If I have one recollection of my childhood that stands out, it has to be the sound of the wooden screen door, just off the kitchen, as it slammed in the warm summer afternoon.  It had a coiled spring that yanked it back three times before it actually came to a stop.  It represents the sound of summer to me - well along with the crack of the bat when we played baseball in the street.   This photo looks a lot like that old door.

And, thank you John Greenleaf Whittier for the beautiful poem that made me recall fond memories, you can read it at this site. This link is courtesy of Poetry Foundation. 

I have been thinking about those summers and had seen people do some embroidery on those screens.  I read what they had to say, and I felt it sounded interesting, so I did my own version.

I read that they were stabilizing their project.  I must confess, I cannot think of a stabilizer stronger than the screen that I had available from my storage area.  I know that there are differing types and fabrications of the screens, mine is metal and had no ‘give' at all.  I did not stabilize my project. 

I did my discovery sew (aka sewout) and found that the satin stitches were a bit choppy.  That is not really a problem, my real issue is that the screen is new and I did not want to remove it to put it into my machine. 

If you decide to replace a screen and want to do this technique, I recommend that you carefully measure your opening and cautiously mark a point for your embroidery.  That means that whoever is going to install your screen needs to work with you to determine where to place your embroidery.  The only other issue is that if the screen is long or large, you will want to roll up the long section and use some sort of clip to keep it secure in that position. 

You will obviously use the same colors on the front as well as the back so that the project is the same on both sides.  And, lastly, use of words might be a problem. 

Personally, I would select a floral for the summer.  By the time you put up the storm doors, that screen probably will be ready to replace for next year, especially if you do have one or two bare foot sweethearts coming and going through that door. 

I selected a different method for my screen.  I used a very nice FSL and created it twice in different colors.  I then sewed the FSL on either side of the screen.  I like the outcome. 

But I could not stop at one - sort of like potato chips. . . Since I have a 15-Lite (3 x 5 panels) door, I decided to add more FSL flowers.

I am so happy with this project!!  I will finish filling in the panes with flowers soon.  I cannot wait until winter where I will place 15 different FSL snowflakes. 

Since I live in southern California and can leave the screen up year round, so the FSL is my best option.  I will replace it at the change of the season.  Maybe I will change it every month since it is a quick and easy project!

AnnTheGran has placed these threads on sale!!  Check it out at Madeira.

Dotted swiss was very popular in the 1950's for women and children's garments.  I remember the wonderful billowy curtains that blossomed in the summer breezes.  No matter how old or tattered, the fabric always seems fresh and timeless. 

I remember the wonderful mother and daughter dresses my mother made for us.  The dresses were yellow and white dotted swiss.  The fabric originated in Switzerland in 1750.  I only remember that fabric, but I understand that the dots may have been woven, flocked, printed, or embroidered.

Dotted swiss is not just limited to fabrics, it is also used when referring to other things including pottery and cake decorating.

When I see the term Shabby Chic, I noticed that they use the light weight fabrics, but real Shabby Chic (IMHO) needs to have dotted swiss for a true old fashioned warmth. 

When I looked around southern California, I could not find much in the way of dotted swiss.  I did find a very sad beige color and an unsuitable (IMHO) black.  They did not possess any of the quality I remember.  I finally found it on the Net at a reasonable price and delivery charge.  You can check out my source at http://www.trendyfabrics.com.

In my ‘discovery sew' (aka test sewout), I found that I need more stabilizer and a greater contrast of thread.  The bow would be nice if I made those changes, but when I did the butterfly, the plan came into focus immediately.   I used the Madeira threads available here at AnnTheGran.

 I love the fact that the dots were peeking out from under the stitching.  While difficult to see, I have circled two of them from my discovery sew.

When I received my fabric, it felt so soft, just as I had remembered it.  Because I was going to make a round table topper, I folded the fabric into quarters.  Then I folded it in a first and second triangle.

I carefully marked the fabric in an arc to match a circle, and cut. 

I measured my table and determined that I would have a ‘nice' drop if I would have the butterfly lower edge about 1.2" (30 mm) from the hem.  After considering whether to use 4 or 6 butterflies, I marked 4 of those positions.  The butterfly is rather large, nearly 27,000 stitches. 

After completing my 4 butterflies, I had several options that I wanted to do for the hem.  I finally selected a rolled hem stitch.  This is done by using a special foot that you may already have. 

The rolled hem, often seen on fine linens, is a challenge to perform by a home seamstress (at least for me. . . )  However, the soft light dotted swiss fabric was perfect for this project. 

You can see that the foot has a turned edge and I have attempted to illustrate how to do it in these photos.

I start by folding over a little less than ¼" of fabric.  I am working on the back of the fabric turning over the front for the stitching.  I create a couple of stitches as a start, and leave the needle in the down position to hold the fabric.  At that time, I am holding up a small amount of fabric. 

I am working at the medium speed of my machine, and it feels slow.  Going faster would be a bad idea for me!!

I continued all around.  Did I miss a few places because of the curve?  Yes, but I went back and removed a few stitches and restarted.  I was pleased with the outcome.  I could not get a decent photo of it.

Remember the dots that peeked from the embroidery?  Well, they peeked from the hem edge too.  It is really doing its own thing!

Then, a quick wash to get rid of the markings, a light pressing and, well, the outcome speaks for itself -

Here in San Diego, the summers are very mild.  There is little or modest humidity (30% would be really high here) and the days may be wonderfully warm for swimming, but the evenings - are the reason people love to live in southern California.  Evenings are mild and excellent for walking and sleeping, hopefully, not at the same time...

I found a great pair of shorts with a little stretch (love that!) a couple of pockets (I keep my frogs in them) and a nice brown for easy coordination with lovely embroidered tops.  The only problem is, for me, they are a little long.  I suppose they should be covering my knees, but I like them just above my cute knees.  (you must read "Life is Not A Dress Size" by Rita Faro.  Rita was a big hit at the Community Circle this year, she has a terrific sense of humor and we laughed until our faces ached!!

I could have just hemmed them, but that seemed to be so boring that I thought about doing a border as an edge instead. 

I could not find what I really wanted, a FSL which had curves and was like a border AND did not have 15,000 stitches per 6 inch increments.  FSL that is digitized to be a border tends to be floral, at least that is what I found.  I wanted to cut the shorts and have a portion of the design on the shorts and a portion free standing.  But, I had to settle for a border which had a good satin stitch around the edges.  No matter what design I choose, I can see that I will have to use something like "Fray Check" to hold some of the fabric.  I can deal with all of that - - - I think.

I selected 3 designs to discovery sew (my name for the formerly used name ‘sewout').  The second one was clearly not suitable.  The third one is not likely to work.  I tested the first design and it worked well.  Since my design is specifically a border, it does have some advantages including that it was meant to be placed linearly and the design is set to do its repeat specifically.  The length of the border is exactly 6" (aren't they smart) but it does not divide evenly into the width of my shorts.  So, the 2" left over will be inside the crotch area where it won't be visible anyway.

I am using Ann The Gran Medium Adhesive Back Tear Away.  If you have not tried it yet, you need to know that it is the best quality and price available anywhere.  The only cheaper one is one that you win. . . And, you can make that stretch into multiple uses, here is how. 

