IHAN Machine Embroidery Blog Hop - Embroidered Labels

I'm so excited to be part of the IHAN Machine Embroidery Blog Hop.  I'm a hobbyist and not a professional and I love creating items to give away or sell for charity. The quicker and easier things are, the better.  That's why I love working with complete embroidery designs in the hoop when available.

When I saw Anita Goodesign Machine Embroidery files, it was difficult to choose which design to stitch out.   There are so many great options to choose from.  When I was asked to participate in this blog hop and choose a design to participate with, I was drawn to the beautiful labels available to embroider.  I am so guilty of not always placing a label on my quilts.  We all know this is such a no no.  So, I figured if I could churn out a few pre-made labels, I might be more inclined to place a label on a finished quilt.

For today's blog hop, I've chosen the Folded-Fabric-Quilt-Labels to complete.  When you purchase the set, you receive 15 different quick designs to stitch out.  Below is my favorite one.

MY FAVORITE TIPS

• Don't be afraid to stop your embroidery machine and change colors mid stream.  Even though a piece may be designed as one color, you can stop and switch colors and then let it continue on.
• Unless you are doing contest pieces, just enjoy the process and go with the flow.  If the thread breaks, OK, back up a few stitches and restart. If it keeps breaking... cuss a little and keep going. 
• If the stabilizer is not sticky back, I'll use the 505 Temporary adhesive spray to help keep the fabric pieces in place.  
• If you have questions on anything, please feel free to email me!

GETTING STARTED

A.  Place your scrap piece of fabric (duh, I had paper incorrectly typed earlier) for your label background
B.  Trim your fabric close to the outline of the label stitched
C.  Stitch the label outline chosen.  You can even stop here and not stitch the inside sentiments
D.  Finished stitching the label as designed.

ADDING THE SIDES

For each side placed, the embroidery stitching will stitch the outline of the side, then you place your fabric piece right sides together towards the center.  The embroidery file will stitch down your fabric side with a single line stitch.  Then you fold back for right side up.  Give it a little press and move on to the next side.

A.  Left side size stiched out.
B.  Left side stitched down with single stitch line.
C.  Left side ironed back for right side to face up.
D.  All four sides completed.
E.  All stitched out and cut from the backing.

FINISHING TOUCHES

For my labels, I like to use both fusible webbing and stitch down the sides.  In order to do both, it's easier for me to put a backing on the label so the sides have something to stitch down.

A.  I add a backing to the label.  To start, I place the backing right sides together to the front side of the label and add a 1/4" seam all around the sides.  When completed, I snip off the corners for easier turning.
B.  Next, carefully lift the backing from the front of the label and snip a slit in it to turn the label right side out.
C.  turn your label right side out and then press flat.  Now you can add your fusible webbing to the back of the label plus stitch down the sides.  If you would like, you can just stitch down the sides.

From here, grab your favorite permanent fabric pen and customize your label!

OTHER OPTIONS

From the label set, there's 14 different additional options to stitch out.  Take a look at some of the others included!

THE BLOG HOP CONTINUES - PLEASE VISIT THE OTHER PARTICIPANTS

Mon., March 18th 

Kelly - I Have A Notion
SewCalGal

Tues, March 19th

Cindy - Sew Cindy
Trish - AllThingsCrafty

Wed., March 20th

Marjorie's Quilting Bee
Margaret - The Average Quilter

Thurs., March 21st

Rebecca Grace - Cheeky Cognoscenti

Fri., March 22nd

Gene Black - Alabama Artist
SewCalGal

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Machine Embroidery Blog Hop this Next Week

 "I Have A Notion" will be hosting a Machine Embroidery Blog Hop which is being sponsored by Anita Goodesign who has some wonderful giveaways during the Blog Hop. Below you will find a list of the bloggers and the dates they will be hosting on the hop.

Come back here on Tuesday  March 19th for my project. 

