A Few Vendors at the American Sewing Expo

I had the pleasure of meeting Cristy Fincher of Purple Daisies Machine Embroidery.

I have done some Free Motion Quilting but in order for me to gain any real skills, I need to practice.  At this time in my life, two little boys, a family, a business...etc....I think I'm going to let my Embroidery Machine make me look better at quilting than I really am :) 

Will you just look at all these Quilting Designs for your Embroidery Machine? 

I can see this in a center block of a qiult or in the corners at an angle...these are just beautiful.

I think I'm going to have to check into carrying the Designs that Purple Daisy offers.  What do you think?  Would you be interested in using Quilting Designs in your Embroidery Machine?

Cristy also demonstrated the Quilt Halo.  As you can see Cristy has the Quilt Halo stacked 2 high.  I asked her why and she said when you get a lot of batting and fabric under your machine, the added weight helps keep your fabric smooth.  Some people use three .....I thought that was very interesting indeed. 

The very minute I walked up to this booth....I knew they were some very smart people.  No clue as to what they do or why they were there, but I saw 3 Reliable V50's set up and going....they had to KNOW what they were doing!  LOL

I learned they were making clothing for women who are returning to the work force.  Using only the Very Best Irons for their gifts to other women....I love it :)

I stopped to meet Sandra Chandler from Just Curves.  She invented the Curve Master Presser Foot. I had  heard very impressive reviews but this was my first time witnessing Sandra actually using the Curve Master Foot.

I started taking photos and then I wished I had my video turned on.  She told me she has a YouTube Video so I embedded it below.  I have a Drunkards Path quilt that I made and I did it without the Curve Master Foot....well ...that won't ever happen again!

If you already have a Curve Master Foot, I want to hear about your experience.  I'll have one of my own soon enough :)

More vendors coming soon!

Smiles,
Kelly

A Surprise Visit to the American Sewing Expo

I was not expecting to go to the American Sewing Expo in Novi, MI this past Saturday....but that is exactly where I found myself by 2pm :)  I met up with Waldo and some friends and took a look around.  I'm not much into home dec or making clothing but I sure did see some beautiful things.

This was the very first exhibit I walked past:

And the first thing that caught my eye were these pieces done in felted wool done by Jan Waller from the UK.

 

As I was moving around trying to get the best photo I could....I was approached by Jan Waller so I had the great pleasure of meeting her and hearing about her beautiful work. 

Here was this lovely artist in Novi, MI....who had come all the way from UK and just by chance I got to meet her.....how lucky am I?  Very :)   If you are a Felted Wool fan....check out her website: Love.Make.Think.  (love the name).

A few other things caught my eye....this hat really grabbed me!

Felted Hats by Karen Lucy

 Naturally there were lots of beautiful dresses and even some very cool costumes.

" Foliage" is the name of this beautiful piece but for the life of me I can't read the artists information in the photo I took. Here is the photo if any of you can read it :)  THANKS TO BRITA....we now know who the artist is :) Tone Haugen-Cogburn of Maryville TN is the fiber artist who created Foliage

"Magpie Mischief" and again....I can't read the name of the artist.  I had to shoot the photos from quite a distance and my I-Phone doesn't zoom like my camera does.

THANKS TO GENE.... "Magpie Mischief" by Janice Jones

This piece did not have a name with it, but I'm telling you I just loved this zippered pouch complete with a face and glasses.  Someone must have really had fun making this :)

Oh...and I visited a few vendors too ......how about I tell you all about those in the following posts.....

Smiles,

Kelly

Christmas is coming - Floriani Metallic Thread Review

GUEST POST BY KARIN
(by the way....Karin is a friend who does not get paid anything at all to write these posts...and began using Floriani after I became a dealer....she was curious how it compared to the supplies she had been using for years.)

Christmas is coming!  Christmas is coming!!  Well, OK, it comes every year at the same time, ( 86 days away as of today), but in just under two weeks, the zoo we volunteer at is holding their silent auction to raise funds, and I promised I’d have something for them to auction.  Sooooo…I thought maybe a couple of Christmas-themed towels and a fabric basket would bring a couple bucks.  I thought it would also present a good opportunity to try out some Floriani Metallic Threads and let you know show you how well they work!

