes – and your thread stash.

5.   Determine the placement of your design.

6.   Choose the appropriate stabilizer for your design

7.   Hoop your stabilizer and fabric – some fabric should not go within the hoop but should be adhered to the stabilizer with a quick squirt of temporary adhesive or use of the sticky stabilizer (think velvet or something with a delicate nap, very thick fabrics).

8.   Fire up the machine and away you go.

9.   Unhoop your project, trim off any jump threads, from the back trim off the stabilizer as close to the image as you can. If your design will rest against skin, they now make an iron-on tricot product that you can place on the back of your design so it isn’t scratchy.

I’ve linked you to varied Embroidery Library’s instructions and tutorials – they saved me.  Although I was assured at purchase there would be classes to get me up and going, the store I bought my machine from was severely understaffed and ill-equipped to offer instruction much more than one topic every few months. That location and others in the chain simply tried to push you to buy DVDs to learn what you could do. Embroidery Library’s tutorials and videos are free, clear and great for anyone wanting to learn how to machine embroider. If you purchase an embroidery machine, you will need someone to walk you through commands and threading of your particular model. One of those “if I’d known then”- I tell everyone I would’ve purchased a machine at our local Country Cloth shop as they offer full support and frequent free classes for the machines they sell.

Oops, looks like someone didn’t get enough attention. Those who have cats understand, put down the project to go grab the applique scissors and see if you can get near your project when you return J – or at least not before you scratch someone behind the ears for a little while. Most machines do not embroider to the edge of the hoop, some designs won’t even be close. As you can see in the above two photos, you can develop the habit of slicing and saving the unused portions of stabilizer because as long as you keep the stabilizer types together and your stitching flat, you can stitch them together to use on another project.

Above you can also see the hoop marks and the stay stitching around the design.  On my Husqvarna Viking Topaz, I always use “Fix” to provide that basted edge around the design, except in rare cases where the fabric wouldn’t handle it.

Steam out the hoop marks and you’re set to go.

I may add a small design to the pocket, perhaps the cuff. But the pocket means stitching the pocket closed (easiest), stitching the design on netting or organza to then apply like a patch, or removing the pocket (hardest as matching the thread on the top stitching of the garment could be nigh impossible when you go to put the pocket back on, doable with invisible thread but perhaps too much work for me).

This post is participating in the parties linked below.

Ohhhhh, so pretty!

Been keeping a few craft projects rolling along in the background here. One is the pillow project for the guest room. Loving these Art Deco – y butterflies from Embroidery Library stitched out on linen. Heirloom Butterfly and Floral Circle

Chose deeper but matching colors (Sulky threads) to the quilt will add a bit of punch. Had already made the chenille green pillows as the daybed is large and in need of quite a few more pillows to look as inviting as I’d like. I’m determined to finish these as pillows although I like them so much, I’m a bit inclined to just frame them.

 Heirloom Butterfly and Floral Square

There are clear step by step tutorials for everything (just check out the left column) related to machine embroidery at Embroidery Library’s project page. Perfect hooping, placement and stabilizer guides are available as well as hints for embroidering on any type of material. For linen – wash the fabric first as you plan to later, then starch the heck out of your piece. A medium weight cutaway stabilizer is a good choice for the weight of linen I like to work with. To later need to wash an embroidered piece, iron it while damp from the back of the piece.

Now, to border and stitch these into  pillows. Then, as this is the only frou frou room in the house, on to a ruffled pillow or two and one with a nice big bow.

This post is participating in the parties linked below.

A Bit of Easter Sparkle

April, it’s that time. Let’s talk about Easter bling. If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll see me repeating the same suppliers for napkins, designs and fabric as well as the notation that I like to ship fun little gifts off to folks. I made this Easter runner a few years back with fabric from JoAnn for myself and my sister. They no longer carry the really nicely done glittered fabrics. For these, I’ve had to turn to elsewhere, but this fabric was a find and the glitter is oh so perfect. I simply cut my long rectangle, cut a piece of light interfacing (sew-in) and a back. Sew around the edges, turn out and top stitch in a bit from the edge. La Voila! Instant table runner.

The hemstitched napkins, as usual, are from Napkins Online at eBay. I must allow myself to digress here and alert you to the fact that Napkins Online currently has 6 foot linen table runners in various colors for $4.00. Depending on the amount you pick up, you may be able to get free shipping. Being the noodge I am, I ordered mine before posting this to avoid the rush J . I believe the egg design is a Husqvarna Viking free monthly design from 2009 that you could purchase from MyEmbroideries.com; I did look but couldn’t find the design at either Embroidery Library or My Embroideries. This month they are offering an Easter design you can edit/crop back to look very similar to the eggs I’ve used on the napkins.  Sulky 40 weight embroidery threads that I pick up on sale or with a coupon from the stores or online is my thread of choice. As long as you don’t use bleach, they stand up to washing and light wear pretty well.

 The kitchen towels are from New England’s Christmas Tree Shops. My sister mails them off to me; I decorate and hem them, and mail them back. They’re the microfiber towels that you can also pick up in packs at places like Ross. The hem on this set is simply purchased Wrights extra wide double fold bias trim. The basket is from Embroidery Library, the design that is on their drawstring bag. Yes, the baskets aren’t lined up perfectly – originally I was going for one for me and one for sis when she let it be known she likes three for her stove – so the bottoms are a tad off as far as matchy matchy. If you’re planning to put things together – best to always measure from the bottom edge when placing your design. I usually change the colors and size of any design to suit my needs. The egg design on the turquoise kitchen towel is a monthly free design (March2010) from Husqvarna Viking that you then download from MyEmbroideries.com (or purchase if you don’t download it in the month offered). They also offer free monthly embroidery projects and sewing projects if you’d like more sewing ideas. I’d tagged a slew of the sewing ones to add to my “to do” list.

 For the bath, I use the pack of white hand towels from Costco. Just make sure to use colors that match the main bath when choosing embroidery threads. You might not notice that in the pictures I post as many of these holiday decorating items are gifts and you don’t see the hand towel sitting on top of a color coordinated bath towel – it does look nice. So, the first time I gift them I may buy two plush bath towels for the recipient that match their color, note the thread that most perfectly matches the towels I picked so I can always incorporate it into the design to yield a matching set, and gift those bath towels with a few holiday decorated hand ones. Then, for close friends and relatives, they may periodically receive a matching holiday set in the mail. The design is Embroidery Library’s Spring Stitches – Bunnies. If I were to do it over, I’d make the callas closer to yellow so they’d stand out more. In person, you can see them do to the texture and light created by the thread and design. With the dense designs on towels, it’s best to take them out of the dryer a wee tad less than dry and press the back of the design with an iron so it’ll lie perfectly flat and look new.

So celebrate spring with a bit of fresh décor and fun colors. As always, you can build on these items by using hand embroidery, appliqué, stencils and fabric paints if you don’t machine embroider.

This post is participating in the Linky parties noted below.