It’s another great #fabulousflorianifreebiefriday where we are featuring our Floriani State Flowers! This week, we are heading over to the state of Missouri to stitch out the White Hawthorn Blossom!
Don’t forget to drop your beautiful designs and projects in our Facebook group! We love seeing what you have created, and featuring you on our Floriani Embroidery Page!
…And last but not least… Have you entered our giveaway? We are giving away 3 amazing prizes to go with our Sketching Across America, Floriani State Flowers! Follow the link below to be entered to win:
We are getting ready for Memorial Day Weekend! That means lots of Red, White, and Blue, and so many decorations to make!
Clarrisa, from Clarrisa’s Corner, has made this beautiful heart design, filled with Patriotism! Download your free design below, and remember that there is no Clarrisa’s Corner this week! Join us next Thursday at 4:30 PM EDT for a new episode! You can also view all previous episodes on our Floriani Embroidery Facebook page under videos.
Hi, I’m Susan from Sewfeet.com and today we’re talking about stabilizer basics. Embroidery stabilizers are a key element in machine embroidery. They provide a firm foundation that can support the thread that is used to create the design being stitched. Without them, the fabric would be puckered around the design once it is un-hooped, and the stabilizer is removed. I’m going to start with my three go-to stabilizers that are good to always have on hand. Here are three stabilizers I use on a regular basis. I have other stabilizers that are more specialized for specific embroidery situations, but these are my every day, mainstream, often-used stabilizers that I make sure that I am never without. These three stabilizers are great to start with if you are new to machine embroidery.
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Embellish Soft Cutaway
Most cutaway stabilizers are stiff with a lot of body. This may be useful if you need some structure in your project. But there are times when I want the support of a cutaway but without the stiffness and this soft cutaway is perfect for that. It is very stable with no stretch in any direction. After stitching, trim away the stabilizer, leaving about ¼” around the design. The rest of the stabilizer remains behind the stitched design.
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Floriani Medium Tearaway
I like this stabilizer because it works for most projects that need a tearaway stabilizer. Crisp, but not stiff, it tears easily and cleanly away from the stitching. Tearaway is similar to cutaway but is more paper-like and tears easily. If using more than one layer of tearaway, it is best to remove the layers one at a time.
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Floriani Water Soluble Topping
A great stabilizer to use when you are stitching terrycloth, velvet, or other textured fabrics. An easy way to keep this in place on top of your hooped fabric is to wet the corners of the topping and then stick them to the fabric in the hoop. Typically, toppings are a film or mesh that dissolves with water. After stitching, trim the excess stabilizer from around the design and then rinse the project until the stabilizer completely is dissolved.
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Six Embroidery Stabilizer Facts and Tips
Before the home embroidery machine came about, stabilizers were used by commercial embroiderers. They were called backings because the majority of stabilizers are placed on the back of the fabric. The term used by the home machine embroidery industry is stabilizer.n
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Determining the type of stabilizer and the amount your project requires takes some testing using your project fabric with a variety of stabilizers until you find the stabilizer for that works best for your project. The more you work with stabilizers, the more intuitive it becomes.
The only hard and fast stabilizer rule is that knit fabrics, including t-shirts and sweatshirts, require cutaway stabilizers. It provides a very stable foundation for stitching. Woven fabric may use a variety of stabilizer types, depending on the fabric and the project.
Use commercial quality stabilizers made by reputable embroidery companies. These stabilizers contain silicone, which lubricates the needle as you sew, reducing the wear and tear on the needle and the machine. Substitutes such as paper, coffee filters, freezer paper, etc. are not recommended as they may contain other materials such as cellulose (wood pulp) that can be harmful to your machine.
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When stitching a fabric that has a nap or pile to it such as velvet, terry cloth, or corduroy, you will need the stabilizer behind the fabric plus an additional stabilizer on the surface of the fabric. Called a topping, this stabilizer keeps the stitches from sinking into the loops of the fabric. These work with fabrics that can handle moisture and dampness because toppings are water soluble so they can be completely removed after your stitching is complete.n
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The last five tips have been referring to using stabilizers for machine embroidery, but another use is with your sewing machine for decorative stitching. It keeps your fabric nice and flat with no puckering or tunneling as you stitch. It goes behind the fabric, the same as for embroidery and can be removed by tearing or cutting it away, depending on they type you are using.
Hi, I’m Susan from Sewfeet.com. I don’t know about you, but I love sewing machine stitches! Today’s machines have hundreds (or more) stitches in a variety of styles – florals, geometrics, cross stitches, abstract designs, and more. I also love making mini art quilts. In today’s post, I am combining the two with a simple mini art quilt that showcases some of my favorite stitch patterns. The finished size of this mini art quilt is 14” x 7”.