I had gotten the 11" by 10 yard size, I should have gotten the 14" by 10 yard size, so I do make some small adjustments.  I cut my piece to fit the short side of my hoop (the 5" size in this case).  I then score the top 1" of the stabilizer and add a 3" scrap of any stabilizer.  Since it is only for holding the main stabilizer in place, it really does not matter what I use, I could use a piece of paper if I wanted to.

Now my hooped stabilizer is in place and I am going to make a small score for the design.  I have done my test discovery sew, so I know how large my design is and how much sticky area I need.  My fabric is medium weight so I can do this, however, if you are using a heavy weight, you may need to consider a larger sticky area.  I sew my design and remove it from the stabilizer, leaving the stabilizer in place.

I next score my sticky stabilizer about .5" (12.7 mm) around the design area, creating a fresh area of stick.  I place a 3" piece of the stabilizer to patch the hole and . . . . I have a fresh work area. 

From my ‘discovery sew' I determined that the very first stitch would be my ‘spot' for alignment.  My preference for matching items in a linear manner is to use a ruler that is clear and I make my marks for that first stitch on my ruler to transfer to my fabric.  I can, with my stitch forward/backward button, go to that spot and adjust my hoop so it is on the mark.  I also check to be sure that the design will lie in the correct horizontal position at that point as well. 

Don't forget to use clips of some type to keep your fabric out of harms way!  See my blog on hooping to show the detail of how to do endless hooping.

After washing, I may need to do some trimming, but I don't see it as a problem.

The shorts are a great chocolate brown and the thread is a fantastic salmon.  They are amazing together!!  What do you think?  My photography does not show just how fabulous these really are.  I left one leg as if it would be hemmed, and finished one leg embroidered. 

Among the beautiful and creative hand embroidery work is a pattern called Hardanger.  When looking for the history, I found several differing versions of how and where Hardanger got its start, but there is an agreement that Norway was prominent in its place of history for the work. 

Since Norway has a city named Hardanger, that spot must have played an important role in the embroidery's history.  The many facets of the design are often woven into the beautiful Norwegian long aprons called bunads.  It is frequently seen, worldwide, in home linens as well.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Maiden in bunad                   Midnight Sun

(Photos courtesy of Fjord Travel Norway.)

The fabric in Hardanger is as important as the actual stitching.  It must be an ‘even weave' and typically a '22-count' weave.  Hardanger is also considered to be ‘white work' which essentially means that it is accomplished ‘white on white' making it very subtly elegant.  The sculptural nature makes it wonderful for pattern creation. 

Hardanger embroidery uses Satin stitch blocks known as Kloster blocks, consisting of 5 parallel satin stitches, worked over a group of 4 x 4 ground threads. These blocks enclose areas of fabric where a number of warp and weft threads are cut and withdrawn, leaving a network of loose threads and large holes within the shape defined by the Kloster blocks. Various decorative filling stitches are then worked over the remaining loose threads and holes to create a lacy effect.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

photo courtesy of http://www.caron-net.com/

This authentic hand Hardanger demonstrates where the interior threads will occur.  The count and placement of each stitch must be accurate for this to work.  My eyes won't do this anymore, but if some of can you do, or have examples, please show us your samples.  Place them in the Forum or Galleries for us all to view and enjoy.

Photo courtesy of Nordic Needle

Digitizers are always trying to replicate special effects created by our early sisters in embroidery.  This design is no exception.  When I found the Hardanger motif, I thought of all the places I could use it.  Those places included a tote bag pocket, linen selections and a pinafore for my granddaughter among other things.  I did this project as a guest towel as available from All About Blanks.  If you are not familiar with All About Blanks, they have the finest items of linen available on the net.  These guest towels are only $39.99 for a dozen.  I keep them around for a quick, easy and memorable last minute gift.

While I did not achieve an exact replica of Hardanger, I feel it is a great representation of the amazing world of embroidery of years gone by.  Additionally, the digitizer for this pattern did replicate the inside twist called "dove eyes" as shown in the last diagram above.

The cross stitching of the design will now allow for definition of the flowers, and the digitizer does call for this to be done in floral colors.  So, this is not following the Hardanger rules - but then again, who follows rules. . . .Additionally, this particular design can be done as a hanging ornament, and not just for Christmas.  Imagine it as part of a wall decoration or placed in a foliage plant.  What a find this one is!  The design is courtesy of Laura's Sewing Studio.

Photo courtesy of Laura's Sewing Studio.

There is an element of ‘cutwork' in Hardanger.  As you are sewing, you will see the outline that will need to be removed.  See my blog posting on "Cutwork" for further instructions.  Don't forget that when you remove the fabric for the cutwork, leave your water soluble stabilizer (wss) in place.  The remainder of the design will be placed there.

After I completed the design, for better visibility, I kept the wss in place.  Naturally, I will remove it before giving it as a gift.  Here is my interpretation of that design, and I am delighted with the results.  Using quality fabric and design always pays off!

 Try it, you will love the heirloom quality of it.

You may remember that one of my earliest blogs discussed “Things I Wish I Knew When I Began Machine Embroidery.”  It had about 8 or 10 items that would have helped me save some of the money I spent and just some simple things that any newbie needs to know.

I thought:

• Joe’s Embroidery Thread and Used Tire Dealership has a great deal on thread.  (I actually purchased a pack of colors from the Net.  I have so many unused colors from that group that I use them for basting and some test sew outs just to use them up.)

The reality is that:

• A quality thread in ‘best seller’ colors is a better bargain.

• Quality thread often comes in exceptional storage containers helping us stay/get organized. (ATG carries it in White or Teak)

• I personally purchase here at ATG because quality is of utmost importance to me.

I have not changed my mind, after 8 years of machine embroidery about quality thread.  I have, however, determined a few things that might be helpful to you.  As usual, I hope your ideas will be placed in the comments section, but this blog is about my experience and how I handled getting as much thread as possible for the dollars I have available (which tends to be very little. . . . )

First of all, I decided on a thread brand that I wanted to be my ‘main source.’  There are so many to choose from and some of them are (Prices are for 1100 mm spools unless otherwise noted, and in no particular order):

• Hemingworth – About 300 polyester colors with its own cover, it sells for $5.95, metallics for $8.50, very good quality.

• Isacord – About 350 polyester colors with a ‘snap down’ base to hold thread, it sells for about $4.00 to $5.50, considered to be a ‘heavy duty’ type of thread.

• Robison-Anton – Approximately 350 colors of rayon, and sells for about $5.50.  It is available in Rayon, Polyester, metallics and is available in colors (500 yard spools) that ‘glow in the dark’ for about $15 each.  Base holds thread ends securely.

• Sulky – About 300 colors in rayon and caps that hold the thread securely, the rayon sells for about $3.50 for a 250 yard spool.  Sulky also has a 30 wt all-purpose mercerized cotton which is truly a variable.  Rather than the linear variegation, this thread has a random splash of natural families of color (grass green has multiple colors including some brown patches to match my lawn).

• Madeira – About 450 colors in rayon and used as a color suggestion guide by some designers, Madeira is possibly the most readily available embroidery thread.  Costing about $5.95 per spool, it is available in multiple sizes and usually has a cap that grasps the end of your thread.  It also leads the way in types of thread including a ‘Fire Safe’ thread used in firemen’s uniforms and a three color ‘twist’ variety that has an excellent heather/variegated appearance.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive listing of threads and information is subject to change.  It is just to give you some idea of what is available.

