Wednesday, November 6, 2013

I Spy Quilting Feathers!

I Spy Feathers in My Morning Latte!
Hmmm...  Methinks that Rush Espresso owner Paul McConachy has much promise if he ever gets tired of the coffee business and decides to pursue quilting instead.  Do you see those lovely feathers he created on top of my nonfat lattes?  He does that every single time, even for customers who are not quilters and who probably don't even appreciate it. 

St. Joseph's Lily by Embroider Shoppe, photo by SewCalGal

Well, I lied to you, Internet, and promised you a machine embroidery blog hop post today that is not going to happen.  I was planning to stitch out and review these gorgeous three-dimensional lily embroidery designs using South African embroidery designer Embroider Shoppe's fantastic designs, but I was unable to source all of the specialized supplies for the project in time so I had to drop out of the hop at the last minute.  I wanted to show you the designs anyway, because they are so spectacular and I really do want to attempt them some day.

In the photo above (taken by SewCalGal at Quilt Market; see her post here), what appears to be a vase of flowers is actually a vase of three-dimensional embroidered petals and leaves.  There is no fabric, just two types of embroidery stabilizer and thread for those petals and leaves.  Isn't it amazing that you could stitch something like that with your embroidery machine?  Embroider Shoppe has lots of different flower styles to choose from, including many lily varieties as well as hibiscus and poinsettias that would be perfect for holiday decorating.  Here are some of the ways I would use these 3-D floral designs:
  • Embellish a ribbon-wrapped headband with 1 or even 3 lilies for your favorite little fairy princess
  • Adorn an elegant wedding or shower gift with a single lily and a wide satin ribbon for an extra-special presentation
  • Create special hair ornaments for bridesmaids, brides, or prom by attaching embroidered flowers to hair combs or pinning in place
  • Attach a wire ring to each individual blossom for custom napkin rings -- dust with glitter or tiny Swarovski crystals to inject some glamour into your next formal table setting
  • Use 3-D embroidery flowers in place of tassels on drapery tiebacks and window valances, with thread colors customized to coordinate with your fabrics

I would classify these embroidery designs as "embroidery CRAFT PROJECTS;" that's my only caveat.  Looking through the project directions, the actual embroidery part looks pretty straightforward although you do need two specialized stabilizers, Sulky Fabri-Solvy and Sulky Soft and Sheer Extra, in order to end up with free-standing petals and leaves that can be water dampened and shaped properly.  However, the supply list includes lots of non-sewing tools and supplies that you may already have on hand if you do a lot of craft projects, such as wood burning tools, hot glue gun, acrylic paints, fishing line, floral tape and florist's wire, and there is definitely some skill involved in using these items to create realistic-looking stamens for the flower centers.  I understand that Embroider Shoppe may be coming out with a video tutorial soon demonstrating how to create these flower parts and assemble the flower itself, and I think these projects will be a lot more accessible to embroiderers with different skill levels once they can watch a demonstration in addition to following the written instructions.

Fall ME Blog Hop copyEven though I wasn't able to pull it off this time around, the Fall Machine Embroidery Blog Hop is still in full swing!  Please visit the other blog participants to be inspired by the projects and designs they are showcasing, and to enter in the SPONSORED GIVEAWAYS that each blog will be hosting this week.  Here's the adjusted lineup for the blog hop:




 

Monday, Nov 4th
SewCalGal 

Tuesday, November 5th
I Have A Notion

Wednesday, November 6th
Patsy Thompson Designs 

Thursday, November 7th
Beaquilter

Friday, November 8th
Stormy Days; SewCalGal 
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Thursday, October 31, 2013

I Call FINISHED: 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge, Completed At Last!

All Twelve; All DONE!
TODAY is the deadline for SewCalGal's Second Chance entries for the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge, and I have finished my twelfth and final challenge entry just a few minutes ago.  (Click on the above photo to enlarge it so you can see all 12 pieces).

Hybrid April 2012 & October 2012 BONUS Challenge Exercises

Since I had already completed eleven of the twelve required challenges, I decided to combine Don Linn's April 2012 tutorial for using tulle mesh to mark a quilt top with Diane Loomis's October 2012 Bonus tutorial for machine trapunto.
Wooden Embroidery Hoop, Bridal Tulle, Sharpie Marker and Don Linn's Design
First, I traced the quilting motif from Don's April tutorial onto bridal tulle with an extra-fine point Sharpie marker.  Then I used one of those purple disappearing ink markers (BAD move!) to trace over the tulle on top of my silk dupioni fabric.  And then I spent WAY too much time drawing concentric lines spaced half an inch apart throughout the background, which I planned to fill with all sorts of fun designs at the end, but alas this was not meant to be for reasons you will understand shortly.

Design Transferred to Silk Fabric with Purple Marker
Once I had my fabric marked, I switched to Diane Loomis's tutorial for machine trapunto.  I threaded up my machine with YLI water-soluble basting thread in the needle, 60/2 cotton embroidery thread in the bobbin, lowered my upper thread tension considerably so my sewing machine would play nice with the specialty thread, and layered a piece of Quilter's Dream Poly batting, Request loft, beneath my glittery silk fabric, with NO backing.  I quilted just INSIDE the marked purple line with my water-soluble thread and then used my rounded tip Dovo embroidery scissors to carefully trim away the excess poly batting from the back side, just next to the stitching line.

