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St. Patty’s Day Placemats – 4 mats in 4 hours
The other night I decided I wanted St. Patrick’s Day place mats. I had found this cute fabric and had an idea in my head so I just went for it. They turned out so cute that I thought I should do a tutorial. These took me about 4 hours to do, start to finish, so you could make them this weekend and have them for your St. Patty’s Day feast. Supplies 1 yard of green fabric 1-1/2 yards of white fabric Batting (I used Warm and White™) Sulky® Soft n Sheer Extra™ Sulky PolyLite™ in Ecru or White 1/2″ Bias tape maker 1/2″ Steam a Seam tape Ruler…
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Advice to Sewists in 2015
Have you noticed this picture making it’s rounds on the internet lately? Since this was the advice given to women who had just purchased a sewing machine in 1949, I wondered what advice we would give today. So a few weeks ago, I asked my eNewsletter readers to send in the advice that they would give to a person who had just purchased a brand new sewing machine. I received over 100 responses! After combing through all the advice: some gave the same advice, some gave funny advice and yet others had conflicting advice! I have sorted through them all, consolidated it and here is what Sulky fans came up with: If…
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The Stabilizer Series – Sulky Tender Touch
We are well into this series now and have gone through the basics of stabilizers and their uses, now lets get to some other uses! If you missed the start of this series, here are the links: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, and the Infographic! Today I want to tell you about Sulky® Tender Touch™. Tender Touch originated as a “cover-a-stitch” backing that is used when you do embroidery on clothes for babies or small children. That is still the primary use of this product, but there is sew much more you can do with it! For me personally, Tender Touch has saved the day on many occasions. My…
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My Experience at Quiltcon!
When I first heard about the Modern Quilt Guild I was a little skeptical. I grew up learning how to sew from my mom and her friends who are all very traditional quilters. I am a southerner, and we like traditional down here in the south. I never in a million years would have considered myself a modern quilter…until now. My early impression of modern quilts were quilts that didn’t take much time or talent to make. Boy! Was I wrong! I haven’t been this impressed by the work, the artistry or the enthusiasm at a quilt show in a long time. The modern quilter is a girl (or boy)…
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The Sulky Stabilizer Infographic!
Hello! I have been away at Quiltcon in Austin, Texas all last week and I am so sorry I couldn’t post. My computer decided to die while I was there. I have managed to recover the pictures from the show and will be sharing those and lots of fun moments in a post later this week. Today I want to finally share with you the Stabilizer infographic! I finally got it finished and I hope this will be a helpful. As you know, this isn’t everything there is to know about stabilizers, but I hope it will be a good basic guide to get you started. Feel free to print this,…
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How to Use Sulky Puffy Foam
How to Use Sulky Puffy Foam Hey guys! It’s Valentine’s week and we are full of love and hearts in my house. I was browsing through some designs and found this cool heart and since the description says it is digitized for Sulky Puffy Foam™ I thought it would a great time to try out Puffy Foam for myself! I own some Puffy Foam (OK, I own a lot of it), but I have never used it! I don’t know why, I just haven’t so today, I decided to try it. Here is how it works. Since I embroidered this onto fleece, I used Sulky Soft ‘n Sheer™ as the stabilizer.…
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For #TBT: Fred and Joyce Drexler are in the Hall of Fame!
Back in 2012, the founders of Sulky of America Fred and Joyce Drexler were inducted into the Vacuum & Sewing Trade Association Hall of Fame! Back then, we didn’t have a blog to tout this great honor so I am sharing it with you today for #TBT (Throwback Thursday). NOTE: Don’t miss the cute pictures at the end of the blog 🙂 This is what the induction plaque says: For the last 25 years, the Drexlers have been insistent about maintaining the very highest quality in all of the products that bear the Sulky label. Fred’s favorite story is about the thread manufacturer from Mexico who was trying to get…
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The Stabilizer Basics – How do I get started?
When I first started doing machine embroidery I did it all wrong. I used the wrong stabilizer, I used the wrong size hoop, and I used the wrong needle! The only thing I did right was use Sulky Rayon Thread. I ruined a great deal of fabric and spent a lot of time spinning my wheels. I didn’t want to call and ask my friends who did embroidery every time I wanted to put a silly letter on something (letters were all I did for the first year or so!). Does this sound like you? You have the machine, and you may have even taken a class on how to…
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Valentine’s Day DIY – Free Pattern Download
I love Valentine’s Day! I have friends that hate it. They say it’s a made-up holiday that forces people to buy useless stuff for people. But I personally think it is so much fun. Maybe it’s the hippie-chic in me…but any day that is focused on telling people you love and appreciate them is a good day in my mind. It also doesn’t hurt that all colors in the red to pink family are my favorites! This year Valentine’s Day is on a Saturday so I expect that I will make heart shaped muffins for breakfast for my family. Here is a quick and easy recipe. I will also give…
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The Stabilizer Basics – Water Solubles and Heat-Away
The Stabilizer Basics Water Solubles and Heat-Away In today’s Stabilizer Basics I am going to chat with you about Water Soluble (Solvy’s) and Heat- Away™ stabilizers. These are both temporary stabilizers that started out with a couple simple applications, but, because you guys are so creative, you have discovered a million really cool uses for these amazing stabilizers! Water Soluble Stabilizers Water Soluble Stabilizers are just that, they dissolve in water. The number 1 use for the lightest weight Solvy is as a topper on napped fabrics, like towels, to keep the loops or pile from poking through the stitching; to prevent stitches from getting lost in the fabric; and/or…
