Nancy of Nancy’s Notions has done it again

I know that most of my posts here are on quilting but I also know that many quilters do basic sewing as well.  So this little video tip I found will be helpful to you as well.

When you purchase a pattern it usually offers multiple sizes.  You may cut the size you need an then have to throw out the other sizes. What a waste!  But now Nancy shows you how you can sew any size any time you need to and keep the original pattern in tact.

 

Free Machine Embroidery Designs – 6 Things You Need For a Successful Project
By David Faulkner

If you have been doing all your embroidery by hand, then you know that it takes quite a bit of time, effort and patience to complete a single project. However, there is a very easy way to finish your work a lot faster. All you need to do is look for free machine designs.

Free machine designs are simply patterns that you can bring to life by using a standard sewing machine. You don’t have to go out and purchase an expensive machine in order to use free machine designs.

The traditional sewing machine will work just fine as long as you are adept in maneuvering the fabric. You also need to have certain equipments if you want to use free machine designs in your needlework.

The equipments we are talking about are just six basic tools and you do not need to spend a huge amount for them. We have listed them for you so you can prepare them before embarking on your project.

1. Sewing Machine

If you want to use free machine designs, you would obviously need to have a sewing machine. As mentioned earlier, this machine does not have to be one of those state-of-the-art digital devices that could burn a hole in your pocket.

A traditional sewing machine will do as long as it has a zigzag capability. Machines that allow you to lower its dog’s teeth are much better because you will be able to create zigzag patterns more efficiently with these machines.

2. Embroidery Hoop

This is an absolutely necessary tool when using free machine designs. Embroidery hoops can be purchased in any supplies shop.

3. Fabric

Practically any kind of cloth material can be used for free machine designs. The important thing to remember when buying your material is that it has to fit your embroidery hoop to a T. Having the right size of fabric is crucial to the overall appearance of your finished product so you have to measure the material precisely before you start stitching away.

4. Embroidery Foot

The embroidery foot is another essential tool when using free machine embroidery designs. It is basically a needle with a spring that holds the material down on your work station.

5. Thread

Naturally, you cannot do any free machine designs, or any kind of needlework for that matter, if you don’t have the right kinds of thread. The type of thread needed is usually indicated on the patterns. The most commonly used threads for free machine embroidery designs are yarns made of polyester and rayon.

6. Stabilizer

This very helpful sewing tool keeps your material neat and orderly despite all the twisting and rearranging of the material. Having a stabilizer will make your work much faster and more comfortable.

Once you have prepared all these important tools, you can go ahead and start on your free machine. If you are a beginner, do not expect to achieve a perfect result the first time around. You might need a few rounds of practice before you master the controlling of your fabric as you work.

When you have gained enough skill, you will be able to enjoy creating many different designs with your machine. If you run out of free machine embroidery designs, you can always go to your embroidery supplies shop.

Since they are really very easy and fun, free machine embroidery designs can be quite addictive once you get the hang of it.

You can also find more info on metallic thread and Embroidery Designs. Allthingsembroidery.com is a comprehensive resource to know more about Embroidery.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Faulkner
http://EzineArticles.com/?Free-Machine-Embroidery-Designs—6-Things-You-Need-For-a-Successful-Project&id=978919

Basket liners make a great gift this time of year.  Well actually giving a basket full of treats is an even better gift to give.  Many times we find a great basket but it just isn’t as pretty as we like, so why not make a basket liner for it to dress it up a bit?

The idea to make a basket liner can be a bit intimidating to some people if you never made one and don’t have a pattern.  I found a great video today that can help you with this little problem and now you could dress up all your baskets at home or make a few for gifts.  These really take no time at all, and you could make one for every season and then change your basket liners anytime you like.

Make a gift basket for you friends or family, fill them with their favorite items, like home baked goods, or if it is sewing or quilting buddy how about filling it with fabric or notions they can use.  Not sure what would be more fun the fabrics to make the basket liners, or finding things to put in the baskets…………either way give this a try and see how much fun they are to make.

I would love to hear you comments on how you liked this video or my ideas.  If you want you could send me your photos of the finished projects to share with others here for inspiration.

Well it looks like the embed code won’t work here today so here is a link to where I first saw this video.
http://sew-whats-new.com/video/how-to-sew-a-basket-liner

As a quilter we tend to collect bit of fabric and if not careful they can take over the house or at the very least your sewing space.  We have the best of intentions to use every bit of our fabric but when it is piled up and not very organized it can be overwhelming.  When this happens you just don’t even want to sort or go through these piles and start cutting into your larger pieces.  (Don’t tell me this only happens to me)

If you find yourself spending money on plastic totes, or other forms of storage to get a handle on this every growing pile of scraps then I have just found the perfect solution for you!

Make a scrap bag to hold your scraps! You can color coordinate the bags with the colors of the actual scraps. If nothing else this will at least make them more organized and look prettier.

 

Here is a great video that show you the ideal sewing room by Eleanor Burns.  Some really good tips on table height, ironing surfaces, and quick fixes for raising the table height.  She covers rotary cutting, how to make a neck roll and so many useful tips.

She even shows you how to create your own design wall, and your own sewing table from a kitchen table so that your machine recesses and sits flush with the table!  I will admit you will need someone (a handy hubby or son) who is good with tools.

Great Job Eleanor Burns!

Designing a sewing room – Enjoy and make your sewing room work for you!

Use Your Embroidery Machine to Quilt? You Bet! By Penny Halgren

While I play with my new sewing/embroidery machine for a few days, here is something to read from Penny Halgren.  A wonderful quilter full of great ideas and resources.  This article seemed appropriate for today since I now have the technology to work with embroidery in my quilting.  I though maybe you too could use some inspiration or ideas on how to incorporate this into your own quilting.

Enjoy her article,

Chris

Quilters who are not already a machine embroidery enthusiast just may find themselves engrossed in the craft once they realize they could incorporate machine embroidery into their quilting.

Embroidery is a traditional way to add special decorative touches to quilts. Whether by hand or machine, a quilter may accent his or her creation with embroidered flowers or other accents. But today’s machine embroidery – for those willing to try it – can make quilting quite different.

For instance, a quilter may use a simple embroidery design to let the machine “quilt” the project. Simple one color designs work best, especially for the beginner.

If you want to give this a try, look for an embroidery design that’s simple – one that you can visualize stitched into a quilt. Some redwork inspired designs work well. Other simple designs like flowers, circles, sun/moon, houses, hearts – there are all sorts of designs to choose from – can work well as quilting stitches.

Be sure to keep your quilt top’s theme in mind. We all know and love the traditional beauty of the double wedding ring quilt. While the quilt top is beautiful with its color variety, the quilt back is just as pretty with its simple stitching that follows the design on the top.

What if you used an embroidery machine to quilt hearts into the quilt design? That one unexpected touch would truly make your quilt unique.

Have you ever needed to throw together a quick quilt? Many quilting pros laugh at the notion, but sometimes we need a quick gift to give and want to make it personal. Lap quilts and baby quilts are very easy to create on an embroidery machine.

Simply hoop your top fabric, batting and backing fabric into an embroidery hoop. Pick a design and get to work! Even if you are quilting solid color fabrics, you can complete a quick, beautiful quilt with the embroidery machine in no time!

Some ideas for a baby blanket for a boy would be to use outlines of footballs, airplanes, trucks, trains, etc., for your quilting pattern. The hardest part of your job will be re-hooping fabric and pushing the “start” button!

Ideas for a baby blanket for a girl include outlines of flowers, baskets, dolls, kittens, etc.

The method above uses machine embroidery on relatively small quilts. Larger quilts can be done the same way or may be quilted with machine embroidery by individual quilt blocks. Experiment to decide which method is easiest for you and remember that the machine embroidery quilting method may change with each unique project.

If you can’t find a pattern you like already on embroidery file, ask a digitizer to help you create one. A digitizer takes art images like drawings, clip art images and fonts and alters them via computer to become a stitch pattern. So if you’d like for your family tree wall hanging to be quilted with a tree pattern, a digitizer can create one for you.

Tell your digitizer you want to use the image for quilting. The digitizer will need to plan stitches accordingly.

Quilting is rich in tradition and therefore many true-blue quilters do not like the idea of using machine embroidery to quilt their projects. Isn’t it great to try new ideas and techniques? Remember, not to long ago quilters refused to consider machine quilting at all! Embroidery machines will never take the place of quilters, but it can be a fun and rewarding sewing technique to try from time to time.

Penny Halgren

http://www.TheQuiltingCoach.com

Penny has been a quilter for more than 26 years. She enjoys exploring all aspects of quilting sharing her knowledge with all quilters.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Penny_Halgren
http://EzineArticles.com/?Use-Your-Embroidery-Machine-to-Quilt?-You-Bet!&id=1005202

Yes the  machine is really mine now.  I have been dreaming about this machine for years and never thought I would actually own one!  But here it is in my house.  I am about to take it out of the box and start playing with it.

Hmm stabilizer, thread and embroidery designs will all be on my wish list from now on. Oh and spray adhesive too as they tell me that does wonders for hooping.  Oh this is all so new and exciting.  What should I play with first?