I did choose Madeira.  My next decision was what colors to actually purchase.  I had saved $200 for this ‘major’ purchase and deciding on colors was a bigger challenge than I had anticipated.  I finally came to the conclusion that my interest was in ‘life like’ designs as opposed to the cartoon/caricature variety of designs.  For cartoon or caricature designs, I could make a cat purple and a person green, but for true life designs, I would want multiple browns to beige for an animal coat and shades of green for a meadow’s beauty.

I selected 10 designs that I was drawn to and liked for attention to detail.  These are some of them.

For the Spaniel, at first glance, one might think that there are about 6 colors, there are actually 8.  The really interesting thing is that there are 21 color changes.  What that means is that the design is ‘layered’ in coloring and shading to give a realistic, natural look to the dog.  I have sewn out this one several times and am always in awe of the beauty the digitizer has captured.  The Tabby has 8 colors with 27 color changes.  The Bleeding Hearts have 10 colors with 21 color changes.  The Gardenia bouquet has 9 colors, and has 34 color changes.  (Photos are courtesy of EmbLibrary.com)

Among the other designs I selected for my review, I found that the numbers were much the same as the designs shown above.  Achievement of natural designs has a lot in common, detail and shading are just a couple of them.  I often see the question in the Forums of combining color stops in order to avoid that tedious task of thread changing.  This exercise showed me what the professional digitizers wanted to achieve.

I paid close attention to the brown/beiges, green/floral, reds and blues. I then I created a spreadsheet and started listing the color number and color name of each design that I selected.  Guess what?  I found that there were many repeating colors in all areas of the designs that I was attracted to.

So, I selected my colors from that group, and included primary colors as well.  In the final analysis, after 3 years, I have used all but 3 of the colors from the group.

I have been able to accurately utilize many of the true colors as exchanged from Madeira to another manufacturer.  My natural items are more realistic, and I feel like I did not waste money on colors that were unusable.  During that same time, I have purchased other colors which were on sale and were interesting to me, but my base of colors have been used over and over again.

I feel like thread is the second greatest expense of my favorite craft and I have a comfortable handle on what I am using.  I hope this might help you find colors that will be useful to you as well.

ps:  If you are considering selling your embroidery, this spreadsheet will be of great help to you! How much to charge for your embroidery

Much to my delight, this is my first year anniversary.  Thank you!  Thank you! Thank you!

As my gift to you, you can download my Garden Sayings for free, just click this link.  These were in my Badgemaster blog, here is a photo of them.

The flowers are from Floral Accent Design Pack and are the perfect size for adding to the sayings.  In addition to placing these sayings on kitchen towels, you can also do them in a set of cloth sheets suitable for framing.

For my anniversary posting, I decided on some trouble shooting ideas.  Like all my posts, these are my thoughts and experiences, your experiences may vary.  If you have other suggestions, please add it in the commenting area.  We all benefit from differing viewpoints and ideas.

A Newbie will complain about puckering from their first project.  I know I did.  Density can be a cause, but it is more likely to be the stabilizer weight relative to the weight of the fabric/design.  As a really general rule, the lighter the fabric, the heavier the stabilizer should be used and vice versa.  When I work with a newbie, I usually have them do their first project on denim for several reasons, one of which is they are likely to have great results getting them off to a terrific start.  A tear-away is just fine for denim for most uses.

Accurate stabilizer use comes with experience.  I have a ‘general’ philosophy - projects are often under stabilized, but over stabilization is rare.  You don’t want to weigh down your project with stabilizer, but floating a piece beneath your hoop can save a project.

Improper hooping could be an issue as well.  Be sure that the hooped item neither sags nor is too tight.  When you release it from the hoop, there should be no movement of the fabric/design.

An outline does not match up with the design.  The first time I had this problem, the outline was a full quarter inch off the design.  The problem with this issue is that you have completed 95% of the design – probably 35,000 stitches, and then the outline fails.  Occasionally, this is the fault of the digitizer, but, it is almost always an under-stabilized project.  You usually cannot save a project at this point unless it is a very small opening.  In that case, you may be able to fill in a small gap with a ‘Sharpie’ or other marker.

Generally speaking tear away is the least stabile of them all.  Tear away is made from fibers pressed together to make a sheet.  Look through one into a light and you will see scraps and threads holding it together.  On the other hand, Cutaway is stronger making it difficult or impossible to tear.

Design is not sewing out correctly.  You need to be sure that the armature is free from walls or other objects.  If your needle gets stuck or jammed in a thread entanglement, you may find that the arm has moved or not moved and could be off its correct position.

If you have stitches looping under your fabric, you probably have a tension issue.  I recommend that you test your tension regularly.  That tension test for your specific format is available in my blog on needles.  The following configurations show sewing versus embroidering tensions.  Photo courtesy of Design in Machine Embroidery Magazine.

This general information goes for the bobbin thread showing up on the top as well.  However, if the bobbin thread is coming through to the top, you need to rethread your bobbin because there is a tension area that may have been missed when the stitch was created.  After rethreading, you should feel a small amount of tension as you pull thread from your bobbin.

I recently read a suggestion for bottom loops that made good sense to me – what do you think? – It was suggested that you always thread your needle in the embroidery foot in the down position.  The reason was that the initial span of thread will be ‘in the correct tension’ as you begin as opposed to being ‘out of the tension’ as you stitch the very first stitches of your design.

Thread issues can also lead to needle breaking.  Needles break if they are slightly bent or if the thread is being held tight by a mechanism problem.  Place the needle on a flat surface to check for bends.  An extremely dense design could cause breakage as well.  If you hear your machine pounding on the design rather than piercing it, you could have a density issue.  You can try a smaller needle, but the best bet is to avoid dense designs.  Density issues would be discovered during your test sewout.  There are many reasons for a sewout; density is just one of them.

If your top thread is breaking try some of these ideas:

You may have an old spool of thread.  You may have purchased it yesterday, but it could have been on the shelf somewhere for a year or more, causing the fibers to dry.  Additionally, if a spool is dropped and there is a ‘ding’ in the thread, that portion of the spool should be removed because the integrity of the thread has been compromised.  Test a few feet of thread between your index and thumb to feel for imperfections, you could have a bad spool.

If you really need to use a dry spool for color matching, etc., you can use ‘Sewer’s Aid’ available at fabric stores.  Sewer’s Aid is silicon in an expensive bottle.  Silicon has no oil in it, but it could spot some delicate fabrics, so use with care.  I use the spray on silicon from the auto parts department; however, I am very careful with it.  For instance, I spray the thread against a background of newspapers or scrap fabrics.  I give it short bursts of silicon around the spool and allow it to dry for about 2 minutes.  Do not rethread your machine until it is entirely dry.  Never use silicon in or around your machine!!

Check your horizontal spool pin and make sure to place the ‘cap’ (white disk to hold spool) securely against the spool.  If it is not snug, the thread can wind around the spool causing breaking.  Some spools still have a nick on the end to hold the thread when not in use.  Again, that ‘cap’ is needed to keep it from catching and holding the thread back.

