Hi people!  Happy New Year.  I hope your new year is off to a good start. I was thinking the other day about working out an applique project that provided the opportunity to use multiple types of machine applique and determining which to use for what.  I would of course provide a pattern or worksheet and a YouTube video for you if I did that.  Would you like that?

“Canterbury Silk”. This quilt won several ribbons in national competitions. The flowers and birds are stitched raw edge silk with narrow matching color blanket stitch. They have not frayed.

Sew what would I include if I make this project?  I think it would be something like this:

1. Prepared turned edge applique stitched in such a way that it approaches the look of fine hand turned-edge applique.
2. The rest would be stitched raw edge appliques:
   • narrow blanket stitch and/or vari-overlock stitch in matching thread colors
   • double blanket stitch with 40 weight thread
   • broiderie perse applique

Stitching down a broiderie perse cutout from the Hoffman challenge fabric.

• • decorative stitch with heavy weight thread
  • straight stitch leaving a deliberate edge that would eventually fray for texture

wool applique on wool with decorative machine stitched edges. Other fabrics work for this method too.

Sew happy everyone!  Have fun in your studios and enjoy the whole of 2023.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I wish you all a wonderful 2023 full of blessings and accomplishments. We had a kind of rough ending to 2022 with the flu for both my youngest son and myself that we are finally over after nearly three weeks with it, and the death of my dear brother in law and other less dramatic difficulties.  Consequently, I did not get a YouTube video out in December, but one is in the works and will be out early in the new year.  We did manage to get our Christmas decorations up and they will stay there through much of January.

Nevertheless, it seems a somewhat wonderful way to start the new year with these difficult things behind us. I have a very long list of interesting projects to choose from for 2023 that I am anxious to dive into and share with you as I make them. My son David just finished a short story for an anthology he was asked to write and he is nearly finished with a new science fiction book which he is likely to get out the door in January.  So there is much to look forward to.

God is with us and there is something refreshing and sparkling about the start of this new year.

Please let me know what you are working on.  I would love for you to share pictures and progress with me both in comments on my blogs and below my YouTube videos and emails to [email protected]

Sew happy everyone and have fun in your studios (regardless of its size and equipment).  Hugs all around.

Hi everyone

Earlier this week I was working on my new wool applique by machine project that I am filming into two or three videos for my YouTube Channel.  I already had some thread breakage earlier in the project,  but I thought it was a thread type or tension issue, since I was using a 100 weight silk thread, and when I lowered the top tension it stopped (but also made a change in my stitch pattern).

So I went along on my project with no further problems until I changed from my narrow blanket stitch to a decorative stitch that filled the whole stitch width of my 9 mm foot.  I started having thread breaking issues.  I was sure it was the thread itself, since I had moved from the very lightweight 100 wt threads I was using to stitch down the appliques to a 12 weight cotton for some decorative stitching.

some 12 weight decorative stitching

My threads started breaking after the first few stitches.  I cleaned, oiled, and rethreaded.  The thread broke by the third or fourth stitch.  I rethreaded again with the same result and I lowered the top tension.  So I changed threads, and the thread broke right away.  Oh my.  I was sure I was going to have to take Odette (my Bernina 880 plus) in for servicing, and that would be a big delay I really don’t need now.

But just before I was about to shut down the machine in disgust, a still small voice said “try a different foot”.  I remembered then that I had once before had a foot that I had used for decades develop a burr that broke threads.

Sew to my joy when I put on another foot that worked ok for what I was doing and tried it out, no breaking.  I tried it for some time and went on to finish the decorative stitching with the heavy threads I was doing.

Upon close examination of the culprit foot, I found that the right corner had a worn place that is very sharp.  This foot is 19 years old and one I use a great deal since it had fit both two older machines I traded in and my new Odette.  So now I have to either manage to fix the foot with some buffing, or replace it.  This will be much cheaper and easier and quicker than taking my machine to the machine vet for unknown repairs.

Anyway, the point is, it might be the foot if you have been having problems with breaking thread.  So check it out.

Sometimes sewing machine feet, after about 15 to 20 years of use (LOL)  or if it gets in the way if you hit a pin or bend a needle because you forgot to change some setting or some such, need attention.  The last foot I had this problem with was easily fixed with a little buffing with fine sand paper.  I had used it for more than 20 years!  When I am in my studio and having a lot of fun, it is hard for me to realize how old some of my tools have become…even those I bought myself “just a few years ago” (my thoughts).  Indeed, it’s hard to realize how long I have been sewing myself (somewhere around 70 years now since I was five).   If only if I can fix my own creakiness with a little light buffing.  He he he.

