Rachie's Laundry

So, like all good projects - the house remodel is never really done! As many of you know, we spent 4 months remodeling our house from top to bottom this summer. The one thing we didn't do was the laundry room - why spend money on a laundry room right? Well, right about the time we were done cleaning the rest of the house what do you think went out? If you guessed something in the laundry room - you would be RIGHT! Yes, our dryer died. Now of course, you don't just replace the dryer - you get a whole new set, and if you're going to get a new set you of course you NEED the biggest, baddest thing on the market and if you get the biggest baddest thing on the market you have to paint and put in new baseboards and rip down the old shelf and put up cabinets and stain the cabinets to match the kitchen. I mean - I am not out of line here right? You do HAVE to do all of those things. Well, suffice to say I promised myself a cute little embroidery to top it all off so I spent 5 hours stitching out 65,000 stitches yesterday so I could hang this little baby on a wall next to the garage where no one will ever see it. Oh the things we do when we like creating stuff!

Grandma's Memory Quilt

Amado and I made this photo quilt for Grandma Money for Christmas. I used 3D picture stitch to embroider the photos of Amado at various ages during his first year. I then

quilted it all together. Total time included photo manipulation - about 15 hours, but it is a priceless memory for Mom.

Name Snowflakes

I got this great idea from the SE yahoo group. Aren't they cute - and so easy to do. I used 7mm Curlew font and the Encore function. They took about 10 minutes each to stitch out. I made one for all of the babies celebrating their first Christmases. They aren't the most gorgeous thing, but they were fun, fast and easy and the end product looked o.k. I think these would be great for a school party. Maybe next year!

Snowflakes FSL

So I am part of the SE yahoo group (which I love and highly recommend - see my links) and there was a lot of talk about FSL snowflakes with some gorgeous pictures so I wanted to give it a try. Of course I first imagined myself quickly doing hundreds of these things to decorate my entire house - well at 30 minutes a piece it just didn't happen, but they did make great little gift sets for Grammy and friends. They are fun to make and I'd like to try some more creative threads to see what happens. I used standard embroidery thread in my upper and bobbin and 1 piece of wash away stabalizer that I didn't rinse out thoroughly so they came out nice and stiff for hanging. They are great fun and very easy to make!

Turkey Day Napkins

So one of the requirements of supporting this embroidery habit from my husband was that I make Thanksgiving napkins the first year he bought me a machine. It has since become a tradition. I did a fairly intricate design this year compared to last - they took about 45 minutes each to stich. Of course I added names (18 in all) and the year (2007). They then became my nameplates for place settings and everyone gets to take something home. I bought cheap cotton napkins for the kids and then much more expensive poly blend for the adults. I noticed the cheap cotton still looked cheap after all the stiching. Puckering was a HUGE problem on the kid napkins. I don't think I scrimp next year or I'll finally make my own darn napkins.

ABC Quilt

I finally finished my ABC quilt project. It took me the whole month to get it put together. It was a super easy quilt to assemble and my girlfriends Lisa and Amy came over to show me how to pin it for quilting. I felt like we were back in the 1800's working on a project on the table - a great girl bonding experience. Amy even left me her pins "for good luck on the next quilt". So here is my summary: total cost with fabric and batting was about $60. I found out batting isn't cheap - I think it was $20. I also discovered that I don't love quilting. It is so much of just piecing and cutting and piecing and cutting. Honestly, you can buy something for so cheap these days that unless I find jusr fabulous fabric - I probably won't be making anything for my house. It was a wonderful craft to learn though and I can see myself making some wall hangings to give away. Total time involved - about 20 hours (it was my first one).

Team Gator Shirts

My son Manny is on a great little soccer team - the Gators. They've ranked #1 or 2 in their league for the last 3 years. The Cuellars finally decided to get into the team spirit and wear some Gator shirts. I created these fun little things for the parents to wear on the sidelines and sold them for $10/ea. Just enough to cover the cost. I also did a baby version for Amado that said "Mini-Gator". I've finally got t-shirt embroidery down. There are a few very imporant tricks: (1) use a small hoop that won't tug on the fabric, (2) use ALOT of stabalizer. I used 3 sheets of cutaway for each of these, (3) use Poly thread to keep your designs from fading in the wash, (4) wash your shirts before you embroider or buy pre-shrunk, (5) check the density of your design before putting it on the fabric and (6) use a loose hoop technique - in other words don't pull the fabric too tight.

The Blanca Bag

O.k. - so most of you that read this know that I am a spoiled, spoiled woman and that I have a full time nanny in the house that helps me care for Amado. If you want my detailed sales pitch on why you should never, ever have a child without a Blanca, contact me. This is about sewing you silly girls! Blanca always loves to watch me work on my projects and she always wants whatever it is that I am making. While I appreciate her lust for my work, I've never really done that "special" thing for her. Her birthday arrived and so I decided to make her this big purse for traveling. I actually started the top and didn't like it so I wasn't going to use it for anything. She begged me to use it for her purse - so there it went.

