Feeling Stitchy September Stitch Along

If you're familiar at all with my blog you'll know that I include embroidery in a lot of the stuff that I do.  I love the freedom that embroidery gives you to make any design you want a reality.

With that said I follow the Feeling Stitchy blog and every month they host a stitch along that I try to participate in when I can.  For September they had a halloween themed stitch along and considering that halloween is my all time favorite holiday (Christmas is of course a close second) I had to get in on this one.

The design was made by Cathy Gaubert and it's called Hallowe'en Trio.

To start I made a reverse copy of the image and traced over all the lines with my red transfer pencil.  My fabric of choice for embroidery is linen, so I pulled out a remnant of white linen I had laying around and transferred the design by laying it face down on my fabric and ironing with a hot iron.

I wanted to really make this embroidery "full", so I decided that each piece needed some sort of filler.

For the ghost I used a brown thread for the outline and a cream embroidery thread to fill in the body.  I don't know what technique I used to fill in the body since I made it up as I went, but I'm sure it does have a name.

This is it with the pencil lines still visible.  Once I hand washed the embroidery to remove all the lines it was much harder to see what was going on.

Here he is all cleaned up.  I loved the loopy handwriting on the "Spooky" sign and was careful while embroidering to make sure that I kept to it as closely as I could.

 The black cat is made entirely of french knots.  It took quite a bit of time and embroidery thread but the effect was well worth it.

 I used seed stitching on the Jack O Lantern.  I figured that if I filled it in completely it would be just a little overdone since the cat was filled in completely.

I'm pretty darn happy with how it turned out, and plan to make it into a mug rug or something similar for myself.

 I'm also looking forward to seeing what the Feeling Stitchy blog has planned for us in October.

If you're interested in seeing what the other participants made there's a Flickr group here.

The Friendship Quilt

I'm back!  Well, I technically didn't go anywhere but I took a little break from blogging because I was a little bummed that nobody entered my giveaway.  But oh well, gotta roll with the punches, and since I'm going to the SoCal Social this weekend to meet other crafty bloggers I figured it was time to get back in the saddle and write about a few of the projects I've been working on. Luckily, even though I took a break from blogging I didn't take one from sewing, so I have several things to write about that I'll probably spread into a few posts.

But anyways, onto the Friendship quilt:

First the background information: at the beginning of summer my mother-in-law and aunt-in-law (who are both avid quilters) approached me with the idea of a friendship quilt.  The idea was that each participant would create a bunch of half square triangles with their fabric choices and then we'd meet and swap so that we'd each end up with an equal amount of HSTs from each person which we would then use to create whatever we wanted.  We'd then meet again and show off what we made.

Well the second meeting in which we showed off our projects was this past weekend and as usual, it took me all the way up to the meeting for me to finish my project, but now that it's all done I can share it with the bloggy world.

To start we were each given 22 sheets of Laundry Basket Quilts HST exchange paper and told to use light & dark fabrics of our choosing.  I chose to use a cream fabric with hearts and leaves as my light and a dark green with white polka dots as my dark.

 My fabric selections and the template sheet.

Once we had our fabrics sewn together using the template we were supposed to stop and not cut the pages into the individual HST pieces, this would be done by each person after we swapped sheets.

All 22 sheets cut and sewn, waiting to be swapped.

We met in late August to swap sheets and when I looked at all of the different prints and combinations I ended up with I was a bit overwhelmed.  Several of the prints were definitely ones I would never in my life put together, so I really didn't know what I'd do with all of them.  Once I cut the templates apart I realized that I then had over 280 HSTs to press open and take the paper template off of, so I set them aside and decided to not worry about them.

After thinking about it for awhile I decided to use the fabrics to make pinwheels and flying geese, and to make them into squares of four HSTs all of the same print, since I didn't see how I could combine them all and still have it be aesthetically pleasing.

HSTs pressed open waiting to be sewn.

HSTs sewn into pinwheels and flying geese.

After sewing them all together into pinwheels and flying geese I had to figure out what design to make for the quilt.  For the sake of simplicity I decided to bypass sashing and just join them all together into one giant rectangle, and then put a border around it to make the quilt top.

