Make it your own embroidery class -- show your work

[Barbara B.]

Please use this Topic to show your Make It Your Own Embroidery progress.

[Helen W.]

Nothing to show yet. Thinking about using a black piece of Kona cotton fabric. The thread colors will pop.
I watched a you tube where Sue Spargo taught a class called Sand Dollars in Sisters Oregon at their quilt store.
That would be a cute idea for putting the stitches in circles. Another idea, I bought a Sue Spargo class on
Craftsy but never did any projects from it. Just watched it. She used folk art looking butterflies. Might use that
idea for the stitching shapes. Right now I am just thinking about it. HelenW

[Karla W.]

Helen, thank you for reminding me about my Craftsy classes. I have that Sue Spargo class in my library. I am going to review it again. Happy Stitching!

[Rebecca C.]

Really struggled with the fabric prep stuff. I don't think I like it. I may change my mind later. But I have a background ready to embroider on, so I am looking forward to the next class and getting it started. I am one who always has lots of color in my work, so to stretch myself I went with the neutral color scheme. Alex said the neutral one would be the easiest. But I beg to differ if neutral is not something you are familiar with or used to doing. I finally came up with this, and after I got it put together - I liked it better upside down, so this is how we will proceed. Bring on the embroidery class.

[Alex A.]

Rebecca - Please email me the issue with Fabric prep, I wanna understand what is going on - [email protected]. Also your background is GREAT!

[Toni J.]

I had a problem with the fabric backing prep. I then sandwiched the silk, prep, between parchment paper and dry ironed. Worked great.

[Carole B.]

Nothing yet. I’m waiting for a silk bundle to arrive from Sue Spargo. I recently purchased a box of her Eleganza threads-90 spools-that I’m loving. May add in some silk ribbons. Time will tell. This is the silk I ordered.

[Helen W.]

Carole B, So, sew excited that you are going to do this project. I am a hand embroidery want to be.
I figured this is a good time to get my feet wet. Not jumping in the deep end on this, just wanting to
learn enough to feel comfortable using it in projects. Hope to be like a sponge just absorbing all that I can learn. Please throw in all the fabulous tips and trick you know. This is going to be fun!!! HelenW

[Carole B.]

Nothing to show yet. Thinking about using a black piece of Kona cotton fabric. The thread colors will pop.
I watched a you tube where Sue Spargo taught a class called Sand Dollars in Sisters Oregon at their quilt store.
That would be a cute idea for putting the stitches in circles. Another idea, I bought a Sue Spargo class on
Craftsy but never did any projects from it. Just watched it. She used folk art looking butterflies. Might use that
idea for the stitching shapes. Right now I am just thinking about it. HelenW

Helen—Sue Spargo does a lot with circles. Theses are a few photos I took when I visited her shop this summer. So much eye candy!

[Pam G.]

I’ve pieced my background with the brights. I had ordered fat quarters because I wanted to make a wall hanging. I agree that the fabric prep is fussy but I did better when I increased my iron temperature and used parchment paper when fusing it to the back of my fabric. Orange is not my favorite color so used it just as an accent. Here is my pieced background. The bottom 4” doesn’t show.

[Noella D.]

This is going to make a lovely piece!

[Helen W.]

Pam, Great looking background I like the orange as an accent. When I clicked on the photo to enlarge it shows the whole picture larger. HelenW

[Peg]

love the slivers! Very Ricky Tims.

[Ellen L.]

My background is prepped and ready to go. I had plenty of stablilzer and no problems ironing it on. I went with a fairly simple background that spreads the color around. I love the diversity of color. Just sewing these pieces together, it seemed that the seam allowances were fraying fast. I was concerned that while handling the piece it would continue to fray. I used my scraps of stabilizer and put another piece over each seam. I also turned the edge and used a zigzag stitch to help avoid frays at the edge.

There is a fold line in each piece that I couldn't press out, but I may not have had the iron hot enough. I think once I have some embroidery on it, the fold lines won't be as obvious. At least I hope so.

[Helen W.]

Ellen, I don't know much about hand applique, and I like the way you stabilized the fray aspect of the
fabric, but I would worry that the stitches will draw up the silk and make it not lay flat. I think that might
be one of the reasons they put the stabilizer on the whole thing. You could always iron a piece of
Pellon 906 feather weight fusible stabilizer on the whole back of it. Or you might need to use a hoop.
Just a few thoughts. You could take a scrap if you have any left over and try a few stitches to see
if it is going to be a problem. HelenW

[Yolanda C.]

What size is your background? What size was the length of the block to start? I am having a hard time figuring it out to cut.. I like your layout.. not to complicated.. Thank you

[Toni J.]

[Irene A.]

Got out my Dupioni silk stash and went to work. It just happened as I worked along. This is what I came up with for my background piece. Plan to put some Brazilian embroidery work on it. Examples of my Brazilian embroidery are shown.

[Rebecca C.]

I started learning Brazilian embroidery when I was young... But we moved to a new town and had babies and a few money struggles as young families do. So never got back to it. I am looking forward to seeing your work- please do share.

[Jamie K.]

Wow! Gorgeous work, and I love your silk layout.

[Lori H.]

Irene, your Brazilian Embroidery work is stunning! Thank you for sharing.

[Jo Anne]

Regarding embroidery reference books… I have a few that I like to use. Here are 2: Bareroots, a project book, has a pocket on each page with a pattern inserted and is then followed with explanation/illustrations of stitches used. The other one I use that I periodically check out online from my library is Stitch Encyclopedia. It has a plethora of beautifully illustrated stitches.

[Becky A.]

I agree - I found this at the library!

[Jo Anne]

Here is the Bareroots book.

[Barbara T.]

This is way out of my comfort zone but ready to give it a try. Made a little practice piece with scraps.

[Helen W.]

Barbara T, Great idea to make a practice piece that has all the colors in the project so you can see how the thread look. HelenW

[Toni J.]

pretty combination

[Noella D.]

I haven’t recieved my order from TQS yet. The mail must be super slow right now, I ordered Nov. 17th! But I raided my stash and a friend searched in hers and we found some interesting fabrics! I Will try to piece something with this tomorrow morning. I will be more pictoral than abstract I guess, lol. Everyone who has posted seems to be doing well.

[Alex A.]

Noella - please email me personally so I can get your order info to Suzanne who runs the store. [email protected]

[Helen W.]

Pulled two color ways from my stash. Right now I am thinking my DMC floss that I have will look best with the gray. I am going to stitch together a practice piece,.
HelenW

[Judy W.]

My first attempt looked like a flag, but I think I’m happy with this one. I didn’t have enough fabric prep to do all four pieces without cutting some first. Worked out fine.