Sew happy everyone!  Have fun in your studio!

Me at a Q20 at the Road to California in January 2020. I did buy the rings and love them, by the way.

Hi everyone. I became aware recently that there are quite a few quilters who use my chart I made years ago for my Bernina Q20 sitdown longarm (I have had mine now for over six years).  His name is Fritz, by the way.  We have a lovely time quilting and other free motion stitching together on a regular basis.  So I have double checked the information I have on this chart and added a few notes at the end.  I strongly suggest if you want to use this that you be sure to make adjustments for your own machine.  There are factors that can make things different from machine to machine…weather, minor factory setting differences, what table you use, and on and on.  But I think these settings are a pretty good place to start for you if you are a new owner of one of these fabulous machines.  It would be the same for a Q16 too, by the way.  Sew here it is.  Download it if you wish and provide comments for improvement here on the blog.  Share as you wish.

Q20 chart

By the way, currently I am working on a new wool applique project that makes a nice pillow top for about a 20 x 20 decorator pillow.  I am videoing this and will have a pattern too with both printed patterns and  svg files for the appliques those of you who have digital cutters.

After that, however, I am planning on some videoing for working at the Q20…ruler work, free motion, and setting up and maintaining your Q20 or Q16.  Like I said,  I have had mine for over six years and I love how it sews. It almost seems better now than when I first got it, but I am thinking I am probably better at using it now than when I first got it.  LOL

Sew happy everyone!  Have fun in your studio and try out a little free motion stitching or quilting this weekend.

Hi everybody.  If you tried to read any of my blogs in the past five days or so you would not have been able to.  I had a technical failure related to automatic updating of security certificates and programs.  Oh it was miserable.  I spent hours in discussion with the technical people for days!  We finally identified the problem and got it fixed just yesterday afternoon!  So I’m happy I can move forward again in this great adventure. I admit that I was a little concerned my blogs had been lost for good, but not so. Now I have a zip file of my entire blogs from the beginning through the last post.  This is a good thing, because I have been writing a book and using the information I put out in many of my blogs as part of it and I only just started pulling that together.

Storm at Sea…seems appropriate for this past week. LOL

In addition, I just decided to abandon the “Painting on Quilts” project because I had too many problems of one kind or another related to painting the  quilts and filming at the same time.  It just wasn’t meant to be, so I am picking my next projects and moving forward.  Today I am working out where I go from here.  I have a myriad of ideas and partially started projects, but not one is ready to video yet, so I will have to get to work!  LOL…and it will be fun, whichever direction I go I am sure and will involve thread and fabric!

Sew what can we learn from this?  Sometimes it is the thing to do to abandon a project.  Sometimes you have to plow through a problem until it is solved.  Starting a new project will be fun but I think also need some short things of interest to do and write about and video for you all while I work on the long things.

Sew happy everyone!  Have fun in your studio!

I hand stitched this little crewel scene using wool threads years ago. It has a special meaning for me because I stitched it during my frequent visits with my mother in the months just before her death in 1998. My youngest son took it and had it framed in a museum quality acid free framing to protect it.

I am a very blessed woman.  On Thursday, the 3rd of March, 2022, I will be 75 years old, three quarters of a century!

Come fly with me

And yet I still happily enjoy my sons, daughter in law, and grandson who live close by.  Joyfully, I still have a clear mind with only an occasional “senior moment” and gratefully I have a fairly functioning body, though I often feel a little creaky as one might who is 75, find it a little challenging to manage the stairs in my townhome, and I can’t work quite as fast or nearly as long as I used to, but nevertheless I still mostly manage.

I have a wonderful, though somewhat crowded, studio with four machines that are so enjoyable to use with each its own function to play with and a good sound stash of fabrics and threads.  My family outfitted my studio with equipment of all kinds to help me make the videos I want to share with you all.

Sony ZV-1:  One of my two primary cameras that I use in filming my videos.  I love this little camera.

So bless the Lord, oh my soul!  Thanks to Him and thanks to my family and friends who have surrounded me with love and support to help me through this phase in my life.

I had hoped that my videos coupled with the accompanying patterns that can be purchased for such a small amount from my website would provide some profit to support my fabric art work, but alas, this has not happened so far.  Yet I will keep on in spite of that at least for a while because over my 70 years of sewing (yes!!!) I have learned so much that I want to share.  It seems remarkable that at my age I have garnered a clear understanding of some of the more technical aspects of using my advanced machines and the software that helps me on a daily basis.  I guess it comes from practice and a certain fascination as to what can be done with these wonderful tools. The first lesson I clearly remember from when I was around 5 is how important it is to keep one’s tools, especially the machines, clean and oiled properly.  She also taught me to get the best tools I could afford and learn them well.  Then she taught me how to sew.  We spent many great enjoyable hours together making our clothes and household items.  When my children were on the way, we made their entire wardrobes, receiving blankets, and crib items.