Back Side of Design, Excess Poly Trapunto Batting Trimmed Away
Then I layered my silk piece over a large piece of thin cotton batting like what I normally use for machine quilting with a piece of muslin backing so I had a quilt sandwich.  I switched to silk thread in the needle and left the 60/2 cotton embroidery thread in the bobbin.  I started to quilt around the decorative motif again, just OUTSIDE the purple line this time, but I had to stop before I was finished so I could make it to my kids' school in time for the Halloween parties.  (I'm a 5th grade room parent and I had food and craft activities to set up and supervise).  When I got back to my sewing room a few hours later, I discovered to my horror that all of the lines I had so painstakingly drawn in purple ink had almost completely disappeared while I was gone.  I attempted to redraw some of the lines, but the silk fabric was kind of ripply from the trapunto work and would not lay perfectly flat anymore, and it was too late for me to start over because the challenge deadline is TODAY and it's Halloween and the door bell is about to start ringing...  So I had to just go with the flow and do the best I could under the circumstances.

I was able to quilt around the center trapunto motif fairly accurately because I could clearly see the previous stitching in basting thread even though the ink had vanished prematurely.  Then, because the clock was ticking, I switched to my walking foot and tried to quilt as many of the straight lines as I could.  Once I realized they were crooked and wonky and I was going blind trying to follow marking lines that no longer existed, I made the Executive Decision to call this one FINISHED.  I did, after all, complete both Don's tutorial exercise for marking the quilting design, as well as completing the steps for machine trapunto from Diane's tutorial.  I added some pebbling around the trapunto design so I could see the dimensional effect of the added padding better, and practiced a couple of border designs between my crooked lines.  If the rest of my lines hadn't vanished before I could quilt them, my last step would have been to wash the finished quilt or soak it in water to dissolve the basting thread.  (That sounds like a Laundry Challenge, don't you think?)  I WILL try this machine trapunto technique again, but I am putting all of my purple markers in with my machine embroidery supplies from now on so I never make the mistake of marking a quilt top with them again.  The BLUE markers that wash out in cold water are what I should have used for this assignment!

Well, the clock is ticking, so I'd better do a quick recap so I can get this post up before the Linky closes.  Here are the links that will take you back to all twelve original FMQ Challenge posts on SewCalGal's blog, as well as links to my own post for each completed assignment:

  1. Angela Walters' July Quilted Tiles tutorial, my efforts posted here on 7/3/2012
  2. Ann Fahl's March Thread Dancing tutorial (no longer available online), my efforts posted here on 7/19/2012 
  3. Wendy Sheppard's August Jester Hat tutorial, my efforts posted here on 8/12/2012
  4. Paula Reid's September Feathered Wreath tutorial, my efforts posted here on 9/30/2012
  5. Teri Lucas's October Signature tutorial, my efforts posted here on 10/20/2012
  6. Frances Moore's January Leafy Vines tutorial, my efforts posted here on 10/24/2012
  7. Sarah Vedeler's November Spirals tutorial, my efforts posted here on 11/28/2012
  8. Diane Gaudynski's February Feathers tutorial, my efforts posted here on 6/16/2013
  9. Cindy Needham's June Divide and Conquer tutorial, my efforts posted here on 7/20/2013
  10. Leah Day's May Foundational Stippling tutorial, my efforts posted here on 10/9/2013
  11. Patsy Thompson's Border Design tutorial, my efforts posted here on 10/25/2013
  12. Don Linn's April Tulle Marking tutorial and Diane Loomis's October Bonus Machine Trapunto tutorial, my efforts posted right here at the top of THIS post, right now, at the last possible moment on 10/31/2013!
All Twelve Together: My (Two) Year-Long FMQ Journey

I want to send a HUGE thank you out to SewCalGal for hosting the 2012 and 2013 Free-Motion Quilting Challenges, to each and every one of the teachers who graciously donated their time and their tutorials, and to all of the sponsors who donated prizes to keep the excitement going over the past two years.  I'd also like to thank all of the other 2,000+ participants world-wide who made the commitment to spend a year working on their free-motion quilting skills and to share photos of their struggles and successes in the Flicker group and on their personal blogs.  Seeing photos of everyone else's progress online has been so incredibly inspiring and motivating, and when I look back at my own earliest quilting samples it's amazing to see how much my quilting skills have improved over the last year and a half.  I wouldn't say that practice makes PERFECT (yet!), but at least now I know I'm on the right track!




By the way, if you're at all interested in machine embroidery, you won't want to miss SewCalGal's Fall Machine Embroidery Blog Hop that runs all next week.  I'm scheduled to post on Wednesday, November 6th, and I have some VERY unique embroidery designs to share with youyou.  We will all be featuring machine embroidered projects from a talented professional digitizer, sharing best practices for machine embroidery, and I believe we will each be hosting a fabulous GIVEAWAY, so be sure to check back November 4th through the 8th!  Here's the official schedule and lineup of machine embroidery bloggers for that event:

Monday, November 4th


Tuesday, November 5th:

Wednesday, November 6th:
Thursday, November 7th:
Friday, November 8th:
 
Now that I got all of THAT out of the way, I can get on with my Halloween!
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