Quilting with Digitized Embroidery

Detail from the megahoop design in my "Quilting Whimsy" collection

If you own a home sewing machine that has the capability to do hoop embroidery you also have the capability to do hoop quilting!  There are digitized quilting designs available from various quilt artists, and I've seen many quilts using these designs now, beautifully quilted. 

All three layers are positioned in the hoop for the quilting, although I do know one quilter who quilted the designs through the top and a thin batt first, then layered the backing and did simple outlines around the design and any background quilting through ALL the layers.  It was easier to do the digitized quilting in the hoop in her home machine with a thin batt and only the top.

It's easier to do small projects, and larger quilts are better suited if the machine is mounted on a frame system.  Smaller quilts are very do-able in your normal set-up, and can give you beautiful ornate quilting that might be hard for you to do with regular free motion quilting.  The stitches are even, the traveling is undetectable, designs can be sized, rotated, combined to create your own look.  Backgrounds, like the grid below, are done free motion or with a walking foot by you.

Designs from "Quilting Fancy" combined to create this medallion

When I've seen quilts done with my designs that have been digitized I always have to catch my breath, they are lovely.  These designs really can add to your quilt's beauty, even if you use only one as a focal point.

I have two collections of designs available at www.embroideryonline.com under the licensed artists' collections.  "Quilting Whimsy" is on sale now, and they have brought back my original collection "Quilting Fancy."

Combined designs from "Quilting Fancy"

 

These designs were meant for quilting, but look amazing done as "redwork" line design embroidery as well in colored, heavier thread.

Hope you had a terrific Thanksgiving, and can sneak in some time for yourself and your quilting....or play with digitized quilting..... during this busy time of year.

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day,

Diane

"Blossom's Journey"

"Blossom's Journey"

Pilgrim/Roy Challenge Quilt 2012

Live Auction AQS Show, Paducah 2012

40 1/2" square

My quilt is finished!  I was invited to be part of this year's Pilgrim and Roy Challenge, a group of quilts made by well known quilters to be auctioned live at the AQS show in Paducah to raise funds for the National Quilt Museum. 

The quilts were due last April but because of health problems I was unable to complete mine until this winter.  But it's done, will be exhibited at the quilt show in the convention center with the other magnificent quilts already featured and displayed this past year.  To see them and think about bidding on one or more of them, click here.

The quilt auction is Thursday evening April 26, 6-8 p.m. with food available beforehand in the food tent.

You can bid online if you won't be at the event:  http://www.quiltmuseum.org/auction1.html

The quilt was made of a packet of challenge fabrics by Moda from Hancock's of Paducah, and I added two additional fabrics to complete the design.  Quilting motifs are original, including the animals from my Quilting Whimsy digitized embroidery designs for OESD.

The animals were traced to the quilt, but the feathers surrounding it are done freehand and are not symmetrical or matching, totally organic.  I thought the birds, cats, and rabbits looked best surrounded by flowing natural greenery.

I used YLI #100 silk thread and YLI Sparkle thread, and Pellon Legacy wool batt, and the lovely piping/binding was made using Susan Cleveland's Piping Hot Binding materials, book, and technique, which worked wonderfully.  Love it.

Below is a detail of the border quilting. 

I will add more photos in an upcoming post so if you are interested in purchasing this quilt you will have more detailed information.  If you are going to the AQS Show in Paducah, you can see it there, which is always so much better than a photo.  The motifs are outlined in taupe/gold YLI Sparkle thread which gives it such a richness and vintage warmth. 

All of the quilters involved in this project made stunning quilts, and we hope you will be generous and bid and support the museum.  Your contribution will be tax deductible, plus you will own a piece of quilting history from some of your favorite iconic quilters. 

I hope whatever quilt you choose to buy you will be thrilled with this opportunity to own and see every single day something that will enrich your life so much and do so much to support our museum.  The museum belongs to all of us, and we have to do as much as we can to support it. 

The story of this quilt is all about Blossom, a lovely and amazingly sweet little tabby cat who found our home in the snows and ice of February, and went through a long and incredible journey of trust with us to find a new life. 