I chose a couple of cream-colored terry cloth towels I had on hand (I deliberately shied away from white, because I didn’t know if I was going to do a Santa or snowman or what, and white thread just doesn’t show up well on white terry cloth.  Next, I looked at all my Christmas-y designs for one that had solid fill lines & shapes, rather than running stitches alone, as running stitches tend to get lost in terry cloth.  So, I easily eliminated all my swirly winds and snowflakes & the delicate filigree ornaments in favor of the chunkier Santas and reindeer.  But I really wanted to incorporate a bit of sparkle from Floriani’s Metallic Thread, so I finally chose this little guy from Embroidery Library. 

But I wanted my towels to coordinate with the fabric basket I’d already made, so I chose to use these colors for my sewout:

Can’t really see that Floriani shine, can you?  Let’s try another view:

Ahhh, yes, there’s that shine!  And that’s exactly what I wanted to feature on my towels.  Oh yes, towels, as in TWO towels….how, exactly do you hoop towels so that the designs are in the same place on both towels??   I use a couple of rulers and that works well for me.

I just lay my towels side by side, put a ruler across them both, as evenly as I can, with the top edge where I want the center of my design, then make a small dot in the horizontal center of each towel using a water-soluble pen.  (If the design stitches over it, great – if not, it’s easily removed by dabbing it with a wet paper towel.)

So now I’ve got my centers marked, I just hoop ‘em up!  Of course, I used Floriani Heat N Gone as a topper so my designs don’t get lost in the terry cloth (see the difference in toppers here!).

Once I got into the design, I realized that maybe less is more.  I’m sure you’re wondering “what the heck does she mean?” OK, you’ve read this far, so I’ll tell ya!   I used brown for Rudolph and Floriani Metallic Red for his nose, and Metallic Gold for the first two flourishes.  Now it was time to sew the last of the flourishes, and I’d planned on using Metallic Green, but I was afraid so much Metallic would be just a bit too much, even for the blingy-lovin’ ladies of Texas….sooooo, what to do, what to do?  Well, Kelly had just the answer!  (and who of us was surprised by that?  yeah, me neither.)

Floriani’s Winter Collection had exactly the right shade of green – it was identical to the metallic green I’d originally pulled:

Bet you can’t tell which is which, can you?  (The one on the left is the normal polyester spool, while the one on the right is the metallic spool.) 

And you know what else is really cool about Floriani Thread Collections?  Aside from the thread quality, that is….each collection includes FREE Floriani designs on a CD you can use and reuse as many times as you need.  These are the FREE designs included with this Winter’s Collection:

So, how did  Floriani’s Metallic Thread perform?  Well, usually I have to sloooooow down the machine’s stitching speed, and I often switch out to a needle with a larger eye….but not this time!!!  I used my regular 75/11 embroidery needle and 850 stitches per minute, and not once did I have a thread knot or break.  And just look at that coverage, will ya?

That is some serious shine!  Santa will have no trouble following THIS Rudolph on the foggiest of foggy Christmas Eves!  And did the designs stitch in the same place on both towels?  See for yourself!



They did, they really did (the camera’s at a slight angle to minimize the flash, so the one on the right appears just a tad higher, but it’s really not!).

Am I pleased with Floriani’s Metallic Thread?  I am, I really am!  Will I use it again?  You betcha!! 

Now, who’ll give me a dollar, do I hear a dollar?  HaHaHa!  HoHoHo!!  They’d better get a whole lot more than a dollar for THIS basket!!

Written by Karin

Anyone need a few hundred coin purse frames?

 I actually put my co-workers to work at IHAN ®.  With all the Coin Purse Frames I had to order for the "U R Priceless Blog Hop" I needed help wrapping all those babies.

