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Saturday 27 August 2011

Hello everyone, sorry I havent been posting lately, have been extremely busy with my Uni modules.
Am starting this week with papermaking, made my own mold and deckle and have spent all day shredding old paperwork in my filing cabinet. Next step is to do batches with water in my blender, then they are added to a kitty litter tray and sloshed around. After that I will use the mold to place under some of the melted paper and hopefully when I lift it up there will be a nice layer of paper in it. My next step will be to cut up some woollen pieces a bit bigger than the pages. I bought an old woollen blanket at the Op shop and I am hoping that will work to drain the sheets old.

My husband thinks I am mad and said it is like quilting- cutting up things that were perfectly ok to put back together again in a different form, I suppose he is right in a way....
Am looking forward to this whole "Textiles" module. I will also be placing some rusty tools and nails in cotton material and when wrapped will be placing it in salt water for a week at a time. At the end of 3 weeks I will remove the bundle, unwrap and rinse and tralaaaaa... hopefully there will be some interesting patterned rust marks on the material...

My Uni has scrapped the textile units from 2012, which I think is very sad... I have so many ideas in mind I will never get to do them all.

Meanwhile for my Painting module I am collecting photographs, plaster of paris casts of things and all sorts of rubbish for a "body of work" I have in mind. Will post info along the way. what a journey it is going to be..,.

Bye for now,
dont forget you can email me any questions or ask me about solutions to your sewing problems.

Jennine

Thursday 23 June 2011

Sending embroidery designs to your sewing machine and using flash drives/memory sticks.

After a number of requests,today I wish to talk about sending your embroidery designs from your computer to your sewing machines.

It is a good idea to have some folders on your computer, with the main one being "My Embroidery Designs" or some other folder you would like. an easy way to start is to go to your desktop and right click,a drop down list comes up, go across to "New Folder" and left click, a new folder will be shown with an area underneath called "New folder".Left click on this area and type in the new name for your folder and press enter.You can save designs directly to that or you can go into that folder and make many new folders to store your designs in with names such as Florals, Laces, Redwork etc. I recommend that you do not leave that folder on your desktop as it starts to get big as it will slow down your computer.Later, when you are used to it you can "Drag and Drop" it into your "Program Files" folder in your "Computer". I use an Iconiser Program called Embird.(www.embird.com) This stores all my designs but also shows me thumbnail pictures of every design, which is great when I am looking for a particular design to sew.

Firstly, there are a number of different media that you can use. Some sewing machines have
the facility to read a cd which is placed directly into the machine or to an external cd drive which came with the machine.( My Bernina 200E, has an external  cd drive which is plugged into the sewing machine).
Some older embroidery machines use floppy discs and these work basically the same as the cd,plugged straight into the drive on the side of the sewing machine.Other machines have their own "card" which is read by that brand of machine only.Some machines have various adaptors and boxes that your card has to be plugged into. I used to have a Janome 10,000 and I used their card inside an adaptor which was plugged into my computer. With some older machines, including my Janome,designs have to be put into special folders which are placed on your flash drive( also known as a memory stick).That machine will not read any single design but instead will open each folder and look into it for designs.Read your paperwork to see how your model of machine  transfers data.

The latest modern machines mostly all use flash drives(memory sticks). These are really just miniature hard drives, some are even capable of having a program on ,which can be used in any computer it is plugged into. Keep in mind that ALL electronic items fail eventually. Never store designs or information on a flash drive unless you have already backed it up to a file on your computer or a spare external drive. I have an extrnal drive which I back my computer up to constantly, especially if I have just done a lot of work on the computer. I keep this drive in a seperate place to my computer and in fact, I take it with me if I am going away. I have even been known to leave a copy at a friends or relatives place for safekeeping. You can NEVER be too parenoid about losing your designs. Remember they cost a lot of money and you could never replace the ones that you have bought over many years, especially if you bought them via a computer download online.

My Husqvarna Viking Designer 1 machine requires certain VFD folders to be on the flash drive before it can be read by my sewing machine.These files have to be saved firstly in Disc Manager, a free program that comes with the machine, and then exported to the flash drive by pressing the arrow that says "Write to Stick:".The paperwork that came with that program is really self explanatory.

