Design wall Monday
Monday, August 30, 2010 at 6:02AM Rather a disaster this week! I’ve got the blue and brown star quilt on the longarm, and have it partially quilted… I haven’t been much in the mood to quilt lately though. But I liked this small quilt well enough I wanted to make a second one for myself, and I also wanted to cement the “Y” seam construction firmly in my brain, so I whipped up another one.
;)
All well and good! But then I decided instead of using the AccuQuilt dies to cut the applique and sew them on by machine, I’d use the new Rose of Sharon embroidered applique designs I’d purchased. I converted half of the applique pieces in the Bernina Cutwork software, and used the cutwork tool to cut them out, and did the other half by hand.
Kudos to the Bernina tool, because no matter how careful I was, I couldn’t cut ;)
with the same precision as the it could. However, the cuts weren’t overly smooth, even though I starched my fabric and had fused it to Shades Softfuse stablizer. They would have been fine with a satin stitch on the edges, but didn’t look so great with a blanket stitch applique.
;)
And, with either the Cutwork cut pieces or the ones I cut by hand, I couldn’t get them to fit perfectly into the stitched placement lines, which means the applique stitch went down looking quite sloppy. Very disappointing! And to top it off, I noticed my tension was way off on the flower stems, but not until they’d already stitched out.
I’m probably going to attempt stitching back over all the blanket stitching with a heavier thread by machine (not in the hoop) and see if I can save this project. I’ll proabably go ahead and put the borders on regardless, it can be a wallhanging where the flaws won’t be so noticable. I had intended it for a table runner, but unless I manage to secure those appliques better than the embroidery did, it won’t hold up in the wash.
Head over to Judy’s on this Design Wall Monday and see what everyone else is up to, hopefully they’re all having better luck with their projects!
Reader Comments (14)
All these designs and the detail about the designs are fabulous in i think is patch work good way to show the patch work creativity by Machine embroidery work.
What a gorgeous table runner/wall hanging. Which ever it turns out to be, it is very pretty.
it is pretty no matter what you use it for. I sometimes do not notice my tension is off on my simple machines until I am close to finish on something.
Hope we get rain this week.
Karen
http://karensquilting.com/blog/
One day I will eventually have the patience to do a feathered star.
Well, its beautiful, no matter how you look at it. I see what you mean by the pieces not going into the placement lines. So, you cut the pieces first? I'm not familiar with the cutwork tool or the cutwork software--heard of it but never went to see how it works. It seems very different from traditional embroidered applique where you put the fabric down & the machine stitches a hold down line, then you trim fabric to the line and then the machine does the outer stitching.
Karen in GA
the applique makes the star a stunning piece of art.
We got the tiniest shower... enough to wet the deck.... but it didn't register on the digital rain gain. Even with watering, I see my plants with their little leaf hands gripping their 'throats' and gasping for more water.
It's so hard when things don't turn out like you'd planned, isn't it?
I don't do applique. Yours is gorgous. I have no paience. Yours is beautiful! LOL.
glen
Most of what you wrote was Greek to me but it surely looks good in the pictures!
From viewing the pictures, the project looks fine to me---I don't fully understand what this software does, but I don't have your particular brand of sewing/embroidery machine either. In any case, I like it! Very pretty!
I'm with Judy L.--I had to reread to figure out what you were talking about, but then it all clicked in. I don't have the cutwork, and don't think I'm interested in it, but it does look very nice even with the fabric being a little "off" for the applique stitching. Frustrating, though, I know.
You're quilt is going to look great. I have decided I like the satin stitch much better than the blanket stitch. It is much easier to sew.
Consider it "raw edge" applique...
Even though I AM seeing "raw edge" applique more and more.
What ever you decide it is a lovely piece and a lesson learned.