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My Favorite Homemade Starch Recipe
Several years ago I started making my own starch from scratch. I took a class with Edyta Sitar, and she made her own and gave me her recipe. I changed it slightly to fit my uses, but this is basically the same recipe. Homemade Starch Recipe 1 cup of Potato Vodka 4 cups of distilled water 15 drops of organic lavender oil Why make your own starch, you ask? I have several reasons. First, it’s the absolute best at getting out wrinkles and not leaving any residue. Second, I have friends with allergies and this starch doesn’t have any harsh chemicals. And lastly, but arguably the most important reason, if…
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FREE Sulky Webinar – Free Motion Doodling Celestial Wall Hanging
When you’re finished piecing a quilt top or other project, do you wonder what you can do to take it from “meh” to WOW? Maybe you have a stack of unfinished quilt tops collecting dust in your closet? Or perhaps you need some fresh ideas to embellish wearable art, totes, and more. Introducing doodle quilting to the rescue! Learn how to apply the fun and simple process of doodling to free-motion quilting with confidence. In this webinar, Beth Bradley of Martingale Publishing, will show you how to make the quick and easy Celestial Wall Hanging. This simple wall hanging gives you lots of bite-size opportunities to practice doodling designs from…
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Machine Embroidery Series – Linen
Linen is the perfect fabric for summer clothing and it is also very popular for home linens and decorative pillows. Let’s not forget accessories such as aprons, purses/totes, guest towels or handkerchiefs. Although the natural flax fiber can be combined with synthetic ones, linen fabric is at its best when 100% natural fibers are used. Linen can be found in a wealth of colors and in a variety of textures: delicately smooth and refined through to a nubby, coarse appearance. How the flax stalks are “processed” and the fibers spun all play a part in the look and weight of the fabric. Linen fabric should always be pre-washed and dried…
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How to Take Back Your Love for Quilting
Have you ever had something happen that just stole your love for quilting? Maybe you overheard someone say something really harsh about a quilt that you worked really hard to make. Maybe it was an overly critical comment on a quilt you put into a juried show. Maybe it wasn’t one thing; maybe it was just the continual lack of time to actually do it, and slowly but surely, you just stopped making them. You didn’t stop wanting to make them, you just were afraid to make them; too worried it wouldn’t be good enough, or the stress of trying to carve out the time to quilt became too much.…
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Machine Embroidery Series – Denim
To round out our discussion on Heavy Weight Fabrics, let’s take a look at Denim. Denim Supplies: Stabilizer: Sulky® Soft ’n Sheer™ – This is a viable stabilizer option, even though we generally suggest tear-aways for wovens and cut-aways for knits: The general thought process when selecting a stabilizer for any project tends to be that a “heavy” fabric requires a “heavy” stabilizer. However, with few exceptions, the opposite holds true. Think about it. The main purpose of a stabilizer is to provide a solid “foundation” for the fabric to accept the intended embroidery, as well as enabling the fabric to be secured in an appropriate size hoop to allow for the necessary machine movement…
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Machine Embroidery Series – Duck Cloth
Today we are continuing to explore machine embroidery on heavy woven fabrics. Here is a great example of embroidery on Duck-cloth. Duck-cloth Supplies: Stabilizer: Sulky® Tear-Easy™ Design is a free download to all members of the Sulk Embroidery Club: #870 Spoolie 5. Membership is free – just sign up. Topstitch Needle – dependent upon the weight of cloth: 90/14 or 100/16 The Spoolie design has a lot of detail stitched on top of other stitched embroidered spaces, producing several fairly dense areas. The larger needle was chosen for this fabric. Thread: Sulky 40 wt. Rayon thread Step 1 Layer the fabric on top of the stabilizer and secure both in the machine embroidery hoop. Keep both…
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Machine Embroidery Series – Embroidery on Canvas
Today we are continuing to explore machine embroidery on heavy woven fabrics. Here is a great example of embroidery on canvas. Canvas Supplies: Stabilizer: Sulky® Sticky+™ Design is a free download to all members of the Sulk Embroidery Club: #1090 Heart Scrollwork-Small-an outline design Needle: 100/16 Topstitch Thread: Sulky 12 wt. Cotton Blendables® Thread #713-4123 Hot Batik Step 1 Hoop Sulky® Sticky+™ in a 120mm (minimum) hoop, with the grided release sheet still intact and facing up. Score the paper making sure the exposed surface, at minimal, is large enough to accommodate the size of the design. Any extra surface exposure offers additional adhesive security. Step 2 Firmly, but smoothly, press the canvas to the sticky…
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Machine Embroidery Series – Heavy Woven Cottons
This series is written by guest blogger, Pamela Cox. Pamela is an expert embroiderer, designer, digitizer and all around wonderful girl! We are so happy to have her contributing to the Sulky Blog! Heavy Woven Cottons What do Denim, Duck-Cloth and Canvas all have in common? All three are considered “utility fabrics” because they are sturdy, heavier-weight, woven, cotton fabrics. Denim and duck-cloth are often used for slacks or jackets while all three are great for many home-dec projects and just perfect for tote bags!! Although woven fabrics can be secured directly in an embroidery hoop, often times the weight of a utility fabric precludes this from being a viable…
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Machine Embroidery Series – Embroidery on Mid-Weight Cotton
This series is written by guest blogger, Pamela Cox. Pamela is an expert embroiderer, designer, digitizer and all around wonderful girl! We are so happy to have her contributing to the Sulky Blog! The term “mid-weight/medium weight” cotton fabric covers many fabrics known by other names such as oxford, “quilting cottons” pique, broadcloth, just to name a few. They are often used, but not limited to, tote bags, throw pillows, table-toppers, garments, quilts and other patchwork projects. They are the most common fabrics used for machine embroidery and by following a few simple tips, your machine embroidery on these kinds of fabrics will always turn out great.…