Mon., March 18th 

Kelly - I Have A Notion
SewCalGal

Tues, March 19th

Cindy - Sew Cindy
Trish - AllThingsCrafty

Wed., March 20th

Marjorie's Quilting Bee
Margaret - The Average Quilter

Thurs., March 21st

Rebecca Grace - Cheeky Cognoscenti

Fri., March 22nd

Gene Black - Alabama Artist
SewCalGal

Thanks for stopping by!
~*~Trish~*~

Spring/Summer 2013 Joann Coupons

In keeping with tradition, I'm a month late buying my Joann's Spring/Summer coupons. I think it's the first warm day from winter drives me outside.  Haven't been to Joann's for months.  I found my favorite Spring/Summer 2013 Fashion Fusion magazine. My shop places it on top of the pattern cabinets. I buy it just for the coupons on the back. You get two 50% off and 4 40% off coupons. Recently, the price of the magazines had been raised to $3.99.  I look forward to finding things not on sale at Joann's to use my coupons.  However, I also use them at Michael's so every bit helps.  These coupons are good only for a short period of time.  They are valid 2/24/13-6/22/13  Happy shopping!

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Frozen Coke Anyone?

Just imagine it, you are all nestled in your bed deep in a sleep.  Something very loud awakens you.  Let me tell you, that is a scary feeling.  Disoriented and confused you don't know what you just heard.  Of course hubby is sound asleep and the dogs didn't move either.  Am I hearing things??  Nah, I heard a LOUD something.  I'm going out to see. 

Walk into the kitchen to see the fridge door open????  What's all over the floor?  Looks like glass, maybe something fell out and shattered.  Come around the other side and peek in the fridge.  What the heck??  Remind you it's about 12:30am so a little groggy.  What the heck is that??  It's everywhere.  Finally, way in the back of the fridge I find the remnants of what used to be a Diet Coke bottle. 

Our fridge has been acting up the last couple of days and freezing things sometimes even though it has been set low.  It turns out that the bottle of Diet Coke must have frozen and then exploded in the fridge.  Exploded with such force that it shattered the bottle and top cap, forced opened the fridge door and redecorated our fridge with frozen coke!

Mangled Diet Coke Bottle

Large amounts of frozen coke on the front door

Look where the label and frozen coke also landed.  It was everywhere.

Let's just say cleaning a fridge at 12:30 am is not fun! However, the blessing is that no one or nothing was hurt and it happened on a weekend.  Moral of the story.. keep an eye on what travels to the back of your fridge and watch out for those exploding frozen cokes!  I should have taken more photos but at least I took a few.

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Hunter's Progress

I continue to work on the foundation pieced Hunter's Star quilt.  As I mentioned in a previous post, my goal is to get two triangle foundations completed per day.  I'm happy with the progress I've made so far.  I've missed a couple of days but not many.  I'm not sure how I'm going to like using the fabric foundations.  They definitely add weight to the block but then again, they seem to help a lot with fabric stretching!  I'm also not sure if I will add all three kits to one quilt.  It is pretty large so far but once I sew all the blocks together, I'm going to lose inches as well.  Time will tell!

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Shopping In My Own Stash

Sometimes when you go on an organization kick, you tend to come across items that you forgot you had.  I found these foundations by the yard foundation packages and was going to place them up for sale on eBay.  I just could not part with them.  They were so neat and they were in my most favorite pattern, the Hunter's Star!

So, I decided I was going to use the items!  Now, what color to make the Hunter's Star quilt.  I wanted to make it Black and Tan and I was lucky enough to find black and tan fabric in my stash! I hope there will be enough. So, here is my next project.  Now, I am taking it slow since I know my work hours have been very long each day.  If I get two blocks completed per day, I will be able to make some progress. 

PICK OUT THE COLORS

CUT THEM APART

THE START OF A HUNTER'S STAR QUILT!

 Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Simple Valentines Mug Rug

When I practice my embroidery applique, I use scrap pieces of fabric with iron on interfacing on them.  In this project, I used a practice piece I did last year when practicing my satin stitch applique on some accuquilt go hearts.  I had one left over that was a basic red medium heart satin stitched in black on a white T-Shirt scrap.  I decided I wanted to use this on my mug rug.  It's number 1 in the image below. 

