February Funny - Flunked Feathers

As much as I tried, I could not produce a decent feather sample for the February lesson in SewCalGal's FreeMotion Quilt Challenge:




But, I did try to accomplish Diane Gaudynski's Feathers.  I don't think I was very successful at all.  I would say I'm a preschooler in the school of feathers.  I think mine look like alien fingers.  My problem is that I can not create a feather starting at the bottom and sewing up.  As much as I try, my brain can't connect to the hands to make them smoothly sew them out.  Here's the results.  Too Funny but really original.

I promised myself I would continue to try the feathers.  I may need to adapt the instructions to my OCD way of having to start at the top of a feather and wrap to the bottom.  But, I did complete the February challenge on the last day of the month!  Happy Leap Day and now you can feel great about yourself by saying... damn... my feathers are better than that.  My kid can do better than that!  Again, Happy Leap Day!

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

AccuQuilt Hearts to Clover Tea Towel

I decided to use my hearts die for a four leaf clover design.  I cut out the hearts using my Go Baby and then the stem is from another die.  I also cut matching forms of steam a seam 2 fusible web.  I fused the applique down and then added two fabric ruffles at the bottom of the tea towel.  I've had these flower sack tea towels for a long time and I've been itching to use them. 

To finish it off, I added a two layers of matching fabric ruffles to the bottom of the towel.  I then added a  folded piece of fabric to the top of the top ruffle to hide the gathers.  I think it's missing a little bit of something but I'm happy to have some more of the Irish in the house for the upcoming St. Patrick's day!

Let me know if you are interested in step by step instructions.
Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Kiss Me, I'm Irish Embroidery File

 

 I completed a few more prototypes for my embroidery file that I used for my mug rug instructions.   I finally gave up on the lip liner for my embroidered lips.  I just could not get it on straight.  However, I did get the letters to stitch out sooo much better.  My second try, they stitched out so well, it took an hour to stitch out the design.  LOL

So, here is the 3rd stitch out.  Only took 30 minutes.  I only tested it out on the .jef file format.  I have included several different file types in the .zip file available for download.  They are:  dst, exp, hus, jef, pcs, pes, shv, vip, vp3, and xxx.  It did not save to the .sew format since it said it was outside the hoop size.  Also, please keep in mind that I have not tested all the other different formats so, I would test it out first.

I use MediaFire for my downloads.  Here is a link to download the zip file that includes all the embroidery formats and the layout pdf.

• Download the Embroidery File Here

Please let me know how you make out with the file.  It's nice size for a mug rug.   The final file fished at 4.45 in length and 4 inches in height.  It would probably look great on a child's shirt or even on a hand towel too!

Enjoy!!

** CLOSED ** GIVEAWAY FOR THE BLOG HOP

If you don't have an embroidery machine and would like your own mug rug, Enter a comment below to be entered for your own Kiss Me I'm Irish Mug Rug.  Make sure your email is accessible on your profile to notify the winner.  Valid until March 23rd for the Blog Hop Give Away!   There will be two names drawn.

SEE THE WINNERS HERE

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~

Irish Mug Rug Prototype Completed

I embroidered my digital design today and created a Mug Rug for my coffee.  The size of the embroidery file was 5" wide by 4" tall.  I ended up making the size of the mug rug to be 6" wide by 5" tall.  At first I thought the size would be too big, but now I love it.  I don't have to be soo careful with my cup of coffee to make sure it is on the rug.


I will share the file sometime later this weekend but wanted to try another prototype to fix some issues I came across.   I also decided to remove the green outline to the lips.  I changed it back to red.

I started with the threads and background fabric.  I decided to make my mug rug black to hide all the coffee stains that will probably come in the future.  You see, this is what my area next to my laptop usually looks like after a morning of 3+ cups of coffee.

Once I had the black scrap of fabric, I found the perfect shades of Kelly Green and Red thread to go with the design file.  I never use the thread colors in the file.  I manually find the shades I want and then assign them to the areas of the design on my embroidery machine.  I used a sticky back stabilizer and just pressed the black fabric scrap on it.  I made the black fabric large enough to be cut back to my chosen size once the design is stitched.

The embroidery file was stitched out and I saw some minor issues.  One of the issues made me chuckle.  It seems my lip liner was on crooked.  It was way to high.  Don't we always put our lip liner on crooked?  That's why I don't wear it.  Also, the font stitch out was not the cleanest.  But, I'm OK with that as well.  I snipped several areas of stray threads.  I'm saying this because I want you to know the stitch out is not super professional.  I'm not a full time digitizer.

 Once the embroidery file was stitched, I cut the fabric to size and created the standard quilt sandwich.  I then machine stitched on some premade moda binding with the sewing machine all around.  It was not perfect but I made it work.  I didn't want to have to sew the binding by hand on the back.

And now, my morning coffee will look like this!  Hey, does that say I'm Irish or I'm Trish :-)  I want to stitch out the file again after a few tweeks and then I should have the file available by the end of the weekend for download.

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

Mug Rug Pursuit

While I'm busy slowly sewing my strip quilt blocks.  I needed to start another project.  What can I say, nothing keeps my attention for long :-)  So, I decided I'm going to make a Mug Rug.  My goal is to make a design I can use for the end of February and beginning of March so It's going to be a green mug rug.  You never know, I might make this a series. 

I'm going to try two different designs.  One will be a shamrock and the other will have embroidery on it.  I'm in the design / development phase right now so come back and see the results tomorrow or Saturday.  Here's the embroidery file I created.  I'll have it available for free download as well.

Thanks for stopping by!  
~*~Trish~*~