Check your needle, it could have a ‘burr’ in the eye, if so, discard it properly where it cannot do harm to people or pets.

If you experience Bobbin Thread breakage, I suggest that when you change your needle (at 8 hours, or for different projects, etc.) remove my bobbin case and thoroughly clean out the area.  I use a clean Q-Tip to collect the lint/dust.  Use tweezers to remove small thread pieces.

Prewound bobbins are one of the best items in your arsenal of tools for machine embroidery.  The winding, unlike homemade ones, is consistent and holds more thread allowing for more sewing between replacing a bobbin.  If you are winding your own bobbins, be sure to use bobbin thread available at your embroidery store.  It is a lighter weight and helps to create a more professional design.

Be sure to check your manual to get the correct bobbin size for your machine.  There are two sizes for the home embroiderer, ‘A’ or ‘L’ which look a lot alike.  They are the same size in diameter, but the height of the ‘A’ is a bit taller than the ‘L.’

If you are working with a fabric which has loft (terry cloth, velvet, etc.), make sure to use a water soluble stabilizer on top.  I also use a top stabilizer if I am doing very small lettering.  It makes it easier to clip the jump stitches and it also helps the lettering to stand out just a little better.

No matter what the issue, nothing beats a discussion with a good technician.  If possible, buy your machine from a reputable dealer with in-house technicians.  The sales people are nice, and some even experienced, but a tech is going to be your BFF in so many ways.

There are hundreds of more tips and tricks, add your favorite now!

May is my favorite month.  While I come from a small family, there are only 24 of us, but for some strange reason, 7 of us have birthdays in May.  It must be those waning days of the previous summer. . . . May has Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day and the summer breezes calling to each of us.  See the entire list, courtesy of http://familycrafts.about.com/library/spdays/blmaydayslong.htm or see some of my favorites at the bottom of this posting.  What a wonderful month!

I guess I am into pillows this week, and this one is an idea I have had hanging around for at least 6 months.  I just was not sure how I was going to do it.  Frankly, even as I was setting up to do it, almost nothing was in place. 

I knew I wanted to do some sort of Free Standing Lace (FSL) and I wanted it to be a really unique item and have lots of ‘pop’ to it.  I knew I wanted to incorporate ribbon in it somehow, and with little more than thread and an extra pillow, I set out.

I selected a design which is actually an awareness FSL.  I did it in pink to represent Cancer Awareness, one of the causes near to my heart, but I could have done it in the colors of any awareness group.  I wanted to do Autism because it has affected my life, but the ‘color’ is a mix in a puzzle design.  I hope you support issues that are important to you.

The FSL is courtesy of Embroidery Library and has a 3 section design.

I sewed three sets of them for a total of 9.  I naturally used my favorite water soluble stabilizer, Badgemaster.  I had no thread breaks, no problems and each design was perfect with just a single layer of Badgemaster.  Yawn, it is a no brainer and I can qualify for that!

After I soaked my designs in water, the stabilizer was gone in about 20 minutes and I used my brayer to remove most of the water.  I would never squeeze FSL, it could well alter the shape and cause real issues.  I also use the brayer to flatten it between two towels.  I feel certain that my items will be flat, shorten drying time and not stretched.

When the design was dry, I placed them on my pillow and added a small dot of glue on the back of the design so that it would attach to the pillow.  I use a fabric glue called Beacon’s 3 in 1 which is quick drying and easy to use.  It does NOT clog up the output point of the bottle (happy dance).

I went through my ribbon drawer and found this great nautical rope left from another project and felt it was just perfect for my ready-made pillow.  I just used a simple square knot and my project is complete.  I really liked the outcome, and hope you do as well.  Not including drying time, it took me a mere 2 hours of stitching out, a really quick and gorgeous item.

My pashminas make a great throw/coverlet and are now available in great pastel colors:  yellow, light blue, light pink, white, and a terrific violet along with the colors already listed.  These make wonderful cover-ups for pool and beach outings, especially for those young ladies who need to be covered up!!  The yellow shown is even sunnier in person.

It is not too late to pick up a gift for mom.   Remember that there is no shipping on my pashminas!  The new colors that may not be listed are from left:  Lemon Yellow, Violet, Light blue, Rose, Pink, Tangerine, Summer Grass and White. 

·         Last but not least, here are the celebrations for May, I think my favorite is Blueberry Cheesecake Day, but then again, there is Dance Like A Chicken Day as a close runner up!  I will definitely celebrate “International No Diet Day” with great enthusiasm.

Month Long Observances

·         May Is American Bike Month

·         Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

·         Asparagus Month

·         Asthma & Allergy Awareness Month

I suppose Mother’s Day is my personal favorite holiday because my grownup kids actually understand what being a Mother, Father and Parent really means now.  When they were young and just making cards and trinkets, it was a time to be excited about giving me a little something made with their little hands.   They could not have been more proud of macaroni or mismatched beads; and I could not have been more proud of their artistic abilities.

I have so many memories and I want to share just one of them with you.  Despite being very poor and living in the toughest part of town, my mother always had time for her plants.  There were forsythia, grape vines, geraniums, and my personal favorite the Lily of the Valley bed just outside the kitchen door.   I felt like the Lily of the Valley was such a delicate and lovely flower and always have enjoyed seeing them in bouquets and arrangements.  I don’t see enough of them these days.

Wreath courtesy of: Classic Floral Designs.com          Nosegay courtesy of: wholeblossoms.com

Just arriving on the scene are new Alphabet Xpress fonts, and namely the Bonance, I knew I had to create something and adding the Lily of the Valley would be just a wonderful remembrance of those days long ago.  Then I found the design with a lovely bow arrangement of the flowers and my vision was complete.

Lily of the Valley Bouquet, AnnTheGran

I love working with Alphabet Xpress.  If you have not tried it yet, it is one of the most easily used software products for embroidery that is on the market. I think the best part of Alphabet Xpress is the fact that you can simply purchase and download/extract your font and everything is done for you!

After opening Alphabet Xpress, and in this example, I am selecting “Text” from the Menu Bar.

That opened the “Properties” Box where I select Bonance.

A simple typing in of my desired wording and I am nearly done!  That took about 30 seconds. . . .

From the File Menu in the upper right hand corner, I will select “Merge Stitch File” and load my design.

I selected and placed my design and all I have to do now is to save it.  How easy is that?!

To save, I selected the File Menu, and Save As.

I transferred my design to my software (PED-Basic) and sewed.  I love the result and hope you will try Alphabet Xpress because it is really that easy.

Use of the right tools always will lead you to a more professional project!

BTW-There are several really great photos of the Community Cirlce 2009 Event, be sure to stop in the Galleries, and see a few beautiful faces (and me too!).LOL  Add yours too!

There is not enough space to tell you all the wonderful information and special friendships that occurred in Orlando over the weekend of March 27 and 28, 2009.  I would not have the first idea where to begin, but I do want to attempt to give you a few of the best highlights that I got from the best darned Community Circle ever!  Well, from A (aprons) to Z (zippers) we just could not have wished for anything more.

Did I mention that the food and conversation were excellent?

I personally was unable to go to the Apron, etc., presentation, but I do know that they made some really unusual designs, including a ‘slip on’ single piece apron.  That Mary Mulari is one imaginative woman.  You can see her work and designs at:  http://www.marymulari.com.  Mary is doing interesting things, especially with zippers!  You just have to check that one out.