To lay out all the squares I decided to hang a blanket on the wall and pin the squares to the blanket.  I have no idea why I didn't anticipate that the fabric would stick to the fleece, but it did and no pinning was required, they stuck where I put them beautifully.

I didn't count how many squares I had made so I didn't know what the finished dimensions of my quilt would be or even how many squares wide or long I should plan for.  I just started sticking squares up on the wall, spacing them by where I thought the colors looked best, and as it happened the rectangle I made was 7 x10 and it fit all 70 squares I made perfectly.

Pinwheels and flying geese up on my design wall.

I ended up taking the square second in from the left on the bottom row out because my flying geese we facing the wrong way, and after shuffling things around a bit I made a space second in from the right in the second row from the bottom for a blank square in which I could embroider a message on.

The rest of making the quilt top was relatively simple.  I first sewed all of the squares together into rows, and then sewed all of the rows together into a rectangle.

 Sewing the rows together.

I then bordered the design with a 4" wide Kona bone border and made my quilt sandwich, using a low loft cotton batting and a solid piece of the Kona bone fabric for the backing.

At this point I stopped taking pictures since it was in the middle of the night the day before I needed to have the project done and the lighting was horrible and my sewing room a mess. But needless to say I made the quilt sandwich and then started in with the quilting.  I decided against straight quilting in the ditch and decided to do some free motion quilting. Not the best idea for how late it was.  I started with a stipple stitch then decided against it and took all the stitches out.  I then decided to do a large looping design and started doing it free motion.  Again, not the greatest idea.  I couldn't keep the loops the same size, so I ripped all of that quilting out and pulled out one of my new Frixion pens and drew the design onto the quilt top.  With that as a reference I was able to get the quilting done in an hour and a half or so.

After the quilting was done I trimmed it down so it was all even and then make my binding.  For some reason binding is one of my favorite parts of quilting.  There's just something about being so close to finishing the project and doing it by hand that makes me so happy.  I had selected a burgandy/ deep red color for the binding and whipped it up and sewed it onto the quilt using my new TQM Binding Tool to bring the binding tails together.  I then moved to the living room and relaxed on the couch watching The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice while I hand sewed the edge of my binding down.

I finished at 4am Saturday morning and threw it into the washing machine and went to bed.  When I woke up 3 hours later I pulled it out to discover that not all of the washings had washed off.  Instead of drying it and then ironing the marks away (which is what the Frixion pens are good for) I hand washed the quilt to get the marks off, then went ahead and threw it in the wash again to get the remainng soap out, then dried it to get it warm and fluffy.

I was quite happy with my finished product.  It's actually the first quilt I've ever made myself and I'm happy to have it.

To show off what we each made we met at one of the Ladies' condo by the beach and had lunch.  Not everyone finished their project, and two of the people weren't able to make it, but it was a nice afternoon and I snapped photos of all of the different projects.

 

Kirstie and her "Flowers in the Mud" quilt.

 

Dorothy and her pillows.

 My mother-in-law Harriet's quilt (she's the one on the right).  You can't see it because it's behind the chair but the bottom left of the quilt features a church with stained glass windows.

 My aunt-in-law's quilt top.  The border on her quilt is also a pinwheel fabric.

Suzy and her basket squares.

 And me with my quilt!

I'm also linking this post up to Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story.

A Wedding Scrapbook for Sarah

Last week I sat down with my new My Memories software and made some scrapbook pages.  At first I didn't know what occasion to scrapbook, since to be honest I don't have very many photos of my husband and I, we just never seem to take any photos with us in them.  But then I got thinking and decided that the pages didn't have to be for me, I could make pages for someone else.

So here are the pages I whipped up for my friend Sarah of her wedding day.  Forgive the photo quality, these images are ones we took ourselves on our little old digital camera before it dies on us and we got our big fancy DSLR.

 

I love that I can use any font or color I want to make my own word art.  The color I chose was called "honeydew", and it matches all of the stitching details and embellishments throughout the project.

The transparency feature was really nice.  I love how the background behind the "I Do" looks like it's made out of vellum. 

I love how easy it was for me to whip these up.  This would be a great gift for busy people who don't have time to sit down and scrapbook, since all they have to do is pull up the program on their computer and a few clicks later they can have a scrapbook.

There's still time to enter my giveaway for a free copy of the My Memories software I used to make these pages!  Just follow the directions at the bottom of this post and enter away!

