Joyce’s Mini Sewing Retreat

Just finished a sewing retreat at Joyce’s Sewing Shop in London. She planned a 2 1/2 day event – Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It was lots of fun. I did a trunk show of my Sew Creative projects on Thursday. She sold embroidery club projects!

I taught 3 classes; 4D Embroidery Plus, a Cutwork Table Topper:

And one of my favorite projects, this fabulous Shoe bag.

And hurray, hurray everyone finished their projects! It’s is such a good feeling when students can actually finish their projects in class. Thanks Joyce, Kelly, Betty and Sue!

Brushing Up

The April embroidery club project and designs are up and ready for download, click here to get to the download page. It’s a Cosmetic Brush Rollup. And, it makes a great gift for your favorite girl.
We used four different fabrics in this project; two prints and two solids. Sounds like a lot for a small project, but they work beautifully. I especially love the dot binding. You can’t buy funky binding like this, you have to make it. If you too would like to make your own bias binding click here to download the tutorial.
Patricia from Life’s A Stitch in Sault Ste. Marie, (my proof reader) wasn’t happy with the topstitching of the brush channels showing through to the right side, so she topstitched the pocket onto the lining and then stitched the lining onto the outer fabric.
 
Anyway, have fun with this one. Let me know what you think??

Cross Stitched Linen bread bags for March

 

The March embroidery club project and designs are up and ready for download, click here to get to the download page. The project is a pretty bread bag embellished with cross stitch embroidery and a “vintage look” lace edging.

Every Easter my mom makes beautiful braided egg bread. This is a tradition for us that goes back for generations. While the bread is still warm, she carefully wraps each loaf in a linen tea towel to keep the crust from ruining. And then the best part, she gives us a loaf. It's golden yellow, fluffy and lightly sweet, in one word it's yummy. So yummy in fact that it inspired this pretty bread bag. This year I plan to give her a few of these so that she can give them away with her beautiful bread.

Now it occurred to me that not everyone makes their own bread, so by all means go ahead and buy the bread to store in your bread bag. Actually the bread bag is a great way to store any bread, especially if you don't like the idea of stuffing it directly into a plastic bag. If your bread lasts more than a day or so, you may have to put it into some kind of plastic, but it is better wrapped in fabric first. And, be sure to wash the fabric bags after each use; mold spores remain and can cause a new loaf of bread to spoil sooner.

I’ve been told to never store bread in the refrigerator. Apparently the temperature is just right for the starch to gelatinize - eeew. Bread keeps well in the freezer though. I know I do it all the time. Just be sure to freeze while it is still fresh. Cause if you freeze stale bread, when it thaws you get stale bread, of course.

When I imagined embroidery for my bread bag, cross stitch immediately came to mind. It seemed the perfect touch for a vintage project idea. I think it turned out beautifully. There are actually two different borders included with the projects, even though I did not get a picture of the second border.

This is a fairly simple project and the instructions are straight forward. The one thing that I will remind is to prewash your linen. I made the mistake of not washing my striped beige linen, so when I washed out the stabilizer, you guessed it the fabric shrunk. Won’t make that mistake again. By the way the lace is not in the hoop. It’s made by stitching several rows of a seam overcast stitch onto wash away stabilizer. It’s a technique that’s been around for a while, you will love it for this project. Have fun!

On the fly

Hello everyone, hope you are enjoying this month’s embroidery club project. Well I am off for a short vacation to St. Lucia. We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon. And, yes I am all packed. Well except for a few sticky notes with things to pack at the last minute.

Do you recognize this bag??

You should. It’s the Appliquéd Messenger Bag, without the appliqué. Kind-a hard to tell, but I have also added a zipper to the top, instead of the magnetic snap. Nice addition, I have to say. Love the extra security of a zipper. The best part is the weight, or lack there of. It’s made of nylon and it is super light. Fabric handbags are always lighter than leather ones, but nylon rocks. So amazing for shopping. I was so inspired that I purchased more nylon. Now I can hardly wait to come back from vacation to make another one. OK, I didn’t believe that either. I can wait, but I am really excited about the nylon bag. Anyway, that’s it for now. Talk to you after St. Lucia.

This Messenger Rocks

The December embroidery club project and designs are up and ready for download, click here to get to the download page. The idea for this slim messenger bag came to me last winter. While my husband and I were travelling to our fave sun spot in Mexico, it occurred to me that a messenger bag would be sooo much easier to travel with, than my bulky tote. And so this lovely appliquéd bag was born. Notice I used a print for the appliqué, how fun is that? Because the appliqué shape is quite simple, the print fabric makes it really pop. Oh, and I used the same print on the inside of the bag.

Look, it includes a zippered pocket, plus a credit card pocket to keep all your stuff completely organized. And those of you who know me, know that I have a bit of an obsessive compulsive disorder. Anyhoo, love this bag. Have been using it since I made it. Only thing I missed on my sample is extra stabilizer underneath the magnetic snap. Don’t know what I mean? Don’t worry, here is an easy “how to”.

