Blog Archives

Stitch A Christmas Card With Your Embroidery Machine

11/29/2022

The time is here to get those Christmas cards in the mail if you want them to arrive in time. I am releasing a brand new design today that will stitch a card using your embroidery machine. The Holy Night Card design is easy to complete. All you need is blank greeting cards designed to do embroidery on. OR... Heavy duty card stock. At least 80 pound similar to business cards. You can cut your cards to the size indicated in the pattern download and get to stitching.

I picked up these greeting cards from the OESD booth at the Houston quilt show and wanted to design a card for the Christmas Holidays. They do make it really easy since the envelopes come in the package also. Your local quilt shops probably have these in stock right now so they would be a great place to check.

You will use tearaway stabilizer in your hoop and once the placement line sews, adhesive spray. This keeps the card in place while stitching. Use the embroidery thread of your choice also.

Within about 15 minutes, you will have a completed card. Pretty paper and glue can be used to cover up the inside where all of the bobbin threads will show. Want to see how this Holy Night Card sews up? Watch the instruction video below. I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work.

Customer Appreciation Sale

11/24/2022

Every order through our website will have an additional 20 % taken off at checkout NOVEMBER 25 - 30, 2022. The only thing you have to do is
add the item to your cart and enter the coupon code.

Christmas

This includes items that are already listed on our sale page! One coupon per customer
so grab everything you want in one swoop.
REMEMBER TO ADD THE COUPON CODE AT CHECKOUT!

I hope you enjoy your shopping spree!

In The Hoop Crafter Koozie Set

11/21/2022

My latest design is an In The Hoop Koozie. Even better, there are four different designs in the set. These are perfect for those family and friends who are crafters. If you are looking for stocking stuffers or inexpensive gifts, these are a really great option.

Each design stitches out in an 8x12 hoop. You will use a piece of fleece so it is a good stash buster for those smaller leftover pieces. Three of the designs will sew these cute sewing machines all over and have a place to add your own monogram like the one above.

They also have cute little sayings on the bottom of the koozie. This one is for embroidery lovers.

There is one for sewing lovers

I couldn't leave out those quilting lovers

The fourth design has sewing machines all over it and the bottom is plain. So you can make bunches of these up in advance and pass them out at your next quilt guild or hand out to friends and family who love to craft.

The design stitches out in about 25 minutes and is so simple. You will do some creative cutting in the hoop and then flipping of fabric. It really is a fun project to complete.

The koozies aren't insulated, but fleece feels so good and I am a person that loves tactile things. Holding a can or bottle of water with one of these elevates it in my opinion. Not to mention you can keep up with whose is whose in a group setting. So are you interested to see how these In The Hoop Koozies stitch up? There is an instruction video you can watch below. I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work.

Easy Quilt Using A Focus Fabric

11/16/2022

Have you ever walked around your fabric department and a fabric spoke to you? That is what happened to me with this quilt project. I wanted to make a quilt for my mom but my inspiration mojo was at a low point. I wanted something feminine for a ladies bedroom but I didn't feel like a whole lot of piecing. So I let the fabric "speak to me". As soon as I saw the bee print, my plan began formulating.

Isn't this so pretty? It just looks inviting. I could imagine my mom snuggled underneath. I went in search of other fabric that would be a good match.

Now quilt math and calculating fabric are a another story for me. I freely admit that I am no expert and if a math problem has more than two parts, I am at a loss. Quilt math reminds me of word problems. Yuck. There is light at the end of the tunnel though in the form of a wonderful website. Quilters Paradise. They have several FREE calculators that will take away the math pressure and allow you to just be creative.

I decided to treat the bee fabric as a panel and then sew increasing borders around it. The border calculator allows you to enter the measurements of the center part of your quilt top and then add up to five borders. It will tell you how much yardage to purchase.

