Group Embroidery Project – Summer Creativity Challenge, Designing Embroidery Space Part 2

Now that we have the decided fabric, felt, cut to a desired size, 3″x4.5″, designing the embroidery space is next the challenge.

The Yahoo Group Hand-Embroidery is using these 4 flower designs in the Summer Creativity Challenge. There is an Iris, a Pansy, a Rose and a Marigold to embroider.

Here are the designs at various sizes. I printed them out as 4″x6″, 3″x5″, and 2″x3″.

Here is the felt next to the 2″x3″ size design. The entire flower design should fit on the felt fabric piece.

Here is the felt next to the 3″x5″ size design. Most of the entire flower could fit on the felt fabric piece. Maybe even some of the stem could get into the design area as well.

Here is the felt next to the 4″x6″ size design. Part of the flower design could fit on the felt fabric piece with not much of the leaves or stems to use in the design.

Now, the questions of which size to use and how to use them stir the creativity. I enjoy having many choices when placing a design on fabric. This is one of the most enjoyable parts of designing!

I’m off to manipulate the fabric over the designs to see all the many design possibilities there are, and which of them are pleasing and appealing to the eye. It’s a wonderful “brain teaser”. I do this mostly by “feel” although some may call it finding a balance in the design given the boundaries of the fabric. I think that most people can move the design around on the design space and “feel” when it “works” for them.

Are you taking the Summer Creativity Challenge? How are you approaching the challenge? Share with us and write about it in the comments. I’m sure others taking the challenge would love to hear from you as well.

Your life needs fun. Go ahead, have some fun!

————-Helpful Information———-

Find Yahoo!Group Hand Embroidery (Click Here)

Find Hand Embroidery Group Blog (Click Here)

Find Hand Embroidery Group Summer Creativity Challenge (Click Here)

Find Stitchy Britches Blog (Click Here)

Find Giggleface Studios tutorial for tinting with crayons (Click Here)

Find Craftster forum with tinting with crayons information (Click Here)

Group Embroidery Project – Summer Creativity Challenge, Embroidered Flowers Part 1

After much talk of a “Summer Challenge” over at the wonderful Yahoo! Group, Hand-Embroidery, I finally asked what the “Challenge” was all about. Boy, was I ever excited!

The challenge is posted at the group blog, a place that I know I’ve visited, but somehow missed the entire idea of the challenge until people started posting their finished pieces. It seems that the Summer Creativity Challenge is all about flowers. The group is taking 4 flower patterns from the blog at Stitchy Britches and interpreting them as the challenge! If you follow the links to all these places, don’t forget to come back!

I was so excited to find the many, many, many transfer designs after getting to Stitchy Britches! Now, aside from the challenge, I can’t even begin to think of what to start next. There are so many choices there they would keep you in pattern heaven for several lifetimes.

I am inspired to take the Summer Creativity Challenge and here is my journey to the flowery creations ahead!

I’ve been working with felt for the sketchbook cover, so I am going to challenge myself to create these flowers in felt and tint with crayon. My personal challenge is to also keep my finished project “simple” and “affordable” as an inspiration to any ‘beginner embroiderers’ or any ‘budget embroiderers’ that may fear a challenge like this thinking that the outcome has to involve a lot of finishing or a lot of fancy embellishments. Besides, I love the challenge of creating something out of nearly nothing!

Here, a sheet of 9″x12″ white felt.

To make the challenge even more ‘affordable’ I will only use Half a sheet of felt. The smaller size should make the challenge seem less daunting for anyone.

Use rotary cutters and a quilt ruler to cut the felt in half lengthwise.

Here is the half sheet of felt. Now 12″x4.5″

The flowers are taller than they are wide, so they would be placed on the felt in this direction.

There are 4 flowers so the felt needs to be cut into fourths. Half this strip, then half it again to get the fourths.

Rotary cutters slice through at the half mark.

There are 2 halves of the lengthwise strip. Each is 4.5″x6″.

Stack them on top of each other.

Find half of that piece, measure…

and cut.

Here they are again in half. Each is 4.5″x3″.

There are the 4 felt pieces for the challenge pattern. Each rectangle is 3″x4.5″.

The challenge designs are printed out as 4″x6″, 3″x5″, and 2″x3″.

Now for the next challenge…getting one of these design sizes onto the 3″x4.5″ felt.

Any thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Think outside of the box.

Your life needs fun. Go ahead, have some fun!

————-Helpful Information———-

Find Yahoo!Group Hand Embroidery (Click Here)

Find Hand Embroidery Group Blog (Click Here)

Find Hand Embroidery Group Summer Creativity Challenge (Click Here)

Find Stitchy Britches Blog (Click Here)

Find Giggleface Studios tutorial for tinting with crayons (Click Here)

Find Craftster forum with tinting with crayons information (Click Here)

Find Embroidered notebook cover Part 1 (Click Here)

Find Embroidered notebook cover Part 2 (Click Here)

Find Embroidered notebook cover Part 3 (Click Here)

Find Embroidered notebook cover Part 4 (Click Here)

Find Embroidered notebook cover Part 5 (Click Here)

Find Embroidered notebook cover Part 6 (Click Here)

Embroidery Project-Original Sewing Pattern Purse-”Monkey Love” Sublime Stitching, Ironing The Flip Side, Part 5

Time to color the back of the purse!

Keeping with the style of the purse front, out come the crayons. This transfer is from Jenny Hart, Sublime Stitching, Monkey Love design. Color the iron on transfer.

