Applique in the Hoop

I have always loved appliqué but did not like it as a hand work. There were just to many pièces and I did not feel it is transportable. Machine appliqué is a skill one need to acquire like machine quilting and I never had.

Digitised appliqué was all I wanted from machine appliqué and I have the opportunity to have all kind of fancy stitches on the edge and not just a satin stitch.

This design was bought from  Ace Points Quilting  design at Secrets of embroidery   and was digitized without appliqué. I wanted a contrasting colour and just add the appliqué.

The machine is digitized to sew a placement line. The appliqué fabric is then attached with a straight stitch and trimmed close to the stitching line. An open thin sig-sag stitch are then sewn to make sure the fabric is well anchored and to provide an underlay for the satin stiches to follow.

Joanne Winn introduced me to have a fancy edge by first sew a decorative stitch on the edge before adding a satin or stem stitch.

Piece in the hoop

I love to use my machine’s embroidery unit for precision piecing. I do not really like paper based piecing but since my machine do it for me, my view changed. Blocks like Pineapple where the angles get wonky and blocks do not fit together paper based piecing or Piecing in the hoop is an essential method.

This Pineapple block (miniature) was created using the embroidery unit of my machine. This method is very suitable for miniature blocks. If the block cannot be pieced as a whole one can pièce the different units and then sew them together in a regular way. The Queenofstitching apparently has a method to complete the block in the hoop.

With the bigger hoop that many machines now have, once the block is pieced one can carry on and embroider the block as well as quilt the block. I have combined piecing and appliqué to achieve this. Bigger blocks can be sewn in half and then embroidered on this half before the other half are sewn in the hoop as I did in these blocks.

For a tutorial of these methods go  here

Or for a   video

My Stash, My treasure

I have been collecting fabric for more than 30 years now and it is my most valuable asset. Other people spent money on jewellery, make-up or beauty treatments. I spent it on fabric and on books and I know of many quilters who do this too. This is the wonderful thing to be among your mates- you are not so weird any more!

I live on a farm therefore a stash is essential and indispensable. I make multi fabric quilts and often design as I go. It is not possible for me to purchase fabric for a quilt or a project because I sometimes do not even know what I will do or need tomorrow.

I made sure that I have a wide variety fabrics in all the colors. Apart from these shelves (photo) I also have 2 shelves with big prints, a shelf with Batiks and one with hand dye fabric. I have 7 crates of solid colour fabric and 2 with South African fabrics. I have several crates with upholstery and curtain samples. I have a crate full of fabrics suitable for watercolour quilts, one with yardage for kaleidoscope effect quilts and 2 crates with Taupe fabric.

One only has enough fabric if you are willing to give some small pieces away if a friend need it. That does not mean that you now need to stop buying more fabric- only that you can now cut into your stash with more spontaneity. The fabric trends and colours change with every season and one cannot afford to be without these pieces. Remember, one buy for the future- not only for today and tomorrow.


I do not bust my stash. I treasure it and enjoy it and marvel in it. I touch it, stroke it and handle it whenever I feel like it. I draw inspiration from it. It is good for my health and well being.

Some Close-ups

 Janet Sampson- Pattera Garden

 Floral and lace- Addicted to Stitches

Another Addicted to Stitches design

Here is some detail shots of the embroidered blocks in my quilt

I have completed the embroidery on all the small squares. I have started to sew all the blocks together. I am running into problems though. The bigger embroidery blocks is slightly bigger than the pieced star- all my own fault! Now I have to stretch and fudge to get sharp points to match up!

Stabilizers in quilts

I hate the idea of paper in my quilt, therefore I tried to avoid using tear away stabilizers in my machine embroidery. I must admit that I did not realize the importance of the stabilizer in the formation of beautiful stitches. So after learning the hard way by trial and error I came to appreciate stabilizers more, but also try to come up with more acceptible solutions for myself.

When I make a quilt with heavy embroidery like a lot of satin and fancy fill stitches I use a needle felted cotton batting as stabilizer. The only problem then is to keep the batting out of the seam allowances when one sew the blocks together and to trim it evenly so as to have no lumps. I do add another full batting when layering for quilting. If this will be to lumpy I use a thinner needle punched poleyester batting- but not if the quilt is intended for a bed.

