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Six lessons are usually a great start to learning a new skill set be it dancing, Zumba, hang gliding. That same six-lesson approach can be easily applied to the creative skill that my guest has mastered. Welcome back, Eileen Roche, editor of "Designs in Machine Embroidery" magazine. She's here to present the remaining three lessons on the basics of machine embroidery.

Nancy, a lot has changed since I was here 11 years ago teaching machine embroidery yet the foundation remains the same in embroidery. The fourth lesson showcases hooping. Hooping the fabric and stabilizer is like buckling up for a car trip. It's got to be done, and it's got to be done right.

"Machine Embroidery in Six Easy Lessons" that's what's coming up next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman

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Being the second program of a two-part series on six lessons for machine embroidery, Lessons One, Two, and Three were in the first program. You can watch them on DVD or as part of the last 52 shows of Sewing with Nancy that are online at NancyZieman.com. You might want to check out Lessons One, Two, and Three. We ended with placement.

Now it's time to get it in the hoop which is one of the biggest challenges many embroiderers face. Here we had our first template where we stitched out a sample template on a stabilizer cut it the size of the hoop opening. Before I put it in a hoop just like that I want to show my favorite technique the tip that you gave me. This is just a rubberized mat that I cut a window in.

I like this rubberized mat, because it creates friction between my outer ring and the hooping surface. It's shelf liner. Right, it's readily available anywhere. You cut a window about the size of the hoop.

I'm going to place this on it. It doesn't shift or scoot around your table. The window allows you to view the grid beneath. It's very helpful to have those lines for alignment.

When you get a sheer fabric, it's perfect. The stabilizer goes next. In Lesson One, we gave a review of the stabilizers. Obviously, this is the sample I used for the tearaway.

Then the fabric goes on top. This is a small hoop so there's not a lot of latitude here. That template is the exact same size as the hoop so it's only going to sit in there one way. This is a great technique when you're using a design that's almost as large as the sewing field where you won't have the ability to rotate or move within the hoop.

You're just using the palms of your hand. That's great. That's the strongest part of your hand. I'll tighten this up.

This would be ready for the next step which is embroidery but we have many more hooping options to share. I have that printed template that we did in embroidery software. On my apron, we're choosing a tearaway stabilizer. I have a larger 5" x 7" hoop selected.

I'm going to center that apron front over the outer ring. I don't have to be concerned about being square. On my machine, I have the ability to rotate in one-degree increments. I just want to make sure that my fabric is wrinkle free, no puckers.

I'll push that inner ring. Before I tighten the screw I'll just move the fabric one last time. Once that screw is tightened, no more tugging on the fabric because that can distort the fibers. Now we want to show a really fun technique for hooping a t-shirt.

This is a polo shirt, same thing. I'm using the end of an ironing board and I have positioned my hoop at the end of the ironing board. Nancy, I basically want to dress the ironing board. We might want to add, while Eileen is dressing her ironing board that she has her cutaway stabilizer.

It's a fusible one so she fused it to the back of the shirt. Which is important because it's going to stabilize that knit. Frankly, it's going to remove all the stretch in the knit through the embroidery process. Once I have my outer ring in place-- I'm just using those two target stickers as placement guides for the embroidery design.

I'll use that later on to rotate the design at the machine. I have this placket over here so it's kind of giving me a little bit of trouble. You know, when you're doing this at home you'll be right in front of it! Eileen is reaching to the side.

Once you get it secure in the hoop you're going to pull the whole t-shirt up around the ironing board. And nest it. You're going to nest it. We've selected a small polo shirt which can be a little tricky on a really wide ironing board.

Once we get that in place, we go to the machine and open the design area so you can access it. We'll show you on the machine how that looks but otherwise, it's really tricky to get that hooped without the end of the ironing board. Now you've seen three ways of hooping fabric. Now, the third stabilizer that we talked about or one of the four stabilizers, is a sticky-back stabilizer.

We placed the stabilizer in the hoop earlier. I used a pin to score around the edges and then removed the paper backing. This is one of my favorite stabilizers to use because then you don't have to put the fabric in the hoop itself. Many people prefer it, but it's a matter of choice because then it is in your garment or your accessory, or home decor item.

