Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!



The embroidered egg is from the February 2008 Sew Creative Embroidery club project. Don’t have it? Ask your retailer.

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!

Christmas Gift Ideas

Every Christmas I try to make some small item for friends and family – mostly for my nieces. Last year I was quite ambitious, I made cosmetic bags/pencil cases for my little nieces. You’ll notice the embroidery design is from July’s Embroidery club project the Jewelry Roll.

Plus, garment dust covers for my older nieces and my sister. They are monogrammed – a big hit.

Plus a pretty wallet and tissue holder for my sister. I used the cotton print for the wallet lining and the tissue holder top; and the linen solid for the outer wallet and tissue holder back.


Actually the wallet and tissue holder were for my sister’s birthday, but it is so close to Christmas that I consider it part of the Christmas sewing projects. These are all such quick and easy projects that you can literally make them at the last minute. Now, what to make this year, hmmmmmm.

Countdown to Christmas – Stockings for the Kiddies

My little great niece and nephew will love their new Christmas stockings. My niece Erica asked me to embroider a princess on Alexa’s stocking and trucks on Christopher’s stocking. There is definitely a theme here.
 
I wonder if Alexa will notice that the princess is really a ballet dancer? Hmmm.

Wondering about the embroidery designs? Here’s the scoop; the trucks and the ballet dancer will be used on an embroidery club project later on in 2010. Sorry can’t be more specific than that. I still have not worked out the last three or four projects for this embroidery club year and of course there is a whole new year coming up.

Downloadable Instructions for Snowflake Ornament

I’ve had a couple of requests for printer friendly or downloadable instructions for the Snowflake Ornament. I am not sure about the printer friendly business, but you can click here to download the instructions. Have fun.

An early Christmas freebie

Appliqué Snowflake Ornament with Crystals
Since I am feeling particularly generous this season, I decided to put up this pretty holiday ornament. Not only are the instructions free, but so is the embroidery design. It’s really quick and easy to make, and it’s made almost entirely in the hoop. I added the crystals for a holiday sparkle. The snowflake takes about half an hour to make, so you can easily make lots! If it looks familiar?? I did have it on the Embroidery club download page a couple of years ago, but not sure if anyone noticed it. Anyways, have fun!
Here’ what you need:
Snowflake Ornament Design 502sbd_01
9" square brown felt
5" square white cotton
8" length of 1/2" wide ribbon
10" square tear away stabilizer
40wt rayon thread in desired color
Embroidery bobbin thread
Temporary adhesive spray
Lorna Hot Fix wand
Swarovski hot fix crystals in desired colors and sizes
Embroidery Directions
1.
Setup your sewing machine for embroidery, following
manufacturer's directions. Thread on top with the rayon and the embroidery bobbin thread in the bobbin. Select embroidery design 502sbd_01.
2.
Hoop fabric and stabilizer. Put hoop into position onto your embroidery sewing machine. Stitch out the first color stop. This stitches placement for the appliqué.

3.
Spray temporary adhesive (such as 505 spray) onto the back of the cotton square and adhere into place over the mark out in the hoop. Stitch out the next color. This outlines the shape of the snowflake and keeps the appliqué fabric in place.

4.
Remove the hoop from your embroidery sewing machine, but do not remove the fabric from the hoop. Trim the appliqué fabric close to the stitching. Put hoop back into position onto your embroidery sewing machine and complete stitching the design.

5.
Remove fabric from hoop. Trim felt close to the satin stitching. Fold the ribbon in half to form a loop and stitch the ends to the back.
6.
Affix the Swarovski hot fix crystals as desired onto the ornament.

More White Poinsettias

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

Gift Decorating

The November embroidery club project and designs are up and ready for download, click here to get to the download page.
I know, Halloween isn't even over and I am giving you Christmas projects. In my defense, Christmas will be here before you know it. I am simply giving you a head start. Actually, these projects are more for decorating the gifts rather than the actual gifts. Wrapping and decorating gifts is my favorite part of gift giving. Even with a practical gift, the wrapping can be as impractical as you like. This month’s projects are a Wine Bottle Gift Bag and a Poinsettia Ornament. They are both made from felt, so you know they are going to be easy to embroider and to sew.
 
For the project instructions I made the Poinsettia Ornament in Christmas red and green. But, I have this idea of making a whole bunch of these in white for my Christmas tree.
Here is the first one. I love it, it’s beautiful. What do you think?? I also used 7 tiny jingle bells instead of the three larger ones. I like both options, the larger ones make more of a sound. I know my great nephew is going love the jingle sound.

Happy Easter!

The March Embroidery Club Project is up! I am soooo pleased with this month's project and embroidery. These table linens are so fresh and pretty and perfect for spring and summer. The cutwork tulips turned out even better than I expected; and very versatile. You can use these designs in so many places. Of course, as table linens, but also for bed linens, towel trims and even clothing. I can even see the scallops edging a pretty sheer curtain or shade.

I used the Edge Joining foot when I made my samples, but Patricia from Sault Ste. Marie prefers the Left Edge Topstitch foot. She says,

I love the left edge topstitching foot for sewing down hems--no puckering, no shifting and straight even stitching everytime  and I also really like the Heritage embroidery snips with their long, slender, curved blades--perfect for cutwork and snipping jump stitches. They are #140001046 "5 1/2" Machine Embroidery Scissors.



Getting ready for Easter brunch? Just add the napkin wrap.

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!