My Bernina 200E only works with some flash drives, so I found if I put just one design on it, in the
right format (Pes or Art or Exp) it will be "tricked" into thinking it is a Bernina item.

Flash Drives have a capacity and you will find that any that are over 1Gb will probably not work in your sewing machine,. The manufacturers will hopefully change this in the near future as small flash drives are becoming very rare to purchase,. I recently had to buy 2 of 512mb capacity from America via Ebay, as I could find none smaller than 1GB in Australia.

So, to sum up, depending on your brand of sewing machine and also on the type of program you have on your computer to manage your designs, there will be various ways to get the designs to your sewing machine.The easiest way, if you have no programs is to highlight the design with a left click on your computer, then Edit,"Copy", go to your "Computer" section, look for your external flash drive, could be "E" or "F" or "G", depending what you have plugged in, and then highlight that drive and right click and "paste".

Remember "C" drive is usually your computers main hard drive, "D" will be your cd or dvd drive, and letters following will be other drives you have plugged in, which could be an external backup drive or your flash drive. I have a small portable hub which has 7 USB ports that I plug things into, like my cordless mouse etc, so I always have to check to see what drive my flash drive is showing as.

When transferring your designs remember to either write down or print out the colour lists. Some machines like the Brother have a wonderful menu to change the colours to suit you at the sewing machine.Others like my Designer 1, which is a few years old, really cant change colours much at all, and you really cant see which part is sewing in which colour, like you can with the Brother.

Lastly, never remove your flash drive from your computer without doing the 'Safely Remove" procedure. You dont want to ruin your drive or the designs on it.

Happy Sewing and if you should have any further questions please do not hesitate to click through to my website and use the "Contact Us" tab to send me an email.

Best wishes
Jennine

Thursday 16 June 2011

Back Home,about Embroidery Machine Formats and using Flash Drives

Hello everyone,
just back from a week caravanning at Mingo Crossing, near Gayndah. That is about 80Km south west of Bundaberg in Queensland. absolutely lovely spot, right on the Burnett River.It was SOOOOO cold, glad I had my thermals....lol, rained for 1/2 the time but still enjoyed the week relaxing and sightseeing.Our caravan group( about 18 of us) had a ball 4wdriving around. We visited Paradise Dam where the ranger gave us a talk about the endangered long neck turtles he is breeding there, and some of the group braved the heavy rain to visit the annual Orange Festival in Gayndah.

Embroidery formats: I wish to talk a bit about embroidery formats. Depending on your brand of embroidery sewing machine, the formats differ. Some of them are the same for different brands.For example PES format is mainly for Brother machines but is also read by some Bernina,Singer and Janome. Husqvarna Viking uses HUS and VIP, whilst Pfaff( which is owned by Husqvarna now) reads PCS (an older version) VIP and VP3.Bernina has various ART formats, but also reads EXP and some of them read PES. Singer mostly uses XXX.Janome use JEF,Sew,Jef+ and some PES. I believe there are also some other formats kicking around. Isn't it a shame that the various companies don't get together and do a "one format suits all" brand.

I have also just found out that my two embroidery machines ( a Bernina 200e and a Husqvarna Viking Designer 1),which I put designs on via flash drives,downloaded from my computer, do not like flash drives that are larger than 1Gb in storage capacity. I have had to especially order two new flash drives via Ebay from the USA, under 1Gb to use in my machines. Whilst the cost wasn't much, it was a nuisance. Apparently I can still plug each machine to my computer by the leads supplied and send them over directly, but I prefer to use the small drives. Usually my computer is downstairs and my sewing room is upstairs, so that would not work for me. I rang a number of sewing machine shops before I bought them on Ebay, and no-one had any for sale of a small capacity.

Next posting I wish to talk about using different iconiser and digitising programs to change formats on your computer.

Bye for now

Jennine

Thursday 2 June 2011

What Type of Wadding to use and latest update.

Hello everyone, I will be away for 10 days or so from 6th June.There will not be any phone, tv or internet coverage where I am going, so I wont be posting any updates during that time.I will certainly be going through "internet" withdrawals over that whole time. Isn't it amazing how much we take the internet for granted. My biggest problem is that I always have research I have to do for my Uni course and no coverage means some VERY late nights when I get home, catching up. Oh well, I will try to enjoy the time away with some hand sewing with a glass of wine, under a tree near the river.( With my winter thermals on, as it will be freezing there in mid W Queensland)...lol....

