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Salley Mavor of Wee Folk Studio talks Artwork & Embroidery
Salley Mavor, Wee Folk Studio, Featured Artist We sat down with Salley Mavor of Wee Folk Studio to learn about her handwork creations. Salley creates embroidered artwork that’s photographed and reproduced in children’s books. Her pieces are truly remarkable. Read on to learn more! How do you describe your art? A needle is my tool, thread is my medium and stitches are my marks. My artwork is decorative and detailed, full of patterns and found objects, all bound together with stitching. I create sculptural scenes in bas-relief, much like miniature, shallow stage sets, with figures imposed on embellished fabric backgrounds. There is a certain over-the-top quality to my work that…
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Cotton Petites Thread: Top 10 Uses for Sewing Projects
Top 10 Uses for Sulky Cotton Petites™ Thread Sulky 12 wt. Cotton Petites thread is a great thread choice for so many sewing applications. The thread is heavyweight, 12 wt. to be exact, comes in myriad colors (even Blendables®) and one strand equals two strands of traditional embroidery floss. HANDWORK vs MACHINE SEWING Yes, you can use this heavyweight thread for hand or machine sewing. For serging, try this thread in the loopers for a full coverage rolled hem or decorative blanket edging. For machine embroidery, try this thread in “heavy,” “fur” or “brushed” designs (just don’t brush the design out; use Sulky Filaine to achieve that effect). For standard…
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Decorative Thread for Serging – National Serger Month Kickoff
Decorative Thread for Serging It’s National Serger Month! Using decorative thread for serging in the loopers (and even needles) transforms your serger from functional to decorative, thereby expanding the capabilities you have with your serger. To kickoff national Serger Month, we’ll dive into the fun threads you can use with your serger to breathe new life into your projects. The Baby Lock Triumph serger, shown above, is fresh out of the box, just waiting to test out all sorts of fun threads! SULKY POLY DECO™ FOR SERGING Even if your seams are functional, rather than decorative, you can still change up the thread colors and showcase a different color for…
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Quilt Block Pillow with Hand Embroidered Center Block
Quilt Block Pillow Making a quilt block pillow is a great entry into quilting. If you don’t want to commit to making an entire quilt right off the bat, making one block helps you understand quilting fundamentals. If you’re a quilting pro, experimenting with different block patterns is a great way to discover new fabric or color combinations for future quilts. Perhaps you don’t have enough fabric to turn that one block experiment into a full-fledged quilt. Or maybe your experiment turned into something you’d love to showcase in another way. What to do with one-off blocks? Turn them into pillows! Better yet, add hand embroidery to make a statement…
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Embroidered Velvet Stocking
Create an embroidered velvet stocking set for your mantle this Christmas. By starting the project in July, you’ll have plenty of time to create one for each member of your family, including hand embroidered letters to represent their first names. Grab the free stocking pattern to start creating your stockings today. What You’ll Need: Winter Greens Hand Embroidery Patterns Stocking Pattern Template Stocking Pattern Instructions Sulky 12 wt. Cotton Petites Thread for the hand embroidery — OR — Sulky Filaine 12 wt. Acrylic Thread Sulky Stick ‘n Stitch Stabilizer – to print the designs on! Printer This beautiful embroidered velvet stocking project is rather easy to construct. The embroidery…
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5 Summer Break Sewing Projects for Kids
Now that the kids are out of school for the summer, it’s time to keep them busy with some summer break sewing projects. These easy projects for kids to sew require just a bit of fabric and beginner hand-sewing skills. As the summer goes on, move on to more advanced sewing techniques, like machine embroidery. They will love watching the machine do its magic and picking out all the thread colors for the design. 1. Glove Monster This cute project by Craftaholics Anonymous repurposes all those single gloves you have left from winter. Add a bit of felt scraps and choose a few colors of Sulky Cotton Petites™ threads and…
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Free-Motion Lilac Pillow + Free Pattern Downloads
Make a Free-Motion Lilac Pillow to add springtime decor to your home. This pillow tutorial includes free free-motion lilac pillow embroidery templates from Katrina Wright. About Katrina Katrina Wright lives in Colorado with her supportive and creative family. As a member of Sulky’s Designer Endorsement Program and SAQA, she loves to exhibit her fiber art and talk about the advantages of fiber as a medium. When she’s not stitching, you can often find Katrina hiking along a trail being inspired by the beauty around her or tending to her flower garden. To learn more about Katrina, visit www.kwfiberart.com. The Free-Motion Lilac Pillow Technique To learn more about free-motion, including a…
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Quick Gift for Moms, Mimis & Grandmas for Kids to Make
Teach Kids to Sew with a Quick Gift for Mom! We can’t get enough quick gift ideas for Mother’s Day. Moms deserve this special day so much after all they do each and every day! Earlier this month we posted five great gift ideas, including projects and no-sew gifties, but we wanted to provide something that the kids could make themselves. Our good friend Stephanie of Swoodson Says has some wonderful project ideas that make great quick gift for moms, mimis, grandmas, aunties and best friends. Here is one to get your creative juices flowing. Hand Embroidered Quick Gift Not only does this make a great quick gift, but this…
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C’mon Get Scrappy! 5 Uses for Fabric Scraps
Calling all Fabric Scrap Stashers! These projects are for you! As we head into Earth Day, it’s time to delve into our fabric bins and create some fun projects to use up our fabric scraps! Each project listed here uses one fat quarter (or less) of fabric. They make great gifts for teachers (school is almost out for summer!), friends (bunco party, anyone?) and yourself (don’t forget YOU). 1. Pencil Case Pattern Pencil cases don’t have to hold just pencils. I use them for makeup brushes (try lining it with Stitch ‘n Seal for easy cleanup), art supplies, Lego mini-figures (I need three just for my son’s current collection), and…
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Jenny Wilding Cardon + Visible Mending: Featured Artist
Featured Artist: Jenny Wilding Cardon We’re highlighting Jenny Wilding Cardon so you can learn about how she started her quest of Visible Mending to breathe new life into worn, outdated, antique and thrifted items. All you need is a needle and thread to re-create some of her looks and mend garments, decor and accessories in an artful way. Jenny Wilding Cardon has been maneuvering the two worlds of sewing and thrifting since high school. Back then, she would design eccentric, rebellious items of clothing, and then make her friends wear them to school. After graduating from college in Utah with a degree in Women’s Studies, she spent three years with…