Supplies
Quilt Top: 15” x 8” rectangle of quilting cotton
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Backing: 15” x 8” rectangle of quilting cotton
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Batting: 15” x 8” rectangle of Embellish Premium Fusible Batting
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Stitched Strips: 8-10 strips 1” x 8” quilting cotton in a solid or subtle print that contrasts with the quilt fabric
Open Embroidery Foot for decorative stitching and couching
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Batting
Place the Embellish Premium Fusible Batting with the non-fusible side facing the wrong side of the quilt top. I used Embellish Premium Fusible Batting. I did not fuse the batting to the quilt top. As you stitch, the fabric will shift slightly, creating small bubble and puckers in your fabric for a textured look.
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Quilting
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Using the free-motion presser foot, meander over the surface of the fabric until it is completely quilted. I randomly covered the fabric with loops circles, and curved lines. My intent with this type of stitching is to create texture on the fabric, so you can be as free as you like with your fabric movement. It doesn’t have to be award-winning stippling or perfect free-motion stitches. What you want is a pebbly surface on your quilt. After quilting, trim the quilt top to 14” X 7”. Once it is stitched, set it aside. Note: You are quilting through the top fabric and the batting only. The backing will be added after the decorative stitches are sewn to the quilt top.
Decorative Stitching
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Place stabilizer behind one strip and select a decorative stitch of your choice. Sew down the middle of the strip. Tear away the excess stabilizer from the wrong side of the strip. Repeat with the remaining strips, trimming them to various lengths.
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Raw Edge Appliqué
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Arrange the decorative stitch strips as desired using the photos as guide. Stitch along all four edges of the strips to hold them in place.
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Stitch by Stitch
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Position the label on the quilt and stitch or glue in place. Place the decorative button on the label and stitch it be hand or machine.
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Finishing
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Trim the backing fabric to match the quilt top. Place the backing right side out behind the quilt top and fuse it in place. Cut the yarn into two pieces. Starting on the lower edge, place the two pieces of yarn along the edges and sew it to the quilt using a zigzag stitch. Set the stitch width wide enough to stitch into the quilt and over the yarn. Stitch the yarn along all four edges, overlapping the edges and backstitching to secure it.
Hi, I’m Susan from Sewfeet.com and this post is about a product from RNK Distributing. It’s called Sew-Fab-Foam and I’m using it today to make quilted placemats. I use it in place of batting, and it makes the placemat sturdy plus when I quilt through it, the stitching is more defined than stitching with a low-loft batting. The “wrap-around” binding technique makes it easy to finish these placemats.
Supplies for One Placemat – Finished size: 17” x 13”
· Front of placemat: Twelve 5” squares of quilting cotton
· Backing/Binding of placemat: 20” x 17” rectangle of quilting cotton
Using a quarter inch seam allowance, stitch three rows of four 5” squares together. Press the seams open. Stitch the three rows together to form the front of the placemat.
Sew-Fab-Foam
This foam stabilizer is sandwiched two pieces of natural color tricot fabric. One side is fusible so you can fuse the fabric to it and then quilt with no shifting or puckering. It can be machine washed and dried, so it is perfect for these placemats. Fuse the pieced fabric to the Sew-Fab-Foam by placing the fabric wrong side down on the fusible side of the foam. Set the iron on a medium setting (Wool) with steam. Hold the iron in place on the fabric for at least 5 seconds to bond the fabric to the foam.
Crosshatch Quilting
Draw a diagonal line in each direction on the placemat, using the diagram as a guide. Attach the quilting guide to the presser foot, 1” from the center of the foot. Stitch along one drawn line. Place the quilting guide on the first line and stitch a second line. Continue stitching lines 1” apart until the placemat is covered in one direction. Repeat the process with diagonal lines in the opposite directions. Trim the edges slightly if needed to square up the placemat.
Backing
Place the backing fabric on the non-fusible side of the foam. Center the exposed side of the foam on the wrong side of the backing fabric with 1 ½” of the backing extending beyond the foam on all sides. This will result in a ¾”binding on the placemat. Use temporary spray adhesive or pins to hold the placemat and the backing together.
Wraparound Binding
The excess backing extending from each side of the placemat will wrap around the raw edges of the placemat and become the binding with block corners. This fast binding method is simple to learn and an easy way to bind a quilt. On one side fold the excess fabric in half so the raw edge of the backing meets the raw edge of the placemat; press. Fold the binding up more time, folding it over the edges of the placemat so it is on the front of it. Use sewing clips to hold it in place. Repeat with the opposite side.