Here we have the sticky part. We had the placement target sticker from our Lesson Three positioning where we're going to place the embroidery. You can get it pretty much aligned. You can get the target sticker aligned with the grids or the little knobs on the sides.

Then there are also little knobs at each, north, south, east, west. You're set, so I'm going to show how to do a towel. The problem with towels is that they're bulky. They have loops which like to be caught right in the stabilizer.

Sticky stabilizer is great to use but you have to protect the towel from the sticky. I do have a sticky stabilizer here. But I have ironed, on the back a low-tack iron-on tearaway that after the embroidery, I'll be able to easily remove. I have my target sticker in place.

I'm just going to fold up the towel at the border. You would make sure that that's a perfectly straight line. Then I'll position that straight line on the inside of the hoop. We have straight fold to straight inside edge of the hoop.

Finger press it to the sticky. When I open it up, I am dead center in the hoop. My needle can go right there. How about that?

So now you've seen numerous ways of getting the fabric whether it's readymade and in a tube like the polo shirt or t-shirt, or it's flat or you have used printed or stitched templates these are all ways to get the fabric in the hoop. Now we're ready for Lesson Five. It's the fifth of six lessons and it's finally time to sit at the machine and sew. Embroidering is the fifth lesson.

It can also be as simple as pushing a button but before giving that button a tap there are a few more checks and balances to review. Machine embroidery is all about preparation. Now the fun starts. The first hooping and also placement design that we had was working with a stock design one that came with the machine.

We had the fabric hooped. We had the template in place. As I place this hoop template next to the LCD screen you can see that the design is in the same sequence same position as it is in the hoop. All I have to do now is remove the template.

Save that for another project. This is a pre-made apron, or as we call them, blanks. Just put the fabric underneath the presser foot. Then slide the mechanism of the hoop into the machine.

I have the thread color. The first thread color is green. It's going to stitch the leaves. All I have to do is push "start," and it will stitch.

It's a no-hands type of sewing as we watch this sew. Let me just show you what it is stitching. This is a review from my first lesson. This shows the first stitch will be in green.

The second will be the fill stitches. Then we'll have some nice accents on the top. The final orange will pop that daffodil. It changes the threads four times and we'll have it embroidered, Eileen.

I'm just going to stop this right now so that you can tell about the next option. Nancy, it's so easy to do when you hoop perfectly square and in the center like you did. But I didn't hoop this square, so I have to figure out how many degrees to rotate my design. I use this tool that comes with the accompanying book with the program.

I'm going to run the edge of the tool parallel with the edge of the hoop. I've centered the grommet over the template that's on my fabric. The zero on the tool is at the top of the hoop. That's indicating the top of the hoop which will eventually be the top of the design.

I swing the dial so that the red arrow sits directly on top of the arrowhead on the template below it. So, that tells me to rotate my design 204 degrees. Before I rotate I'm going to add a basting file to this design. That's my insurance that will enable me, just in case something happens to get back square in the hoop.

Now I'll touch "rotate," and rotate that 204 degrees. I can go 90, then 90 again, then I'll go by tens, then 204. Now my design is rotated exactly as planned. Nancy, you have a stitch out of this so I'm going to go ahead and start the machine with the first color.

As it stitches, the embroidery stitching is simple. It maybe takes 45 minutes, sometimes, or 20 minutes. This was about 12 minutes. The first stitch that Eileen is stitching on her design is an outline stitch.

This is an appliqu. It's real hard to see. There we go, there's the outline stitch. For the second stitch, we placed fabric on top.

Then after this stitches then you trim it away with your scissors. The third stitch is a satin stitch that goes over the appliqu. So that's the sequencing of the stitches as it goes around. You'll be changing threads, if you want to change thread colors if you like after each of the stitches.

Or you can do it all in one thread color. It really doesn't matter. The embroidery takes a few minutes but it's a no-hands sewing type of thing. You've done the basting stitch.

Yes, and now I'll just do that placement guide for my appliqu fabric. Once that's complete, I think I'll move on and show how to put the polo shirt onto the machine. The basting stitch that's not going to stay there. Right, it's a long stitch, obviously, a basting stitch.

We'll remove it after the embroidery process. Sure. But if this were to pop out of the hoop that's the alignment mark that I would use to get square again in the hoop. As we mentioned many times, it's the insurance policy.

