This Week-End Was SEW Productive!

This week-end I started AND completed 2 small sewing projects.

My friend Carole invited me and a few other machine embroidery friends over to her house for a sewing day this past Friday. Sometimes we have a common project, other times it is just bring your machine and something to work on.

Since this was the first time she was able to open her sewing room for a sewing day this year, we each brought our own project.
I started an In the Hoop project called “Tree-Mendous” . I finished it later that same day at home.

It consists of 11 design files, each stitched onto water soluable stabilizer and each previously stitched part is joined to the currently stitched part.

I was going to make this in white, but the blue was on sale for 50% off plus I had a coupon for an additional 20% off. This is an ombre blue satin fabric. I used the darker blue at the trunk and graduated to the lighter blue on the way up to the top of the tree, then back to the darker blue for the star.

There were 2 spots that I trimmed a little too close and got some raveling.

In order to save this project, I just used a wider zig-zag stitch to  re-stitch and enclose the raveled edge.

These minor repairs are fairly obvious in the completely stitched tree, but they will be hidden by bows that I will be adding later. (I will wait until closer to Christmas to add them so that they don’t get smashed in the mean time.)
I will also be adding some hot fix crystals to embellish it a bit further.

My second project was my AAQI Monthly Challenge mini quilt.
This month’s challenges were:
Theme Challenge
Primary Colors

Color/Fabric Challenge
Primary Colors

Design/Technique Challenge
Ruching

I cut die shapes from solid fabrics in primary and secondary colors and arranged them in a fun pattern onto a white background. The shapes were fused and then just straight stitched near the edge. A small stipple stitch quilted the white area and a button was added to the center.
I wanted a bright color for the binding and I think the orange was a fun choice.

Fast Finish Triangles were added to the corners on the back side for hanging. Since they are in all four corners, this can be hung in any direction.

I usually take forever to finish a project. This one was designed, prepared, assembled, finished and registered in just one day!
Two projects started and completed in two days. Now to clean up my sewing room and look forward to next week-end, which happens to be April’s Friday Night Sew In.

You are welcome to sign up and join in.

Christmas Sweat Shirts!

I had a productive evening participating in the first of 2 Friday Night Sew Ins for December. I needed some Holiday Sweatshirts, and now I have 3 new ones.

This is the first one that I worked on. I stitched the Merry Christmas Sleigh in Filigree design from Embroidery Library using red and metallic gold threads. I used a coordinating fabric for binding the sleeves, neckline and lower edge of the shirt. In the future, I would leave the lower band in place, the fit is just better with the ribbing than with the fabric trim.
I could not find a women’s sweatshirt in black at Walmart, so I tried one from the men’s department. The fit in the arms is WAY too huge.

This is the second sweatshirt. I stitched the Damask Santa Sleigh, also from Embroidery Library, on a white sweatshirt using a pretty Christmas Red thread.
I marked my placement lines with a yellow Chaco Liner, the fabric marker with the wheel, and was surprised to find that I could not remove the marks after I stitched my design (they do not show up in the photo, but are obvious on the shirt). Due to this, I decided not to embellish this shirt any further.

This is the third, and probably my favorite, of the three. I stitched the Very Merry Flamingo Christmas design, again from Embroidery Library, on a grey sweatshirt. I also removed the sleeve and neckline ribbing and replaced it with a pretty pink fabric that coordinates with the colors in the embroidered design.
Like the first one, I also removed the lower band of ribbing, but did not like the way the shirt hung, so I put it back on. In the future, I will be leaving this lower band of ribbing in place.  This shirt was inspired by another that I saw recently in Embroidery Library’s Facebook photos.

There is another Friday Night Sew In next Friday night, you are welcome to sign up and join in on the stitching.

Friday Night Sew In and an Embroidery Bash Update

I just signed up for FNSI, which is this coming Friday. I was #107 on the sign up list. You are welcome to sign up and join us.

I should NOT be at a loss for ideas of what to sew for this FNSI!
In the past month, I have been on a quilt shop hop where I purchased some cool new tools, I have stocked up on several pretty bright colors of fabrics and a few prints AND I just spent the week end at the Stitching Sisters Embroidery Bash.   I am in the process of making a new tote bag/purse for myself using the instructions in a book I bought while there.  Look for photos of it when it is finished.

I also got pictures of myself with both Eileen and Marie that I used to enter the Everybody Smiles with Designs in Machine Embroidery Contest!

Is it Friday yet?

Going to the Stitching Sisters Embroidery Bash this Week End

My friends and I are attending the Stitching Sisters 2 day Embroidery Bash here in Phoenix this coming week end. 