Then there was Rita Ferro.  If she is ever in your neck of the woods, you have to see her.  Not only is she a wonderfully interesting person, but has a sense of humor that will leave you in stitches - - - so to speak.  She wrote the book “Life is not a Dress Size” about 10 years ago.  You can still get that out of print book by looking on sites that have used books for sale.  Rita can help you to see the dream bed that will make you feel like royalty in a fantasy, wrapped up in softness and delight.  You can currently catch her on Facebook.

The next demonstration was from James Raymer of Dalco Home Sew.  Despite his ‘corny’ jokes, he managed to dazzle the crowd with some very pretty appliqué designs. Those have a total of 15 sewouts for some really nice embroidery with appliqué projects.  When he had the group test the heat applied crystals, they were standing 3 deep in line to play with the fun bling!  I even got into it and you will be seeing some great projects from me in the future!

June Mellinger gave a terrific demonstration of the newest Brother machines which caused more than one of us to faint!  Those machines do everything except diaper the baby, and frankly, they are probably working on that too!

We even had Rick Macali show us the Whys and Wherefores of Design Creations.  He really helped us to understand why digitizing is done as it is.  That makes us much so much better at doing our craft and he was so informative.

My presentation included some very helpful computer features and software that are free for anyone.  I also talked about motivation in business as well in completing our embroidery projects.  People shared their motivational tips as well.

One of my free and very useful programs is called “Snipping Tool.”  When you are on the Internet, you can select a portion of the information that you see on the screen and save it as a ‘jpg’ file.

You can save your ‘capture’ (snippet) in free form or rectangle:

Or you can capture the Full Screen:

As promised, here is the XP version of the “Snipping Tool” download.  This is the one to download if you are using the Windows XP operating system.  If you are using Windows Vista, follow these steps:

1. Select the Start Button in the lower left hand corner and then Select Help and Support. 
2. In the Search box, type Snip and press Enter. 
3. Download the small program.

There really was a lot more, these were just a few of the things that made the Community Circle 2009 the best of the best!

May I suggest that you consider starting a “Christmas Club” just for yourself for next year’s Community Circle?  Just saving a few dollars a week can add up quickly and you will be delighted that you attend.  I know I am!

The origins of monograms were very regal. The letters were generally used as a signature and on coins. The artists of the Middle Ages used them to sign their work.  Eventually, a monogram became a symbol of one’s place in society.

At one time, rules for monogramming were narrow, and followed the configuration as “ACB” with the center letter being the last name.  Today, the more casual use of monogramming has fewer rules and certainly not limited to fabric or coins.  To me, nothing is more elegant than a well placed letter on stationery, cuffs, a candle or anything that is not nailed down.

Classic, chic and without an equal, monograms have stood the test of time.  Even Laverne could not make a monogram tacky; she wore hers when she was dressed up!

At the risk of being plummeted with non-monogrammed shoes (yes, shoes), I am going to list a few of the ‘rules’ I try to follow:
Rule #1 – there are no rules. . . .
Rule #2 – when the client says they want them upside down, refer to Rule #1.

The Avid Embroiderer’s Rules of Monogramming:

• For Life Partners, I encourage the use of just 2 initials, last names only and the order is their choice.  Charles Adams and Sam Brown:

• For those combining both names, I do recommend a hyphen, I personally like them.  Charles Adams and Diane Brown:

• For both people with hyphenated last names, I recommend the second letters with a hyphen in the center, and both first names.  I think these are falling out of favor. Charles Smith-Adams and Diane Johns-Brown:

• For names with apostrophes, I recommend using just the first initial, i.e., O’Connor would be “O.”

• For names with ‘De’ or ‘La,’ I recommend using ‘D’ or ‘L.’

• For someone wanting something a little different, I recommend a “stack” style where the first and middle are stacked one over the other and the last name a large letter matching the size of the two stacked ones.   Adam Bob Carter.

• I personally prefer a single letter.  You already knew that!

• I also find two letters, first and last to be a nice combo as well.  Anne Adams

• For a really unusual monogram, I would place one letter directly over another. I don’t encourage that because of density issues.  Alena Spalding.

• Ken Parson’s Composition has a number of shapes for monograms as well.  The fonts include 105 ‘special characters’ such as Õ and Á with some available for monograms.

• The AlphabetXpress has a surprise coming . . .  (Whispering:  Watch for some new Fonts coming real soon!!! – but keep quiet, it is a secret. . . )

• Whatever the client wants, that is what I will create!

Well, I was anxious to start doing some projects and I had a sheet of ‘foam’ left over from a different project.  This foam is similar to the mouse pad that you are using right now.  I have washed that mouse pad, so I felt the foam would be suitable for embroidery too.

The piece of foam is a 2 mm weight and I am going to use a thread color to match it.

I started off by using a font that had a wide satin stitch.  I felt that would be an easy stitch to work with.  I created a standard monogram and then I placed the same design atop the foam that was just set on the fabric.  I was delighted with the results.  I also tried a letter with both satin and running stitches.  I left the inside foam but could just as easily have removed it.  There is less impact with removing the foam because the monogram "P" only has a small portion with the satin stitch.   The more narrow sections is still a satin stitch but too slim to have an effect.

Tip:  The foam fell away from the satin stitches, but at the bottom of the letters, you must be careful when you clip the leftover foam.  If you clip the threads, you will want to use some “Fray Check” to keep the stitches from coming off.

Tip:  If you decide to keep the foam with the design, you may want to have some adhesive to keep it in place.  It came right out of the inside of the P and A, so for the Script P, I would have used some glue.

Since these were test sewouts, I was not concerned about perfection.

I played with some other available fonts and outline designs I had and I really like the results.  I might even try this on the card paper from Kiwi. .  or metallic thread?  or under appliqué?  or on a towel? or . . . .

I am off to do some more testing, and if you do these, show us the results.  Don’t forget, you can upload your photos to "Galleries" for us all to enjoy.  I also recommend that you put a little message in the Forum letting us know that it is available.

Why is Egyptian cotton considered to be among the best cotton?  It starts with the weather!  Egypt’s warm climate makes for a longer growing season – which produces longer and stronger cotton fibers.  The end result is some of the most wonderfully soft and absorbent cotton available.

Then those fibers are made into strands of thread, of two or more ply of yarn that are circular when cut in cross section.  This thread is smaller in diameter yet stronger than other cottons. Smaller thread means that more threads per square inch can be use to create stronger fabric which is light in weight yet breathes well.  Cotton grown in the Egyptian fields will also produce less lint and therefore will not pill.

Photo courtesy of Lands’ End.

The Egyptians were skilled at making thread from plant.  That thread is then woven into a fabric, and the bedding made from it is measured by the thread count.  Choosing a high thread count sheets is not the only gauge of quality. In the case of cotton grown in Egypt, the higher thread count means the fabric will be incredibly strong and will last for years and years. If cared for properly, Egyptian produced cotton fabric can last for decades.

Other terms:

Percale means that the thread count is at least 180 count and was first made in Wamsutta Mills at New Bedford Massachusetts in 1876. Many people believe that percale is a fabric type; but it simply refers to the thread count. Percale can be cotton or a blend of cotton and other fibers.

