Machine Embroidery Be Mine Valentine's Day Cup Cozy

 

Dear Friends,
Happy Valentine's Day! I made a sweet cup cozy to help keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold. I stitched the design on pre-quilted red fabric and added the heart print binding.

Fabric came from JoAnns Fabrics. The sweet Be Mine design comes from Michelle at Needle Little Embroidery.

This is so pretty on the table and makes me smile as I drink from my special cup.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone,
Nancy
disclaimer: I received this design for free. The opinions of the designs and Needle Little Embroidery are my own.

The Season of Lent

Dear Friends,
Today is Ash Wednesday. It is an important day on the Christian calendar as it is the beginning of Lent. It is a time of preparation for Easter the highest of Holy Days. It is a time of repentance and prayer. Many people use this season to give up something as a sacrifice and to offer that sacrifice up to God. I teach religion, this year to first graders, and I speak to them about Lent and having a Lenten resolution. Those children can come up with some thoughtful answers. "I'm going to share my toys every day." "I'm going to help my mother every day with chores." "I'm going to pray every day." Some I'm sure have heard their parents speak about what they are doing for lent and will say, "I'm not going to watch TV," "I'm not going to eat candy," and so on. I really stress to them, and to my own children that this is a time not just of sacrifice, but a time to keep Christ first and foremost in our thoughts and in our actions. It is a time to work on becoming closer to Christ and becoming a better person.

I've given quite a bit of thought this past week as to what my Lenten resolution would be this year. For myself I've decided to truly be obedient to my husband and to put him first above myself. It is easy to say, "sure Honey I'll get to that," and it gets pushed to the bottom of the pile or is the task completed at the end of the day. I have decided that when he asks me to do something I will put it first, if at all possible, and do it right away or at least at my first opportunity. I will also do it with a glad attitude and happy heart. So when he asks me to help him with the taxes, ugh that's going to be the tough one for me, I'll smile and say "sure". It will be hard to have a happy heart for that task.

One thing I must confess is so far this year he hasn't asked me what my Lenten resolution will be and I haven't volunteered it either ;-) Not that he'd take advantage of my kind gestures, but I can see the potential where he might think he could have some fun with this. As long as none of you blab to him about my resolution I'll be in good shape. He doesn't read my blog unless I have something specific to show him so no worries about writing it here. Now if he asks me what I'm doing for Lent I will tell him, but otherwise I'm keeping my lip zipped.

My desire through this resolution this year is that I want to become a more Godly woman and I want my God light to shine.  And you remember SHINE is my word of the year.

Have you made a Lenten resolution? I'd love to hear what you chose this year.

with Love and God's Blessings,

Nancy
ps.  One of my favorite authors Ann Voskamp over at A Holy Experience has a beautiful Christian article about Why Doing Lent this Year is What You Really Need.  Along with that she has a free Lent and Easter devotional.

Machine Embroidery Valentine's Day T-Shirts

Good Morning Friends!

The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day but it it is COLD!  I hope the weather is decent where you are.

 

Valentine's Day is approaching quickly.  I chose this design to stitch for my girls on t-shirts to give to them along with a little chocolate.

 

The design is from Designs By Sick.  I used mylar behind the hearts for that extra Valentine sparkle.  The t-shirts were only $3.96 from Walmart.  They are full length t-shirts.  I just have them folded up in the picture.  I want my sweet girls to know that I will ALWAYS love them 4 ever!

Hugs and Blessings to you dear readers.  Just you being here and reading is a Valentine's day gift from you to me.
Nancy

Machine Embriodery - Pull Compensation

Dear Friends,

 

I have finished Lesson One of Generations Digitizing Machine Embroidery Workshop.  Let me tell you, Wow do I ever have a lot to learn!  I went through the workshop 3 times!  From time to time, I'd like to share bits and pieces with you of what I learned.  I hope you find this as interesting as I do.

The star sugar cookie you see here is the homework project for this lesson.  It was a less than perfect design to begin with.  Is there such a thing as a perfect design?  Anyway, we were given specific instructions on how to make improvement to the design and it covered quite a number of topics but what I want to speak specifically about is pull compensation.

 

As a design is stitched, and as the needle pierces the fabric thousands of times, that piercing of fabric causes a stretching or pulling of the fabric.  This is particularly the case with filled designs such as this one.  Take note in the above two pictures.  On the computer screen, the design looked perfect.  It looked as though the dark tan and light tan in the cookie would perfectly meet up with one another.  Not so when the design is stitched out.  I have paid good money for designs in which the pull compensation was not adjusted for and it had gaps such as this. Those were frustrating experiences.