I would like today to talk about waddings, also known as battings. This is the internal layer of a quilt.
I mostly use Mini Jumbuck Nu-Wool, this is an Australian 60%wool, 40% polyester wadding made in Narracoote South Australia, by the South Australian Woollen Mills.Sometimes I will use 100% cotton wadding, but very rarely.Mostly, I use the cotton only for cot quilts.

I find the Nu-wool, which is pre-shrunk,mothproof,sanitised and washes very well in a machine, is the best wadding to use for most quilts and wall hangings. The thickness of the wadding does vary between batches. I buy a 30metre roll and sometimes it can be quite thick and other times is see-through. I suppose it depends on the sheep...This wadding does not hang as softly if used on a bed cover, but the advantages really outweigh that problem. With the quilting, a good quality wool wadding will show the quilt stitching as soft mounds of pattern. With a cotton wadding for example, you will see the lines of sewing but there will  be little or no "Loft".These little mountains of loft really make any quilt look magical, without detracting from the actual quilt. I prefer my quilts to have these lovely shapes.Some people prefer a very flat quilt and that is their choice. I encourage everyone to use the product that they are happiest with.
Some battings/waddings come with a "scrim" which is like a layer of mesh over the wadding. This scrim is there for a reason. One of my customers in the past washed her wadding( you dont need to) and the scrim came off in patches. She insisted I used it, but in hindsight I should have refused, as the wadding was very lumpy in patches.I am sure that quilt would have looked terrible after a few washes.Dont go to a lot of trouble to make a beautiful quilt and then spoil it with a cheap and nasty filling.

So, use what you like, but be guided by what your professional longarm quilter recommends. They, male or female, do a lot of quilts and therefore have a lot of experience with waddings etc,

Bye for now, I will write another update when I am back from Gayndah.

Join my email list (see below)and you will get automatic emails of all my postings. If you should need to ask me about any problem you have with quilting, sewing or machine embroidery, please do not hesitate to contact me. Click on the "My Embroideries" link and go through to my website and click on the "Contact Us" button to send me a message. I will try to answer as soon as possible, although if I am "out bush" it might be a while. Best regards,

Jennine

Monday 30 May 2011

Beautiful Painted Wooden Buttons

I have just purchased some wonderful wooden buttons. They are about 1" wide and are painted with lovely designs such as butterflies and all sorts of floral designs in different colours.

These buttons are ideal to put on your wonderful handmade items such as sewing companions and sewing cushions etc.I will be selling them via my website for $AU4.00 for a packet of 4, the same or a mixed set. Click through to my website if you are interested.

Pictures below.






Wednesday 25 May 2011

Muslin is different in different countries and other news.

Hello everyone,

Didnt update this blog in the last few days as I spent a few days in hospital with a suspected blood clot. Am home and feeling fine now, awaiting further tests.

Celebrating today as I have just finished 2 more Uni modules.Hope I passed ok... they are the
last of level 1. Now I am on to Painting and Textiles.Can't wait to get to the textiles part.
Spent the day sorting out my paints and painting boards and tidying the sewing area ready to go.
I have decided that in between the Uni textile units I will ONLY do ufo's till the end of the year.( Now, don't laugh- I know you are all  rolling on the floor laughing..........).

As part of the requirments for one of the painting modules I had to have 1 metre of hessian and 1 metre of muslin.The hardware stores I rang did not carry any, which surprised me.I spent ages ringing fabric shops who had no idea where I could get it. I found the hessian at a farm supplies store As for the muslin, when I first started patchwork an American magazine said to buy muslin. Of course I went out and bought 3 metres of it. Before I used it, luckily, I found out that what is called muslin in America is called homespun here. It is just a plain woven cotton but much thicker weave than the muslin. Well, I have had it in my "stash" for about 10 years, and it will finally get used....(The muslin and hessian will be glued on to 12mm plywood boards for texture before painting with an undercoat).

I have also found out that muslin is a good base to use for machine needle felting, and in wet felting, which I am dying to try. I purchased a matchstick blind today, on special at Lincraft, was $29.95, today $7.49, so of course I had to add it to the supplies stash at that price. I will definitely have to get to the wet felting one of these days.

