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Free Martin Luther King Jr. Embroidery Design
Martin Luther King Jr. Embroidery Design To honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we have this free downloadable embroidery design with one of his many amazing quotes. I hope this blesses you as it has me. Growing up in the Atlanta area meant that I had the privilege of learning about the great work that Martin Luther King, Jr., did for civil rights first hand. I remember my amazing mama taking me to the Magnolia Room and explaining to me that Dr. King had been arrested in this very restaurant just because of the color of his skin. I have had the honor to go to Ebenezer Baptist Church and explore the…
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The Stabilizer Basics – Cut Away and Tear Away Stabilizers
Note: This is the second in a series about stabilizers. You can read the first installment here. When I started doing research for this series, the more I uncovered, and the more I realized there was to learn! One of my first questions was “How many stabilizers are there?!?!” It can feel like there are 4 million different kinds and they all seemed to have a very specific use. There are basically four different types of stabilizer: Cut-Away, Tear-Away, Wash-Away and Heat-Away. All of our stabilizers are color-coded, too. In this post, I will give you the basics and primary (most common) uses for Cut-Away (purple packaging) and Tear-Away (green packaging) stabilizers.…
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The Stabilizer Basics – Series
I have a confession to make. Although I have been sewing since I was a child, I am very very new to machine embroidery. The truth is, when I started this job with Sulky the most complex thing I could do on an embroidery machine is use the alphabet that is built in the machine in order to put a name or letter onto a towel. Don’t get me wrong, I owned all the right stuff. I had all the stabilizers, I had books, I even had friends who knew what they were doing and they were willing to answer any question that I had. The problem is, I had no idea…
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Sulky Favorite Things of 2014
Sulky Favorite Things We all have our Sulky favorite things. In 2014, our National Educators listed their Sulky favorite things that they made in 2014. Here are the very cool, very diverse results! Every year since National Educators, Suzy Seed, Nancy Sapin and Lee Fletcher started working Houston Quilt Festival together, they have done round-robin challenge vests. It was Suzy’s idea that Nancy and Lee needed to expand their embellishment skills fast and what better way than with a challenge! It has worked wonders and it is interesting to see the progression from the first year to now. This year they incorporated a lot of techniques from the new “Embellish…
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The Color of the Year 2015 Project Inspiration: Marsala
Since the year 2000, the experts at Pantone have been choosing a color of the year every year. Last year was Radiant Orchid (Sulky Color: #1032, Medium Purple). This year Pantone has picked Marsala and I for one, could not be more thrilled with this choice for color of the year 2015! I love this rich earthy color. I love the warm tone and sense of home it invokes in me. In Sulky threads, it matches several of our colors. For Rayon, it is color #1237 Deep Mauve, in Sulky Cotton Thread it is #1190 Medium Burgundy, in Sulky Metallic Thread it is color #7010 Dark Copper but in Sulky…
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My Favorite Sites For Hand Embroidery Patterns & A Giveaway!
Hand Embroidery is one of my favorite things to do. I love the act of stitching, especially with Sulky Cotton Petites™ & Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy™ (You can read why I love these products for hand embroidery here), but I also love that there are so many new designs these days. No longer is hand embroidery just red work, traditional or heirloom. No matter what your personal style, you can find hand embroidery patterns just for you. There are tons of great sites with fantastic patterns, but here are a few of my favorites. HINT: I am doing a giveaway at the end of this blog (Like the monster at the end…
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Free-Motion Quilting With Sulky Metallic Threads – Practice Makes Perfect
The question I get asked the very most is how I am able to sew and quilt, especially free-motion, with Sulky Metallic Threads so easily. Since I have learned how to use metallic threads, I use them in almost every project that I do. I have always been a girl who loves bling, so really, this is not a surprise! One of the things I love about Sulky Metallic Thread is it isn’t rough or stiff, so I am able to use it on just about anything and not worry that it will make my project too stiff. There is a secret to using metallic threads. Do you want to…
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Same Quilt Blocks, Very Different Quilts
Last year my mom, my friend Donna and I did a block of the month at a local quilt shop, Cottontail Quilts. This is where you pay a fee (some shops have a one-time fee, others have a monthly fee) and you go every month for your next block. At the end of the year, you have 12 different blocks that are a great base for a sampler quilt. Some times, the shop will give you a pattern for finishing the quilt a certain way, but they are not the boss of you, so you can finish it any way you would like. What I love about these kinds of…
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Make Your Own Award Ribbons With Your Embroidery Machine
Recently my quilt guild had our bi-annual Quilt Show. This year we had a new division: The Young Quilters’ division. Since this is not a juried show, we normally only give one award, the Peoples’ Choice award, but I just couldn’t in good conscience let the Young Quilters go away from our show without a ribbon. Confession time, I procrastinated and never got real ribbons ordered. So there I was sitting in my sewing studio the day before the Quilt Show was to open and I needed 4 ribbons to go on the four precious quilts that were entered in our Young Quilters division. I looked in my drawer and saw…
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Quick Thanksgiving Thread Sketch with Free Pattern
I was cruising around on Pinterest the other day when I came across this free printable from the website Living Well Spending Less. I thought it would look great done in thread and sitting in the center of my Thanksgiving table. So that’s what I did! I started by reversing the print so the letters are black and the background is white, then printed it out on Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy™. Next, I grabbed some of the new cotton colors that Sulky just introduced and auditioned thread. For the solid color cottons, I can just lay the spool down on the fabric and get a good idea what will work but with the…