It's Been Crazy Over Here

Crazy things have been going on over here at my house and as a result I've been delayed in posting the scrapbook pages I made with the My Memories Software.  Because of that I've decided to extend my My Memories Giveaway an additional week.  The new deadline to comment to enter to win your own copy of My Memories is Sunday September 18 at midnight, and I'll pick a winner on the morning of the 19th.  Happy Commenting!

My Memories Giveaway!

For the last week and a half I've been playing with a new toy that's making scrapbooking tons of fun... the My Memories Software Suite.  

The folks over at My Memories sent me a free version of the software to try out and I've been loving it, plus they've given me the OK to pass along my good fortune to one of my readers who will also receive a free copy of the software, as well as a promotional code STMMMS51174 for $10 off the cost of the software for anyone who wants to check it out.

Before I start telling you about all the fun I've been having with it let me tell you what My Memories is.

From the My Memories website:

"My Memories Suite version 2 software is a complete digital scrapbooking solution that provides a powerful set of creative tools and multiple sharing options that no other software can offer. Its intuitive workspace and enhanced time-saving features are perfect for a beginner to build an entire album in minutes, or to empower the design pro to build a scrapbook album masterpiece."

To be completely honest with all of you I haven't been a traditional paper and glue scrapbooker for long, in fact I only completed my first scrapbook in May while I was away at a scrapbooking retreat, but I've already noticed that there are a few negatives to traditional scrapbooking that the My Memories Software completely eliminates.  

1. Sharing.  Traditional paper scrapbooks can't be shared digitally (at least not well), but a digital scrapbook made with the My Memories software can be shared with friends and family around the world and it looks AMAZING!  Plus I can add music and videos right into the pages to make them interactive, something definitely not available with traditional scrapbooks.

2. Sizing, Printing, Cutting. With a traditional scrapbook you have to size photos, print them, and cut them down, but with the My Memories Software you can add photos, crop them, edit them, and change your mind and switch them out all in one easy step.

3. Reusable. With traditional scrapbooking you have to be worried about running out of supplies, but with the My Memories Software you can reuse papers and embellishments as many times as you want.

4. Ease of shopping.  With the My Memories Software if you realize that there's an element you need for your project you can easily pull up the My Memories website and find whatever you are looking for and download it right to your computer for a fraction of the price you would spend on traditional supplies, plus there's no need for a trip to the store.

5. No Mess!  Since everything is digital there's no pile of scraps to pick up, and it's super easy to resume a project where you left off, there's no need to haul a huge pile of supplies out of the closet every time you want to work on it, in fact there's no need to store supplies at all!

Okay, enough of the perks of the My Memories Software over traditional scrapbooking. Let's get to the nitty gritty of using the software.  Downloading the My Memories Software from the website was a breeze, and unlike other software out there it's available for both PCs and Macs.  And your computer doesn't need to be a super fast top-of-the-line computer, I downloaded my software onto my old PC and it runs beautifully. In addition to the software I also purchased several templates and papers from the site, including "Stamp Cluster", "Celebrate", "Magic Fall Papers", "So Boy Papers", and "Live, Laugh, Love", and downloading them into the software took only a few clicks, and when I opened up the software everything I purchased was right there for me to use. 

The actual interface of the software is straightforward and easy to use, with a very minimal learning curve.  With the features included in the software it's easy to build your own project or use one of their designer templates, and they even have an auto-fill option where you select the images and they plug them into the template for you.  For the calendar I made and included in my post yesterday I used their calendar grid templates and added embellishments and word art to make it special.  In addition to the calendar, I used the software to make my new blog header, and to scrapbook a few pages for my friend Sarah's wedding, which I'll be featuring in an upcoming post.

Now onto the negatives.  Not everything about any particular software can be perfect, and I'd be pretty biased if I pretended that it was.  Some features that I think could enhance the My Memories software include a merge feature.  It would be nice to be able to merge layers while working on a project to make it so that there isn't a need to move all the layers when you decide to move an element from the top of the page to the bottom.   Another feature that would be nice is if you could change the color of the embellishments, or at least the text elements.  As it is the only things you can do to change the elements is change the size, the opacity, and rotate it.  The final critique I have of the software is that it would be nice if they bundled the downloads.  Currently when you download your embellishments you purchase from the website you download each individually, but when you purchase 10 or so at one time downloading each individually can take time.  It would be nice if the website bundled your purchase so that only one download was needed.