I have been reading up on it, and it is much easier to do than I had thought. Basically, you lay out a matchstick blind or a piece of bubble wrap, woollen(you cannot use synthetics) or other natural fibre pieces are laid over the blind (sometimes tulle is placed as the bottom and top layers to seperate the blind from the wool etc ), the blind keeps it all together .It is soaked and rubbed a bit with a very soapy water mix (lux flakes or some other soft soap) and then the blind is rolled up and bashed around, trodden on, rolled etc. It is undone gently several times to check no parts have doubled up and also to rotate the direction of it. I have shortened all the instructions, but you will get the general idea.

I have an embellisher machine that I bought about 3 years ago. I havent actually even turned it on to see if it works and the warranty would have run out by now... Apparently, if you use an embellisher machine,( or one of the sets of needles you can buy now), then you can use synthetic products as well as the natural ones. I have been saving bits of ribbons, tulle,old woollen jumpers,wool etc for a number of years now,just waiting to use it for one of these projects.

I have just finished the 4th "sewing lap cushion",(yes I know they are not a ufo..lol) for friends birthday presents. The one shown in the blog has gone to a lovely lady in Burpengary on the north side of Brisbane.

Well, I think thats all the news for today, so I will sign off. Take care.
Jennine

Friday 20 May 2011

Getting ready for Painting classes.

Been away for a few days in hospital but back home and raring to go again. Currently working hard on my final essay for my current Uni module. My next two units, starting on 1st June, are about Painting and then followed by textiles embellishment, adornment and then dyeing. I am hoping to learn a lot from these units, as they are my favourite subjects and right down my alley, so to speak. I would love to combine my quilting with fabric paints, dyes and other adornments, so cant wait for them.

Meanwhile, I have sourced a very large old aluminium saucepan and bought one of those cheap gas camping stoves that use aerosol gas canisters, and am now adding all sorts of things like wooden and plastic spoons, old cans, screw-top jars etc, to my "art stash". I have just found out that I need to buy a double boiler saucepan to make my own gesso.That sure sounds interesting.I will have to start checking around the op shops again......lol.

 Recently I sourced some "Inktense" pencils from Kim Bradley's website.They are fabulous, cant wait to try them out. Kim recently had a dvd released with the latest issue of Quilters Companion magazine, showing how she uses various pencils and ink sticks to paint and embellish her quilts, very interesting dvd, totally recommended. Her link is www.kimbradleycreations.com, if you are interested.

Well, back to my essays, bye for now.

Jennine

Sunday 15 May 2011

Free You Tube videos about quick cutting of patchwork pieces.

Tonight I wish to write about You Tube. There are some wonderful short videos available on this site that directly relate to patchwork, quilting and machine embroidery. I am very interested at the moment in something called Smart Piecing. This is a method of cutting patchwork shapes such as half square and quarter square triangles from strips of fabric using special acrylic rulers. This method ensures accurate cutting( and therefore accurate piecing) and also uses much less material than if you had cut the pieces from squares or from templates. Even large side setting triangles can be cut this way from strips. No more cutting large blocks and then cutting in diagonals twice, that is in the past.

Missouri Quilt Company is one you can look at, they have lots of different short videos showing some wonderful quick methods of cutting and piecing your patchwork, but of course there are many other companies showing their methods. This is a fabulous way to get ideas, particularly if you are just starting out with patchwork. The rulers are available from most quilt supply shops. Here in Australia I get mine from Judy Hall at www.punchwithjudy.com, but there are lots of other places and I notice my local patchwork shop is also starting to sell them.

I recommend having a look at these videos and will attach a link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOWSp0mTTqE&feature=fvsr

Bye for now

Jennine

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Bowel Cancer and Breast Cancer Tests

I know this is a bit off topic, but I would like to comment about people getting regular bowel test kits. They are available from most chemists and in fact, our government is sending them out to some age groups. A very good friend of mine, did the kit and was called in for a colonoscopy, cancer was found and he was immediately operated on. All is ok now, thank goodness. His wife had such a shock, because he had no symptoms, so she went to the chemist and bought herself a kit ($30 here in Brisbane). Would you believe she was in the same hospital room as her husband for a major operation, within 2 weeks. She is now home and having chemo tablets. She had NO symptoms whatsoever.

