A few things!

Hi all,

I have a few things to share since I haven't blogged for a few weeks (not counting the Bloggers Quilt Festival posts).

First up is my Embroidery Club project from my local PWS. Last month the project was a needle case. I used a font and simple design that was already in my machine for the front.

The inside has little pockets and patches of wadding for used needles to be stored so you can find them later.

I am really enjoying these little projects that Cath comes up with every month!

I am doing some procraftinating at the moment, I really should be working on sewing some clothes but I keep finding other things to do! I used some leftover triangles to make a little quilt....I am only giving sneak peeks because it is supposed to be a surprise.

And a look at the quilting. I am hoping to quilt it's much bigger friend, my V is for Violet quilt, tomorrow on the quilting machine - unless my sore throat gets worse, but at the moment I feel better than I did last night.

I pulled out a handbag that has been a WIP for a long time and did some work on it.

Still not finished as it is getting quite tricky now so I am just looking at it while I work on other things. Like putting together this little bundle for a block I drew up on EQ7 and am having a play with...do you think I need to add another colour? I have changed some of the low volumes so it is not so matchy matchy.

Oh, and lastly I finished another block for the Afternoon Delight quilt.

Bye for now,

Jess :)

 

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Minkee Monkeys

Hi all,

My local PWS has an Embroidery Club that happens once a month and we make something different each time that the teacher, Cath, designs. This months was so cute that I put in for 2 kits so I could make my boys boys one each. They are probably getting a bit old for this sort of thing but they love them!

The embroidery designs are available on there website, personally I think they are a bargain! And I will definitely be making more! Incidently, I have had a bit of trouble downloading the designs using the setup I talked about in the last post, the designs elements are getting separated somewhere in the process and I can't figure it out...if you know anything about this I would be interested in your ideas?

They are only small snuggle rugs or bunny rugs that roll up. I guess they could be made bigger easily enough. And someone suggested pillows and that is a great idea too.

Anyway, they are getting lots of use. And I have to admit I was scared of sewing minkee but I'm not anymore!

Bye for now, Jess :)

 

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My journey into machine embroidery

Hi all,

A few months ago I was having trouble with my sewing machine, it does this thing were you are sewing along and then take your foot off the peddle and it keeps going...not very nice! It has been an ongoing problem and I thought it had been fixed but it didn't last. At the same time my mum got a new to her embroidery machine and wasn't sure what she would do with her old one, sell it, keep it, etc. So, lucky for me she is letting me use it! And I am learning a new skill - machine embroidery.

For someone new to machine embroidery it is a pretty complicated process. You get your designs from a website or disc. You need a program on your computer to store them and fiddle with them. Then you need to get them over onto your machine. And this process will vary depending one your machine and software.

I am using my ipad and this is what I am doing, because I am cheap lol, is I have found an app called "Airstitch" which is free. I can download designs to it when I buy them from an online shop, such as Urban Threads, who I love btw! It is only a basic app for storing your designs, if I want to fiddle I will need to buy software.

But then I needed to get the designs from the ipad to a USB....and Airstitch recommend this USB called Airstash. So I looked into it and it is a bit of an investment but the possibilities seem almost endless. My stick on steroids (it is bigger than you average USB) arrived this week and I got stuck into trying it out.

I picked a simple design from Urban Threads that I already had in the Airstitch app. And did what I had to do to get it on the stick and plugged it into my machine and....it worked! Yay!

Then I had an embroidery with no purpose...I want to make some lunch bags for a couple of friends so I thought I would try out the pattern first. This pattern can be found here.

It is a good size and went together fairly easily. I'm not really happy with how it goes together at the ends of the zip, so I might try and figure something out for that.

I used regular patchwork fabric and iron on pellon, a layer of insul-bright and lined it with a food grade fabric. It was pretty bulky by the end. For the next ones I will use a thinner pellon.

I took it to embroidery club day yesterday (wait until you see what I made there!) and I used an ice brick and my lunch stayed cold so I think it passed the test.

Bye for now, Jess :)

 

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