Stitch the binding using the open embroidery foot. Guide the edge of the binding along the inside toe and adjusting the needle to stitch about 1/8” from the folded edge of the binding.
Repeat this same process for the upper and lower edges of the placemat folding and stitching the corners as shown in the photo below.
Napkin Tip
Make coordinating napkins by cutting 18” squares of the backing fabric and stitching a narrow hem on all four sides of each one.
Join Clarrisa Gossett on the Floriani Facebook page for this fun, fast Mother’s Day Apron. Learn to create large text embroidery and how the weight of your thread can affect how accurate your piecing is!
I’m Susan from sewfeet.com and in this post, I want to share my latest quilt project. In one corner of my office, I have a little retreat where I can read, watch the birds outside, or just slow down and take a break now and then. I call it my comfort corner and I love the look and feel of it. But I decided it was missing one thing. I just needed a lap quilt to make it perfect. So, I put together a quilt made of scrap fabric, and I love how it turned out. The finished size is 32” x 53” and here’s what I used to make the quilt.
Supplies
· 16 fabric strips, 2 ½” x 55” – the length of the strips give you a little room to trim the edges once the strips are sewn together
· Cotton or Polyester thread to coordinate with the strips
· Walking Foot
· Rotary Cutter, mat, and ruler
Rotary Cutter and Ruler
I have a lot of scraps but of course, none of them are 55” long, so I pieced them to make the length I needed. I started with a few leftover pre-cut strips, and then used my scraps to cut more strips. I used my Quilters Select ruler and rotary cutter. The first time I used a Quilters Select rotary cutter, I couldn’t help but notice that it is much heavier than any other cutter I had used. I wondered if it would be hard to use or maybe it would be tiring to my wrist and hand. It is really exactly the opposite. The weight of the cutter makes it easier
to cut fabric because you don’t have to press as hard – the cutter is doing the work for you! I was able to cut all of the strips I needed in a very short time. The Quilters Select ruler I used made it really simple to cut 2 ½” wide because that is the width of the ruler. It also has a non-slip coating on the back, so it doesn’t slide around on the fabric as you are trying to cut it. The length of this ruler is 36”, so it is actually an acrylic yard stick! Note: I used this same ruler to but my binding strips.
Piecing the Strips
Once I had cut a variety of strips from my scraps, I pieced them together to make eighteen 55” strips. I did this by laying the strip pieces on my cutting table and deciding which pieces to stitch together to make the long strips. (My table held about half of the strips I needed so I did this twice to get the total number of strips I needed.) I didn’t overthink this. The only thing I did was make sure that the darks and lights were mostly separate. I had short strips and long strips that I sewed together to make 55” long strips.
I pressed the seams to one side and started sewing them together to create the quilt top. I used a patchwork presser foot (quarter inch), but you can use an all-purpose foot if you want. You really don’t need to be fussy about ¼” seams. You are not trying to match anything, just making a large rectangle, so if your seams aren’t perfect, the quilt will still be beautiful. Once the strips are joined, press the quilt top and trim it to 32” x 53”, squaring it up as needed.
Making the Quilt Sandwich
Once you have a large rectangle, you are ready to layer the quilt top and the backing with the batting between them. The backing and batting will extend beyond the edges of the quilt top. I used the Embellish Angel Loft Bamboo batting. This is a blend of cotton and bamboo. It is different from 100% cotton batting because it is slightly thicker and very soft. This means that it has a beautiful drape and feels very cuddly (remember, it is for my comfort corner). Baste the layers of the quilt using your favorite basting method. CLICK HERE for instructions on using Free Fuse, a fusible powder that is great for basting quilt layers together.
Machine Quilting
Attach a walking foot to the machine for quilting. Because this quilt has random patchwork pieces, it is great for all-over quilting that isn’t specific to the patchwork pattern. I used one of my favorite decorative stitches sewn vertically on the quilt. It is a serpentine stitch that looks beautiful and creates great quilted texture on the quilt. I started by sewing a line of stitching on each vertical seam. I began at the top of the quilt at the center seam line and worked my way out to the side edge. I continued on the opposite side, again working my way out to the side edge. This is really enough to hold the layers together so you can stop there if you want.
I wanted a more quilted look so after stitching the seam lines, I went back and stitched down the center of each strip. I did not measure the spacing for any of this (but you may if you want it to be consistently spaced). One of the things I like about this stitch is that it looks good, even when it is not placed perfectly).
Binding
Fold the binding strip in half lengthwise and press. Starting on the lower edge of the quilt, stitch the binding to the front of the quilt, mitering the corners. Wrap the binding to the back of the quilt and secure it with machine or hand stitching.
