2012 is here and the first month has already snuck past us! I often wonder if the passage of time has 
something to do with age…somehow time passes much too fast for my liking every year. Right now, I would truly like to pause time, like they do in science fiction movies. Oh well….even though time has been rushing, I have been busy designing and testing out something different….nope, not lace just yet, although I am working on a brand new idea…that will be later on in the year.
Applique is probably the most “used” type of the machine embroidery designs and there are a ton of varieties out there. That, believe it or not, was my challenge. How can I present applique so it is different? I personally am not fond of the chunky satin appliqued stitches, although they have motivated me in the past. Trying out motif stitches was a huge success, in my Exotic Butterflies and Shaded florals collection. But, now I wanted something different. With applique designs, one has to maintain a fairly straight edge, whether or not it has a curve in it…but without any jaggedness. That, my dear friends, became my challenge. I want the jagged edges…I want the look to be hand done and I want it to have an open free flow feeling.
William Morris has been my all-time favorite artist. I have always loved his free form bold designs. Getting my inspiration from Morris’ manner of dramatic artwork, I designed my first collection of 2012: “Briar Rose”. 
Initially, the designs were to mimic William Morris’ style of mirror imaging but as I developed the designs, I found that I preferred the designs to be incorporated into something much more dear to my heart…quilting. Quilting is a passion that I learned from a very dear lady…went through months of agonizing painful learning to piece the correct way (by hand) and all the time swearing that this was one art I would never ever pursue except for the time being that I was involved. How wrong was I? My friends, extremely so….quilting has not only given me another venue to present machine embroidery designs but also it is an art form which will never ever die.
I believe I started sketching and digitizing in September 2011 and it wasn’t till 
December 2011 that I had my first wreath design completed! The task seemed easy but somehow taking my sketches to the digitizing tablet was not such. First of all, the wreath design was cut into four sections. The same design was stitched out four times to create the wreath and it had to match up…and match up it does, without any problems, whatsoever! The wreath completed, I then started on a matching quilt motif that would blend with the designs even when used as a one color embroidery design. The quilt motif itself was one that I tested over and over to perfect it as a hand look stitch and at the end of the day, I have to say “it’s pretty close”. The fun finally started!
The collection is complete, awaiting final touches and ofcourse my instructions. I’m hoping for a fine weekend to release…fingers crossed!
At the end of every year, I like to give a gift of thanks to all my friends around the world. I started the tradition eight years ago, in 2004. My first gift was a freestanding lace angel and since then it has become a challenge for me to create something that would not only celebrate the season but also be fitting as a tribute of thanks to my friends. The gift designs for 2011 are up on my website and I look forward to the New Year.
May the New Year bring happiness, joy and peace for all of us. With love and hugs, Sadia
December 25th,2011
Journey,
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Around holiday time every year, I stitch out all sorts of lovely linens and towels for friends and for myself. Yes, I’m fickle and yes, I like new stuff all the time. My biggest problem is that the embroideries on towels always looks great but the towels deteriorate. There may be a burn, or a spot or plain and simple laundry mishap. It irritates me that I can’t recycle the part that is embroidered. After all, that was a lot of thread, stabilizer, etc that were used to stitch out that design.
At the Sewing and Quilt Expo, I had stocked up on my linen stash from Susan Mars of All About Blanks and in the past few weeks, 
I had been dying to use some of the gorgeous stuff….hesitant though, as I wanted something special on them. One of my purchases were the waffle weave kitchen towels. These towels are absolutely lovely and not only make an excellent gift but also add that something extra to your own kitchen. DH couldn’t stand my constant talk about whether I should use a holiday theme or florals, and finally told me to make something that could be removed if I didn’t like it. That was like a light bulb. It wasn’t too long ago when Carolyn and I were discussing creating freestanding trims. Aha! Analiese to the rescue!
Kashan collection has a lovely edge design that has been on my mind lately. The free sample design from the collection has an embroidered motif along with the cutwork edge. Just the thing I was looking for! Embroidery that can be recycled when my towel has bit the dust.
The edge designs in Kashan were created very differently than any of my other cutwork edge designs. Many a times, I have answered emails where 
friends ask about any tips for cutting closer to the edge. Cutwork digitizing can be done in numeous ways but the edges need stability underneath the top and final stitches. Last year, when I was working with heavy wool fabrics, I had discovered that no matter how close I trimmed to the edge, some tiny hairs had to be trimmed afterwards. Discussing this with a friend had reminded me of the cutwork edge that I had created for Fiona purse pattern. Carolyn loves to use faux suede and two layers of that fabric can be quite heavy to work with when a cutwork edge is involved. As I want friends to be able to use the Kashan edge designs on fabrics meant for heavier fabrics, I had designed the edge in such a way that all the fibers of the fabric are packed down before the final stitching. This technique packs all the tiny fibers from sticking out but it does tend to leave a looser top stitching. If you look closely at the close-up of the embroidery, you will see that the final edge stitching has a loose look to it. This is because the fibers underneath are not pushing out towards the top satin stitches, rather they are packed down. This edge is excellent for blankets, heavier fabrics etc. Ofcourse, I love the idea of the double edge cutwork, which allows me to use it on heavy sweaters, jackets, towels, and you name it!
The technique of the double edge cutwork is not new, I believe I used it a long while back with some other designs. The design itself is for the 4×4 
hoop, but if you have a larger hoop, you can easily join two of the same designs in your software before sending it to the machine. If you want to create the double edge cutwork all at once, like I did, then this blog post may be helpful. Before joining the designs, you must determine your placement and width of the trim that we will stitch out. The manner in which I placed the designs makes the trim almost 3″ tall. The stitch out design was staggered so I could continuously hoop the design without too much effort on my part.
Start out by hooping your water soluble stabilizer. The water soluble stabilizer that I use is Water Soluble Vilene and I purchase mine from Ella Roof of Pointe to Pointe. As much as I use the stuff, I prefer to buy in bulk and the prices that Ella has just can’t be beat! This stabilizer has so much more tolerance to heavy embroidery and stitches that any of the other products out there just can’t meet its standards. Stitch out the cutwork outline directly on the stabilizer. My cutwork technique always has a three step to it: outline, trimming and cutwork. Stitching the outline directly on the stabilizer lets you place your fabric without the bother of marking and templates.
Next step is to lay your fabric on top of the stitched out outlined area. The stitch out, as planned, will leave almost half of the cutwork trim useless, unless you start out by embroidering from the center of the fabric, rather than from one edge. In my picture on the right, I have already stitched out the design once to show how the design matches up. To match up, simply match the points of the stitched out edge to the outline on the stabilizer. Pin well, out of the way of the design and let the machine stitch out the trimming outline on the fabric. As you can see from the picture, everything matches up!
Now comes the trimming. I have always wanted to have smaller blade scissors and finally I was able to get some from the “Scissor Man” aka Brint at Famore. The smaller the blade the better the trim. This is good not only for cutwork but also applique. As these edge designs have specialty pack-down stitches digitized, you don’t have to cut very close to the edge. Aha, there are the tiny scissors I was talking about. As you can see, the blade is smaller, about half an inch, which makes it easy to trim especially around curved edges. If you haven’t tried using small blade scissors, may I recommend that you do try it, at least once. The result of your trimming will be excellent, I guarantee it. Once the embroidered length of the band is achieved, you can simply attach it to your item using
a zigzag stitch on your sewing machine. Use a wider zigzag, as that will make removal in future easier.
In this manner, you can stitch out a band of trim as long as you prefer. Use it on towels, bed linen, sweaters, t-shirts, you name it. And, the best thing is…you can re-cycle it! When your item tears, or some mishap happens, you can simply take off the attached band and use it on something else. Great idea….most definitely yes.
November 5th,2011
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“Kashi” is a Farsi word meaning “tile”. Kashan is a beautiful city in the Isfahan province of Iran, the land of my maternal ancestors. My maternal ancestors were spice merchants 
and left their home to travel to India, where they hoped for a better life. Their travels took them to Aligarh, which was the seat of higher education in India. Kashan is known the world over for their antique tile patterned designs used in carpets and hand 
made clay tiles. The designs are mostly geometric with flowery vines. Studying the designs, I was surprised to find the similarity of the eight pointed star shaped flower with the Lefkara Lace Crystal designs. Actually, there were a lot of similarities in several designs. The clay tile on the left became my inspiration in creating some of my own rendition of the artwork from Kashan.
I really tried hard not to make the collection into a cutwork collection but….I failed. I just couldn’t stop having some cutwork features, yes there are only a few…okay there are less than half the collection’s size…Hmmm, so I counted and out of 28 designs, 21 are cutwork. Couldn’t help it!
Nevertheless, the cutwork areas, except for a few designs (yes, really) are mostly extremely small, almost an inch. But, for those who don’t care for cutwork, the areas can be stitched out directly on fabric and look just as nice…or if you are game for it, use the cutwork areas as appliqued areas…they will look stunning. The doily on the left measures approximately 14″ in diameter. Unfortunately for me, and in my haste, I used a polyester fabric. Polyester does not do well with cutwork designs 
and you can just imagine my frustration in trying to iron them out. Cutwork designs are best on sturdy fabric like cottons. The oblong tray cloth was stitched out using linen and Kashan designs…not a pucker to be found. The trim on the tray cloth is from Tambour Lace trims. And just in case you are wondering, I do love beige color. A white on white is just a total waste of time for me, especially as it doesn’t show up the embroidery detail as much as a light beige thread does on a white background.
The twenty-eight designs are extremely versatile and depending upon your preference, can be used on items that are purely heirloom or as 
the knitted vest shows on the right…completely modern as well. The collection is finally complete…although I do have a few things that are waiting their turn to be completed on the embroidery machine. Who knows, by the time I complete the PDF and upload the collection, I may get them completed. One of the ideas just hit me today, so you can imagine my frustration. It is at times like 
this that I wish I had a magic wand to stop the time so I could continue to play out my imaginations.
The sweater was a twenty minute stitch out from start to finish, even though I used three hoopings on either side. I could have used a fine tulle on top of the sweater so the stitches would have stood out more, but it was one of those ideas that hit me…and if I don’t immediately do those ideas, I get busy with something else. As you can see from the close up the embroidery on the sweater, the stitches tend to sink in. Using a fine tulle, or even a water soluble stabilizer would have allowed them to stay above the ribbed knit. Oh well, next time! As far as stabilizer is concerned, I only used water soluble vilene in the hoop.
Hopefully, I will have the collection up and online within the week. Kashan will be my last collection for the year 2011. Where did time fly?
On a personal note: the past month or so has been intense. DH started having some issues and upon consultation with doctors, he underwent his third brain surgery in early October. I have to say that DH is my hero for life. It is not the easiest thing to undergo brain surgery…he has had three in the span of less than two years. The pathology report, last week gave us the best news of our life. NO CANCER cells! We are relieved and look forward to life again. Thanks to friends who continue to email me about John. We both love you all.
October 30th,2011
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The art of quilting has been around for ever. Whether it is a blanket or a wearable, quilting remains a favorite throughout the world. One of my pursuits in the machine embroidery world is to create designs for quilting in the hoop. The quest has been to 
complete the block, front and back, in the hoop, and then join together with other blocks via the sewing machine. I’ve tried a variety of ways which have been very successful so far….but there was always something in the back of my mind urging me to try even better.
One of the most easiest blocks to create is the Drunkard’s Path. This was one of the first curved piecing blocks that I learned in my earlier days of quilt learning. Thanks to a dear friend, Carolyn, for her suggestion, the block has a new name: Feathered Trails. Feathered Trails collection has taken a long time to be released. As the collection goes, it has been completed for a very long while, but the light bulb to achieve my quest didn’t materialize until just a month ago. The Island Sampler was my first attempt at trying to create quilt blocks completed in the hoop and joined together using the strip method on the sewing machine. It is a great way to quickly make quilts, but I had a “nag” in my head urging me to 
do even better. So, needless to say….I believe the quest is completed.
The method is so simple and easy that I was kicking myself in not thinking of it earlier. As quilts go, they are a combination of three components…top, batting and backing. The top and the batting can be easily joined together in the hoop while stitching out the design…it was the backing which always eluded me. If the backing is joined in the hoop, then the question is how to join two blocks together with the raw edges. To show what I mean, the completed block on the left looks complete with the piecing and the quilting. The block top is created directly on the embroidery machine, 
coupled with the batting and the backing is slipped underneath the hoop, right before the final quilting. The quarter inch seam all around allows for the block to be joined with others…and this is where the question comes in…how does one hide the raw 1/4″ seams? The block has stippling and a feathered quilt motif, which is directly in the center. It is this feathered quilt motif which becomes the key in joining the front and back side of the block together. On the right is the picture of the back side of the block…which is minus the stippling.