They have a batting and backing calculator and a binding calculator also. I like to use these before I make my shopping trip so I am prepared to purchase. Really the fabric is enough stimulation in the store. I don't need to add math in the mix. Check out the Quilter Paradise story and their retail store. They have such an interesting background.

I wanted to incorporate some embroidery on the quilt top so I digitized the bee logo from the fabric and added quilting as an applique.

Here is that central focus fabric with the embroidery and two of the three borders. On my shopping trip I also looked for a special trim that I could use to break up the center panel.

I pinned it across and then used a zig zag seam to attach. Something this small can make a big impact. Up to this point, I really haven't done much piecing either. So this top came together really quickly. I think I had it ready to go on the longarm frame in three days from initial cutting.

Here it is loaded up on my frame ready to quilt. Since there are multiple borders, I decided to do different quilting patterns on each. Now I did work vertically down the quilt and once I got all of the borders done across, I took the whole quilt off the frame and rotated it. Then loaded it back on the frame and quilted the two side borders. That way I didn't have to chunk any borders or figure any math as I was advancing the quilt in my frame.

Look how pretty all of those feathers are on the back. That center oval is where the embroidery was and I had plans for it. I put the quilt label inside.

Here is a view of the label without my heartfelt quote. Some things are between a mom and a daughter..... You can see that I added another cute bee and I did hand sew with turned edge applique.

I had extra fabric and trim so I made a small throw pillow that she can decorate with.

The best part of making a quilt as a gift is seeing it in the space it will be used. I think it matches my mom's bed perfectly. She loved it and I even got to talk to her the day after she slept under it for the first time. That is a memory that will stay with me. Maybe you have been inspired to sew a simple quilt using a focus fabric you love. I filmed a video you can watch below showing more of my process and even the quilting in case you want to see how that came together on the longarm. I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work.

Veteran Quilt From A Panel

11/10/2022

Veterans Day is this week and this is a time to thank those who have served. Our little community always has special events for the local veterans and it makes me proud to see. My dad served in the Navy during the Vietnam war and did two tours. Then he enlisted in the Army National Guard. I grew up with Army green supplies and Meals Ready To Eat in the house. We loved the Chiclet gum in those meal kits. I have fond memories of my dad and his sense of duty and honor to country. So I am always proud to make something for a Veteran and one of my recent quilts was specially made to donate.

I started with a panel from Northcott Fabrics. This jumped out at me when I was shopping my local fabric store. I thought it would be a perfect throw size quilt. Now this pattern is not my original idea. I have seen many people online cutting a panel and adding strips. It just seemed like an easy project to get done as I had recently finished a harder quilt. Sometimes you have to give your craft brain a rest and this did just that.

I used the panel and a yard of gray fabric. I cut about 12 inches off the yardage and sewed it to the bottom of the panel and then to the top so it was a loop of fabric. Then I cut six even strips lengthwise and cut the looped fold so I had 6 inches of yardage on top and bottom of the panel. The strips of gray fabric were cut 2 inches wide and pieced so they were as long as the panel strips. A 1/4 inch seam allowance was used to sew them all together. This is easy straight seams but I would advise using pins to keep the strips from stretching as you sew.

Here is the panel and strips sewn together. Even though the print is separated, your brain "sees" it together. Kind of cool and it levels up the print so it is a bit fancy. Pressing as you go really helps this process also. You could stop right here but I decided to add some borders.

Red white and blue border strips were cut 2 1/2 inches wide and then sewn round robin style. Again pressing each one keeps it flat. I also made sure that all of the loose threads were trimmed before I quilted it. My white, blue and red fabrics were side by side and I didn't want any loose threads showings through the white.

Here is the quilt after I pulled it off my Handi Quilter longarm machine. An edge to edge star pattern was used.

I trimmed the quilt and sewed the binding strips by machine so it would be nice and sturdy.