This sewing machine is like the one I remember Mom having when I started to sew.

I learned to quilt starting in 2003 when I moved close to my oldest son and his wife after my dearest love Marvin passed.  Beth (DIL) said she thought I would enjoy quilting, which she had herself found fun.  So I took up the challenge and never looked back.  I must admit though, that I went in a somewhat different direction that she may have expected, since I fell in love with pictorial art quilting.

Canterbury Silk. I consider this as kind of my “flagship” quilt for my current fabric art work.  It won three nice fat ribbons, one even at AQS Paducah! It hangs in my living room above my comfy chair most of the time.

I may have just a few more days, months, or years to live. Only God knows the answer to that, but I kind of expect that I have a lot of years left before me (many in my family ancestry have lived to their late 90s and early 100s).  I plan on keeping on with my sewing, quilting, writing, and videoing until I simply cannot do it any longer.

I have had, so far, an interesting life full of love, laughter, world travel, and even adventure.  Now I am content to stay home and play in my studio for the most part. Sew I am sending out love and thanks to all my readers and viewers, family, and friends.  May God bless you all.

Sew happy everyone!  Have fun in your studio!

If you have been sewing or quilting any length of time I know you have occasionally had a project that seemed to fight you every step of the way.  I have been dealing with such a project for the past several months and, through persistence and a little bit of acceptance of some of the results that aren’t quite what I originally had in mind, I am very close to finishing it. It is my two birds quilt project for my YouTube channel.

The techniques are not difficult, the design is good and problems in the pattern and instructions have been eliminated.  It was an experimental quilt project in many ways.  I had several  personal problematic challenges with a few little annoyances here and there that only occasionally happen with me or my projects and a few small machine and health events.

During the course of making this project, I redesigned parts of it several times; ruined the beginning with a mistake on my part and had to reorder fabric to restart it; discovered the way I had planned to accomplish some of the parts were not the best route and I had to correct them; my quilting machine got some fluff and thread caught in the thread path that I couldn’t get out on my own and I spent several hours on the phone working with my wonderful Bernina tech Lew who helped me fix it and basically we serviced my machine as we worked through the problem; I discovered I did not like the way all the thread colors worked though I loved the threads, so had to order new threads and work around the wait; had a part of the quilting I messed up and ripped out and requilted; and finally, abnormally struggled with getting the binding on for some reason (perhaps I was out of practice).  But each problem has been overcome and the quilt is lovely.

That is now all behind me, the videos are filmed except one small finishing up, and the quilt is lovely.  I still need to do the final wash to remove all the marks and refresh the fabric, and the videos are being edited into several segments by my excellent family member editor.

In the midst of all of this I had cataract surgery in both eyes and a few other things that delayed my work on the project.  But all in all, I am delighted with the results of the eye surgery and have dealt with the other delays and bumps in the road.

Sew in a few weeks now, the two birds videos will be published along with a workbook with the pattern and instructions in case someone wants to make one themselves.  And the cool thing is that I have been through the instructions, patterns, and making of the quilt and already made all the mistakes for you, so you won’t have to make them yourself.  LOL. Therefore, I am pretty sure if you decide to join me and make the quilt you will find it really fun and free of such challenges.

I talked over new ideas with my family last weekend and am very excited about upcoming projects for 2022 and look forward to sharing them with you all. I fully believe that I will be producing more frequent videos with some really fun projects and I hope you will join me or at the very least watch the videos and continue to read my blogs. I am thinking of adding some podcast blogs once in a while (all sound, no videos).

NEWS:  I have put several of my quilts on a really good sale to help pay for some upcoming expenses.  Go take a look here: https://bjfabricartist.com/shop

Sew happy everyone and have fun in your studios!

Hi everyone.  I am happily anticipating the fall after this tough hot summer here in northern Virginia. We had a little taste of it this past week although they are predicting the next few days will be back to hot summer weather. In spite of that I have already begun my fall and winter sewing and quilting fun here in my studio.  I have clothes, wall art quilts, a special banner, and videos on my sewing docket for this.  I think I really have to get busy!

I have a quilt that will be shown in an in-person quilt show this week at the Pennsylvania International Quilt Extravaganza in Oak, PA, that runs from 9/16 Thursday through 9/19.   It is my memory quilt for my mother Out of Mom’s Workbasket.  9/17/2021 UPDATE:  This quilt won third place in Traditional Quilts category!!!   Hooray!!!