On #2 I cut the heart out of the T-shirt backing and left a little edge of the white T-Shirt. #3.  I cut fusible web with my accuquilt go hearts as well and ironed the applique to the scrap piece of red fabric.  Make your mug rug whatever size you want.  There are no rules.  I just happened to have a nice size red scrap.  Mine ended up being 7" x 4.5"  #4.  I decided it was pretty plain so I finally used some of my fancy stitches on my sewing machine.  I chose anything heart related and added the words Sweet and Love to the lines as well.  I stitched these to the fabric sandwich with batting and backing.  As you can see, I really messed up with the stitching of the solid center hearts.  On #5, I ripped out 3 hearts and tried again in #6.  Looks OK to me. 

In the last center photo, I added some scrap binding I had.  I always make too much and think, save it, some day I'll use it.  Yeah, I did!  So, if you are looking for a quick project, think maybe a Valentines mug rug and use all those fancy stitches we have on our machines!!


Thanks for stopping by!
~*~Trish~*~

Embroidery Funny - Dirty Little Shamrock

I had to share a funny I recently received.  On one of my previous posts, I created a mug rug for St. Patrick's day with an applique I created.  I stored the multiple versions of embroidery file types on MediaFire so that others could download it when they wanted to.  Recently, I received a notice in my email account that one of the files were removed. 

I guess I am distributing a Shameful Dirty little Shamrock Applique file with an .XXX extension.  LOL...   Sorry Compucon/Singer PSW file users.  I won't be able to supply that version anymore...  

Enjoy your weekend and hopefully this weekend, I'll share my Valentines Basic Mug rug with you.

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Lotta Love for Valentines Day - Encore Post

 As soon as the Christmas decorations came down, I was happy to rehang my LottaLove wall hanging I made with the modified Storm at Sea blocks.  I hope you enjoy this repost!  This wall hanging is AccuQuilt Go template friendly as well.  I cut out all the pieces with my AccuQuilt Go!

***********************************

Pin It The options are endless on this wall hanging.  The wall hanging center finishes at 24 x 24" and the borders add another 2" for a total wall hanging sized around 26" x 26"  The color changes can make it versatile enough for Christmas, Valentines, Weddings, Nurseries, etc.. All that is needed is your creativity.  I've provided links to various sites that publish "Storm at Sea" pattern instructions since this is what this quilt is.  The only difference is the color placement I did.  I'm sure there is someone out there that has done the same but I have not come across any.  This quilt is AccuQuilt Go and Go Baby friendly or can be cut out of fabric using the EQ7 Rotary Cutting Instructions.  Finally, there is an EQ7 Link provided since I created this layout using EQ7.  You can download it from MediaFire below.

COLOR LAYOUT FOR QUILT

It may look complicated but it really is only made up of 3 types of blocks below.  Each of the blocks have the size of AccuQuilt Go die used. 1/2" ST = 1/2" Half Square Finished Triangle Die (Item 55319), 3" ST = 3" Half Square Finished Triangle Die (55009), 3.5" Square = Square 3.5" die (55006), and 3"TIS = 3" Triangles in Square Finished Die (55027)

LINK TO BLOCK ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS
 
**  Please note, the instructions are for a full Storm at Sea Quilt.  But, it shows you how to assemble the 3 blocks above.  You only need to complete the blocks in the full wall hanging image above.  If this is too confusing, please feel free to contact me.

• The pattern is available for free download from the AccuQuilt Site here -->  http://www.accuquilt.com/go-storm-at-sea-pattern-free.html

MY EQ7 PATTERN DOWNLOAD

I use mediafire.com for my downloads.  Below is a link to the EQ7 file.  The file will assist to create the quilt if you need to rotary cut the pieces instead of using your AccuQuilt Go.  Or, you will have your own quilt to try different color choices. 