Now that is a beautiful simple quilt and I delivered it to my brother when I travelled to Houston for the quilt show. He is a member of a Veterans Riding group and I can't wait to see what they decide to do with this quilt. I filmed a video showing a more in depth look at how I sewed and quilted this project. You can watch it below. Has this inspired you to make a quilt for a veteran or organization? I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work.

Lagniappe Peddler Travels to The Houston International Quilt Festival 2022

11/9/2022

The Houston International quilt festival has been on my bucket list for many years and I finally got to check it off. I have heard that it is the convention where you will see new items, techniques and get inspired. It was definitely all that.

Now I live about 12 hours from Houston so we decided to break the trip up by staying in Natchitoches Louisiana the first night. The length of the drive is doable in a day for me but I have a soft place in my heart for this little historic town. My husband and I both spent time at Northwestern State University and we have many fond memories of the Christmas Festival of Lights, Cane River, Front Street, Restaurants, Bed and Breakfasts, Pecans from Little Eva Plantation and so many other things. So it is always a place we will try to get a visit into.

Gumbo-YUM!

This bread pudding from Fontenot's Restaurant is some of the best I have ever had.

Even though we haven't reached Thanksgiving, the town was already setting up for the Christmas Festival of Lights. Here is an iconic light fixture on Cane River

I have to give some love to Lasyonne's Meat Pie Restaurant. This was our breakfast Thursday morning before we pulled out of town.

We had an obligatory stop at Toledo Town which is right before you cross the Toledo Bend Reservoir bridge into Texas. This is a spot my husband loves because of the fishing tackle.

We made sure to drive slow enough to Hit Lufkin Texas right about lunchtime so we could eat at another old haunt of ours. Cafe Del Rio has some of our favorite Mexican food. Order the green sauce and you will know why. Cool creamy and addictive with their hot crispy tortilla chips. Can you tell we judge our trips by the food? If you travel with us, you are gonna eat well.

We pulled into Houston on Thursday afternoon and Friday Morning bright and early an Uber picked us up at my brother's house. This was a first time for me and I am now hooked on the Uber app. I think the worry of driving and finding a parking place in a downtown area or garage is one of the worst parts of travel. No more because I now understand why so many people say they just "grab an Uber"

I met the Gourmet Quilter. I couldn't believe she travelled all the way from New Zealand and I was worried about finding a parking spot. This lovely lady got me through Covid quarantine. She had so many videos to watch I was constantly learning something new.

I saw Emily who is the Collage Quilter. She was plenty busy so I didn't get to talk to her. I love her quilting designs. If you haven't seen her work, check it out.

Here is a lineup of guests at the All Brands Booth. SO many talented people.

I got to visit with Becky from Power Tools With Thread. We had a nice chat and she was super popular. I saw a lot of people coming up for photos with her.

Adam from Adam Sew Fun is one of my favorites. If you have never seen his videos, look him up on YouTube. I have learned so much from him and he is always being brave and trying new things with his Long Arm machine. He is also a hot Handi Quilter Ambassador traveling all over the country teaching.

Kaffe Fassett was on one of the main stages. He was very popular as you can see. I was at the back of the standing room only crowd. Did I mention there were quilts there? LOTS of beautiful quilts to get you inspired and make you drool.

I also brought several quilts to my family that I had been working on. My car was stacked with them. It felt really good to pass on those beautiful quilts that they will enjoy using.

When we got home, I was welcomed by this beautiful mum in my yard. I had to share this because it came from a very small piece that broke off another one last year. I nursed it all last winter and look how beautiful! What wonderful memories I have from this trip. I feel so lucky to have been able to go and that we can congregate once again with others that enjoy our crafting journey. I have a video you can watch below with more footage from my travel. I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work.

Stitch A Christmas Card With Your Embroidery Machine

Customer Appreciation Sale

In The Hoop Crafter Koozie Set

Easy Quilt Using A Focus Fabric

Veteran Quilt From A Panel

Lagniappe Peddler Travels to The Houston International Quilt Festival 2022

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