Okay, now onto the good stuff... the giveaway!  My Memories has offered to give a free copy of the software to one of my blog readers, and has offered a special promo code for $10 off the cost of the software for the rest of the readers.  To be entered into the giveaway please visit the My Memories Website and tell me what scrapbooking or embellishment kit you'd like to start scrapbooking with, and what kind of project you'd make.  For a second entry follow my blog, or tell me if you're already a follower, and for a third entry blog, facebook, or twitter about this giveaway and let me know that you did, and please leave every entry as a separate comment on this post.

The giveaway will be open until 11:59 PM Pacific Standard time on Sunday the 18th.  I'll draw the winner on Monday morning and send the winner their code for their copy of the My Memories Suite software.  If you can't wait and want to get a copy of the software for yourself right away then you can purchase it at www.MyMemories.com and enter the code STMMMS51174 to get $10 off the purchase price of $39.97.

So that's it!  I hope while you're over at the My Memories website you take your time and look around a bit, they have quite a large amount of cool stuff over there.

A Chenille Quilt and a New Calendar

Over the weekend I completed my second chenille blanket.  I completed my first one over the summer for my friend's little boy. After seeing this tutorial at the Aesthetic Nest Blog for a chenille blanket I wanted to give it a shot.  I had no idea how much time it would take to sew all of the lines and cut all of the channels with scissors, but when it was done and it came out of the dryer it was amazing, even though I couldn't feel my thumb for weeks after all of the cutting. 

my first chenille quilt

Since the first one was such a success and since I was given an Olfa chenille cutter as a present from my aunt Christine I decided to give making a chenille quilt another go.  Last Black Friday I spent hours at Joanns with my mother in law, and one of the fabrics I picked up was a blue flannel with blue VW bugs all over it, and I bought it with my uncle Lance in mind since he's in love with his restored baby blue '73 VW bug, so a chenille blanket for his birthday using the flannel was perfect. 

I paired the flannel with three solids, a dark blue, a light blue, and a light grey.  After layering them I pulled out my cone of blue thread and walking foot and started sewing. 

 

And sewing...

Until the sewing stopped.  Or I should say, until I bent my last sewing machine needle.

And the sewing ground to a halt.

But then the hubs ran out and got me a new set of machine needles, and the sewing continued.  

The sewing part of the project lasted as long as it had my first time making a chenille quilt, but the cutting portion was a breeze using the chenille cutter.  Unfortunately it was at this point in the process that my camera pooped out and so I don't have any pictures of what the quilt back looked like cut or after it had been washed. And since it was a birthday present for my uncle I had a timeline for when I had to give it away, so I wasn't able to get a picture of it before it went to him, though he did promise to snap a photo of it when he got a chance.

Another project I whipped up this week was a birthday card for my aunt.  She's been wanting new curtains for her living room and so for her present I'm going to make them for her.  Since I didn't have anything to physically give her for her birthday I wanted to make her a card that symbolized the gift.  The idea I had was to make a card with a window on the front, and make a curtain on the window.  Yeah, pretty cheezy, but I liked the way it turned out.

For the message part of the card I decorated the edges with stitching.  To get even stitching I ran the edges under my machine with the stitch length set to 5 with no thread in the needle, so basically I punched holes evenly along the edges, and then went back with my embroidery thread and needle and threaded the thread through the pre-punched holes.

Now onto the surprise.  Tomorrow I'll be hosting my first giveaway!  Since I'm also a big fan of papercrafts in addition to sewing the team at My Memories gave me a free copy of their My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software and I've been having fun playing with it.  

The first project I made with it is a calendar.  I'm a big fan of staying organized, so it's important to me that I remember all my appointments, and for that a calendar is necessary.

I made this September calendar a few days ago using the software and I loved it.  It was so easy to use, and had so many fun options.  The version I made myself included my appointments and reminders on it, but I wanted to post a blank version of it here in hope that some of you might be able to use it as well.

Check back here tomorrow for the official launch post of the My Memories giveaway and my review of the software, and check back in the following days for a few more projects I've done using it!