Please Please, everyone should get a kit and if positive, see your Dr immediately.

This comes after I have recently lost my sister to advanced breast cancer. She did not tell anyone that she had a lump, till it was the size of an orange. By then, it had spread throughout her body.She put up a brave fight for 17months.We lost our mother from breast cancer, so she should have known better, but was terrified of finding out any results, so kept delaying telling anyone.

Every lady ( and men as well,as believe it or not,they have a chance of getting breast cancer, even though it is not publicised much) should have breast mammograms at least every 2 years.

Please dont delay seeing your medical professionals should you have any lumps,anywhere.
bye for now

Jennine

Wednesday 4 May 2011

More Things I made


This is called a "Sewing Companion", its a small cloth book that has zipped pockets inside for sewing things and a centre pincushion. I made this for my friend Cheryl.

Finally, I made this from a photostitch design for a friends bible.It is very intense stitching and took a long time to sew out, but looks great.

Bye for now,
Jennine

Things I have made.



I love making gifts for my friends when their birthdays come around. The pictures above are from one of the pieces I have made. Firstly, a needle booklet( for sewing machine needles), I embroidered a lovely sewing machine design on the front.(I got it from www.emblibrary.com, they have lovely and reasonable designs).

Next, I found a long-lost sister (Hazel),on the right,in the UK last year and she came over to meet me and my other sister Juanita,on the left,(from NZ). Before she left we made her a quilt from squares of Australian themed fabric. She loved it. We also made her the bag from Japanese fabric.

Album I made for piecing quilt blocks.



I have just made this album for putting my pieced quilt blocks in before I sew them together. I got a 2nd hand photo album from an opportunity shop and removed the plastic sleeves. I then cut some pieces of wadding(batting) and covered pieces of plastic core board( $6 for a huge sheet from the hardware store). I then sewed the covered sheets onto the spine of the album and covered the outside in a pretty material. I then glued on some more wadding inside the front and back covers.I added a piece of ribbon to the inside cover to hide the join. I did make one mistake with it- I should have covered the outside album covers with more wadding and then glued the material all over it. I only glued around the edges and the centre is a little bit loose, not enough to bother me though. I added a ribbon loop on the back and a nice button on the top. Basically, when the pieces of material are placed on the wadding, they stick like on a design wall. This helps keep all the pieces in the right order as they are sewn together. I will show it again when I place some block pieces in it.

Machine embroidery Hoops-How to hold your fabrics taut.

Hello,

I thought today I would mention a good way to make your embroidery hoops hold your fabric more securely. I bought a roll of stretch sticky bandage and cut pieces to wrap around the inner part of my hoops. I find this works really well when I am hooping material.(I do not always hoop my materials).
You will find a photo above of one of my hoops and the bandage roll.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Thread Colours in your quilt, Backing fabrics and material types that affect the quilting.

I just wanted to follow on from my quilting comments yesterday. When choosing the threads for your quilt, remember that the very dark colours like black,navy,dark green etc, because of the dyes involved, do not show very good stitch definition when quilted. It is better to pick a lighter colour, but one that will blend in with the colours in the actual quilt. My favourite colours are gold which looks wonderful on nearly any colour quilt and cream which is suitable for a lot of quilts.

Also, the type of material in your quilt can affect the way the quilting stitch looks. Any materials containing polyester or rayon will lose a lot of stitch definition. The best fabrics are 100% cotton for both the front and the back of your quilt.

When quilting your quilt any loose areas can often be shrunk by using an intense stitch pattern, but if the baggyness is huge, then there might be wrinkles or pleats around that area. Most quilters will do their best to even out these areas but sometimes a pucker is unavoidable.

With your backings, a lot of people use sheets. If you are doing this be aware that the thread count of the sheet is important. A low thread count can cause colours to show through from the front of the quilt, even through the wadding. Do not use sheets with any polyester content as this material will not stay as nice as the 100% cotton-content ones. Also, your quilter will need to use more needles to sew with polyester as it blunts the needles and causes burrs on the needles more often. Besides seeing the difference, I always know if there is any polyester in a quilt or backing as I can actually hear the needle "punching" throught the material when sewing.