While that was going on, I made this quilt, a happy diversion for Oliver and me, and included the two cats on it to represent this ordeal.  The "Trip Around the World" pattern is very fitting indeed.  It has a good ending, and Blossom has a new home with a family in our town.  The quilt I hope will find a new home too.

Please spread the word about these quilts so as many people as possible will know about them and think about buying one of them.  I thank you so much.

I am making plans to go to Sneak Preview at the AQS Paducah show and opening day, so please say hi if you see me, whip out a feather plume to show me, and I will be happy.  Can't wait to see the quilts, see old friends, do some shopping, see what everyone has been making!

Keep quilting,  your work gets better every day!

Diane

My New Bag

With no ulterior motive whatsoever, really, I so admired this shoulder bag that Roberta, our sewing machine guru at Empty Spools last week was wearing as she toured our classroom in the Open House. 

I could see my designs on it from 30 feet away!  They are the digitzed quilting/embroidery designs that are built in to the Bernina 830, but similar ones and more are available on my OESD CD "Quilting Whimsy," available for all embroidery machine formats. 

She used them as outline embroidery to embellish this soft and drapey bag, made with some changes to wholecloth rather than piecing from the La Borsa Bag pattern. 

She used Metrosene red/white/blue variegated thread, #40, and the double stitching and overlaps of the thread made it shimmer and blur so that it has an entirely different look.  I probably would never have done one of my designs like this so it was a delight to see how beautifully it turned out, how muted and elegant it looked on her shoulder.

The design square on the bottom is  my "Bouncing Bananas" motif, and looks amazing as well in this thread.  What Roberta did so well was use her creativity with the digitized designs to create something new and fresh. 

After gushing over this beautiful bag to my class the next morning, who should stroll in but Roberta, with bag, and she totally surprised me by giving it to me.  I was open mouthed with amazement, and a hug and thanks were all I had in exchange.  Thanks so much Roberta, I shall use it often and love it each time.

The designs on the Bernina 830 and my "Quilting Whimsy" CD can be sized and combined, rotated, whatever, to get the effect you want.  There are two designs for a large hoop.  The creativity is up to you. 

Using them as quilting in the quilt sandwich and placing it in your embroidery hoop, then doing some simple free motion work or walking foot lines around them to finish up a very fancy quilt makes these designs a great way to quilt your tops, or try out on table runners or placemats to get the hang of it. 

Or make a bag like this!

Hope you liked seeing this project, and keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day......

Diane

New Designs for Machine Embroidery/Quilting

Yesterday Fed Ex dropped off my new collection of quilting/embroidery designs, "Quilting Whimsy."  It is a beautiful package, and when flipped over the back shows all the designs included. 

I was surprised!  I didn't remember doing some of them, oh my, but there is a nice selection of, yes, whimsical designs.  Birds, rabbits, a sleeping cat, gingko, the mourning dove from my Alzheimer's exhibit quilt, florals, fronds, feathers, even some new styles.  A square with a feather outline to use for featuring other designs or full-out embroidery, and two nice large mega-hoop designs are included. 

With software and your embroidery module you can make some amazing combinations and effects with the individual motifs.  Be creative!

Bernina has this featured on their website and blog, http://www.berninausa.com/ and will have a sample quilt at Houston Market and Festival - go check it out!  It is very heirloom and lovely, and doesn't look 'machine made' or computer-y at all.

Oliver has been helping me with many things lately, and daily he is changing and growing, his personality evolving.  I think he feels secure here now, and has that cat sense that he will be here always.  His early life included many places and experiences so our dull routine seems to suit him just fine.  He sneaked outside when the door was open a second too long and the thrill of it kept him flying around the house for hours.  He was only out there 6 seconds tops, but wow, the excitement.

Below, he is channeling our Arnie, who was our only cat who crossed his paws so elegantly.  He looks perfectly coordinated on the quilt too, imagine that.  Oliver just began doing this, and of course in the same spots where Arnie sat.  Arnie would have loved this little guy.

Hope you enjoy the onset of autumn and all the delights it brings.  Keep quilting, your work does get better every day!
Diane

Quilting Whimsy Available Now....

September is here, and my new collection of quilting designs for your embroidery module is available now!  "Quilting Whimsy" includes animals, feathers, ferns and fronds, even more contemporary starbursts and other designs, something for all your projects.  They can be used as quilting or as outline embroidery, you decide, you pick the thread weight to make them work for you.