•  MediaFire EQ7 File Download

MY TIPS

• My 3 borders used were cut at 1" wide white fabric, 1.5" wide pink fabric, and 1" wide red fabric.  The length of the strips is usually around 26" to cover the 24" square center.  However, I like to have mine longer and then I cut off the excess.
• Some of the joined pieces produce a lot of bulk on these quilts.  Next time, I'll iron as I go to try and minimize sewing through bigger bulk
• In some of the areas, 4 Finished 1/2 square triangles come together in the same color.  I would think I should be able to replace these with 2.5" squares instead.
• Next time, I may embroider a design on the 3.5" squares first, then cut them out and add to the quilt.  It would be easier than thinking about adding after the top is assembled.
• Make sure you have enough Triangles in Square pieces cut going in both directions.  I found that I needed to go back to cutting to get more of a certain direction.
• Don't be a perfectionist.  If you have a pucker or bump, leave it in. It only adds character.  I can see about 3 or 4 areas where mine don't match up.
• Most of all, have fun.  Be sure to contact me with any questions and I'll help where I can!

MY FINISHED WALL HANGING TOP

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

In With The New - Welcome 2013

Just wanted to wish all my friends a Happy New Year!

Out with the old and in with the new.  A fresh start.  I'm looking forward to the New Year and wish a blessed New Year to all my blog friends out there!  Every year,  I always think about the same items.  I'd like to craft more, exercise more, eat healthier, and become more organized.  For 2013 these are still on my list!  Just call them classic goals!

Happy New Year Everyone.  Be safe!! 


Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Slow Crafty Christmas

I've decided I'm not going to push any last minute crafty Christmas gifts.  I'm going to sit back and enjoy this holiday season with family and friend.  Besides, since we all survived the Mayan Doomsday, we are all on our new fresh start.

It's been a very slow crafty Christmas around here.  It's been one event after another taking my time and energy away from the crafty scene.  One older car just won't keep it's antifreeze inside the car..  We are on our 3rd trip to the mechanics. A minor cold just won't go away.  Just enough to zap the extra energy needed to be creative.  Finally, the Grinch broke into our dealership's car lot and rode off in our 2012 red car.  Maybe Santa wanted a new ride for the upcoming presents delivery.   Luckily we have the loaner car we received when we took this car in for a service appointment.  We'll be keeping that one over the holidays until we learn about our insurance claim and how much a 2012 car depreciates in value.


 I did get some chocolate covered pretzels done this year.  

Everyone looks forward to these during Christmas!  Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Paper Pieced Wreath Pattern Encore Post

Time flies when you are taking care of things.  Next thing you know, a couple of weeks have gone by, wow.  I've been busy and I have not been sewing for the last couple of weeks.  Hopefully that will change here shortly.  In the meantime, when I was decorating for Christmas this year, of course the paper pieced wreaths came out.  I really like them so I thought I would share my wreath patterns in an encore post.

Encore post from last year.

I'll leave the paper piecing tutorials up to the experts.  Here's a link to a bunch of YouTube instructional videos I found on Paper Piecing.  Here is my recent finished wreath below.  It finishes at 14.5" squared. Each of the 4 blocks finish up 7.5" squared. Keep in mind, wreath and bow colors can change and be customized for any holiday. 

File Downloads

Here are the links to download the pdf patterns to my paper pieced wreaths.  Enjoy!!  The files are stored on a site called Media Fire.  Please be kind and reference my sight if you use the templates.

• Smaller Bow Version
• Larger Bow Version shown above

 My Tips

• To trim the outside of the individual blocks, use your ruler to ensure a 1/4" seam.  The printouts were just a smidgen bigger.

• Don't skimp on your fabric pieces.  It makes it so much easier when you have enough fabric to cover the requirements of each piece.  
• I use basic printer paper.  It's cheap and readily available and super easy to print the pattern out on.
• I leave the paper on until the 4 pieces have been joined together for the full wreath.
• Fold each piece of the paper back on each seam and finger press.  This weakens the paper and it removes more easily
• Don't pull, if the paper doesn't want to come off easily, refold the seam line again,
• Be creative in your decorating.
• If you get stuck, drop me a line and I'll help you where I can

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Winner!

