Bunnycup Embroidery: Designs From the Heart

I've been busy working on a quilt made from UFOs and it is turning out great, catching up on reading some inspirational sewing books I picked up from the library and last night went a little crazy buying books at JoAnn Fabrics as they were having a sale plus I had a 10% off coupon for the total purchase. I have also been really sick which stole a week of time. Anyhow, as usual I got behind on my blog. As soon as I get the time, I'll be posting pictures of the quilt in progress and a simple top I want to work on today. I'll also be posting some book reviews from this batch of books I currently have from the library and my new purchases. I love reading sewing and needlecraft books not only to learn but to be inspired by them. I really wish I could review them in exchange for free books but so far I haven't found anyone willing for me to do this for them so I have to buy or borrow needlecraft books. Hello publishers, send me your books and I'll be happy to share them with the sewing world!

In the meantime, for you out there that do machine embroidery for children and need designs for them, here is a great site: Bunnycup Embroidery. They have a lot of designs, most of which seem geared for children and also holiday themes that you can use in the kitchen and elsewhere. As they have advanced their digitizing skills, they have retired a lot of sets and instead of just taking them off the site, they are giving them away FREE. As of today they had 47 FREE sets! Take advantage of their generosity by trying out some of their designs and then purchasing them as you are able. Although I usually don't bother collecting children's designs, I downloaded a few that I thought I might be able to use in Project Linus quilts and also there were some really cute Gingerbread cookie designs that would be great for Christmas or for sewing them on kitchen towels for great hostess and impromptu gifts during the holidays.

My New Dress

I'm happy to report I finished a new dress and with very little tweaking of the pattern, it fits! Yahoo! Not only does it fit, it is a comfortable dress and it would be especially so if it were made in a non-staticy fabric. I purchased this fabric normally $10/yard when our local JoAnn Fabrics went out of business for $2/yard. There was something like 10 yards on the bolt and I have plenty leftover. I thought it was a beautiful color and looks great on me. My husband doesn't particularly like the color blue so I usually avoid it, but even he had to admit it is a lovely color as it is a crinkle silky polyester that changes shades as it moves. But, after years of sewing with mostly cottons, I wasn't prepared for the static this dress produced. With no Static Guard in the house, I took some tips from the ladies at Threads discussion forum to help control the static. What really worked for me was lightly moistening a fabric dryer sheet with water and gently patting the dress before I left the house and yet again when I got to church.

I made a couple of changes in making up this pattern. Since I am 5'10" and also starting to 'sag', I lowered the belt line about 2" and also remembered to lower the inseam pocket the same 2". Once I realized if I didn't I would have probably tied the pockets closed when tieing the belt. I also ditched the idea of the collar facings and made self bias binding and attached it to the neckline (the neckline area was stay stitched prior to this to help prevent stretching). Anyhow I love how the dress turned out and I still have about 5 yards of the fabric left. Many people say that with the price of fabric and notions there isn't much savings in sewing, but I beg to differ. This dress ended up costing me, including pattern, less than $15 and that includes the electricity for the sewing machine. I used Simplicity Pattern 2615. I think my next try with this pattern, I might take it in a bit more and have the ties coming from the side seam instead of the patch of fabric in the front. I really don't need anything to draw attention to my tummy!

New Scissors

I've been looking for a pair of applique or 'duck bill' scissors for several years now as they are always highly recommended in many quilting books for use in applique. Well on Mother's Day my son gave me a JoAnn Fabrics gift card and wouldn't you know I also got an email from them about a 30% off sale including Gingher scissors. Found the scissors and bought them (only had to add in a little S&H fee that the card ddin't cover). In the picture they looked flat like the ones I had seen in the store, but when I received them, they had the bent handles like embroidery scissors. I was happy about that as it seemed that the bend would make them more useful. Looking forward to trying them today I hope. I have an idea for doing some machine embroidery applique designs and want to see how the scissors will work for cutting out the fabric while still in the hoop.

But first I have to finish a dress I am making. I only have to hem it and do a neck binding. The neck is supposed to have facings which I always think looks sloppy and saw an article in Threads magazine on how to convert to a bias binding which I'm going to try.

Wanting to get this book to try out my new scissors!

