Category Archives: embroidery

01

Sep. ’22

Getting into a groove

Lately I’ve been getting into a groove.

Every day I do a row on this knitting project. I’m just about halfway through the project and it will take another 6 weeks or so to finish but a row a day will get me a finished project in a few weeks.

The Orient Express Shawl

Every day I do about 100 stitches on this cross stitch project.

Gamer – current progress

I go back and forth between Gamer and this one every week. Right now that’s enough.

Modern Folk Embroidery SAL 2022

For quilting, I’ve been working on my BOM- Plum Fusion. I love these colors. We are getting close to the end of the month and I’m about 3 pages behind, page 18, 19, and 20. Page 18 is almost done… I just have to square up these blocks to 12.5”.

these are squared up. I have a handful left to do.

I’m also trying to finish a quilt for the September meeting. It’s probably not going to happen. I am piecing a back and it’s not yet done. most of it is but it’s not done and so I can’t baste and can’t quilt. This project seems to be a weekend project and my weekends are booked solid. I try to do a little after work on the weekdays but I find I’m too tired for that kind of effort.

And I’m also working on some hand stitching. I have these ornaments that I’ve been on and off again working on since last December (2021). I’ve got all the wool blanket stitched down and now I’m playing with the embroidery and some beading. I’ve also got together with some of my hand stitched enthusiasts and are doing a sampler of sorts of embroidery stitches. I’m well behind the others. I really need to do 2-3 a day and eventually I’ll catch up but it’s the last thing on my list and I often don’t get to it.

Well that’s where I am with my crafting. Every day with a little bit of progress brings me joy.

Stay crafty friends

Melanie

Posted by . Categories: Cross Stitch, embroidery, Quilting. Leave a comment

16

Jul. ’22

Stitch Club

Sample project from the instructor

I love my LQS. I’m lucky to have several near me. At least 4. My favorite, the one I refer to when I saw MY LQS is Quilt Emporium in Woodland Hills. It’s not the one closest to me now but that’s because I moved. When I lived in the west side of the San Fernando Valley, Quilt Emporium was the closest one to me. I took my first quilt class there (with the previous owner) and I’ve watched them change hands, expand their fabric selection, etc. etc. They are wonderful, welcoming people.

In May, they sent an email with upcoming classes and one of them was for “Stitch Club”. Stitch Club is a hand embroidery class and the first sessions were in June and on a weekday. I emailed them and explained that me (and several of my quilt buddies) would love to take the class. But, at least 2 of us still work and would not be able to do weekday classes. Not to mention that we were fully, overwhelmingly booked in June. So Lisa, the proprietor, worked with our calendars to find a Saturday in July that worked. That was today. We had so much fun.

more samples from the instructor

The club is not like how most classes are with a project that we learn and work on in class. We each emailed the instructor our ideas of what we wanted to do and she went from there. Today was mostly an introduction of her talking about thread, needles, hoops, etc. And there were new to embroidery people and more experienced people who knew what to do and just love being with other hand embroidery people. I fall somewhere in between. I’m not new but I am not an expert.

I brought an ornament project that I bought last December during the shops holiday event and my goal is to work on hand embroidery WIPs and once they are done, work on the kits I have.

Here’s my list of projects so I have it somewhere:

  • Ornaments (WIP)
  • Rainbow Garden (WIP)
  • Prairie Days (WIP)
  • Simple Days (WIP)
  • Rusty Crow Mat (kit)
  • Crazy Christmas Quilt (Kit)

And one day, I want to work on something from Sue Spargo and Laura Wasilowski.

I’m excited and I had a great time at today’s class.

How do you bring your stuff to class? I don’t want to forget anything so I usually have all the stuff for a thing in a bag and when I want to work or bring that project, I just grab that bag. Because I do not embroider as often as I want to outside of my house, I just took the project bag, my hand quilting bag, 2 plastic bins which carry my hand applique supplies. I just didn’t know what I needed exactly and didn’t want to be without. Well, as always, I did forget something – a small embroidery scissors. Luckily my applique bins had a whole bunch of scissors to use.

So, here’s my list as it stands now of what I need for The Stitch Club –

  • the project
  • thread, floss, etc.
  • #24 chenille needles
  • magnetic pin cup – to hold my needles while I’m working as well as a cup to catch all the ORTs. I found a great definition of what an ORT is here.
  • embroidery scissors
  • finger cot
  • thimble

Happy Crafting!