Thank you all for your visit to my post for the Fall Machine embroidery blog hop and all the kind comments!  I learned so much from the other contributors!  My apologies for being a little late with publishing the winner!.  Out of the comments received, comment #31 was pulled from the random generator.  The winner of the Machine Embroidery Design set of their choice at Marjorie's Shoppe was #31 belonging to Katie Q from Katie's Salt Marsh Path.  


Congrats Katie! 
Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Fall Machine Embroidery Blog Hop - Flat Sue and Sam

I'm so excited to be part of the Fall Machine Embroidery Blog Hop.  Sit back and grab a cup of coffee, this is a LONG post.   I love working with digital files and machine embroidery.  I also love doing things the easy way too!  I'm a hobbyist and not a professional and I love creating items to give away or sell for charity.  If I can put less stress and pressure on myself, I'm all in.  The quicker and easier things are, the better.  You are seeing the picture.  That's why I also like the AccuQuilt Go and fabric die cuts. 

When I saw Marjorie's shop at http://shop.b-quilts.com/ and all the beautiful Die Cut and AccuQuilt Go Machine Embroidery Files, I thought it was great find and count me in. When I reviewed all of her files, I was drawn to Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam.  I recently purchase the AccuQuilt Go templates so I was excited to put them to use.  I've just found a new obsession thanks to Marjorie!

For today's blog hop, I'm pulling Sam and Sue off the fabric quilt blocks and creating my Sam and Sue for unconventional uses.  You never know, your children may make them their new Flat Sue and Flat Sam.  No one knows, where they will be photographed next.  I can see future posts on new versions so I've added a new category for Sam and Sue on my blog!  So sit back, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

My Favorite Tips

• If you are going to applique for a quilt block, try and cut the quilt block fabric larger than needed and then you can center the applique after the machine embroidery is completed.  This way, you are guaranteed to be centered!
• Don't be afraid to stop your embroidery machine and change colors mid stream.  Even though a piece may be designed as one color, you can stop and switch colors and then let it continue on.
• Consider making your machine embroidery pieces as free standing appliques and then sew, glue, or iron them on to their destination.
• Unless you are doing contest pieces, just enjoy the process and go with the flow.  If the thread breaks, OK, back up a few stitches and restart. If it keeps breaking... cuss a little and keep going. 
• I love using sticky back tear away stabilizer.  It works well with making applique machine embroidery pieces.  It sometimes has little fuzzies around the edges so sometimes I combine it with water soluble stabilizer.
• If the stabilizer is not sticky back, I'll use the 505 Temporary adhesive spray to help keep the fabric pieces in place.  
• If you have questions on anything, please feel free to email me!

  CUTTING THE PIECES

Don't worry If you don't own the AccuQuilt Go Sunbonnet Sue and Sam,   Marjorie's excellent instructions also come with a printable template for the pieces!  Here are the dies used as well as my Fall fabric choices in the cut pieces.

PREPARING THE EMBROIDERY BACKING

As mentioned above, I like the function and stability of the sticky back stabilizer but I don't like the feathered edges it sometimes produces when you pull it away from an embroidered piece.  So, sometimes I go the extra step to stitch out the template outline on the sticky back stabilizer and then I cut it out in one piece cutting directly on the sewn outline (See Steps A and B below).  I then redo the first step of stitching out the template onto wash away stabilizer.  Where the outlined it stitched on the wash away stabilizer, I then place the sticky stabilizer "cut out" within the lines. (See steps C and D below)  I use some temporary adhesive spray to keep it in place.  Then I add the fabric pieces as instructed. 