This design that I showed you was enlarged on the hoop that I have. It comes in many sizes. We had the small size right there. But now, the next is the hooping of the very large polo shirt, golf shirt.

This takes a little time. It can be cumbersome at the machine. First, we're going to make sure we have stabilizer behind the design area. We also want to make sure that we don't have a portion of the shirt caught in the hoop on the wrong side which can happen very easily.

I have turned the shirt completely inside out even the sleeves because that allows me to keep an eye on those parts of the garment that I don't want to get stitched into the hoop. So once I have it on the machine I then open up the design area. Open up that fabric to expose the design area. Now I want to choose my polo shirt design which is a little golf emblem.

It's stored in my memory. I have it, and I'll touch sewing. Now, I have to move that design all the way up to that right target sticker. Once I do that using the jog key again, I can make sure that I'm square.

This looks like this would benefit from checking the rotation of the design. I'll just see how many degrees that should rotate. I think it's just going to be, maybe two degrees. Once I get that dial on top it does tell me to rotate just two degrees.

I'll go into rotate, go to two degrees. Because this is a polo shirt with kind of a nubby texture I'm going to drop just a small piece of the water soluble stabilizer on that nap. Then I'll press "go", and off we go. Great, and we'll let that stitch away.

That water soluble stabilizer that top stabilizer is used in many, many applications. We used that in a towel. We also hooped a towel earlier. As Eileen is stitching that I did put the towel in my embroidery machine.

Then I would do the same because I would need to just have that nap have a flat surface for the stitches. I would position that target sticker. So, that stitch is quick. Just one minute.

I'll show you what it looks like when it's finished. This was stitched in the same manner here just two golf clubs and a golf ball. We removed the water soluble stabilizer from the top. Classy but a nice, fast embroidery to work with.

We'll be showing you this in our sixth lesson but after you hoop the towel and you have a stabilizer on it. The towel that we hooped this is an example of what it would look like. You can see the basting stitches. It takes some time to stitch around all the embroidery but it's just like pushing the button letting it stitch and changing threads when the time comes.

The embroidery step, it's the most fun and it is very rewarding. All of your planning and preparation in the first five lessons have brought you to this point. Lesson Six, the finishing tips. The steps are simple, but important.

Then you can enjoy your accomplishment. Eileen finished embroidering the polo shirt, the golf shirt and now, to finish it up. I'll just tear away that film type stabilizer. Of course, you could use water soluble.

But this is easy, it tears away. Then we'll pop this out of the hoop and turn it over. We have a very large expanse of stabilizer the cutaway that was fusible. You'll notice that even though it was fusible you can separate it from the base fabric.

I'm going to trim it away. I don't need that great big patch of stabilizer. It's best to do this by pulling the stabilizer away from the garment. Lift it up so that when you trim it you know, you don't nip into the fabric itself.

Once we have that finished, it's time to press. Nancy, I have a napkin over here where I'll show the pressing technique. You want to place it on a flat, but napped surface like a terry cloth towel or this fluffy fabric. We'll just press it right form the back.

What that does, is it lets the stitches on the front side stand up and not get flattened at all, basically. It's just a great way of making sure that you put a nap with a nap with that design down. Now, we had a cutaway stabilizer the water soluble stabilizer, you saw Eileen use that. But if you have the basting stitches make sure that you remove those basting stitches from the wrong side.

I often use a seam ripper and just lay it on top of the tearaway because the tearaway is still protecting the towel. Once you have it done, just separate it holding onto the embroidery, and gently pulling away. It can be a violent act and you don't want to harm the embroidery! But just gently tear it off.

So we'll just finish the top. Some of those tiny bits of water soluble stabilizer you can remove with a wet cotton swab or toothbrush something like that, and it will just disappear. As you can see, there's a lot of preparation for embroidery but the results are beautiful. The stitching is a lot of fun.

There's a lot to learn and you have to get to know your machine. You have to get to know the different types of embroidery designs and tools stabilizers, measuring tools, and then placement. Testing is so important. Make certain that you test your embroidery designs on fabric.

A towel. That you're embroidering over and over again just to make sure you like what you see. Then you have great projects, gifts. Really wonderful gifts for babies, brides, friends you know, for the holidays.

It's a great resource for you. So if you're a wanna-be or a newbie embroiderer we hope you've enjoyed and learned the six steps of machine embroidery. Today's Nancy's Corner guest, a physician prescribed quilting as part of the healing process. The order wasn't written for a patient but for herself.

