Machine Quilting: Embroidered Deer

Mary made this little wall hanging for her new grandson before his arrival and brought it to me to finish it up.

 Mary did an amazing job with the embroidery and wanted some finishing touches, but didn't want to embroider everything in and make the quilt too overwhelming visually.

 Trying to keep it simple yet functional, I quilted in these fun curls around the center design. It's a great design that works well in and out of little areas you may find in applique or embroidered works.

 Mary was originally thinking about embroidering in some leaves around the text in the quilt, but we chatted about it and I could quilt the leaves for her which serves as both functionality to stitch the quilt together, but also give her the design she wanted in a more subtle appearance. The same curls from the center were then quilted in the corners and outer edges of the quilt.

And this deer was too amazing. I love the colors and the details. Mary did an amazing job and I was happy to finish this quilt for her!

Machine Quilting: Karen's Birds

I will start this post by saying I'm sorry I didn't take better pictures. This was right after we moved, I was still getting used to the new quilting space and I had a newborn. I'm shocked I could speak in full sentences let alone remember to take pictures of the quilts when I finished them. That being said, here's the best picture I got:

 It was a large beautiful quilt... I promise. There were all sorts of embroidered designs of birds and leaves in each of the blocks.

 You can see some of the embroidery here. We chose to leave the embroidery alone and use a teal thread for the quilt. Since the main colors were black, white and teal, teal was the least offensive thread over the whole quilt.

The center design were these fun curls that have become a new favorite of mine, then I did some ribbon candy in the black border and some modern bubbles along the edges.

Thank you, Karen! This quilt was beautiful and fun to work on!

Clarence the Christmas Goose (free printable)

Now, some of may know, many may not, but I used to draw... A LOT. I took every art class offered at my school (which wasn't much, it's a small school) and I went to college for graphic design. Well, i still dabble from time to time with some sketches and a few years ago it dawned on me as we were pulling out Christmas decorations, that I didn't have a stocking... My hubby had 5...

Now, I have stockings at other houses where we do get togethers at the holidays, but I didn't have one at home and it was about time I changed that, so I came up with Clarence the Christmas Goose!

He's pretty darn cute if I do say so myself and I decided to put him on a stocking for myself... Well, there was one slight issue... Now that he's done and finished, that stocking is the smallest one by a long shot! Oh well, it's one of those things when you're in the heat of the design and it looks great on the computer...Then in real life it's dwarfed from the idea you had in mind...

Well, Clarence is actual sized in the printout below to the stocking I made. Feel free to increase or reduce his size to fit your needs. I also included the design for the berry branch on the cuff of the stocking.

For the design I only used black and red threads, black for the main areas (I did a backstitch, it's my go-to stitch) and where you see a little "o" I made a french knot with the red thread for the berries. Oh, I lied, there's a bit of green for the holly leaves! If you don't like french knots you can do whatever you'd like instead like add buttons or use another stitch.

I did not include the stocking in the printable as I said, it's just too small and to get it to a decent size, I'd have to break it up into four pages or so, so instead I'd recommend tracing a stocking you already own or free handing your own to get the size you prefer.

Alrighty, to get to the printable design, click here. Now, I've had some questions with the other printouts I've had in the past... When you click on the link. You can either click the printer at the top center of the page to print the design, or click the arrow to download it. It's that easy.

Well, I hope you like Clarence as much as I do and I'd love to see what you plan on making with his little sweet self on it! I have another pillow I made with a saying on it, but I have no clue where it is and it's still not stuffed... So if I find it, I'll show it some day.

Maybe some of you with the fast fingers will have your own Clarence in time for Christmas... I'll be lucky to get all of my presents wrapped in an orderly fashion at this point! Have a great weekend (or what's left of it) and I'll be back with more posts soon!

Machine Quilting: Noah's Ark Embroidery

Darlene got this embroidery machine and has been going crazy playing and creating with it. She actually made this quilt a couple months ago, and I completely forgot to post the pictures about it. Sorry! In my defense this was in the before Christmas / Quilt Market / vacation time of year...

 She appliqued these blocks with machine embroidery to finish them off. Each character was so adorable and so neat to look at.

Not to fight with the characters, I quilted around each one and then filled in the rest of the quilt with pointy swirls. This is one of my favorite quilting designs, especially for kids quilts and quilts that I need to fill in strange shaped areas. It's very forgiving and best of all, it's non gender or age specific. For any quilt that potentially will be a love/use/abuse quilt, this is a great design to try.

Thanks Darlene, this quilt was adorable and you and your embroidery machine seem to be a great match! I can't wait to see what you come up with next!