Color, Color, Color

What’s your favorite color?

This is a tough question! The more you delve into it, the harder it is to answer. I have favorite colors for certain things – like really white milk, dark green leaves, silvery fish, slate stones, muted brown tree trunks, flaming red watermelon, sweet pink roses, luscious eggplant…it goes on and on. And then there are colors I use to create a homey environment (soft gray with bright white trim), a creative office space (green) or a clean embroidery studio (cream). But when I open my closet, I see my old favorites – black, gray and brown splashed with bursts of lilac, pale blue, lime, apple green, silver and white. We are creatures of habit. I often buy the same clothes over and over again. And it’s not on purpose, it’s just habit. I can’t resist a chic white tee or deep black pants. You’d think I was a waitress!

So how do we break our color habits? For me, I do that with embroidery. First off, I’m a firm believer in SEEING the embroidery. So even if I’m going for a monochromatic look, I make sure the threads are in the same color family but not the same value. I love experimenting with new color combinations. Coral, turquoise and tan are a new favorite. I find aqua, black and gray stunning. So what’s your favorite combination? Do you love brights? Pastels? Earth tones or jewel tones? Do you have two or three colors that you just can’t resist?   

 Post a comment below telling us your favorite color combo and get a chance to win a one-year subscription to Designs in Machine Embroidery Magazine! If you already subscribe, we’ll renew your subscription for a full year!

The lucky winner from last weeks giveaway for the Mini-King spools of rayon thread is...CHERYL!

Cheryl said...

Oh wow, my first sewing lesson from my mom was sewing strips of rag fabric together, so she could make rag rugs to sell. It was a White treadle machine, that is still in the family. Later, when I didn't need as much supervision she purchased, with S&H Green Stamps an electric zigzag portable machine, so we could both sew at the same time.

Congratulations, Cheryl! Be sure to email Amanda at agriffin@dzgns.com to give us your address so we can send you your gift!

I look forward to hearing from everybody!

Continuous Applique with Stipple! Seashells

 

We recieved a question from one of our customers and we wanted to share the answer with everybody!

"I love your Stipple sea shells. I don't have a magna hoop and I am not sure you have one for the Janome 11000. I don't see it working the same way. Could you help me? I am very interested. -Maxine"

Yes, you can create continuous appliqué with Stipple! Seashells. All you need is a large embroidery hoop and templates. Follow the steps below to achieve success.

Print a template of the Waveborder design on vellum or tracing paper.

Make a 12” x 44” quilt sandwich of backing, batting and top fabric to make two 3 ½” x 40” borders. Hoop the upper left portion of the quilt sandwich. Stitch the Waveborder design at the top left of the sewing field. Add the applique as instructed in the Stipple! Shell Collection. Once complete, remove the quilt sandwich from the hoop.

Reposition the fabric to connect the next design with the previously stitched design. Keep the applique strip out of the design area while hooping.

Once hooped, smooth the applique fabric over the new sewing field.

Place the Waveborder template in the hoop, aligning the top of the new design with the bottom of the previously stitched design.

Your goal is to connect the design as shown below.

You can hold onto the template and carefully slide the left side of the applique strip to the right to reveal the straight stitches. You want the stitched line on the template to match up with the stitching on the fabric.

Once you’re satisfied that everything matches up, securely tape or pin the template to the hooped fabric. Or slide a target sticker under the template’s crosshair.

Carefully slide the applique strip out from under the template, (just fold it back over itself at the top of the hoop).

Attach the hoop to the machine.

Use the jog keys to move the needle to the center of the template’s crosshair.

Use the trace feature on the machine to position the needle at the upper left corner of the design. The needle should be aligned with the straight line on the first design. If not, move the design.

Make sure the design is in the correct orientation on the screen (matching the orientation of the template). Remove the template.

Stitch color 1. Smooth the applique strip down over the first color and stitch color two, the tackdown. Insert

Repeat until you have stitched the complete design. In the image below, the first design was stitched in the bean stitch version of the design, while the second repeat was stitched in the run version. I did this so you could see where one design ended and the next one began.

Thanks for your question, Maxine!

Maxine's question was about a Design's in Machine Embroidery product called Stipple! Seashells.  You can find more information here.

Here's a video that talks about our newest Stipple! Collection.