I also did not realise the reason for using a cut away stabilizer in stretchy fabric. Once again this lesson was learned when I ruined a nice T shirt when the embroidery shrinked the fabric. The cut away stabilizer is to hard for my liking and leave scratchy edges. So here I now also use poleyester needle punched batting to provide the stitches the support they need.

At a time I thought that water soluble stabilizer is the answer for all projects. I have now revised this idea. I have learnt that one need different stabilizers for different situations and tasks. I have also learned that one can experiment and come up with solutions that suit your own needs better. (I use a napy liner for continous support- it is a poleyster fibre and very soft after washing.)

Embroidery Designs

In my Artista program I have the Portfolio program whereby I can view my designs. To arrange the designs in a logical way is quite a task. Single designs is not such a big problem- one can have a flower category and subdivide it in Roses, Pansies etc. The problem is how to store a design set in a logical way. Bonus designs where a set contains a wide variety of different designs is the biggest problem. One can keep them in their set but then one do not realize what you have available.

I search through my designs on a regular basis to refresh my memory of what I have. I play with my design and use my wreath tool to combine 4 or six designs- the result is magical. Oh but to have time to sew them all!

I am busy making a quilt where I use a variety of circular blocks in different sizes- Molly Mine and Addicted to stitches are a few of the designers whose designs were used in this quilt. I am still stitching out some small squares for the sentre of the star blocks. Here is part of the quilt.

In this quilt I use a variety of colors but tried to use the same threads and colors in all the blocks to make sure that the blocks will be compatible. I also repeat the light blu- dark blue and light pink-dark pink-maroon combinations in this variety of design to create unity.

Yaroslav

A blog without photo's is unthinkable for me- specially if I am blogging about my creative activities! I am not so good with my camera and often has a mind block about taking the photo's. So although I was silent, it was not because I did not embroider!

I digitized a piece-in-the-hoop block, combining it with applique to complete the block. The advantage is, when one combine a block like this with embroidery the embroidery stitch out in the correct places. I also digitized the quilting pattern and after the embroidery was complete, I added a backing fabric and then the quilting was carried out as pre-programmed.

A photo was taken from one of the wall tiles outside a church in Yaroslav (Russia)- this city is a 1000 years old this year. The embroidery in the centre is combined with applique to create a look alike for the beautiful ceramic/porcelain? tile.

To Russia with Love

We have returned from a holiday in Russia. We spent two days in St Petersburg, then went by boat to Moscow. On our way we visit several towns, monuments and Monastery's. This was a wonderful holiday. It was also a mind boggling source of inspiration. This is a country any quilter and definitely every machine embroiderer should think of visiting.

The State Hermitage is a museum that has no equal in this world. Every room is an experience and an awesome revelation. The floors, walls and ceilings in every room differ, the one more breath taking and inspiring than the next. I did not know what to expect and did not learn before the time how to turn my camera flash off. Now I need to go again and spent more time to take the photo's I missed.

I include some wall panels from Kizhi and some floors of Catherine's (the Great) Summer palace. Do go, if you can!

I love applique but suck doing it by hand. How wonderful when the digitized embroidery machine come to my assistance. I digitized 4 blocks of Aie Rossmann's Affair of the heart. Her applique is very delicate. Where the pieces are to small to do all the cutting neatly- I digitized embroidered stitches. Otherwise I used batik fabrics in the applique. Once I know how to use my cutwork tool I will cut the pieces from the fabric first.

Embroider Towels

I had to embroider 80 towels for our Old Age Home. Basically to mark the towels in a "nice" way. I used the ACVV logo of a graphic design of three women. The problem was how to get a neat embroidery without the expensive use of a soluble stabilizer? Without it the loops of the towel made the embroidery unclear and unneat.

On 24 of the smaller towels with small loops this was not such a big problem. On the bath towels with the longer loops, I had to make a plan. I used a starch mixture to spray on the towel and then press the towel. I first use my iron. Then I decided it did not get it flat and dry enough. I used the press- but it made some coloured marks on the towels. I just hoped it will wash out. In the end I used the iron again and try to press the loops in the direction it naturally lay.

Although not as lovely as with a soluble product it still produced better results than no pressing did.