The other thing I love about this bag is the way the base is done. No, stop, I’ve said too much, don’t want to spoil the sewing surprise. Have fun making it.

More White Poinsettias

Oooooh, all white from Brampton Sew N Serge. Love the jingle bells on the ties! Thanks John.

All Rolled Up

The July Embroidery Club project and designs are up and ready for download. I loved the final project, but I will warn you it was a bit tricky. There are lots of bits and pieces. Keeping track of them was the challenge. So take your time making this little gem.



The inside has two zippered pockets, a ring bar and a bracelet bar. I like the plastic canvas to hold earrings; be sure to choose a finer canvas.

Patricia made a little change to her Jewelry Roll, "instead of ribbon I used my 1-inch bias binder maker and my pansy fabric to make a quarter inch wide strip and top stitched it on both sides. This jewelry roll will get a lot of use and I wasn't sure how the ribbon would hold up. The ribbon would be easier and quicker. I really like the monogram design option and may have to make a sample of that before my next class. What a nice gift that would make for a special family member or friend!!"

Laundry Daze

The May Embroidery Club project and designs are up and ready for download. This month we are making a handy dandy Clothespin Bag. Line drying your laundry not only saves energy, you also get the added bonus of spring fresh linens and clothes. The Clothespin Bag hangs on the clothesline, keeping clothespins at hand. A word of advice, don't forget to bring it in after your laundry is done. The sun and rain can really ruin the fabric and embroidery.



I usually spend an inordinate amount of time deciding, designing and digitizing the embroidery designs for each month's project. This month was no exception. At first I thought about using an image of a clothesline with various clothing hanging on it. Makes sense right? It's the obvious desing idea. Well, I eventually dismissed this idea, because I couldn't think of any other place one would use the design. Sure, on other laundry items, but that's it. It's important to me that the embroidery design not only fits the project, but can also be used in many other ways and places. These chrysanthemum designs can be configured in may other ways and used on a wide variety of items. You can use to embellish bed linens, table linens, clothing, decorator pillows, kitchen stuff, and lots more. Want to see some design combination ideas?? Click here.

Appliquéd Wallet

The April Embroidery Club project and designs are up and ready for download. This month it's a fabulous wallet with an elegant floral appliqué embroidery. This embroidery appliqué is a bit different than you are used to. You'll have to make the project to see what I mean. Now, I know I say this practically every month, but I loved making this project. It's pretty, practical and looks sooo professional. My proof reader, Patricia said, "As I work through this project I am amazed by the thought and planning that went into the instructions! Very detailed and easy to follow." Yes, that's what I like to hear. Hope everyone else finds it easy to follow. 



On the inside, there are 6 slots for credit cards. A zippered pocket for change and a couple of pockets for paper money and other documents. You'll notice that I stitched on a label. Everything looks so store bought with a simple little lable. I included the instructions for the labels in the February project.

NEW this month, a Supplies List. This is a word document that includes a picture of the project, the write up and the supplies list. You can use this to email to your Embroidery Club members. There is a download link and instructions in the left column on the Embroidery Club page. You'll have to let me know how this works for you.

My first entry

It occured to me that it might be helpful for all, to have a place on my site where retailers and consumers can leave comments, tips and ideas about the current or previous embroidery club projects and designs. Over the last couple of years I've received lots of corrections and tips from many of you. I have especially appreciated Patricia's input (Patricia is from Sault Ste Marie), so much so that she is my official tester. She gets the project a couple of weeks earlier. She helps me to get the instructions correct and lets me know if the designs stitch out properly. She also suggests other presser feet and notions that would work with certain techniques. Since I can't insert these types of suggestions into the directions without rewriting from scratch. I though that I can share these tips through a blog. Plus all of you can add your own comments, tips and ideas. So here goes, my very first blog entry - eeeeek!

I put a great deal of though into each and every project and design that I create. In fact some days, weeks and months I drive myself crazy making sure that the project and design fit together. The projects themselves have to be timely, relevant and useful. And, the designs must coordinate with the projects. I hate the idea of simply slapping a design, any design, onto a project. defintely not my idea of creative. I am hopeful that each month I will be able to share some of my though process in creating that month's project. I work on projects a few months in advance. So I won't be able to add any great insights into the next couple of projects. Right now I am working on the February project. I will try to keep track with this one.

I just made the October Embroidery Club project live to retailers. Here's what Patricia said:

"My bag is finished and I really like it. I used a dark green commander fabric and a light beige fabric for the designs. The new, smaller "Go Green or Go Home" worked really well. The only things I did differently: I used the Left Edge Topstitch foot instead of stitching 7/8" from the edge for the top hem and I also used the Edge/Joining foot for the 1/8" topstitching on the hem and no pinning with either foot! Beautiful!! I have not done the Magnetic Notepad Holder yet. Great project!"