Framed!

The January Embroidery Club Project is up! Early, I might add. You can download it anytime. This is truly one of my favorite embroidery projects - it's framed embroideries. It's easy peasy. But, after the holidays, I think you need easy. Of course any embroidery design can be framed. But my faves are the pottery and the geometric shapes. They can be stitched in any color to suit your home's decor. The geometrics look amazing in black and white. I can see a series of these along a wall. It would look every bit as good as any painting or print. Be sure to show your club members other embroidery design collections that would look good framed. Stitch out some samples for the club demo. By the way, the frames are from IKEA. Sooo well priced, you can buy several to show.

This month we've also included a software class. Just download and teach - it's really simple, even for beginners. For your club members with kids or grandkids, these simple applique shapes are perfect for framing. Use some fun fabric prints for these, don't make them realistic. If you want to create your own designs, look in children's coloring books for simple shapes like our elephant and piglet. Then, follow our basic instructions to create your own appliques.

Calendar Days

December's embroidery club project is up! You can download it anytime. This month's project may appear daunting at first, but it's really lots of fun to make. It includes a variety of different techniques, patchwork, quilting, embroidery, covering buttons, binding, etc. The embroidery is pretty simple, but there is lots of it. Having two sewing machines was a real time saver - I recommend it highly. While I was embroidering on one, I was quilting on the other. Twice the work, half the time.

 These mini motifs are cute as a button!

Covering buttons is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Remember, you'll need lots and lots of buttons for covering - so order quick. Patricia (Sault Ste Marie), suggested that she might stitch the days of the week on one fabric strip, instead of using the covered buttons. Good idea if you can't get enough buttons for your class. There will be a run on them!

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming

It's Thanksgiving today and I am writing about Christmas projects. Yikes, it gets confusing working ahead like this. It's such a beautiful day today, I wanted to play hookie (hooky?). But, the website needs updating and so here I am at my computer. The November embroidery club project is already up, go ahead and download it.

I loved working on these designs and projects. Each project is it's own separate little entity. It includes a unique sewing or embroidery technique and can be a separate presentation or class. You can easily turn this month's projects into three separate quickie classes, trivet cover, embellished tea towels, and gift box ornaments. How about a "12 days of Christmas" promotion with a new quick class each day?? Just a thought.

Patricia, my embroidery club tester, said she had a little trouble with the Elastic Guide foot/ Elastic Foot with IDT. Previously, I too had trouble with this foot. It just didn't work for me, until this trivit project. What's the secret? I played with the settings and, I practiced a bit. It absolutely worked perfectly for me with this project, so I urge you to give it a try.

I had a devil of a time finding the right tea towels. First I looked for solid colors. Since I planned to embroider the towels, it seemed natural to look for solids. After all, I didn't want the embroidery to have to compete with the background fabric. However, at that time, it was next to impossible to find a solid color that coordinated with my trivet cover. So I looked at the prints and stripes, and I discovered that they work very well. For the appliqued towel you can use almost any small print, because the applique is stitched on a solid fabric. You have to be a little more careful with the with the row of holly embroidery. I found that a light stripe or plaid works very well. And of course I love the pom pom trim. It's so "vintage".

Anyway, hope you have fun making these holiday projects. Let me know how they turn out!

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!"