~Melanie

Posted by . Categories: embroidery, Quilting. Tags: , . 2 Comments

18

May. ’21

Tuesday of week 21, 2021

Dancing with the Stars – block A

Short List – May goals

  • Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
  • Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
  • Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
  • Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
  • To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it) – DONE

How I did last week –

  1. Cross Stitch – I stitched on Gamer twice last week.
  2. Knitting – do 10 more rows on my Weasley Sweater and do the heels on my morning socks. – I did my 10 rows on the Weasley sweater and I finished the second heel on my morning socks.
  3. Gardening – watered the plans every other day or so
  4. Quilting:
    1. orange quilt top – get label and binding ready – done. I just kept going and finished the quilt. 🙂
    2. simple days, continue to embroider the 3rd block of the January clue. – I’m back in love with this project. Another one of my guild mates is working on this and I love what she’s doing. It’s inspiring me to move forward on it.
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of Block A – I finished piecing all of Block A! So I set this aside while I worked on Grassy Creek
    4. Pull Out Grassy creek and start clue 5 – which meant I was able to pull this out, figure out where I was on Clue 5 and keep going. I’ll need to cut more fabric on the small 9 patches to get this part of the clue finished. => I have cut some more fabric and will start piecing again.

This Week:

  1. Cross Stitch – this week: Ariadne
  2. Simple Days – I have two zoom sessions with the cool quilty people on Tuesday and Wednesday so I plan to do a little on both days.
  3. Grassy Creek – Get the itty bitty 9-patches done. I will need to cut more fabric and I’m fussy cutting scraps so it takes much longer than strip piecing but it thrills me to no end to use up as much scraps as possible.
    1. I have 7 -9 patches done so quite a few more to go. I’m doing these the long hard way to use the most of my itty bitty scraps. I plan to keep working on this for now and will not move on to dancing with the stars until this is done.
  4. Dancing with the stars – figure out how many of Block B I need and start working on it. => haven’t done this yet.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

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11

May. ’21

Tuesday of week 20, 2021

I know I posted this picture yesterday. I think I can post another picture. 🙂

Short List – May goals

  • Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
  • Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
  • Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
  • Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
  • To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it)

How I did last week –

  1. Cross Stitch – I stitched on the dragonfly 3 times last week.
  2. Knitting – do 10 more rows on my Weasley Sweater and do the heels on my morning socks. – I did my 10 rows on the Weasley sweater and I finished 1 heel on my morning socks. I’m about a third of the way through the second heel. I was able to knit on my socks 4 times and on my Weasley Sweater.
  3. Gardening – I did finish planting the seedlings I had. I also went to Sego Nursery and bought more cosmos, marigolds, rosemary, orange balm and lemongrass.
  4. Quilting:
    1. orange quilt top – get label and binding ready – done. I just kept going and finished the quilt. 🙂
    2. simple days, continue to embroider the 3rd block of the January clue. – I fell out of love on this project. I worked on it a bit during my minigroup meeting but I used that time to work on the orange quilt top.
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of Block A – I finished piecing all of Block A! So I set this aside while I worked on Grassy Creek
    4. Pull Out Grassy creek and start clue 5 – which meant I was able to pull this out, figure out where I was on Clue 5 and keep going. I’ll need to cut more fabric on the small 9 patches to get this part of the clue finished.

All in all, even though I worked a lot, I still go a lot of my crafting goals done. part of it is being super focused about what I want to get done this week and making sure I’ve got a list of things to do before each crafty session. Even if I only get 1 strand stitched on the cross stitch, that’s okay. I may not get done with it fast but I’m a process crafter so that’s 1 strand stitched.

