Christmas Candles Galore!
Nine elegant designs, combining the best of applique and embroidery. There are so many possibilities with these designs! Table cloths, napkins, placemats, sweatshirts, quilts, sweaters, cookie tins, gift boxes and tags, pillows…….. These designs were featured in the November/December 2006 issue of Designs in Machine Embroidery Magazine. To order these designs as a collection, click here. Each design is available as a single, and you can order here.
Below are actual stitch-outs of the designs — you click click on each image to see a larger picture.
The Snowybears are ready to play!
The Snowybears are here to have some winter fun with you! Machine embroidery, applique, and a gentle fur texture to their coats! Easy enough for a beginner, and fun for the entire winter! To order these designs, click here.
Thanksgiving Applique Designs!
These five adorable designs are for those with an embroidery machine who love a touch of applique. To order these five designs for a very special price, click here. Click on each design t0 see the full picture. All designs were created for the 5 x 7 hoop, but the tiny turkey will fit in the 4×4 hoop.
Ribbons and Bows
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Sue Jackson of Sue’s Sew EZ Designs created a pattern “Ribbons and Bows” that is just perfect for the cause. It can be used as a remembrance — or — made in different colors for a totally different look!
Marie made this adorable quilt for Taylor with so much love. She started with the Ribbons and Bows pattern, and took it a step further by changing the color scheme to beautiful shades of blue and teal. This quilt will be hanging in Taylor’s bedroom, and it’s a perfect gift for a wonderful young lady! I asked Marie to tell me a little bit about Taylor, and she said “Taylor will be turning 11 on her birthday in early January. She is in 6th grade and her cheerleading squad is going to regional competition. She is a very classy young lady and I think this quilt just suits her.” I agree! The pretty fabrics that Marie used to make this quilt are very classy, and embroidering her name on it is just the perfect finishing touch!
Most of the patterns used in this quilt are from One Song Needle Arts, including the background section around the bow. I added two layers of polyester batting behind the bow, stitching along the edges, and then trimmed away the excess.
This was done on my regular sewing machine, but I could have just as easily done it on the longarm machine. When this stage is complete, the results can be a bit puffy, as shown in the picture below:
The quilting that happens afterward tames everything down in the surrounding area.
After all of the extra batting was trimmed, I mounted the quilt in the usual manner. All of the borders have special treatments to them, including modifying designs to fit in between the “ribbon” sections. Marie wanted to tell Taylor how much she loves her, so we chose to quilt “I love you” all the way around one of the borders.
I think Taylor will be very happy to receive this quilt!
Click twice on any of the pictures to enlarge them.
Hanging Garden Quilt
This beautiful quilt was created by Priscilla Madsen of Madsen Originals. The lace embroidery is spectacular! It was just published in the most recent issue of Designs in Embroidery Magazine.
I’d like to share some close-up pictures with you, so you can see the quality of the stitching. Click on the image to have it open on a new page. Then, click on the image again, and you will be able to see a larger version.
It was a real pleasure to do the quilting for this project! Priscilla is wonderful to work with — and so talented!
Garden Party Quilt is a prize winner!
I posted pictures of a quilt called A Mother’s Love last November, and have received many compliments on how beautiful it turned out to be…. but the real credit for this amazing quilt goes to a wonderful lady named Leslie Clarke. She spent countless hours piecing it, with applique and crystals in perfect proportion. She even added her own border to the entire edge that included more applique and crystals! This quilt was made with love for Leslie’s daughter Nicole, and it was truly a labor of love. I had named the quilt A Mother’s Love, but the actual name of the pattern is A Garden Party.
This past week, Leslie received word that she had won second place in a quilting contest for this quilt! Congratulations, Leslie! Here is part of the story that Leslie included with her entry:
“This quilt was my first quilting project on my new embroidery machine. When the instructor teaching the class on how to use the machine pattern became ill, I decided to forge ahead and also to really stretch and make the queen-size quilt. My daughter was moving to a new apartment, and — since her favorite color is red — it had to be for her!”
If you’re anything like me, the first thing you think of when you are this happy is the Snoopy Dance theme song — this music has been dancing around in my head ever since Leslie told me she won the prize!
Placemats to embroider!
There have been lots of requests for these placemats, and we will be adding new colors every week! Just think of what you can do with these! You can use them unadorned, and embroider them when you have some free time. You can make a set for yourself, and your best friend at the same time. You can turn them into book covers, cake or bread baskets, tote bags or make-up bags — the possibilities are endless! See the close-up pictures below to appreciate the quality and the color choices!
Shown with a suggestion for embroidery
To place your order for these placemats, hurry over to the Embroidery Store and check out our new section for embroidery blanks!
The design that is embroidered on the peach placemat is from A Design by Lyn and is called One by One. Thank you, Lyn!
Christmas Table Runner
I had so much fun doing the Christmas Mantel Scarf, and I wanted to use the pattern in a different way. The design is called Heirloom Lace, and is a digital pattern available from Donna Kleinke at One Song Needle Arts. I turned the shapes sideways, and added some cross-hatching in the center section to highlight embroidery.
I used embroidery patterns from Carolyn Faulk at Embroidery Designs by Carolyn — they stitched out beautifully. You could make one of these for each season, or for everyday use.
After all of the embroidery was complete, I made a facing for the table runner to hide the embroidery on the back. Then I added a cluney lace to the edges. You can click on each picture twice to see the largest version.
Coming soon! These table runners will be available in kit form, so you will be able to add your own embroidery! Keep watching for availability!
Growing Pains
We’re currently adding the embroidery designs back to this site, and we are having a few growing pains. You can access the designs by clicking on the left side of the page where it says Embroidery store, or in the yellow box at the top of the page in the link that says The Embroidery Store is now open. When you arrive at the store, some of the individual designs are marked as Out of Stock. This is one of the growing pains that I mentioned, and our web master will be fixing this just as soon as he can. All of the designs are available for your shopping cart.
Another growing pain is on the Collections page. You can see the name of the collection, but none of the individual designs that are in the collection. I’ve decided to feature two of the collections here, because they have a Christmas theme, and they are on sale right now!
Here are two of the collections — the Christmas Train collection, and it’s adorable stitched on a mantel scarf, and the Christmas Candles are wonderful on towels, table linens — anywhere that you want a touch of applique and glitz:
Roses Galore!
Just as I finished picking the last roses of the season from my garden, I received this beautiful quilt top from Priscilla Madsen. I opened the box to see many gorgeous embroidered roses, and instantly I knew how I wanted to quilt this! I had been wanting to use a collection called “Carmen’s Roses” from One Song Needle Arts, and this was the perfect time.
With lots of bias piecing, and tons of red roses, I considered using stippling or hand-quilting to tame any puffiness that may occur after quilting. As it turned out I decided to combine both! The hand stitching is right next to the embroidery, which makes the roses stay a little bit closer to the surface.
This quilt was done with a Gammill machine and a Statler Stitcher, allowing the roses to be trimmed where necessary to fit in with the blocks that only had room for certain segments of the designs. If you enjoy machine embroidery, these red roses can be purchased through the Stitchery Mall . Having seen this embroidery, I have to say that it is exquisite!
The quilting designs can be purchased from One Song Needle Arts, and can be seen here:
