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Posts Tagged ‘Squares’

Can a blanket stitch be used to connect pieces of a blanket?

January 30th, 2013 2 comments

I’ve been knitting nice big squares to make a blanket. The yarn I’m using is all different shades of bright green and I wanted to use purple to connect them. I don’t want to hide the purple color and thought a blanket stitch would work perfectly. Can I use a blanket stitch to connect pieces? How do you do it? Any help would be great!

No a blanket stitch is for going aroundappliquee or around the edge of the blanket, not for connecting two squares. Check out your library for embroidery and knitting books for examples ofstitchess that would work

is it easy to start sewing a quilt?

December 11th, 2012 2 comments

I am new at sewing…how should i start? i want ot make one of those square patch work ones – should i sew it by hand or with a machine? how do i start etc?

when I started making quilts I did a nine patch lap quilt. It measured 54 in/54 in. You cut a strip(now they call them jelly rolls) 2 1/2 in by 2 1/2 in.You will need at least three (can be different colors or two strips the same and one a different color.You can use solid material ,small prints, crazy prints, bold colors,etc. I always buy the fat quarters for this and I buy one main color for the backing and the borders,4 colors that I can use to make the squares, I have use 6 different colors.I sew the strips together. Then go back with my rotary cutter and ruler cut the strips to 2 1/2 inches. Line them up to make a square that has nine total 2 in squares in it (when you have sewn them together the little square will measure 2 inches). I did 6 of those squares across and down (total of 36 finished squares) in three rows. then I took a contrasting color for the sashing(if you want to separate them).You can just sew them all together. Then use a color from the square to make a 2 or 3 inch border. The strips for the border to frame in the squares is measured for the length of the quilt sides,then top and bottom. Sew the strips on the sides first then come back to the top and then the bottom. then measure your quilt top, if you want to make it still bigger go and take the contrasting color and make a 6 inch border to sew on the smaller border. It should now measure at least 54 x 54 or larger. Your material for the backing should be the same length maybe even 6 ot 8 inches more all around. Now you are ready to make the quilt. I use a color from the quilt top for the backing, batting for a twin size to cut the right size. I would recommend warm and natural or warm and white.Here’s the part that is up to you- it is very easy to quilt on a machine if you have the attachment and some decorative stitches or you can hand quilt . I would recommend that you sew all of the squares on the machine and then hand quilt your first quilt. If you do not work it should take you a week to do the top and then quilting about 4 hours a day by hand about two to three weeks to finish. When sewing on the machine I would also recommend that you get an embroidery needle or an in-between. These needles will not poke holes in your material. I also use cotton material. Then look for quilting thread-machine or hand quilting thread. Be bold and use color thread if you are making decorative stitches or just use a thread that will match the main color in the quilt top. You can buy stencils to draw on the top to follow if you like or you can free hand the design.When you have finished the quilting you can either take binding tape and sew around the quilt to finish the edge or turn the rough edges under and sew them together. If you want to see some simple blocks go to quilterscache.com you can see the blocks and get instructions on how to make it down to how much material you will need plus the pattern for free. Good luck

How do you embroider by hand?

November 11th, 2012 2 comments

I have seen websites that show how to do stitches, but how do I make an entire design? For example, my cousin used a machine to embroider initials and it was beautiful, but my grandmother insisted she could do better "in her day" by hand…however she has arthritis and can no longer do it, let alone teach me. Also, I live in a small area, there aren’t classes to take so that isn’t reasonable. Any basic suggestions or instructions would be lovely 🙂

Begin with small things with larger stitches.

The major forms of hand-embroidery can be grouped into free-style and counted-thread.

Counted thread is done on relatively coarse fabric (ideally with the equal warp & woof counts). It can be done from charts or designs may be applied directly to the fabric and counted-stitching used for the design. One very simple method of beginning to learn this is to use a pale gingham check for an easy-to-see grid (no smaller than 5 squares/inch for learning). Shirt to other fabrics and finer counts with experience. I done counted work on handkerchief linen when I need to do so.

Ask for the assistance of the Reference Librarian at your library. There may be helpful instructional manuals there for free-style embroidery. If ILL (Inter-Library Loan) is available, the world’s at your fingertips. There’s also the Internet. Search [embroidery how-to] or [embroidery instructions stitches] etc.

How can I get my embroidery stitches even?

November 9th, 2012 3 comments

I am a beginner at embroidery and love what can be done with it. For the life of me though, I cannot get my stitches even and consistent so it always looks like a two year old did it. Any suggestions?

If you are doing free-hand embroidery – make a visual pattern with a self-erasing (air disappearing) pen. You can mark even intervals for the stitches – use a ruler if you need to.

There are a huge number of pre-printed embroidery patterns that you can download for free and use for your embroidery. Use a light-box and transfer to your material and indicate where each stitch is to begin, end.

I often use my pinky finger nail to measure where the next stitch is to be taken so as to make my handwork stitches more even.

If you are doing work on an even fabric – a cross stitch fabric – evenweave – linen – then you can count the number of threads for each stitch.

If you are doing cross stitch as the stitch — be sure to count the number of threads, squares. Make sure that the thread goes in flat — untwist the thread while still in the air — I use something called a laying tool (a small dull pointed long cylindrical metal tool) to make sure that the thread lies perfectly flat for each stitch – yes, I admit, I am a perfectionist!

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