While Aaron was working on his homework, Zach and I wrapped over 200 Coin Purse Frames.  Why he felt the need for those "safety" goggles....is beyond me.  LOL

We had to be sure there were enough frames for all who wanted to join in the "UR Priceless Blog Hop" as well as those who got hooked and could not stop...LOL.  

I've made a few of the coin purses already and they are pretty quick and fun.  Today I'm going to do some Machine Embroidery and make one.....I hope it turns out well.  I think they will make wonderful teacher gifts as well as for other gals in my life.

Those participating in the "UR Priceless Blog Hop" ,  have been provided with a pattern and tutorial. 
For the rest of you who are not participating or you would like to see other patterns and tutorials, I posted a few good tutorials I found on the web. 

Cotton and Cloud Blog

Sweet Bee Buzzings Blog

Craft Stylish

AnneKata Blog

I have several other versions of Sew In Snap Frames on the way for the holiday gift making season.   The good news is, I've added a discount ...the more you buy...the more you save.  I figured this would be good for those who want to make them for the holidays, birthdays, Thank You gifts.....and on and on.  I know many gals who get hooked on something and make several.

On the Flamingo Front:

 Apparently that's what is on the agenda this weekend for the Flamingo Flock.  Next weekend we are supposed to be the "Turkeys" camping out...in early October, with the Cub Scouts.

I just hope we are this cozy!

Speaking of Fall....look at this beautiful sunflower....I took this photo a few weeks ago just before a class to make some Wool Felted Pumpkins.

My girlfriend, Diane, had previously ordered some Wool Felting kits from the gals at Back to Back Alpaca.  She was thrilled with the price and the quality of the kits she ordered.  Diane suggested a group of us get together and do a Felted Wool Pumpkin....you know I was game :)

Waldo was up for some fun too......as was my youngest co-worker, Zach.

 He really enjoyed being able to "poke, poke, poke, poke, poke....." the felted wool.  Something about that repetitive activity had his attention the entire time.

Take a look at  some of the Felted Wool Pumpkins that were made that day from the kits we ordered from BacktoBackAlpaca.com

This one is mine.  I didn't think it turned out so bad considering it was my first time.

Some gals didn't care for the faces so they enjoyed making the Felted Wool Pumpkin Sans the Face :)

 

This can be used all the way through Thanksgiving too.

Now I'm off to sew!

Big Ole Happy Smiles,

Kelly

Fun Halloween - A Guest Post by Karin

GUEST POST by KARIN....take it away Karin

Lucky me, I was gifted a stack of 6 Dunroven dish towels, and being the generous soul I am, I figured I’d share my thoughts with y’all.  My very first thought was, “How pretty! What a lovely shade of purple.”  My very next thought was, “This is really pretty, but, my goodness, how very purple.  Who in the world decorates their kitchen with purple?”

So I put ‘em in the closet and there they sat for the next 3 6 months, while I pondered what I could do with them.  (pondered – that word rolls around in my mouth the way those towels were rolling around in my head!)  And they sat, and they sat, and they sat some more. 

Finally, I got an idea! Halloween fabrics often include purple, and Halloween is coming up fast! So I found this cute little door-hanger from Embroidery Library and decided I could use one of the towels for my background fabric! Yeah, that’d be just perfect!

So I get ‘em out of the closet and take one out.  Wow, it really has a nice hand to it…surprisingly so.  It was evenly woven and weighty (for a towel, that is), but it still had a nice drape to it.  Then I unfolded it, and that sucker is H.U.G.E!  A full 20 by 28 inches!

 

And it had a nice little cotton twill loop for easy hanging, too.

Hmmm….but it’s still very purple.  Now, my little door hanger probably wouldn’t get washed much, so shrinkage and even some fading was probably not gonna be an issue, but since I was gonna share with y’all,  I’d share everything, the good, the bad and the laundry, so I threw the whole bundle in the washer to see what would happen.  They seemed to fade just a wee bit, and the purple lightened up a little.  Not much.  After a tumble in the dryer (set on med/high), they came out a bit smaller than they went in and a little wrinkled.