Out of Mom’s Workbasket

I used five crocheted blocks that I found in her workbasket after she passed in 1998 and held on to them until I could figure out what to do with them and had time to do it.  I made this quilt last year during the lockdown and it was a wonderful activity for me during this time. Sweet memories of her floated around me as I worked on it.

I used multiple techniques for this quilt just as I have to make a lot of my wall art quilts.  Note that I am not much of a piecer, although I do piece parts of my quilts when necessary.  I do love machine applique, free motion stitching and quilting, and adding embellishments such as machine embroidery, paint, and beads or crystals to my quilts though.  This quilt has all of these techniques.

I machine embroidered this free standing lace star for the center of the quilt.

In the first place, the white fabric is crepe-back satin and the blue-gray fabrics are dupioni.  Well, yes, that’s true, but these fabrics are polyester!  They are dramatically cheaper than silk (or quilting cotton for that matter), and they wash without shrinkage or bleeding of color.  However, the dupioni, which seems lighter than silk dupioni, requires a fusible interfacing to back it.  I used Pellon SF101, a woven fusible lightweight interfacing that remains in the quilt and is very drapable even after fusing. I particularly like the way the dupioni looks and feels and I intend to use it again.  I love the way these fabrics quilt up especially.  I believe my mother, who was a fabulously talented seamstress, would love it.  I once saw her make a gorgeous prom gown for my cousin entirely out of a single color of crepe-back polyester satin with no additional embellishments.  It was styled so beautifully and I still remember it decades from then.  I know a lot of quilters think polyester is not to be used on quilts.  I have had them call such fabrics and polyester threads “plastic”, which is technically correct, but is definitely intended to be an insult to the fabric and threads. There is also a nice batting that can substitute for wool batting and can be easily washed.  I would, however, avoid using all these polyesters on a child’s quilt for a few reasons.  Cotton is necessary for kid’s quilts and nice for cuddle quilts in my personal opinion.  But this is an art piece, and I might also us it as a decorative throw from time to time.  Sew what do you think?

I added things she loved around the quilt..flowers, birds, sewing machine, Peter O’Dog (the scottie), stars, angel, pearls, and so forth.

So I finally figured out that the five 10 inch blocks could be placed in such a way that a beautiful star was formed while drawing on the geometric patterns in the crochet to make a pentagon surrounding the star with crosses pointed outward.

These are the five 10 inch squares of crocheted lace that I found in Mom’s workbasket. They inspired the quilt.

I worked for months to design the quilt from there.  Really, the hardest part when constructing it was to make the blue-gray pentagon that backs the crocheted blocks.  Getting each side and angle to match at just the right size onto a freezer paper pattern took me a full day.  I suspect if I were better at math and geometry it would not have been so difficult, but after four attempts, I finally got a pattern I could use, and then I appli-pieced it into the middle of the off white satin large block.

The central pentagon before the quilt top was constructed.

The second biggest challenge was figuring out how to mark the satin.  The satin is free motion quilted and the birds and leaves are painted in with multiple shades of Setacolor paints. But they required marking the leaves and birds and placements for the  various in-the-hoop patches and direct embroidery.  The big advantage of poly satin over silk satin is that it can be easily washed.  So markers could be washaway.  But here’s the problem…satin weave catches sharp pencil points, satin does not hold chalk marks very long, and wet markers run like crazy on the satin weave. Those facts eliminate nearly all the regular markers I use.  I wrote a blog on Markers for Satin linked here when I figured it out.

Fortunately, I discovered that Crayola had recently come out with washable gel pens.  Sew I tested them on the satin.  They marked a narrow line with a small amount of spreading, but still maintained a clear line.  The test marks of several colors washed away with a little Synthrapol with no problem except the orange, and even that washed away after a second wash.  So I made a pillow top to test all the markings,  paints, and work out some free motion quilting.

I think the most fun I had making this quilt was the machine embroidery pieces and the quilting.  I enjoyed the whole thing in its entirety and I love looking at it now. I don’t know why but it gave me a sense of making her a beautiful wedding dress.  Her wedding dress was nice, but a short pretty dress and she and Dad were married just before WWII and did not have a full wedding.  I think she would have liked this concept. I don’t have a wall big enough for it, so I drape it over the upstairs banister when it is here.  This week though, if you go to the PA Nat’l Quilt Extravaganza, you can see it in person.

Detail showing the angel with the horn. It has crystals and pearls on it.

Sew happy everyone!  Have fun in your studio.