Combed Cotton is a cleaning process that eliminates impurities and short, less desirable fibers.

Muslin is a rough and tough sheet. They are generally used in children’s character theme. Thread counts range from 128-140.

Pima or Supima is a high quality cotton whose long fiber staple is similar to that of Egyptian cotton. The differences are geographical only. Pima is grown in the southwestern part (Texas to Arizona) of the U.S. and Egyptian is grown along the Nile River.  Supima is made from extra-long staple Pima. The soft hand of Pima and Supima make them very desirable in bedding.

Embroidering on this fabric is a pleasure.  It won’t stretch, distort or otherwise create problems for the embroiderer.  People have been doing this sort of decoration for centuries.  Consider that just a few decades ago a “Hope Chest” was a common piece of furniture in any young woman’s life.  She filled it with linens that she had embroidered with great love and anticipation.

Today’s sheet sets can come pre-decorated, ready to be cozy in and beckons you to slumber.  I love to place a little of my marvelous craft upon my sets.  I am not likely to go with the usual patterns and/or placement; I did create a little something I felt was different.  These sheets are not Egyptian cotton, but they are comfortable and very soft.

I first decided on two designs that I combined.  The swan is one I have had so long, I have no idea where I found it.  I did see a swan right here at AnnTheGran that was so great, I wish I had seen it sooner. I liked the swan outline, because it is just elegant and reasonably priced.   The wonderful 'water' design is from the collection by Mesiano and available here at AnnTheGran.  The Mesiano designs are rooted in machine embroidery done by John Deer, a third generation embroiderer.  The family began machine embroidery in 1910 and digitizing was called "punching."

I naturally measured the centers of the pillow cases and chose to place the lace point of the design just above the cuff of the case.  The swan was floating above the lace as if it were water.  Placing the top sheet seemed to be a little strange to me because I wanted it to be lying correctly when I turned the sheet down.  Therefore, I had to sew it out upside down.

The really tricky part was to determine where to place the fitted sheet design.  It was simple to determine where the center of the sheet was, but my mattress is a rather thick one, so I needed to figure out where to place my design including the depth of the mattress.

In order to determine where to place that design, from the top, I measured the mattress, a few inches for the under tuck and a few inches for the top of the fitted sheet.  It came to 22” for my sheet.  I love having a little something on the top of my fitted sheet.  It is not only attractive, but when I make the bed, I know that the swan is on the short side of the mattress.

When I do this again, and I will, I plan to move the design further down the fitted sheet so that it will be just below the pillow cases and just above the turned over sheet.  I am delighted with how that set came out.  I hope you will try it yourself.

When I first looked at Ken Parson’s Compositions, I was confused by it, not because it was difficult in itself, but because I had never seen anything like it before. Once I had a grasp of the features, I must say, I am so impressed.  I hope you will be as well!  This software can do so much for your projects and I will try to explain most of them for you.  (Not in any order)

• Even if you cannot digitize, you can rework your design to be really individual.
• The software automatically adds ‘pull compensation’ and ‘underlay’ to ensure the quality of the finished product.
• Resizing in ANY amount-not just the 20% standard resize recommended, rotation and mirroring of designs are a snap.
• Gives excellent recommendations for needles, stabilizers and thread.
• Repeating of designs, especially in a ‘pattern’ is automated; and, those colors are set to significantly reduce thread changes.
• Import and export of newly created designs, in most available formats, are simple.
• Splitting of designs is automated.
• Add an autobaste for your project if you desire.
• Use slow draw to see just how the design will sew out.
• Instant lettering and/or monogramming is available and easy to use. (Available in English, French or Italian)
• Two manually digitized lettering sets at 4mm. (24mm is approximately 1")
• The more I play with the software, the more things I find I am able to do.

Well, I could go on, but instead, you can walk with me through a simple project.

I am making a kitchen towel as a gift for Valentine’s Day.  After opening KP Composition, it asks me for a new or existing project.  I select ‘new’ and it asks me some questions.  In photo #2 I tell the software my fabric is a (velour) towel in the PES format, it is a towel, and the size is even listed.  I can indicate the color but the really interesting section is the ‘Recipe Suggestions.’  It recommends the needle, thread, topping, backing and lets me know that it will be making some adjustments for the ‘pull’ of the design.
    

I don’t have to use the recommendations, but I find them to be very good.  However, I will use a stronger backing, because that has been best in my experience.

Next, it gives me information regarding the ‘location’ area.  It lets me know that I need to be in that location area to do tasks.  Without this information, I would have not been able to get to the first stitch.  I am pleased that the programmer helps me to understand the rules.  The next photo shows the overall layout of my project. 

From the ‘toolbar’ (circled) I can select a template of the ‘location’ style or design my own.  I choose a circle from the template.  Notice that the ‘handles’ around the location show that I have selected the location.  In the second photo, I am moving the ‘location’ down toward the bottom of the towel.  In this case, it is not a big issue; however, if I were doing a man’s shirt, it would be important.  The circle in the 2^nd photo is the handle with which you can rotate your design which is handy. 

Now that the location is in position, I double click on it so that the area is ‘full size.’  I could have used the “View Menu” as well. TIP:  You may see that if you don't make this full size, you cannot merge/import designs.  In photo #2, I select “Merge Stitch File” from the File Menu.  Or, I could have used one of the designs from the left side of the screen.  From my designs, I have selected a ‘Saying’ that I got from ca few months ago.  I like it because the font is different and it says “Eat Chocolate,” my favorite motto. . . .

My design is in the location and in the 2^nd photo, I have selected the hoop from the toolbar.  That will let me know that I am within the area of my desired hoop.  TIP:  If you don't use the correct hoop size, and stay inside it, you may have error messages later when trying to do a sewout.  I may have to adjust some of the pieces of the designs.  In the right side of the screen, there is a Sequence View indicating that ‘Eat Chocolate’ will be the first item to sew out.  If I prefer, I can have it sew out in a different order by selecting the specific item, and move it in the Sequence View.  Doing likewise, with a piece of a design (single or multiple colors) I can remove, duplicate and rotate the piece.  So, if I had a single leafy branch, I could make dozens of that part only and change each of them a little bit thereby making them a bouquet of leafy branches!

I rotated ‘Eat Chocolate’ and I have brought in the 2^nd and 3^rd design in the same manner as the first.  The Sequence View shows the new items and how they will sew out.  You can also see the ‘properties’ of the 2^nd design because it is selected (handles are in view).  Any adjustments in size or rotation can be made in either of the property (lower right) or selected areas (using the box handles).  For instance, if I make the (abstract) chocolate bar smaller, the software will automatically decrease stitches and vice versa.

Next, I am going to make the chocolate bar a lot smaller.  The 'rule of thumb' is never reduce or expand a design more than 20%.  In this case, I am making it about 35% smaller because the software automatically reduces stitches AND, if I think it is still too dense, I can further reduce stitching in the Properties/Advanced selection.  That can be significant when you are doing baby designs for infant clothing! 

I am using the ‘Circle Template’ to add more bars to the design.  They will be exactly spaced and placed.  I will do the same for the small flower I am using in the design.

Everything is still inside the hoop and I just want to be able align everything to the center of the hoop.  I use the toolbar and select the ‘align’ icon.  I can still move/rotate the chocolate bar or flower, the software is so flexible.