It doesn’t take very long to color. I outline the edges with a darker tone of a similar color and add some fun highlights and shadows. I also fill in the larger areas with several shades of similar color to add some interest to the overall coloring effect.

I added some purple to the shaded areas and some white to some highlighted areas. The iron will melt out the sharp contrast, but it does leave a subtle shading effect.

Here is the little monkey all colored, ready for the iron.

It’s time to iron. Cover design area with a sheet of paper. I also have a towel and a sheet of paper on the underside of the designed fabric. Now heat the iron to the cotton setting.

Press the hot iron to the paper. Smell the hot wax as the iron melts the crayon wax. You’ll see the colored wax come through through the paper as it melts. Remove the paper. Iron again with clean paper on top of the design until and repeat until the wax no longer transfers to the paper when ironed.

After ironing, you can see the shading and the highlight have been reduced from the pre-ironed coloring, but it is still subtly there. Here is the little curious monkey all ironed, tint set, and ready for embroidering!

Now, to figure out this zipper and get stitching.

Have you tried tinting fabric with crayons? Let us know how it’s coming out in the comment.

Your life needs fun. Go ahead, have some fun!

———–Helpful Information——–

Find ”Monkey Love” Sublime Stitching, Part 1 (Click Here)

Find ”Monkey Love” Sublime Stitching, Part 2 (Click Here)

Find ”Monkey Love” Sublime Stitching, Part 3 (Click Here)

Find ”Monkey Love” Sublime Stitching, Part 4 (Click Here)

Find Giggleface Studios tutorial for tinting with crayons (Click Here)

Find Craftster forum with tinting with crayons information (Click Here)

Find Craftster forum about Sublime Stitching (Click Here)

Find Sublime Stitching, Jenny Hart (Click Here)

Embroidery Ideas – Inspirations Magazine #58

It’s finally here in Hawaii!

After waiting and watching and whining and waiting and waiting…did I mention waiting…it’s here! The Inspirations Magazine Issue #58…in very limited quantities, as the B&N and Borders Books here on Oahu only get 6 copies, if any, in any one store!

It’s now $13.95 a copy here. The last, and only, other copy I bought was the #57, which was $11.95. So, in one issue, I’ve seen a $2 increase in price. But…at least it’s here!

I even posted on the Needlework Forum, over at Country Bumpkin.com, in the Inspirations Magazine area, about all my woes of having to watch and hear everyone else in the world getting their magazine and starting projects from it.  I sat and waited. Notice that it is June 21 and the cover is advertising Mother’s Day projects. I believe Hawaii is literally the last stop for this magazine which travels through the UK to get back over the Pacific Ocean. It’s been almost entirely around earth as it gets here in the middle of the sea.

This is my dream project from this issue. County Bumpkin posts the current cover and all the project supply packets on their website. Ever since Issue 58 was released back in April, and posted at their site,  I’ve been drooling over the Rosamund project.

I’m so excited to have this in my hands. I’m spending the day reading and dreaming about embroidery.

Do you have this magazine? Another magazine? What’s in your embroidery dream plan?

Your life needs fun. Go ahead, have some fun!

Embroidery Project-Original Sewing Pattern Purse-”Monkey Love” Sublime Stitching, The Flip Side, Part 4

Moving on to the back of the “Monkey Love” purse.

This is the purse front from the purse pattern I created and embellished with crayon back a few posts. (The links are the end of this entry if you need to look back at them.)

The back has been lonely and waiting to be made!

So, first, lay out the pattern and trace around the pattern shape.

Cut 1 of pellon on the fold. I used Decor Bond pellon.

Lay the pellon piece on the fabric piece. Line them up.

Press with a hot iron. I use a protective fabric between the iron and the pellon to keep the iron from ruining any of the underlying material.

Here the pellon is fused to the purse shape.

I think I would like a zipper pocket on this back side of the purse, so I am inserting a 7″ zipper later. To mark off the zipper, fold the shape in half lengthwise. I think I’d like my zipper 3″ from the purse’s top edge.

Mark off half the length of the zipper in the place where you’d like the zipper. My zipper is 7″, so I marked off between 3-3.5″ since I will re-measure for a more accurate line when I sew in the zipper.

Unfold the fabric and mark the other half of the line you just drew. This is the entire zipper line on he wrong side of your embroidery fabric.

Now, turn the fabric to the front and transfer the zipper line to the front of the fabric.

This is your design space with the zipper marked so that you can design around the zipper area.

I used Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching “Monkey Love” iron on transfers. I choose another monkey and two leaves.

Position your designs or iron on transfers.

Press a hot iron to the transfers.

And here it is! One monkey in place in the design space.

Here are two leaves in the design space as well.

I transfered the lines of the edges of the purse to the front side of the embroidery fabric. This gives you a clearer picture of the entire design space.

The “Monkey Love” purse now has a back. I’m off to color it with crayons to tint the fabric with crayon.

I hope you are planning and designing a few wonderful things. Please share them in your comments!

You life needs fun. Go ahead, have some fun!

———–Helpful Information——–

Find ”Monkey Love” Sublime Stitching, Part 1 (Click Here)

Find ”Monkey Love” Sublime Stitching, Part 2 (Click Here)

Find ”Monkey Love” Sublime Stitching, Part 3 (Click Here)

Find Giggleface Studios tutorial for tinting with crayons (Click Here)

Find Craftster forum with tinting with crayons information (Click Here)

Find Craftster forum about Sublime Stitching (Click Here)

Find Sublime Stitching, Jenny Hart (Click Here)