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Decorative Thread for Serging – National Serger Month Kickoff
Decorative Thread for Serging It’s National Serger Month! Using decorative thread for serging in the loopers (and even needles) transforms your serger from functional to decorative, thereby expanding the capabilities you have with your serger. To kickoff national Serger Month, we’ll dive into the fun threads you can use with your serger to breathe new life into your projects. The Baby Lock Triumph serger, shown above, is fresh out of the box, just waiting to test out all sorts of fun threads! SULKY POLY DECO™ FOR SERGING Even if your seams are functional, rather than decorative, you can still change up the thread colors and showcase a different color for…
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Chameleon Quilt with Desiree Habicht of Desiree’s Designs
Chameleon Quilt Webinar Guest, Desiree Habicht Desiree Habicht, of Desiree’s Designs, created a fun chameleon quilt for our free Sulky webinar on April 7, 2020 at 2pm EDT. Read on to get to know Desiree and sign up for the Color Me Chameleon Quilt webinar to reserve your spot today! After the live date, the webinar is available on-demand to watch at your leisure (still completely free). ABOUT DESIREE Q: What type of sewist/crafter/quilter are you? What’s your specialty? A: I call myself an artistic quilter or fiber artist. I love to incorporate my artistic twist into all of my designs, patterns and embroidery. It helps make our designs unique.…
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Karlee Porter’s Favorite Threads for Quilting
Favorite Threads for Quilting by Karlee Porter Award-winning quilter Karlee Porter shares her favorite threads for quilting. Learn more about Karlee in our free on-demand webinar, Hand Lettered Quilting. And look for our Hand Lettered Quilting kit to make memorable postcards to send to loved ones. from Karlee: When I first started quilting, the first thread that I had on hand were these very old cones that were from Walmart. When it comes to thread, especially for quilting, you get what you pay for. Not only did I find that this thread didn’t hold up very well, but I often had tension problems while trying to quilt with it. On…
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Free Face Mask Patterns to Make, Wear & Donate
Free Face Mask Patterns Below are a couple of free face mask patterns you can use to make your own protective gear and donate to various hospitals in need. Not only do your local hospitals need reusable fabric face masks, but veterinarian hospitals are in need, too. Many have surrendered their protective equipment or have simply run out due to the coronavirus pandemic, and when our furry friends need medical intervention and hospitalization face masks are essential. Comment below if you’d like to use these free face mask patterns and donate face masks to veterinarian hospitals but are unsure where to send the finished masks. You can join my local…
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Quilt Block Pillow with Hand Embroidered Center Block
Quilt Block Pillow Making a quilt block pillow is a great entry into quilting. If you don’t want to commit to making an entire quilt right off the bat, making one block helps you understand quilting fundamentals. If you’re a quilting pro, experimenting with different block patterns is a great way to discover new fabric or color combinations for future quilts. Perhaps you don’t have enough fabric to turn that one block experiment into a full-fledged quilt. Or maybe your experiment turned into something you’d love to showcase in another way. What to do with one-off blocks? Turn them into pillows! Better yet, add hand embroidery to make a statement…
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Designing Quilts that Look Like Gems with MJ Kinman
Designing Quilts for Quilts that Glow by MJ Kinman MJ Kinman is a textile artist with a passion for designing quilts that resemble gems. Her Diamond Diva quilt kits and Birthstone Gem quilt kits allow you to create your own gems with easy-to-follow directions and piecing templates. To celebrate National Quilting Month, MJ talks all about designing quilts, creating quilts and why she quilts with Sulky 40 wt. rayon thread. DESIGNING QUILTS I like to tell people that I make the biggest diamonds in the world. But instead of using the hardest substances on earth, I use the softest – cloth. I love everything about designing quilts and creating my…
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Quilt Binding Hacks & Time-Saving Tips to Learn
Quilt Binding Made Easy Learn some great methods to bind quilts that save you time and frustration, resulting in a professional finish. Binding a quilt is the last step in finishing the project you spent countless hours creating. Whether you opt for premade binding in the package or create your own binding strips, there are several methods for applying quilt binding depending on the desired finished look and your machine capabilities. Traditional Quilt Binding Techniques People bind quilts in tons of different ways. Quilters use either single- or double-fold binding, either cut on the bias or along the straight grain, depending on the look and the need for stretch. (Fabrics…
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Stabilizers for Quilting
Choose the Right Stabilizers for Quilting Did you know you can use stabilizers for quilting? That’s right! Stabilizers aren’t just for machine embroidery. You can use stabilizers for quilting to achieve a more professional finish; provide a sturdy foundation for certain techniques; add thread count to lightweight fabrics without altering the drape or hand; and more. If you’ve ever struggled with taming a fabric while sewing, completing a pucker-free appliqué or creating straight stitches when quilting, this post is for you! Using stabilizers for quilting will change your quilting for the better. Soft ‘n Sheer™ This stabilizer is a lightweight cut-away variety that remains with the fabric after stitching through…
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5 Beginner Quilt Patterns – for National Quilting Month
Beginner Quilt Patterns These quilt patterns for beginners are great starter projects for anyone looking to get into quilting, needing a personalized gift, or wanting to use up fabric from their stash. To celebrate National Quilting Month, we’ve compiled several beginner quilt patterns so you can easily start (and FINISH) a quilt this month. 1. HST Quilt What’s a HST? It stands for “half-square triangle.” These triangles are easily created by stacking and assembly-line cutting using a rotary cutter, mat and ruler, which are essential tools you need for accuracy and ease when cutting quilt pieces. This “I Heart the 80s” beginner quilt pattern showcases fun fabrics and Neon Poly…
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Your First Machine Embroidery Project – A Beginner’s Guide
Start Your First Machine Embroidery Project! by Pamela Cox It’s time to start your first machine embroidery project to wrap up National Embroidery Month! We’ve covered how to start adding machine embroidery techniques into your sewing repertoire, and we’ve defined the must-know machine embroidery terms. Now it’s time for the fun stuff–embroidering that first project. WHERE TO FIND MACHINE EMBROIDERY PROJECTS The internet is a veritable salad bar of sewing, quilting and machine embroidery projects. How do we know which ones are good for beginners? Narrow your search by being very specific. What do YOU want to make (think small, and go bigger once you’ve had more practice.)? Do you…