This Week:

  1. Cross Stitch – this week I get to work on Gamer again. It’s been months since I pulled her out and I’m not done with that second row. I’m almost done but I think I can get it finished this week assuming I stitch every day.
  2. Simple Days – I only have one zoom session with the cool quilty people on Sunday so I plan to do a little bit on sunday.
  3. Grassy Creek – Get the itty bitty 9-patches done. I will need to cut more fabric and I’m fussy cutting scraps so it takes much longer than strip piecing but it thrills me to no end to use up as much scraps as possible.
  4. Dancing with the stars – figure out how many of Block B I need and start working on it.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

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03

May. ’21

Monday of week 19, 2021

Short List – May goals

  • Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
  • Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
  • Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
  • Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
  • To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it)

How I did last week –

Blooming Bouquets #2 Cheerful

  1. For my cross stitch – Blooming Bouquets #2: Cheerful – I stitched 4 times last week and below is a picture of where I left off.
  2. continue knitting on my morning socks and do at least 10 rows on my Weasley Sweater. – DONE
  3. Gardening – Plant the seedlings Julie gave me, as well as the others I bought this weekend. 🙂 – I did get a number of these planted but I still have a few more to plant. We got hit with a brief heat wave and my seedlings wilted by the end of each day of heat. I had to water twice a day to keep them going and it looks like they will be fine.
  4. Quilting
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top – DONE
    2. Simple Days – continue embroidering the 3rd block of the January clue – worked on this and I’m still working on it.
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of block A – worked on this a bit more and I’m still working on it.
    4. Pull out Grassy Creek and start clue – NOT done

This Week:

  1. Cross Stitch – this week I’m working on my Dragonfly piece.
  2. Knitting – do 10 more rows on my Weasley Sweater and do the heels on my morning socks.
  3. Gardening – finish planting the seedlings I have. I will be making my bi-weekly trip to Sego Nursery, my local garden nursery that I love to go to and check out what they have. I’m looking for nasturtiums, more basil, more mint, and whatever else I find.
  4. Quilting:
    1. orange quilt top – get label and binding ready
    2. simple days, continue to embroider the 3rd block of the January clue.
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of Block A
    4. Pull Out Grassy creek and start clue 5.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

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26

Apr. ’21

Monday of week 18, 2021

auditioning fabric for the border

how I did last week –

  1. Cross stitch on Titania – I only stitched on her once.
  2. Continue knitting daily on my morning socks and Weasley Sweater. I want to get to this 100% next week. – I skipped my bullet journal last week so I’m not sure how well I did. I believe I knit probably 3 times last week and for my Weasley Sweater I’m about 1/4 of the way through. It’s almost 1/3 of the quarter so I’m a little behind schedule.
  3. Gardening – My friend Julie gave me some more seedlings so I’ll need to get those planted this week. – I planted one of the seedlings. I’ve got pole beans and something else to plant. I just can’t decide where to put them. I will need to determine that this week though.
  4. Quilting –
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top – not done
    2. wash the new fabric for the border of the Jan Krentz quilt – done
    3. Judy Neimeyer – Double Wedding Rings – trim the pieces – done
    4. Simple Days – embroider the 3rd block of the January clue – worked on. It’s not done but it’s in progress
    5. Dancing with the Stars – continue piecing more of block A. – yes. I did this. It’s not finished but I’m working on it.

this week –

  1. For my cross stitch – I’m switching projects. More on this another time. But my tiny decisions app picked “bountiful blossoms”.
  2. continue knitting on my morning socks and do at least 10 rows on my Weasley Sweater.
  3. Gardening – Plan the seedlings Julie gave me, as well as the others I bought this weekend. 🙂
  4. Quilting
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top
    2. Simple Days – continue embroidering the 3rd block of the January clue
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of block A
    4. Pull out Grassy Creek and start clue

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

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19

Apr. ’21

Monday of week 17, 2021

auditioning fabric for the border

  1. I really want to cross stitch on Gamer! – Done I tried to cross stitch every day but I couldn’t do it. But I did a bit, and that’s all that matters.
  2. continue knitting daily on my morning socks and weasley sweater.. and anything else I’m able to knit is bonus – Again, I did a bit most mornings and days.
  3. for gardening – done. every day, I go out about 10am as my morning break. I water the plants, check on them and take care of anything that needs to be taken care.
  4. For quilting: start quilting my orange quilt top. – done.
    1. Go to the quilt shop and pick fabric for the border of my Jan Krentz quilt. – done
    2. Reacquaint myself with dancing with the stars – done and grassy creek. – not done.

So I got a lot of a little bit done last week. and I keep working on it.