STITCHING OUT THE EMBROIDERY FILES

I have to say that Marjorie's files do stitch out beautifully!  I love the variety of options you get in each embroidery file purchased.  For Sunbonnet Sue you receive 7 different designs and with Overall Sam, you receive 5 different stitch combinations.  I place the fabric according to the instructions (See image A below).  The white you see around the edges is the sticky back stabilizer. Next time, I'll cut it a little smaller,  Then I let the design files and decorative stitches take it away from here. (See images B and C below)

FREEING SUE AND SAM

Once the file have stitched out, now comes the fun part.  Even though I used the combination of Sticky Back stiff stabilizer and wash away stabilizer, it's really the wash away stabilizer that's keeping Sue and Sam on the hoops.  Once I take the stabilizer out of the hoop, I just give a little tug and it starts to separate easily from the wash away stabilizer.  If you would prefer, you can follow the instruction for the wash away stabilizer and use water.  Again, quick is good for me.  You can see the freed Sue and Sam below.  Also, a photo for the back of the stitch outs.  You can now see the sticky back stiff stabilizer.  This helps in giving Sue and Sam some structure!

GREAT, NOW WHAT???

OK, from here there's so many things to do with Sue and Sam.  Here are a few of my ideas:

• Obviously, you can applique them onto fabric either using fusible webbing or stitching without having to worry about whether it's centered or not.
• You can glue a stick on the back of them and then cover that with felt or something harder like cardboard to make stick puppets... lol
• You can add business card magnet paper to the full size and make a car magnet.  :-)

I used mine in two different ways.  I added mine to a foam core square covered in batting and a fall embroidery design.  Here's a snapshot of the items used.  If you would like step by step instructions, let me know.  It really was just wrapping the foam core with a couple layers of batting and pinning it in back.  Wrapping that with an embroidered design centered in a lot of excess fabric and pinning to the back and then adding Sue and Sam along with embellishments.
 
 

WRAPPING IT UP

I had so much fun creating the Fall Sam and Sue that I couldn't help but go back to stitch out another set using Marjorie's other layouts for Sue and Sam.  This time however, because of a cantankerous bobbin and temperamental top thread, I had one heck of a time on Sue.  This is exactly what I meant with just relax and most all things will  work themselves out.  Look at the mess I created with the bobbin thread and breaking top thread.  This was totally my machine's fault and nothing to do with the beautiful embroidery files.

 

But, if you use a little creativity, you can fix anything.  Here is the Sunbonnet Sue before the bobbin and top thread fiasco on Sue's decorative dress border and then after.

And after I finished the Sam, I added few magnets to the back of Sunbonnet Sue and Sam and here's the great reminder I have for everyone today!!  Right now they are on my fridge, but they are moving to my filing cabinet at work today!

GIVE AWAY

Are you still here?  Wow, THANK YOU!  As a thank you, Marjorie has agreed to give away one design set of the winners choice from her collection of machine embroidery designs (http://shop.b-quilts.com/)   All you have to do is enter a comment and let me know what you would do with your flat Sue and flat Sam for one entry.  If you would like another entry, please become a friend that follows on the top right.  After you do, please leave another comment that you now follow.  If you are already following, please leave a comment letting me know as well,    I'll pick a winner from all the comments on Friday morning.  Entries on this blog entry can be made until Thursday at midnight EST.    Be sure an visit Marjorie's Shoppe and look at all the options available!  Thanks Marjorie!

WHAT'S NEXT

Here is the rest of the line up for this fun event: 

Wednesday, November 7th

SewCalGal

Thursday, November 8th

I Have A Notion

Friday, November 9th

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio
Cheeky Cognoscenti

Mark your calendars and come join the fun November 5th - 9th.
Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Fun Machine Embroidery Blog Hop Coming This Fall

A Fall Machine Embroidery Blog Hop will be sharing inspiration with an emphasis on Fall, and Christmas ideas too!  They'll also be some tips, tutorials, and giveaways in this fun blog hop.  And, you don't have to do machine embroidery to join the fun in this event.  

Here is the line up for this fun event:

Monday, November 5th

SewCalGal
Marjorie's Quilting Bee

Tuesday, November 6th

Come back here at All Things Crafty

Wednesday, November 7th

SewCalGal

Thursday, November 8th

I Have A Notion

Friday, November 9th

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio
Cheeky Cognoscenti

Mark your calendars and come join the fun November 5th - 9th.
Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~