I am ready to save and sew out my new design.  To save the project, use the File Menu and select ‘save as.’  To save the design, in the File Menu, select ‘Export Stitch File’ and save it with your other designs or wherever you want it.  Since you have previously selected your format, it will automatically save in that format.

These great towels are from AllaboutBlanks, the red is absolutely gorgeous and the white a true white!!!

Here are a couple of other designs I created.  It was fun once I had a good handle on what to do to build my ideas.

Before and After - Sorry about the photos, they are drawings, the stitching is appropriate.

Here is my attempt at adding some freehand stitching - I NEVER SAID I COULD DRAW!!  The pitcher is from Composition Software which I rotated and added water spilling out.  I am just having fun with this software.

As with most software, there are multiple ways to complete a task; these are my methods and I hope you find them useful for you.  You have nothing to lose, there is a 30 day free trial and keeping the above info in mind, you are going to have a lot of fun!  This is a good value for your dollars, you can do so much with it.  No more 'bullet proof' density or rotating problems!

Some embroidery items are more breathtaking than others.  I don’t remember where or when I got this photo, and with apologies to the owner of this photo, I present to you a little something you can whip out in a few hours.

This might be a wonderful sumptuous table topper; whatever it is, it has a grandeur all its own.  The second photo is Courtesy of Robert Young, and has an amazing 281,000 metallic stitches.  It certainly is one impressive piece of artwork.

This blog will not be a comprehensive metallic thread discussion because I have not been able to try so many of the metallics on the market.  In addition, new thread comes out so often that it is difficult to keep up with them.  I am only going to discuss some of my observations, readings and personal experiences.

I think that there are several things in the metallic world that we might agree upon.  Some of them are:

• Always use a new metallic needle.  These needles are made specifically for metallic thread and have a larger eye than standard needles.  Some might have a coating and/or a shaft to help move the thread.  They are a little more expensive than embroidery needles, but well worth the few extra cents.
• I usually only use metallics in very small amounts such as an accent color in a pattern.  For instance, I did a Minnie Mouse once and used the metallic on just her hair bow.  That probably did not use up more than 3 yards of thread, making it less problematic.
• I normally will watch the thread very carefully as it comes off the spool.  In my current project, I had the gold thread nesting under the fabric.  It was spinning wildly and that told me there was a problem I could not see on top of the design.  Underneath was a big mess and I had to carefully remove the nested threads and restart, not a fun thing to do.
• Slow down your machine’s speed.  I did my metallic part of the design at 350 stitches per minute (spm) which was really slow!  But, when the metallic was done, I returned to the sewing speed of 800 spm.  It changed the overall time for the design from 25 minutes to about 35 minutes and I can live with that.
• Avoid designs that are really dense or have over lapping stitches.  Any friction can be a problem for the metallic thread.  If there are very small stitches, that could be detrimental to your project as well.  Some designs may be marked for metallic thread in the color chart and that indicates that the digitizer made adjustments for any areas that include metallic thread.
• Make sure you have enough time to do this particular feature in your embroidery.  If you are under a deadline, it is probably not the time to experiment with metallics.  You need time to work with it and patience to get to the end of your project.

I have read so many other bits of information but these don’t make a great deal of sense to me personally.  I don’t mean to say they are wrong, but I have given my reason for discarding them as viable rules for metallics:

• Watch your tension.  Many ME’ers feel that the tension should be reduced.  When I had the nesting problems, I actually had to increase the tension for better results.  You need to test your machine, thread and design to see what will work best.  Don’t assume that any of the rules are carved in granite.
• Freeze the thread.  This one has confused me from the first moment I read it.  How would freezing metal help?  It seems to me that freezing it, even for a short time, would cause the thread to be less flexible and possibly brittle.  If this one works for you, great.  I personally think it is illogical.
• Another idea that I have heard was to run the thread through a ‘packing peanut.’  That one was curious to me because it had no rationale as to why the peanut would help.  Perhaps there is some logic there, but I am unable to see it.  If you try this, let us all know about the outcome. 
• Use a special thread stand.  I have a theory about thread stands – if the engineers who designed this fantastic machine thought it needed a stand, it would have placed a little stick of plastic in the box.  How expensive could that stick be??  They would have had a place to put that stick on the machine, possibly on the side not too near the wheel.  The engineers did not do that, and they went to school for a long time to be called engineers.  Do I have a thread stand?  Yes, the store convinced me that I needed it and so I paid my money.  I use it now for a paper weight for my notes I have near my machine, so, yes, I do use it.
• Put the thread in a container behind the machine.  Huh?  See previous information.

The bottom line is, use it if you feel it has value.  This information is just my humble opinion.  I may be wrong, I remember being wrong once before (rolling on floor, laughing to the point of tears). 

I did find a few interesting things during my project.  These made sense to me and I have explained why they seemed prudent:

• I used water soluble stabilizer (wss) for the backing.  I did this because cut-away stabilizers are too structured and rigid.  I feel tear away stabilizers did not have enough stability for the metallic thread.  I did feel that the wss has ‘give’ with stability.  I did not wash it, but I did cut most of it away.  I felt it has the best of both worlds.  As you may be aware, I do use Badgemaster most of the time.
• My fabric was soft rayon and I felt that its properties were very right for metallic thread.  I prefer soft and natural varieties of fibers for all my projects.  An unyielding fabric may present problems that rayon does not.  However, when time permits, I will be trying to work with other fabrics and metallics to see the issues and results.  As previously noted, I don’t think any rule is carved in stone.  Give other fibers a try and let me know about how it goes for you.
• I did reduce my percentage of stitches by 5%.  I felt that would not interfere with the density and avoid any stitches that were too close or stitched from the same spot.  Since my very first two colors were metallic, I was able to stop sewing after the metallic, cancel the design, reset the design (putting it back to 100%) and go to thread color number 3. 
• I have been experimenting with some metallics and have found some to be badly lacking in quality, sheen or usability.  I did use Coats and Clark in the copper color and Sulky in the gold color.  I found both of them to have a real metallic quality, excellent sheen and very easy to work with.  One thing that I liked about them was that they were both were much like a strand of colored aluminum which is how I feel metallics should be.  Some metallics are fabric with some metal thrown into the mix and those just don’t deliver in my opinion.
• Did I have breakage with both threads?  Yes, I did.  But I did make this observation and test:  The copper (first thread) worked smoothly for the first 1,300 stitches.  The distance was approximately 5,000 stitches, and after that first success, the thread started breaking about every 600, or less, stitches.  The same thing happened with the gold (second thread).  There were about 2,100 stitches and the first about 1,000 stitches were just fine.  Well, I got to thinking about that and saw a possible hint in those numbers.  I considered that the top most thread on the spools was uncompressed by a layer above them.  I took the gold thread and spread a line of it across my room twice.  I let it relax for about 30 minutes.  I gently rewound the spool and when I went to sew with it – success, no more breaks.

Do I think I found the best method to keep metallics from breaking?  I don’t know.  I do know it seemed to be reasonable to let it rest.  Please let me know if you try this and your own outcome.  This may just be another method in the arsenal of tips for machine embroidery.

Here is my humble piece of metallic.  There were over 7,000 stitches for the metallic thread and I am pleased with the outcome.

