Tuesday, February 5, 2013

New license! Embroidery designs and a giveaway!

Guess what!? Some of my designs are now available as digital embroidery patterns through OESD on Embroidery Online! There are 25 designs in our first collection, Trucks and Transport, and I think they might be just the thing for little boys who love big machines. Fire trucks, earth movers, cement mixers,  and even a trash truck and traffic cones. The designs are available for use with just about any embroidery machine and can be downloaded from Embroidery Online or your can order a CD.

My current sewing arsenal doesn't include an embroidery machine in its ranks, so the team over at Embroidery Online stitched up some of the applique samples for me and I designs and sewed up these 2 cutie pie Trucks and Transport pillows. What do you think?!



And the backs!


Look at all of the fabulous little  details that are worked in automatically using the embroidery patterns!



(Basic instructions for the pillows are listed at the end of this post, along with a few work in progress shots to help illustrate how I put everything together.)

Oh, and guess what else? Robert Kaufman will be releasing a coordinating line of fabric this fall.  Fabric AND coordinating embroidery designs. Squee!! So excited!!

All the thread you need for the Trucks and Transport designs come in a handy 26-spool (600 yard) collection of Timeless Thread. And the team at Embroidery Online has a complete thread set (valued at $78) to share with one of you! Just leave me a comment here before the morning of 2/10/13 when I'll randomly choose a winner. I'd love to hear how many of you have an embroidery machine or if your sewing machine has embroidery capabilities. And if you don't, is a machine on your wish list like it is on mine?

Here's a preview of all 26 designs in the Trucks and Transport embroidery patterns collection!

Here are some guidelines for you on how I made my pillow covers.

Embroidery Motifs (each done on a single piece of white quilting weight cotton) with lots of extra space for trimming
1 - Trash truck - 4" wide
1 - Dump truck - 4" wide
2 - Cement trucks - 5" wide
2 - Flat bed trucks - 5" wide
1 - Fire engine - 5" wide
1 - School bus - 5" wide
1 - Tractor - 3" wide
1 - Earth mover - 4" wide
4 - cones group of 6 - 1 inch tall
8 - cones single - 1 inch tall
2 of each - text - 1 inch tall

Other supplies: 
I used white quilting cotton for stitching the embroidery motifs and for piecing the pillow
A dark grey quilting cotton for the road strips and orange quilting cotton for the stripes on the back
White cotton embroidery floss
2 orange 20" invisible zippers
Black pipping

Finished pillow size - 19" x 19"

Use 1/4" seam allowances for piecing

1. Trim the bottom edge of the fabric for each stitched motif leaving 2" between the bottom of the motif and the bottom of the fabric

2. Layout the strips in order, stacking and folding to get a sense of how you want to compose your pillows. Once finished, your strips will be 21 or 22"  wide, so as you lay everything out work with that as your width. Here's a guide I used for a rough height of each of my strips:

white (top) 5.5
grey 2.25
white 5.5
grey 2.25
white 4
grey 3


See how they're just sort of  folded into place for positioning? 

3. Now that you're sure of your layout, trim the bottom of the fabric for each stitched motif to leave 1/2" of white space below the motif.

4. Sew each of the white stripes (left to right with 1/4" seams) piecing the elements together to leave roughly the same spacing between elements that you laid out in 2. Remember, its an art not a science, so don't worry about making spacing between elements perfect.

5. Make sure that each row is at least 21 or 22" wide so you have some extra to trim later

6. After you sew the 3 white strips, trim them to the heights listed above


7. After you sew all the strips, start piecing the strips together. Start with the 3" grey strip at the bottom and work your way up to the top


8. For the back of the pillows, I followed the same basic idea but added an invisible zipper below the top orange panel.

9. Use an embroidery hoop and hand embroider the white road lines onto the grey strips.

10. Trim to 19" x 19"

11. When sewing the front to back, I added a basic black pipping to give the pillow a nice finish. I always,  use 20" pillow down forms in 19" cases so they are nice and full and fluffy.

39 comments:

kbzelazny said...

My Bernina has the capability to embroider, but I don't own all the gear yet...it's on my wishlist big time!! Thanks so much!

Lisa England said...

My machine does embroidery but not with some of these newer formats. I sometimes use my MIL's machine to do the newer stuff. Your designs are adorable!

Kara {me and elna} said...

So cute!!!

Unknown said...

my 30+year old singer (from my mom) does not have embroidery capabilities.. I think it would be nice if I had a machine that did, but I also love to hand embroider :)

barbara woods said...

on my wish list

Mary on Lake Pulaski said...

Those pillows are fabulous! Yes, the embroidery machine is definitely on my wish list after seeing these patterns.

Gill said...

Fabulous!
I don't have an embroidery machine but mine does do basic embroidery stitches!

Anonymous said...

SO NEAT!
WHAT A GREAT POST!
NO,MY MACHINE ISN'T CAPABLE OF EMBROIDERING,BUT I CAN DO FREE MOTION AND THAT'S FINE!
THANKS FOR SHARING!

msstitcher1948@yahoo.com

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans said...

