I like to personalize gifts made in my craft emporium by putting first names on bags, quilts and jackets. I also put my initials and the year (ted 2012) on all the quilts in matching thread hiding in the border. So a few months ago when I won some fat quarters in a give away on
Krista's blog. I wanted to send her a shopping bag with her name on it. In December 2011, I bought a
Pfaff Creative 2 embroidery/sewing machine. To make a long story short, I screwed up Krista's name on her bag by sewing a mirror image on the front side. By the time I realized my operator error, it was too late to fix. While I was picking out all the tiny, tight stitches, the bag was damaged.
The first photo is the inside.
This is the outside of the bag. I was pressed for time (my life story) so I put her name on a different bag and mailed it to Alaska. But I am far too thrifty to let a wonderful bag like this go to waste.
My Pfaff Creative 2 is able to embroidery all kinds of fancy designs including badges. This time I made a practice name badge.
Lane from
That Man Quilts sent me two wonderful nine-patch quilting books.
Of course, I needed to send him a little thank you gift.
I used tear away embroidery backing.
Sulky 100% rayon thread in the Inspira embroidery needle and white bobbin thread in the bobbin.
I'm still learning to use the machine. In hindsight the badge should have been a little higher up on the edge.
I sure hope Lane likes his surprise!
I'm pretty delighted how well the badge name label completely covered the damaged fabric.
Embroidery machines are fun! I recently purchased a continuous hoop to embroider borders on quilts.
Some folks write their names in their quilts using free motion quilting, my free motion quilting skills are not that good, are yours?
Do you label your quilts?
Do you have an embroidery machine?
Do you have a sewing machine with an alphabet and built in embroidery stitches? If yes, how do you use the decorative stitches?
The most important question of all, how many sewing machines do you have?
I recently read a joke on line somewhere where a husband asked "how many sewing machines does one woman need?" answer: "just one more".
great badge/label - it looks perfect on the bag! I have a Pfaff Creative Vision 4 embroidery machine and never use it - okay, the last time I pulled it out and set it up and stitched anything was in early December. I freemotion quilt/write on my quilts at times - sometimes as part of the quilt itself, sometimes for labeling purposes. I probably get labels on my quilts about half the time, I have 3 sewing machines (including the Pfaff), my primary go to machine is my HV 555 Lily. I also have a HV Mega Quilter. Sitting on the shelf there is also a serger - gets used less than the embroidery machine. I would love to have a basic little light weight machine to take to workshops and classes and such. My machines all weigh a ton!
ReplyDeleteVery cool, looks like you are going to be having fun getting to know this machine. I only have one fairly basic sewing machine so my choices are to hand embroider my name & the date in a corner, or to use a fancy marker to make a label.
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Tammy. Hope you are enjoying the books. Lane
ReplyDeleteNice job on the label! Love the "just one more" joke. I have 3 sewing machines, 2 of which are vintage Singers and 1 a new Juki that I use for quilting. I've had 2 more that I bought, tuned up, and then passed on to my daughter. The other day, I saw another '60s all metal Singer at Goodwill but passed it up, thinking how many machines do I need. Part of me wishes I'd bought it, of course.
ReplyDeleteThat Nine by Nine book looks awesome.
ReplyDeleteHaven't tried embroidery myself. Maybe one day, when I get through my other lists....