 

Now, I don't have experience with other brands of digitizing software and my experience with Generations software is minimal at best, but I am guessing that all forms of software have an ability to adjust for the pull compensation.

 

 

Take a look at the picture above where I have made the adjustment and restitched out the design.  It meets up perfectly.  Thankfully I had instructions to help me with this.  I think though that adjusting for the pull compensation is something that comes with good ol' practice.

See here in this photo just how nicely the dark and light tans meet up.  That is the way it is supposed to look.

Did you understand pull compensation before you learned to digitize?  It was certainly new to me.

Happy stitching,
Blessings~Nancy

Machine Embroidery On Soap? Oh Yes You Can!

 

This is soap!  It really is!  What a fun, novel gift to give someone. 

But how did you do that Nancy?  I'm so glad you asked.  Look closely at the picture below for the secret ingredient.

Tulle!  This fine mesh netting is the perfect medium to stitch the design on.  You can see, it is almost clear!

Start by hooping water soluble stabilizer and tulle together.  Choose a design created with a running stitch.  The butterfly above is from Anita Goodesign.  I used variegated thread.  When the design finishes stitching out, cut closely to the design to cut away most of the tulle and water-soluble stabilizer.  Then rinse out the stabilizer and the design remains on the tulle.  A solid filled design or a design with satin stitching will not work well for this as it will get lost in the holes of the tulle.

Carefully lay the design on the soap.  Wet a washcloth or paper towel and lay on the design.  This will soften the soap.  Lightly press the design into the soap.  Note:  Choose a soap that doesn't have an embedded print on it.  Many national brand soaps such as Ivory have their name stamped into the soap.  You want a flat soap surface.  This one happens to be a bar of Jergens.  It does have Jergens stamped on the other side of the soap.  I'm using the back side of it to place the embroidery.

 Another note:  The soap is for decorative purposes only.  It is not meant to be used or, of course, the stitching will wash off.

This design comes from Anita Goodesign's cd A Quilt for All Seasons - Spring

 

Embroidery blessings to you all,

Nancy

 

In the Hoop Machine Embroidery Decorative Clothespins

Hi Friends,

I am so ready for spring.  I mean, I'm seriously ready for green grass, flowers and warmer weather.  I had a lot of fun making these in-the-hoop machine embroidery decorative clothespin cozies from Embroidery Library.

The directions are simple to follow. I hooped heavy weight stabilizer and floated felt on top. At the final stitch out, the hoop is removed from the embroidery machine (but don't unhoop the stabilizer) and a second piece of felt is placed on the bottom side of the hoop. How do you get the felt to stay on the bottom side of the hoop you ask?

I have an ingenious product at my embroidery machine.  It is called blue painters tape!  Just put a little piece of tape on each corner of the felt, out of the way of the stitching, and it holds it in place perfectly.

Finally, insert a clothespin and glue a magnet to the clothespin and it is good to go.

Keeps my recipes handy on the side of my refrigerator.  Makes me smile as I think of spring.  BTW...Tulips are my all time favorite flower.

Blessings and happy embroidering,
Love,
Nancy

Machine Embroidery on Jeans

 

Hi Friends,

Today I have another one of Michelle's designs from Needle Little Embroidery.  I had been wanting to put some bling on my jeans so this design seemed just right. 

I can't believe I posted a picture of my backside! 

For this design I used silver metallic thread.  Now when stitching on jeans you can stitch directly as I did, or you could remove the pocket and stitch the design on the pocket and re-sew the pocket back to the jeans.  I didn't mind not having a back pocket so I just stitched it through the pocket and jeans together.

My next question was what type of needle should I use?  A heavy jeans needle, a metallic thread needle, or a heavier embroidery needle?  I knew there were going to be places where the needle would have to penetrate through three layers of denim as well as the stabilizer.  I decided that the heavy fabric trumps thread and stitching so I went with the jeans needle.  I set my machine on the slowest embroidery speed and I used a medium to heavy weight cut-away stabilizer.

I turned my $12 pair of jeans into a $60 pair of jeans!

Be sure to stop over at Needle Little Embroidery http://www.needlelittleembroidery.com/ and this specific design is "Heart of Elegance".

Blessings and Happy Embroidering!

Nancy

ADDED:  Please note this blog has been moved to my website.  www.embroideryit.com  Where you will find ideas and inspiration for machine embroidery.

disclaimer: I received this design for free. The opinions of the designs and Needle Little Embroidery are my own.

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