Aha! Did the light bulb go on? If you look carefully at the picture of the front of the block, you will see that the feathered quilt motif is 
approximately 1/2″ away from the seam line. That is the answer to my quest! Okay, I see this puzzled look. Not to worry, I will explain. The quilt backing fabric for the block is slipped in after the stippling is completed, and the machine then stitches out the feathered quilt motif, leaving a 1/2″ space to the seam line. This 1/2″ is helpful in stitching two blocks together without showing the raw edges. The front sides of the blocks are joined leaving the backing free, which is folded onto itself and a stitch in the ditch, or a fancy stitch then joins the top and the back together!
It is really a very simple technique and I wish that I had thought of it earlier when creating the Island Sampler. Nevertheless, it can still be utilized for the Sampler collection by friends. The Feathered Trails is complete and I’m re-writing the instructions at the moment. Hopefully, Labor day weekend may see this up on my website…fingers crossed. Meanwhile, wishing everyone a safe and great Labor Day!
LOL, no not my price tag, but the Brother‘s price tag. S
everal years ago, Brother International had made it a policy not to quote prices online or on the telephone. Bad move! After years of learning the hard way that customers need to know the cost so as to compare…the price tag is showing again. My jaw dropped open when I read a promotional email from Brother International about sale deals for July 2011 (the hyperlink will take you directly to the promotion).
Do I think this is a good thing…heck YES! Not only does this give me an idea of the depth of my pockets, before getting in the car to visit my dealer, but also lets me know that my dealer will have the same price tag as the other dealer down the road. When I priced these machines last year, there was a definite difference in the price quotes from different dealers!
Good job Brother! Glad, tag is in the open, and I definitely will be visiting my dealer soon….perhaps an Entrepreneur to keep my PR-600 happy!
WIP: As in work in progress. I probably have a gazillion of those, as I’m sure many can also relate with similar sentiment…but at the moment, I am bit by the quilting bug. 
It used to be that I would at least complete one quilt a year, but now…I’m lucky I can get one started. So, I’ve got a lot of UFO quilts waiting to be completed. But…enter the embroidery machine! The Island Sampler was my first attempt at trying to recreate quilt blocks on the embroidery machine and I have to say, it went very well. The Sampler gave me a ton of ideas and here is one: Feathered Trails (thanks to Carolyn for the lovely title!).
There are so many ideas that can be created using simple one block and Feathered Trails happens to be one of them. The collection name is derived from Drunkard’s path. The Feathered trails collection has two main blocks, which work as a jigsaw puzzle to create the design. Feathered quilting design within the applique block are duplicated in the border to create a continuous feathers and ribbons border. Joining the quilt blocks is completely different than what I had created for the Island Sampler and I think it is a much 
easier and simpler method, at the moment. The collection is complete and waiting upon its documentation and instructions. I see a lot of possibilities with this collection and know that friends who want to create quilted projects will enjoy it immensely.
CHICO! Chico is probably one of the most favorite clothing store for so many ladies! I know it is one of my
favroites. So, imagine my surprise when I am visiting a friend and see a trim on her blouse that seems awfully familiar. Upon closer examination, it was certainly very close to home…Tambour lace trims. The design is a freebie from the collection and stitched out in cotton thread. Not that I would jump and purchase an $89 blouse, but it does present a neat idea for dressing up summer tees and other tops! The Chico’s blouse uses the trim around the sleeve and around another fsl design around the neckline. Nice!
A very happy Easter to all my friends around the world.
Download the freestanding lace sample and enjoy!
Download Easter 2011
something to do with age…somehow time passes much too fast for my liking every year. Right now, I would truly like to pause time, like they do in science fiction movies. Oh well….even though time has been rushing, I have been busy designing and testing out something different….nope, not lace just yet, although I am working on a brand new idea…that will be later on in the year.
December 2011 that I had my first wreath design completed! The task seemed easy but somehow taking my sketches to the digitizing tablet was not such. First of all, the wreath design was cut into four sections. The same design was stitched out four times to create the wreath and it had to match up…and match up it does, without any problems, whatsoever! The wreath completed, I then started on a matching quilt motif that would blend with the designs even when used as a one color embroidery design. The quilt motif itself was one that I tested over and over to perfect it as a hand look stitch and at the end of the day, I have to say “it’s pretty close”. The fun finally started!
