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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…