Looks like I will need to buy a new machine so I can make what you have!!! Looks fab!

José said...

Wow, I love these!! An embroidery machine wasn't on my wishlist until now! Can't wait for the fabric to be released...

hueisei said...

Mine only have the basic embroidery stitches.

Marjorie's Busy Corner said...

This is just adorable!!

Chiska said...

Cute! I have limited embroidery capabilities--but to be honest it will never look as cool as this. Thanks for the chance!

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Oh I think I need an embroidery machine, although I suspect some of the million stitches on my machine I never use may do the trick!! These look so cute!

Sarah_L_N said...

They are so totally cute! My little boy loves any sort of transport thing, I'm definitely going to look out for the fabric when it is released! I only have a very basic sewing machine at the moment, but I know lots of people I could bribe into making these for me ;)

Angela Bullard said...

I just bought a vintage Singer that has embroidery discs with it. I have had a chance to try it out yet though. These patterns are too cute!

Rachelle said...

Neither of my machines do embroidery and although a while back I thought I wanted one, now I want a quilting machine much more!

Monkeysinmypocket said...

OMG Laurie! My boys would LOVE these. I'm not an embroiderer and don't have an embroidery machine :( Are you thinking of this as a fabric too?

Monkeysinmypocket said...

oops! just re read it and see that there WILL be fabric!! Yippee!! I can't wait!

Mama Spark said...

These are adorable! I am waiting for the llamas! My Bernina can do embroidery but I have not learned how to use it and now it is so old I don't know if I can download and use the newer designs. I have a friend that has an embroidery machine though and I would be happy to share the designs with her and use her machine to make some of these for myself! Thanks for sharing.

Cecilia said...

I love the pillows! My Bernina does embroider and I use it to make my quilt labels, as well as baby quilts. I like to mix patchwork and mbroidery in my childrens' quilts. Thanks for the chance towin.

Yana said...

My sewing machine doesn't embroider, I guess I need the new one:)

Debra Lee said...

Definately on my wish list! Oh the things I could do with one.

Rachel said...

No my machine doesnt but I have access to one. My Mil does! I also have 3 boys who will love these designs!

Unknown said...

I have a Janome Memorycraft 200e but could do with some lessons in using it. The hoop is small so I am not able to use some patterns as they are too large for the machine. love the trucks are so cute and it would be great to have a go at using them.

Anonymous said...

I have a bernina that can do these deigns. Sign me up!

Lee said...

My husband just picked up a machine for me at an estate sale - its like new and can do embroidery! How cool that your designs can now be machine embroidered! The pillows are fabulous!

Katherine McNeese said...

I have been wanting an emboidery machine!

Pam said...

Yes, I do have a sewing embroidery machine, a Babylock Esante. I also have a grandson that would LOVE these designs. I would be sooo over joyed if I won this. I love your pillow and can think up many uses for these designs. I can hardly wait to see the coordinating fabric line. I'm very excited for you and for us!

Lisa said...

No I don't have one but my friend kinda helps me out and I sew and she does embroidery for me! It is on my one day list. If I won I would share with her! I love these designs and will check on the patterns. They are wonderful! My David loves all large vehices.

Missy Shay said...

I would love a machine that does embroidery, but I do not see that happening anytime soon!
missysaprons@gmail.com

Heather A said...

Wow! You should be on commission from those fancy sewing machine dealers. I don't have an embroidery kind of machine but now I wish I had one!

Karrie said...

I think I have some simple embroidery stitches on my pretty basic singer. I would love a fancy machine that does embroidery. But I can wait awhile. If I got it, there would be nothing else to hope for ;) Thanks for the chance to win!

sally said...

What fun embroidery. I love trucks and have two little boys that love them even more. I wish I had an embroidery machine that fancy but alas sometimes it's fun just to do it by hand. Love the chance to win though.

Janna said...

I would love this! I have a sewing mach with embroidery. Baby Lock Ellure plus. LOVE IT!!!

VickiT said...

Oh how fun. Those are awesome looking designs. I have two Viking embroidery machines and have been doing machine embroidery since first getting back into sewing after a lot of years off to raise my three boys. I sure hadn't planned on getting an embroidery machine but once I saw the machine I bought it was very hard to pass up. It was a machine used only in a large class at a show and sold after only having 8 hrs of time on it for half price. HOW could I pass it up? That was late 2003 and for years since I loved doing embroidery. Then about 2 1/2 yrs ago I decieded to move into quilting and learn that but I still do machine embroidery because it's so much fun.

Erika Mulvenna said...

Hey, congrats on your embroidery collection! :-) Hope to meet you at QuiltCon!

Andrea said...

Great embroidery collection, especially for little boys! My machine can't do embroidery...but I have too good friends who do!!!!

Ellee said...

Beautiful threads! I do free-hand machine embroidery on my 30-year-old Elna. An embroidery machine would be nice someday. soparkaveataoldotcom