Kate's Bag, My Version

I was able to pick up a copy of Handmade at my book store a couple of months ago and one of the projects captured me. I just had to make it. Since I rarely do anything but use magazines for my own inspiration, to follow the directions was a real change for me. This crazy patch purse was fun to make and I got to incorporate hand embroidery, patchwork, decorative stitching and regular sewing. I also got to figure out the pattern that was not quite correct and I misunderstood the directions in one spot too, but all in all I think it came out very nicely. It is roomier than it may first appear and it allowed me to carry my essentials plus I was able to fit a bottle of water and my Bible inside to go to church. As I am usually juggling, water bottle, Bible, purse and cane to be down to just purse and cane made things so much easier.

One of the things that I patted myself on the back for was not taking the 'easy way out' and using my embroidery machine to sew out the rose in the middle of the purse. I did it with my own two hand using a stem stitch and a large needle. I found that I can still do hand embroidery if I stick with a large needle and it is fun to have a craft back in my life that I had thought for a long time that I couldn't do any longer.

This project was featured in Handmade, Vol. 26, No. 5 and was called Kate's Bag on page 19. this is an Australian magazine in case you are wondering why you may have never seen it. I'm happy to see that Joann fabrics is carrying it currently.

Thimbleberries

I have seen Thimbleberries quilting books and items throughout the years and although they have wonderful designs, they always seemed a bit on the dark side for the types of quilting I like to do. However, after visiting their website, my mind is changing (a women's prerogative is it not?). I found some lovely quilt designs and also machine embroidery designs that I would be happy to sew out on their site. They even have several FREE floral designs in three sizes and in all the regular home embroidery machine formats for you to try out their machine embroidery designs.

Included in their free designs were two quilt labels also in three sizes and all the formats. You can of course, use these for your own quilts or use them in the charity quilting project that Thimbleberries is helping to support called Faith's Lodge. Faith's Lodge is a retreat for parents grieving for a serious ill child or one that has died. An effort is being made to provide a quilt of comfort for each family when they leave the retreat. If this sounds like something that you would be interested in helping with, just click here for more details.

As I have just about enough quilts that are needed for the beds in our home, and other than to replace them or to make decorative wall hangings, I realize that if I ever am to lower the level of my fabric stash it will be with making quilts for others. Perhaps you feel that way also. I know there are many charity quilting projects on the go, so please let me know if there are projects that I can post here to help get the word out. My obvious favorite, for myself, at this time is Project Linus as I enjoy making children's quilts since my boys are grown, yet I have no grandchildren to sew for at this point.

Project Linus Quilt

Well I am done with my Project Linus quilt for this year. It is about 40" x 40" square with slightly ripply edges--OOPS! I used yellow and white gingham that I had picked up one day at a yard sale for $2 for over 4 yards. The Iris design is from Janome Memory card 121 Floral designs, design #12. The swirling butterfly was purchased from Embroidery Library for $1. The threads were from my stash of Robison-anton and Sulky threads. I used a yellow and white varigated thread for the stippling.

After prewashing the fabric, I squared up the gingham by tearing it along crosswise grain. This left me with a square of fabric and great directional lines for placing the designs. I found it was much easier to get the machine embroidered iris designs just right when placing them in the hoop by following the fabric colored line and I didn't need to use fabric markers that I'm never sure will come off right. The butterflies, I just put randomly on the quilt top. If you have never attempted a machine embroidered whole cloth quilt before, I would suggest that you use a woven gingham fabric if at all possible as it really does add in placement. A printed design won't have the same effect especially if the fabric got printed off grain.

I enjoyed this project and hope the baby and parents that receive this quilt will enjoy it also. I don't generally get a chance to do much 'girly' sewing, so this was especially fun for me to do.

Cooper's Stitches

I ran into another machine embroidery site today. They have a small but growing site with a lot of sample projects, examples of how to combine designs to make a larger design or quilt block. They have some lovely floral designs (which I'm always a sucker for), animal and holiday designs. There is also a nice selection of FREE sample designs so you can do some stitch outs of their designs before you pay to buy one of their sets.

I think it is very important for machine embroidery design sites to have a good selection of freebies as money is too tight for some of us to buy something that isn't what we thought it would be. I have collected a massive amount of free designs and have also bought sets. I have never, however, bought a set from a digitizer that I haven't been able to do a sew out for free first. Probably one of the reasons I have been using and promoting Embroidery Library since it opened up. They give out free designs every month and they are very well stitched out. I also have bought many designs from them. Currently I'm just finishing up a Project Linus quilt that has a Butterfly in Flight design which was just perfect to go with the iris designs from one of my Janome memory cards. I'm almost done with the quilt and will be posting pictures as soon as possible.