Is this the most magnificent swan you have ever seen?

Free Standing Lace (FSL) is a technique unique to machine embroidery (ME) because, to my knowledge, there is no way to do this by hand.  You could learn to ‘Tat’ which is similar, but FSL is obviously in a class of its own.

Previously relegated to Christmas ornaments and bookmarks, FSL is creating its way around to other holidays and designs of all kinds.  When I personally saw my first FSL design, I was awed because I thought that it was ‘magical’ and I was going to have to learn a new way to ME from scratch again. 

Well, it is magical, but not so much that the beginner cannot accomplish something really beautiful and eye catching for children of all ages.  (Swan is possibly excluded from that statement.)

I do have to wonder who thought about creating something this unique; they were really thinking outside the box and inside the hoop.  They must have begun with a simple square or rectangle that may have made the other digitizers roll their eyes.  It was probably quite dense and may not have had much in the way of a design. 

I did recently do a few less challenging designs and I am pleased to say, they were successful all the way down the line.  I had been trying the 3D style of FSL for several years; but could not get the pieces exactly right.  Or I got the edges crooked or they did not match because of the precise requirements of 3D FSL.  When I succeeded with that, I tried sewing by hand and machine – well, let me just say that did not work out well at all.  I tried fabric glues that never wanted to ‘grab’ together.  They left me holding just the first edges of the project for 30 or 40 minutes and then sometimes they did not cure correctly.

When I finally found glue that worked, I could not wait to show you all the results!

I first photo shows a simple ‘cup’ and the glue ‘grabbed’ on to the lace in about 15 seconds.  It was well set in about 1 hour, cured by about 2 or 3 hours.

Next came the really tricky gluing project, the heart shaped jewelry holder.  The base and the heart wall are sewn in 3 different pieces.  Therefore, I had to first glue the wall in the shape of a heart, with some very specific angles. I did the top of the heart/wall separately from the bottom.  Again, the glue did its job and I was delighted with the results.  After the heart/wall dried, I had to position it on the base and I found that doing one side at a time ‘setting’ the wall on that base worked for me.  The top had a small lip as well and I followed the same plan as I did for the bottom. 

I also glued small strand of beads to the top, and slipped a little rose on the bottom lip of the box.  Everything fit together very well. 

I have done many FSL projects before, but they were just a flat design such as a snowflake or Christmas Tree Ornament.  What did I learn from this project?  A Lot!

The first issue is that I really needed to use Badgemaster stabilizer.  The instructions said to use two layers of an ‘ultra’ water soluble stabilizer.  I know that two heavy weight sheets are not as effective as one sheet of professional strength Badgemaster.  Any movement, even the very slightest, will cause the design to be off just a little and would have made this project difficult to say the least.

And, with Badgemaster you can take the sections of unused pieces and put them together to have a strong and unwrinkled sheet to use for another project.  You can place a small amount of water on one side of the two sheets, press them with my hard rubber, heavy-duty metal brayer to make a solid bond.  You can just see the bonded area running over the bobbin area. 

Another excellent use for this well-built brayer is to place the wet FSL on a towel and press it enough to make it a flat material. I then cover the damp FSL with another towel and pressed it again with the brayer.  The advantages here are that you have control of the layout of your design while still wet; and, it is partially dried in the process; and ironing is not necessary.  Ironing a design after it is dry causes the stitches to be ‘flat’ in appearance.

The second thing I learned was that the right glue is an absolutely necessity.  I must have 6 or more craft glues around here, but found one at Michael’s that was inexpensive ($4.00) and was perfect.  It is called Beacon’s 3-IN-1 Advanced Craft Glue.  I have no idea why it says 3-IN-1, but it is great glue.

It did dry crystal clear, just like the label said – there is a surprise, honesty in advertising!  Then it did do an ‘instant grab’ – OK, not so much ‘instant’ as about 15 or so seconds.  I can live with that.  Then it says “Fast Dry Glue” and again, I agree with that.  So, I can give it a 9.8 out of 10, because they should not have said ‘instant.’

I hope you try a 3D FSL soon and be sure to show us your results in the Forum.  I can’t wait to see what you found to do!

LOOK OUT FLORIDA, here we come! – (I believe in fair warning)

I love football and basketball and the Super Bowl is a favorite event for me.   No matter who is in the Super Bowl, I wanted to have a little party.  Naturally, I was cheering for the San Diego Chargers - - but they were eliminated in the second round.  Since I am from Phoenix, I can hope the Cardinals will have better success.

For the festive day, I wanted to create pennants for both teams but could not find an embroidery design for them, so I set out to create my own.

I recently acquired the Alphabet Xpress (AlphaX) software from ATG.   I had downloaded it but had not had time to use it.  I have tried other software and knew it could be really time consuming to ‘start up’ from square one.   Not so with AlphaX!

Tutorials are notorious for being less than useful, but, again, not so with AlphaX.  There is an excellent tutorial for which is located in the Help Files. After a brief tour of the tutorial, I was ready to begin my wording.

Here are the steps I took:

ü  selected my hoop rotation and size (saves time, no further adjustments will be needed)

ü  selected “Text” in the menu area and started typing

ü  selected a ‘fill’ which was ‘Brick’ in my case

ü  changed the color to my selection

ü  viewed my words in 3D

ü  saved in my own format

I completed “San Diego Chargers” in less than 10 minutes; it was so fast and incredibly easy!!

I also found two very well digitized football players by Starbird Designs that can be purchased individually or in a pack.  The one I selected for San Diego was a full body design of a player making a run for a big play.  The one I selected for the Cardinals was an upper body player prepared to throw the long ball.  If you want to see the pack, check it out here.  AND, they are on sale at 50% off! 

I opened my Catalog Xpress (CatX) and loaded the files so that I could make some adjustments to the colors.  Because CatX will save the changes to the original file, I made multiple copies of the design to play with and change.  There is more than one method to make a copy and I used the “Open Containing Folder.”  You can reach that option by right clicking on your design and it will be at the bottom of those features.  (Note:  right clicking on an item in almost all software will give you shortcuts germane to your software – try it!)

I made a copy of my design in my original folder and added just that copy to my CatX collection.

I selected the copy to recolor, keeping the original as is.  Sometime in the future I may want to have the original design for one reason or another and this ensures that the original stays put.

Clicking on the colors blocks just below the design, I changed to my team colors.  I did play around with different combinations which made my design correct to their colors. 

Some of the colors were linked together by the digitizer.  For instance, the shoes, socks and pants were a single group to be sewn out.  Therefore, I could not make them separate colors.  The jersey, however, is made up of several different colors.  I made them all blue and the digitizing was slanted in different angles so the jersey still has excellent shading. The blue is not just running in a single direction, which is why I appreciated the digitizing on these Starbird designs. 

The last piece I needed for my pennants was fabric.  I had some scraps of a medium weight canvas and, despite the colors; they were just fine for my needs.  I checked on line for the size of a standard pennant and found them to be 30” long by 12” but my remnants were only 18” long, so I made my flags 12” by 18.”  I made my own pattern and cut out my flags.  I purchased a few items from the dollar store in my area, including sports tape and a headache remedy (for the losers). I embroidered the flags and the outcome was ‘party’ ready!!

If you decide to have a party, I hope you have some photos to share with us.