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Embroidery Zen is Now Available Online!
Have you ever wanted to embroider on something but weren’t sure which stabilizer to use? Have you asked yourself, “Is this the right thread for this project?” Or how about, “I only have one blank, I don’t want to mess this up!” Whether you just got your embroidery machine yesterday or have been doing machine embroidery for years, this class is for you. You will learn from the legendary machine embroidery expert, Sue Hausmann, who is passionate about teaching Machine Embroidery. During her 35 year career with Husqvarna Viking, Sue, as Vice-President of Education, ushered in the era of machine embroidery in the early 90’s, and for the next 20 years became…
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Stabilizer Basics: When & How to Use Different Stabilizers
Understand each type of stabilizer and how and when to use each one. This blog series includes helpful tips, hints and expert advice to ensure you choose the right stabilizer for your projects. Bookmark this post to refer to it later, as it’s a great resource for all things machine embroidery (and more!) Stabilizer Basics References The Stabilizer Basics – Series The Stabilizer Basics – Cut-Away and Tear-Away Stabilizer The Stabilizer Series – Your Questions Answered The Stabilizer Series – More Questions Answered The Stabilizer Basics – Water Soluble and Heat-Away The Stabilizer Basics – How Do I Get Started? The Stabilizer Infographic The Stabilizer Series – Tender Touch Once…
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Upcycled reusable shopping bags
I need to confess. I am obsessive when it comes to the environment. I recycle everything, I compost, I reuse and I upcycle as much as posssible. I think it is important to be a good steward of the one and only planet in the Galaxy that God made for us humans to live on. I always have my reusable shopping bags in my car in case I need to stop at the store, but the ones that I had purchased are starting to wear out. Instead of going and buying more, I started looking around the house for something I could use to make shopping bags. I found this…
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Tips for Machine Embroidery on Onesies
I have been all about baby lately! I have several friends that are having babies soon so I am making lots of baby things. I made a sweet blanket for one and Taggies for a set a twins. (Go here to check out the blanket and here for the Taggie tutorial). Next up, the onesies! I love seeing a brand new baby in a cute little onesie with a name or little embroidered applique on it, but let’s be honest, onesies are tiny and can be hard to embroider! Here are a few tips to make things a little easier. Hoop Size. Use a hoop that is about the same…
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Machine Embroidery on Things that are Fluffy
In my life, spring always seems to be baby season. In the next few weeks, I have 3 sweet babies that are getting gifts! The first one is a girl that will be the third child of one of the pastors at my church. Since I did very simple panel quilts for the little boys, I thought a fluffy pink blanket with the name on it would be good for the little girl. I picked this very fluffy fabric. I love how this fabric feels, that is is the same on both sides and all I need to do is embroider on the name, bind it and I am done. Fast…
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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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The Stabilizer Series – Your Questions Answered
I am so excited about the response we have gotten to this series! I was going to wait and do Q and A at the end of it, but we have had so many questions already, I thought I would do a couple posts in the middle of this series with answers to your specific questions. (If you want to catch up, you can read the first post here and the second post in the series here) So here are your questions and answers: Tell me what stabilizers to use for Terry Bath Towels, please. This is a huge challenge to me! Most often for bath towels, I use 1…
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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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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…