Front Door Curtain - August 3, 2007

This was one of those projects that I've been wanting to do FOREVER, but just never got around to. We just finished a floor to ceiling remodel of our house so I was out of my sewing room for a while. As I was putting it back together I came across this project and realized it would be more efficient to do just do it than to try to find a place to store the fabric any longer. I needed a new front door curtain and I wanted it to match my new customer drapes. I had saved several yards of the fabric from my sheers, but wanted something to make them unique. Then the a-ha. I had some embroidery designs that I purchased for making jewelery last Christmas. Of course, I never started that project either, but at least I had the software loaded. They were perfect for applique. I sized about 5 different flowers, all similar design but each with a bit more or less detail than the others. I embroidered a ton of them onto my shade fabric and started cutting. I used 4-5 pieces of stabalizer in between to make sure they were very heavy when finished. After I cut them out, a little touch up with a fabric pen and I glued them to the curtain. I love it - they look like 3-D flowers and are definitely original. Perfect for a front door.

Quilt Square with Picture - August 1, 2007

I have really come to cherish the time we spend together as part of the SGSG. Thank's so much to Amy for getting us started. The best part of getting a group together to do work is the inspiration we get from eachother. Not to copy or duplicate, but just to take an idea and make it our own. Ronnie is one of my favorite members of our group. I find that she ALWAYS inspires me to not be afraid of the tools and the machines that I have. In this case she inspired me to crack open the "Picture Stitch" software that I had purchased as part of 3D-Embroidery Studio to create this quilt sqare that will be added to our group project. It literally took me about 15 minutes to get this photo in shape to embroider out. I've had the software for 2 years and only ventured in one time only to be scared away. Thanks to Ronnie for helping me out. Thanks to her I have plans to create a memory quilt for my Mom and one for my daughter's band booster as a donation. I can do it!

A New Machine July 29, 2007

Ok, so here is the problem with those FREE classes. I went to one today to learn how to make this "quick and easy" heirloom bag. It turned out it was really a sales pitch for the new Designer SE that was on sale. I had a mantra all the way through the class. It went something like this: "I will not fall for the gimmick, I will not buy a new sewing machine, I love my sewing machine, I don't need another machine, it doesn't matter how good the deal is, I wouldn't take it if it was free". Well, you probably get where this is going right! For the record though, I want to be clear that I did leave the class without purchasing a new Designer SE. It was the next day when all of my girlfriends came over to make fabric postcards. I just happened to run out of glue and we just had to go back to THAT store to get some. You know, if I was going to be in the area for a $0.99 glue bottle, why not pick up a new $5000 machine right. It made total sense at the time. I am the never regretful owner of a new Husqvarna Designer SE. Sadly, of it's many wonderful feature the two that sold me were the light (yes the light) and the ability to switch between sewing and embroidery without taking the machine apart. Happy Pictures Later!

Fabric Postcards - July 29, 2007

So the SGSG (Sewing Gals Sewcial Group) got together last week and found out that we had a friend with some health concerns. Patty brought up the great idea of doing a group project to bring up her spirits. Amy suggested fabric postcards. I had never made them before so it took a group effort to get me up and running, but I think they turned out quite nice. Here are a couple of tips:

1 - Make sure you buy fusible backing and cut it to 4x6
2 - Embellishments make even the most noticeable mistake fade away - but be sure to add them last
3 - Use a clear plastic photo frame as your template for cutting
4 - A 4x6 "postcard" stamp adds a great touch to the back of the postcards

Total cost $0.10-$0.25 each using fabric scraps. The embellishments are the most expensive part.

My favorite part of the project was the fact that they were so small that I was inspired to try things that I wouldn't otherwise try to do on a large scale project. On my pink postcard I began experimenting with my Fabric Decorator function of my embriodery software. I had never done it before, but it turned out well and I learned a few lessons that I can use as I use it again.

Heirloom Bag - July 28, 2007

Read above for the real story of the heirloom bag. This was an enjoyable experience. In hindsight I will say that I am not overly interested in the heirloom style, but it is good to know what our machines are capable of. The problem with this type of project is: sewing in a straight line is way harder than you think. I'll need some tips if I am going to repeat this project. I did find out about the wing needle that makes great little holes in your fabric as you sew decorative stitches. I bought one to play with, I thought I may even be able to use it for more modern designs to add a touch of texture.

No intentions of doing this again.

Vacation Purse (Purse #5)

My family spent a week in Turks & Caicos at the Beaches Resort and I just knew I needed a new purse to match my bathing suit. Somehow, I thought a new purse might mask the 40lbs of baby weight I am still carrying. So, I stayed up until midnight working on this purse for the entire week before we left. Finally, one for me to keep. It worked great. It was exactly the right size and although it may not have made me appear 40lbs slimmer, it did match all of the various bathing suits. I even got several offers to buy it!