This week –

  1. Cross stitch on Titania
  2. Continue knitting daily on my morning socks and Weasley Sweater. I want to get to this 100% next week.
  3. Gardening – My friend Julie gave me some more seedlings so I’ll need to get those planted this week.
  4. Quilting –
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top
    2. wash the new fabric for the border of the Jan Krentz quilt
    3. Judy Neimeyer – Double Wedding Rings – trim the pieces
    4. Simple Days – embroider the 3rd block of the January clue
    5. Dancing with the Stars – continue piecing more of block A.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

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12

Apr. ’21

Monday of week 16, 2021

Another tough work week passed but I did get a lot of my to do’s done from last week. First and foremost, I finished the cushion project! Yay! I posted pictures on yesterday’s Sunday Stash post. But here you go again

I am regularly knitting on my morning socks and I’ve almost knit daily on my Weasley Sweater. I was able to spend some time Thursday with my knit group and got to my Tranquil Shawl and my advent blanket. Progress has been made!

In regards to my gardening, I made it to Green Thumb nursery and bought soil for my gardening project that I mentioned last week.

I planted a strawberry tower. I originally planned to put strawberries in every pot but decided to plant some seeds in some of them. I’ll plant chives, onions, basil, parsley because that’s what I have seeds of. I also did all my normal gardening chores – fed the worms, turned the compost, put together the new compost bin! and planted all the seedlings I had to be planted. All in all, my gardening work is getting there.

For quilting, I was able to baste my orange quilt. I applique’d the center star and now all I need is to add a border. I searched my fabric stash and nothing went right with this so I plan to make a trip to my LQS, Quilt Emporium, to pick something out. I didn’t touch grassy creek or dancing with the stars. I did do some hand work and finished the first little bit of embroidery on Simple Days.

So now what’s next? This upcoming week, here are my goals –

  1. I really want to cross stitch on Gamer!
  2. continue knitting daily on my morning socks and weasley sweater.. and anything else I’m able to knit is bonus
  3. for gardening – keep watering it, Saturday garden work: feed the worms, turn the compost, empty the kitchen bin into the compost and wash it. repot some of the plants that I potted before, plant some seeds. Put the mulch where I want it to go.
  4. For quilting: start quilting my orange quilt top. Go to the quilt shop and pick fabric for the border of my Jan Krentz quilt. Reacquaint myself with dancing with the stars and grassy creek.

Wish me luck! It’s a short list this week as I’m being realistic and motivated.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

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04

Oct. ’16

Embroidery – Quilt Labels

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I’m figuring out how to use the embroidery aspect of Luna (my new Bernina 790).  I was never proficient with the embroidery machine for my Brother but with how much I dropped for Luna I plan to use it as much as possible.  But first, I need a few quilt labels.  My new owner class is not until the end of October.  I need these now so I wasn’t about to wait for the class.  I just made my way over to my dealer and asked them to show me how to set up the embroidery machine and start using it.  They were real nice.  At the shop they use Isacord thread.  I have a lot of Madeira thread that I purchased for my Brother so I’m working with what I have.  I created the one for Hampton Ridge first and the video below shows Luna in action.  Hopefully it works.  When I was able to pull the label off, there were areas where the bottom thread were coming up to the top.  So I took my first piece back to the shop to ask them about it.

  1. Is this how it is supposed to look? Answer: no.
  2. If not, how do I fix it? Answer: adjust the top tension until the bottom thread doesn’t come up to the top.

So I went home and adjusted the top tension from 3.0 to 2.0.  It works like a dream now.

Here are some notes for myself in the future:

  1. Madeira thread breaks a lot on my Bernina so I can’t have it embroider at top speed.  And definitely turn off the jackrabbit (super speed option)!

    That's where the speed lever should be at...

    That’s where the speed lever should be at…

  2. I used the Brother embroidery bobbin thread.  I have about 3 spools of this because I thought I was going to do a lot of embroidery when I bought the Brother machine.  I hardly used it and put it in one of my bobbins to use it now.   I need to remember to use this always until I run out.  Then I can try something else and see what works the best.  I did use 50w Aurifil thread at first because that was in the bobbin and I didn’t see a difference.   Although, using this bobbin thread may have added to my tension issues.
  3. Adjust top tension to 2

That’s all I can remember for now.  I hope to do more embroidery.

Posted by . Categories: embroidery, Quilting. Tags: . 2 Comments