Happy Quilting,
Jennine

Thursday 28 April 2011

Pictures of sewing set

Silly me, I forgot to upload the photos.

Sewing Set

This is a sewing set I made to take to my weekly quitling group. On left is a "mug bag", in the centre is an "iron caddy" and on the right a zipped bag for my scissors,needle etc. I bought this material on-line from the USA, as it matched a large sewing bag I also have.

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Sewing room cleanup

I decided I could not get creative enough with my sewing room being in such a mess, so have had a huge cleanup. I spent quite some time going back and forwards to Crazy Clark's buying those plastic boxes with lids.  I still need about another 4, but meanwhile things are looking so much better. I put labels on them, so I know where everything is now. (That is in the boxes, anyway!!). I still have a pantry cup- board to clean out. I was feeling very guilty when I had to buy the biggest bin to put my UFO's in.....

I actually found heaps of fabrics I didnt even remember buying, so it was like a free shopping spree...







I have now decided I will not touch anything other then the UFO's for the next 6 mths at least.( I hope that wont be like a New Years Resolution, which doesnt last long...lol) Note the big bin at left is the UFO's one...





I have also taken a photo of my antique sewing machine shelves.
See photo at right.

Friday 22 April 2011

Machine Embroidered Quilts

I love machine embroidery and quilting. This joint love encouraged me to combine the two and make machine embroidered quilts. Of course, I also make many other items with machine embroidery.

I love making different small items for my friends (and myself), such as scarves, bags, sewing needlebooks etc. I wish I had kept a photographic record of all the things I have made over the years.

Recently I did large neckline embroideries on two cheap t-shirts, turning them into expensive designer t-shirts.

My sewing machines are a Husqvarna Designer 1 and a Bernina 200E, with medium sized hoops.
The Husqvarna hoop is 150 x 240cm or approximatly 10" x6" and is the one I use the most.

I use all brands of threads but recently have been trialling Marathon Threads, which have proved to be wonderful. I never have to worry about thread breakage again.

I use a medium weight "tear away" for nearly all my sewing. I often spray the material I am going to machine embroider with a spray starch. I saturate them while they are hanging on the washing line and leave them to dry. They end up very stiff like thick paper.

 If the material is a silk or satin, I sometimes will also use a "Stick It All" (SIA), which has a peel-off paper layer. (I get this from www.hoopitalldownunder.com.au- but it is also available from the American site or a private website like Punch with Judy. When it is removed the stick side is facing up and I press my material onto it. I do not often even hoop my actual materials, preferring to machine baste them to the tear-away instead.

Starting out, I used other peoples embroidery designs for my quilts, but have recently digitised( which means turning a drawing of my own into a machine embroidery design by using a software package) and designed a number of my own quilts.

I started firstly with some basic redwork designs, doing an antique toy sewing machine quilt.( I am a collector of these adorable little machines and have over 40 of them!)


                                                                 

Next, I changed the thread colour and did a greenwork quilt with watering cans. 

I then got more adventurous and bought some clipart and digitised a boys quilt with trucks and tractors and little men with their shovels.I altered the clipart of some to my own designs. Of course, I then had to do a girlish one and made a lovely set which I named after my granddaughter Ashley Anne.

                                                                                  




 Being so pleased with them, I decided I would try something bigger. I had always loved the appliqued Baltimore Quilts in America and decided I would do one in machine embroidery, made to look like the applique. So far I have made one large one 59" square with 9 designs and a border and a miniature one that fits in a 5"x7" hoop, of the same designs.



I have since digitised and sewn out another 14 blocks and am testing another 11 blocks with a view to making a huge 25 block quilt of Baltimore Designs. I have also made about 40 smaller designs of eagles and assorted items to embellish the quilt.

Because I had to draw them myself and allow for the fact they would be machine embroidered, the designs are a bit different from the real appliqued Baltimores, but I just love them.

At the moment I am very busy doing an Arts Degree, with a view to learning as much as I can about textiles. I would love to make an art quilt with embroidery in the future.
Finally, today, there is a picture of a glorious little "lap cushion" designed by Sue Daley from the site www.busyfingerspatchwork.com. I added embroidery to the side panels. this cushion is great for having on ones lap whilst you handsew. I am now making them as presents for my friends.
 



Bye for now, Jennine