The purse and I in the Turks....one our way to town for some shopping actually.
Purse Front

Purse Front - CLOSE

Purse - Back

Total project time - 3 1/2 hours (there were a few shortcuts and mistakes that I didn't take the time to fix).

Total cost - $10 - no fringe meant lots less money.

Key Learnings: I loved each of these fabrics separately, but wasn't sure about how they would come together. Even as I built the crazy patch portion onto the base fabric, I didn't like them. HOWEVER, once I added embelleshments and the black/white structure fabric, I really loved the end result. They say that you can put almost any fabric together in crazy patch and I am becoming more of a believer.

Large Purse

So this completes purse #4. My friend Amy showed me a place in Addison called "The Fabric Yard" - a fabric store full of decorator fabric and trims at not bad prices. This purse idea started with a piece of clearance fabric on the sale table and went from there. It is much bigger than my others, I cut the fronts 14" x 18" and the sides 8". It really turned out great. A few learnings though: (1) I didn't stabalize the bottom because I couldn't come up with a stabalizer big enough to fit - that means when the bag is full, the bottom will sag. Probably not a good thing for looks or durability; (2) when using decorator fabric, I've got to figure out tension / needle specifications because I broke about 10 needles putting this purse together, (3) on bigger bags, you need to mount the handles with an extra 1/2' allowance and do a double stitch. These handles are in, but I think if you fill the bag to capacity they may not hold; (4) you don't need a piping foot for the decorator piping, it's too big to fit anyway. I used the Viking E foot and adjusted my needle far right - it worked great and saved me from buying another foot.

All in all a fun project. Cost $20 including trim, time ~6 hours.

Side View

Baby Spit Rags

I made about 5 sets of these and this one is the only one I thought to take a picture of. I got the idea from various magazines, etc, but cost was $15/ea. All it is is decorative ribbon sewn onto a fabric diaper and some quick 1 color embroidery, total cost about $1.50/ea. I had fun using variations of their last name: Dahl.

Total time to create - about 10 minutes each. Make sure you use the poly thread so they can be bleached in the wash.

Its a Boy Purse

Front View
Front - Close
Back View
Back - Close

My dear friend Sangita will have a new baby boy sometime this month so I wanted to make her something special. This is my third finished "crazy patch" purse and I think I love it the most because it was made for such a special occaison. I learned a few lessons: (1) piping is a pain to sew (mine was too large for the foot I had on the maching, (2) "minky" or stretchy fabric: a) melts your iron and b) can make for some tough lines when everything else is cotton because it stretches out of place. I did quilt the handles which I love as it adds a whimsical feel to the finished product. I also experimented with adding ribbon as one of the quilted elements, in this case "its a boy ribbon. It worked ok, but you need to make sure you use large width ribbon to be sure it shows in the final product.

Total time to create - 5 hours, total cost about $15/ea if you don't buy a pre-fab purse kit and do all your cutting yourself.

Momo Purse

January 2007

Like I said, I loved crazy patch so much that I started 3 purses within 3 days of my first class. My Mom came to visit for a few days and I taught her the technique. We put this one together in one day.

Back View

Again, no embellishments, we let the color do the talking.

Front View
We couldn't decide what fabric to use for the handles so I suggested we quilt the leftover pieces together. I love the effect. No other fabric would have done these bright colors justice.

Summer Fun Purse

January 2007: I took a crazy patch purse class at the Plano Viking Sewing Galary (inside JoAnn's). I fell in love with crazy patch and ended up buying 4 new feet for my maching. I love the class so much that I came home and went right to work on my first, second, third and fourth purses within 7 days. Crazy patch indeed!

Back View
I did no embellishments on the back and used only one color fabric, but I still did crazy patch to add some detail.

I absolutely love the front of this bag. The materials came with the class kit, but they were so fun I decided to use it for the purse.

Crazy patching is great because it forces you to try our different stiches, techniques and feet on your maching. Plus, you can do no wrong - it all looks like it has a reason when you finish.

Rachie's Sewing Blog

So I've been taking sewing classes to use my wonderful machine and I met my new friend Amy. We sat together in a class and started talking about how taking classes was great just to get new ideas and be inspired. We decided to do a few more classes together as well as have "work" days with each other. Then it happened! Amy took out her card and handed it to me. She was so cute. She had a fun card made with her blog and personal info to share with all of her sewing friends. I visited her site and there were photos of all of her wonderful creations. I was inspired just by checking it out. I realized the true power in sharing our ideas with each other. So this is my attempt to be a contributor. I hope you like it and will leave lots of comments. Gosh, if I am a good girl I will even update it with baby pics!