If I don’t post for a few days, you know why…………….because I am having too much fun on my new machine and have no time to type.  But not to worry, I will be back on track in a few days. And then I will have some photos to share with you as well on my progress.

See you in a few days.

quilt as you go

Want to make quilts the fast and easy way?  Then you need to learn these quilting techniques I have listed below.  Which are all quilt as you go  methods that will have you piecing, quilting and finishing your quilts all at the same time!

This site has great photos and instructions on this unique quilt as you go method.

Treadle On

This site has another way of piecing all three layers at once, you can go back and add additional quilting as she did. But depending on the look you want you may not need to.

Showered with love

And here is another one, good instructions but not as many photos.  (I need visuals……..lots of visuals to learn new techniques)

Cabin fever projects

This looks like a simple version and maybe one I could do.

Welshquilter

I hope you enjoy these  “quilt as you go” tutorials, and take some time to  learn this unique way of quilting. It may not be something for everyone or for every quilt, but it can be fun to explore the possibilities that the “quilt as you” method offers.  We all have projects that we want done quickly right? So why not see if this method is right for you.

If you have a “quilt as you go” method and want me to add it to my list here, please be sure to leave me a comment with your email or website information for me to check out.  I would love to see photos of completed works as well! We all love inspiration.

My New Bernina 630 is on it’s way!!

Oh boy did I just do this?  I think I did!! I just signed the financing and ordered my new Bernina 630 sewing machine. I am so excited I can’t stand it.  I have wanted a Bernina for soooooooooooo long but couldn’t justify my purchase to my husband all these years.  After all he makes the money, and I have 2 machines, and a quilting frame now that gets most of my needs met.  So why would I need another one is what he usually asks me, and what does that machine do (for all that money) that your others don’t, is the second question he asks.

Most days I would say he’s right, my Babylock has served me well for 6 plus years.  I have made clothing, window treatments, and more quilted items than I can count on that machine.   Automatic thread cutter, start stop button, needle up/down, knee lift, plenty of programable stitches are just a few of the the things I love about this machine.  I have nothing to complain about as far as the use of this machine.  In fact I highly recommend the Babylock if you are looking for a good machine that is user friendly and affordable.

Before that machine I used a Kenmore, (please note that the machines in this link are newer machines, mine is about 40 years old and not listed on this website) which was handed down to me by my sister-in-law.  Kenmore is a good old mechanical machine without any fancy bells or whistles.  It does straight stitch and zig-zag and a few other basic stitches so also a good back up machine.  The nice thing about this machine is that it can all be taken apart for cleaning and oiling  at home.  Since there are no electronics or circuit boards to break, this saves me money as I don’t need to take it in for regular maintenance.   I keep this one around and use it when my Babylock is being cleaned or repaired.

But now I will be getting the Bernina 630 which does all the basics and so much more including embroidery!  I have never had that so didn’t miss it before really.  But knowing that I can start to work with embroidery now is so exciting that I am already thinking of things to practice on.  I foresee lot’s of embroidered gifts this holiday season.

Another feature I am looking forward to playing with is the Exculsive Bernina Stitch Regulator for free motion quilting.  This little beauty will really take my quilting to another level.

Embroidery & the BSR will really make my sewing so much more fun and this machine will do it all!  There will be no need to upgrade (well there is the 830, but that is way out of my price reach …..at least for now anyway)

The nice thing is all these machines, Babylock, Kenmore, and the Bernina can still be used on my Hinterberg frame.  So I can have a quilt on the frame being quilted while I piece with the other………or I may just love the BSR so much that I will not need the frame anymore.  Hmmm if I sell the frame, I could could buy more thread for embroidery………oh the possibilities I see ahead.  Can’t wait to share all my projects over the next few weeks.

Do you have a Bernina? I would love to hear your comments on this machine.

365 Days of Free Motion Inspiration

Wow, this has to be the biggest thing on the internet right now.  I see links to this site all over blogs, websites and in many of my online quilting groups.  So of course I had to share it here with all of you.

Leah Day is a master on free motion quilting.  She makes this look so easy and effortless.  I am always amazed when I watch her videos.  Leah has committed herself to creating 365 free motion designs, and she is video taping them all!.  What that means is we get to see how she does them, and we get inspiration for filler designs to use on our own quilts.  You can find her designs on her blog or visit her at Youtube.  Either way you will want to check these out.

Here is a link to her blog 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Here is a link to her website Daystyle Designs And Finally here is a link to her YouTube channel Icday’s Channel

I have put up one of the videos for you so you can see what I am talking about.