They now measure about 19 by 27 inches, so they shrank about an inch all around.  If you’d embroidered on them prior to washing, you’d surely be upset with that much shrinkage, so, for best results, just be sure to launder these prior to spending hours on a machine embroidery project.  Nothing like surprise shrinkage to spoil your fun!

But, let’s get back to the project!  A quick touch-up with a hot iron and they were good as new, but about an inch smaller.  When you purchase an in-the-hoop embroidery design like this, it usually comes in two parts – a outline and the embroidery itself.  The first thing I did pull out my roll of Floriani Double Sided Fusible Stitch N Shape and cut a piece off.  Ummm…now what?

I knew I’d never get that roll back into its cellophane wrapper, so I grabbed my roll of Hugo’s Amazing Tape!  And for those of you that have never used it, you just don’t know what you’re missing.  There’s about a million uses for that tape, and it truly IS Amazing.  I use the blue tape because it’s easier to find when you accidentally lay it down for a second, but it also comes in clear, for the people that need to see true colors.

But, I digress.  Next, I cut the end off of one of those beautifully purple towels to use as the base fabric of my in-the-hoop door hanger.  I fused my Stitch N Shape to the fabric with a hot iron.  And for future knowledge, when they say double-sided, they MEAN double-sided.  When I tried to pick that puppy it, it was fused to my ironing board!  In hindsight, I should have used a pressing sheet *or something* (maybe even a ONE-sided fusible??) to protect my ironing board!

So, anyway, I took my fabric/stabilizer fusion and laid it onto a piece of Floriani Perfect Stick that had already been hooped. 

I slipped the whole thing into the embroidery module and l was all set to start stitching once I selected my thread colors.  I decided on lime green, orange, and white, and this would have been the perfect chance to try out some of that glow-in-the-dark thread, but I didn’t have any!  L  I used some iridescent white instead.  It won’t glow in the dark, but then, there’s hardly anyone walking around in the dark at my house, so it really doesn’t matter.

When you get an in-the-hoop embroidery design, you usually get two files.  The first is the outline, that gives you just the outline of the project, and the other file is all your color stops that provide the details of your project.  You can see how I’ve stitched the outline here (try to use a complimentary color in your stitching, just in case the final satin stitch coverage is less than perfect).

I used a contrast color just so you could see the outline.  You can also see that unexpected color change – I didn’t know I was using a bobbin as my top thread, and I ran out not long after I started stitching!

I pulled that hoop out and removed the fabric fusion from the Perfect Stick.  I literally cut on the dotted line to get the top layer for my door hanger.  Remember, this is fabric fused to Stitch N Shape, so it’s nice and thick, and easy to manage.  Stitch N Shape doesn’t gum up or snag your needles, but it holds its shape nicely.  It’s just right for making fabric bowls and boxes or giving body to purse inserts.

Next, I had to get the backing fabric cut to the same shape.  So I hooped another hunk of purple toweling (it’s a lovely shade of purple, but I *still* don’t see it as a kitchen accent!!), only this time, I just laid a scrap of generic paper tearaway on top of my Perfect Stick and then the fabric on top of that (hence the pins), and stitched the outline a second time.

What you have to remember here, is that this piece is going to be the BACK of your project.  That means, you’ll need to reverse your fabric OR reverse your design.  Oopsies!  Luckily, the toweling is the same on both sides, so it didn’t matter.

Here’s another shot of that Hugo's Amazing Tape – I tell ya, there’s a million uses for it!

 So, how did  everything turn out?  Well, thanks for asking!

Obviously, I need to trim the edges a bit more, but, overall, it’s kinda cute.  It’s probably not exactly what Dunroven had in mind when they made that towel, but it sure fit the bill for me!  And I still have half a towel left that I could turn into appliqued grapes or an eggplant on something else! 

THANK YOU KARIN!

(The funniest thing is that I'm in love with the purple kitchen towels and of course I have them in my kitchen.....and here my girlfriend is saying they are "way out there" LOL....another something to smile about today)

Smiles,
Kelly