We each embroidered similar t-shirts to wear to the event. This is the one that I will wear for the first day.

My friend,Carole, used her embroidery software to design the “Stitching Sisters” font and I combined a design I purchased from emblibrary.com . I did have to tweak it all a bit to fit into my hoop.
I will wear the other one that I blogged about previously for the second day.

I am looking forward to spending a couple of days with my friends learning some new embroidery techniques. 

I will also try to make a small tote bag to take along, but time is getting short so I may not get one done in time.

Valley of the Sun Shop Hop 2011 ~ A T-Shirt Makeover

I am not a quilter, although I have made a couple of very simple rag quilts and a couple of machine embroidered wall quilts. I love anything that involves fabric and a sewing machine. Just as much as that, I love being in a store that sells fabric, supplies, patterns, books, etc.

A few of my sewing buddies and I are spending the day tomorrow shop hopping for the Valley of the Sun Shop Hop. There are 12 local Phoenix area quilt shops participating. Registration was $5 and included a charm and a passport that is stamped as each store is visited. If all 12 shops stamp the passport, it is entered into a drawing for a Bernina 350 PE. There will also be winners of $100 gift certificates.

My friends and I decided it would be fun to make matching shirts to wear on our outing. We decided on the inexpensive craft shirts that you can get for about $3 each at Joann’s and Wal-Mart, we chose the lime green.

We embroidered “Quilt Shop Hopper” and a quilter’s heart/feather design in purple thread.

Because I used the wrong bobbin in my machine during my first attempt at the embroidery, I caused a thread nest which needed to be cut and caused a hole in the shirt.

After fixing my goof and re-hooping the shirt, I used a heart design that I digitized to cover the hole.

After the embroidery was done, I did some alterations to the shirt.

I started by folding over the neckline edge to make it more narrow and stitching it with a long wide zig-zag stitch.

I also folded up the sleeves with a double fold and used the same zig-zag to stitch the fold in place.

I re-shaped the shirt’s hem edge and used a strip of steam a seam to fold up the new hem before using the zig-zag again to stitch it in place.

(The spots are water spots from steaming the hem. I didn’t wait for them to dry before taking the photo.)

Now I am ready for the fun to begin!

June 2011 FNSI is Tonight

As I was sitting here this morning kind of planning out my day, I suddenly remembered that today is Friday.   Not just any Friday, but the Friday that I KNOW I will be sewing because I am signed up for the Friday Night Sew In!

I have a ton of things that I would like to sew and I am thinking if I list them here, I may actually make them at some point in time.

I am hoping to make one or more of the following tonight:

~Seat Belt Wrapper (to keep the seat belt from digging into my neck while driving)

~An embroidered pillow for my Mom (made from fabric left over from a round table cloth I just made for her)

~Embroidered Hand Towels for the Hall Bathroom

~A New Summer Top for Me

~A New Purse

~Butterfly Potholder from Pretty Little Potholders book

~Fabric Tray for storing small items on desk or dresser

~Fabric Storage Bins using this tutorial

~A cute, simple, Fabric Bowl that I just saw on Martha’s Sewing Room

~Covered Hanger with hidden storage

~A Recycled Denim Apron that I saw at the Bernina Area inside Joann’s last week

 

This is a pretty enthusiastic list and I know I will be lucky to finish just one of the items listed so check back tomorrow to see what I did get finished.  I may just keep and edit this list so that when I get time to sew, I can just check the list and get busy sewing.

Click the button above to sign up and sew along with us tonight.

I Participated, But Just Barely

I got a good start on getting my sewing room set up yesterday, which didn’t leave much energy for sewing. If I had not committed to sewing by signing up for FNSI, I would not have sewn at all. Thankfully, I did sign up and even though it is only a small project, I DID SEW!
I have tons of sewing related embroidery designs, so I decided to make myself a new pin cushion to celebrate the new room.
By time next months FNSI rolls around, I plan to be pretty well settled into my new space and have a plan and be prepared for an actual sewing project.

Snow Fun

 

I wanted a new Christmas top, but didn’t want something I would see on someone else, so I embroidered my own.
The shirt is a long sleeve v-neck t-shirt that was on sale at Kohl’s. The design is one I slightly edited from AnitaGoodesign‘s Snow Fun. I stabilized the shirt with Floriani’s No Show Cut Away stabilizer which was adhered to the inside of the shirt with spray adhesive before hooping both the shirt and stabilizer together. The snowman and the trees are applique. I am very happy with how the design stitched out.
I finished just in time to wear it with a pair of jeans to our office’s “girls party” to celebrate Christmas.