Patsy Thompson.....is she in Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, California???
I guess it depends on which day of the week it is! Yep, Patsy does travel quite a bit so when I met up with a group of gals for a machine embroidery lesson yesterday, I was tickled to see Patsy in the flesh.
Patsy came to demonstrate her way of hooping projects or should I say....not hooping projects when she is creating her quilts. There is a free download on her website, HERE, that is a guide for aligning your project no matter the orientation in the hoop.
Patsy is a non-traditional machine embroiderer and has made many of her own patterns. She also encourages people to mix and match various designs and think about using them in different orientations to get different effects.
These are just some of the fantastic tips Patsy shared:
- Stitch out an outline on a piece of stabilizer or muslin to test out the size you desire for your project
- Keep that inventory of stitched out shapes so you can refer to them for a variety of projects.
- Test stitch and move that piece under a piece of muslin to visually check how close or distant you like the design on your borders or blocks.
- Take notes on your stitch outs to save time when stitching in future projects.
I know there was so much more but honestly I was not taking notes. I can say one thing for sure and that is that Patsy loves...or should I say, LOVES her Babylock Embroidery Machines! LOL I should tease because I too love mine and they are the most intuitive and user friendly machines I've ever had the pleasure of using. Brother machines are also very user friendly and made by the same people so I'm told.
Here is one of Patsy's you tube videos where she shares more about machine embroidery:
If you blink, you might miss Patsy....she is on the move. Next week she'll be at the Road to California Quilters Conference along with several other wonderful teachers I know including: Sarah Vedeler, Julie Herman, Lady Eleanor Burns, Edyta Sitar, and Cheryl Phillips. There are a ton more teachers I just don't know all of them....yet :) Plenty of friends are going as well so I hope everyone in Southern California actually knows how blessed they are to have so many womderful and inspiring people gathering for some quilting fun.
I'm on my way to PA today for my annual winter retreat with my girlfriends there. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and stay tuned for a tutorial from none other than my dear friend and machine embroidery expert (in my mind) Karin :)
Smiles,
Kelly