Please welcome Michele David who joins us via Skype from Boston. She's overcome a debilitating illness with the help of a therapeutic process of working with color, fabric, and thread. Great to see you, Michele, welcome to Sewing with Nancy. Thank you so much for inviting me, Nancy.

I'm looking forward to this interview. I want to say hello to your viewers also. They'll be glad to meet you too, Michele. The interesting thing is, as a physician you prescribe things, medicines.

But your medicine to overcome an illness was quilting. Exactly, I was very ill around the end of 1999. Actually, one of the reasons I was very scared was I couldn't read and reading was my passion at the time. I couldn't concentrate on words.

So, I was reading about a quilting class in our town. I took a class with a very good teacher and she taught me how to quilt. At the time, she taught me traditional quilting with plates, doing exact 1/4" seams. So I created my first quilt.

It's traditional American patchwork but the color combinations are certainly your unique choices. Yes, exactly. I grew up in Haiti, and in Haiti, we love color. The Caribbean sun makes everything so bright.

You walk down the street and there's painters in the street. The street is essentially a large, huge art gallery. I grew up with color, so I love color. The rest of your quilting artwork certainly has great color in it.

You then kind of pass by the traditional quarter-inch seam allowances after this first attempt, didn't you? Your first project. Right, exactly, I completed the project. My first quilt was sort of a large quilt, very traditional.

My teacher didn't think I could finish it being my first class. But being competitive, I actually completed it. It's quilted and it's done. But I just realized I really did not enjoy making traditional quilting.

I loved seeing them, but I didn't enjoy making them. I happened to go to the New England Quilt Museum and they had an exhibit at the time called Oxymoron. It was fabulous. It just opened my eyes.

That was my first exposure to art quilting. I just essentially went home and started quilting again. I've been quilting ever since. I'd like to show our viewers some of your other quilts.

The "Tears of Blood" Haiti quilt that you created. Tell us about that quilt. That quilt came about, because right after the earthquake-- which was a very terrifying moment-- I mean, immediately after the earthquake like every other Haitian, we couldn't find family members. I started calling all the international organizations to go on a medical mission.

About four weeks later I went to Haiti on a medical mission practicing in the hospital in Port-au-Prince. My brother took me on a tour of Port-au-Prince he still lives in Port-au-Prince. I saw the devastation. I just felt I had to create a quilt to witness what I was seeing.

That's why the quilt is in the shape of the Haitian country. The sea, you can see is red to say we really were crying tears of blood and all this blood we were seeing in the hospital and also witnessing the stories of the patients themselves. A lot of times, they were many, many wonderful volunteers that didn't speak the language. So when I was treating them I just had to listen to their story.

They needed to tell someone their story. So I heard and heard many stories. I felt this quilt is a witness to those stories. Beautiful.

Then you've done some portraits. The "Haitian Goddess" we're going to talk about that one briefly and "The Lioness," those are bright. I love the characterization of them. The "Haitian Goddess" is called Erzulie Dantor.

It's a quilt that actually was made-- It was the second in a series. The first in the series was about my mother. And Karey Bresenhan invited people to submit quilts for an exhibit called "I Remember Mama." I created that quilt as part of that series. Erzulie Dantor is a Haitian goddess who is a woman in love and is also very strong goddess a very feminist kind of a goddess.

My mother was a feminist. She grew up in a patriarchal country. She raised three daughters to be feminists to take care of themselves. So, this is really-- That's why I created a quilt about my mother.

Michele, I want to thank you for being our guest on Sewing with Nancy. It's an inspiring story, beautiful quilts. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for inviting me.

You're welcome. For those of you who are joining us you can find out more on NancyZieman.com about Michele's story, watch our program again find out social media. Special thanks to Eileen Roche for being with us for "Machine Embroidery in Six Easy Lessons." Bye for now. Eileen Roche's book, "Machine Embroidery in Six Easy Lessons" includes all the information from this two-part series and four essential embroidery tools.

The full-color book with tools is $29.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 800-336-8373

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sewingwithnancy.com/2620. Order item MEB0010 "Machine Embroidery in Six Easy Lessons." Credit card orders only. To pay by check or money order call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's website at NancyZieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more.

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