It is multi-format, so you can use it in many brands of machines, and get the right delivery system.

Bernina has done a wonderful heirloom quilt with the rabbit designs on an ivory silk radiance fabric and gives you the directions on their website.  Go to http://www.berninausa.com/ and scroll down to see what's in my collection.

Nina's quilt "Bunny, Oh Bunny" is found in the embroidery section at  http://www.berninausa.com/content-n599-sUS.html

I saw it at Wisconsin Quilt Expo a week ago, a wonderful quilt show, some inspiring quilts, and great friends.  My sister Mary and her friends from Small Town Quilters in Mercer, WI came to the event and I spent some time with them.  Below, Elizabeth, Nancy, Mary, and Toots, all in their custom embroidered red tees so they were easy to spot. 

 

Hope you are enjoying fall, getting back to some quilting.  It's been a long miserable summer here, so the first signs of color in the leaves, cool mornings, insects humming are all so welcome.

Diane



Needle, Thread, and Fabric

Many times finding the right thread, needle, and fabric combination is the key to experiencing non-frustrating machine quilting.

The sample of one of my new "Quilting Whimsy" digitized designs, above, was done on fine cotton fabric ("Gradations" by Caryl Bryer Fallert for Benartex) with #100 silk YLI thread and a #60 Schmetz Microtex Sharp needle. 

However, when I decided to do one line of echo quilting with "Sparkle," a YLI thread that combines #100 silk with a strand of metallic, I switched to a #80 Topstitch needle, which has always handled threads that tend to fray or skip just fine.  This time it did, but not as well as I would have liked.

Every so often a skipped stitch, oh no.  A bit of gold metallic showed through to the backing, oh no.  And worse, it would ball up behind the needle and fray to the point that I noticed no gold in the stitch at all, had to stop, re-thread, then continue, which resulted in.......frustration!

After doing some research, one of my students contacted me with the same problem and she went directly to the manufacturer of the thread, YLI.  I also did the same, and the answer was something I would never have considered, a JERSEY ball point needle!  Who knew!  I thought they were for knits only, wrong.

Evidently the friction from going through a pierced hole in the cotton fabric, rather than a nice opening made by the ball point needle was fraying the thread.  I bought some #80 SUK Schmetz Jersey ball point needles, put one in my machine, and gave the Sparkle thread a big workout. 

It worked perfectly.  None of the problems occurred.  I did have to quilt just a bit slower, lowered the top tension more, and I took a slightly larger stitch than with plain silk thread.  Sometimes it looked a little wobbly when going in directions away from myself, but all in all, very nice, definitely will use this again in a quilt and know I will have good results with the proper needle.

The thread itself is lovely.  It isn't a full-on metallic, so for me blends into the quilt well, but shows well too.  It is subtle bling, a touch of fairy dust on your quilt.  It comes in gold or silver with various neutral silk threads.

The new issue of the AQS magazine Quilt Life has a good article about thread with comments by many in the industry.  We do need to keep up on thread information so when we choose something that will enhance our work we can get it to work for us.

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day.

Diane

Quilting Whimsy

My new collection of quilting designs for embroidery sewing machines is moving along very quickly.  Here are some of the stitched out samples, including two large Mega Hoop designs, small designs, borders, and even some contemporary fun things.  Above, my own version of the large design done free motion in the center of a new wall quilt that will showcase the designs like the chickadee, sleeping cat, fronds, rabbit in feathers, formal medallion, pod flower, angel wings, and more.

I've been "off the grid" for two weeks, traveling to help with a family emergency, but am home now and working on my quilt.  One thing I really love about quilting is it helps ease anxiety and gives you a peaceful time to let your mind calm, your body concentrate on the task at hand.

Oliver is glad to see me back home, back in routine, at my machine and doing all my typical daily things. 

I'll try and check the comments and questions you have left and answer all of them, in the posts where you commented.

It's Quilt Market right now so many exciting things are happening in quilting.  I will have a few new products for my June session at Empty Spools (Asilomar) coming up, and I've got some new ideas for this class to try. 

Hope your spring is wonderful, and busy, and full of flowers and sun.

Keep quilting, your work gets better every day!
Diane