Sewing With Nancy

Quilting for non-quilters that's what this Sewing with Nancy program is all about. If you have a computerized embroidery machine my guest and I will show you how to turn it into a quilting machine. Welcome Denise Abel, who's on the Sewing with Nancy staff. She's an expert embroiderer and now quilter. You know Denise, when we think of machine embroidery we think of thread embellishment but not in this episode. That's right, Nancy. Today we'll be showing how to piece quilt blocks on your embroidery machine. The piecing of the simple shadow block was stitched on a stabilizer, assuring precise piecing without precise cutting of fabric strips. You can quilt without being a quilter! "Stress-free Quilting with Machine Embroidery," 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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Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting, and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting, and special effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 90 years. Fuller Brush Vacuums, dedicated to keeping homes clean. Fuller Brush Vacuums. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. If you're accustomed to machine embroidering you'll realize that usually you have decorative stitches. The decorative stitches are gone for straight stitches but for preciseness. Denise has designed three different sizes of blocks, 5", 6", and 8". They are like a template. The template that, if you're an embroiderer you know that you print out to see the pretty design. Let me put it right side up, there you go. You can see that there are different quadrants and they're marked with "1", "2", and "3". That will actually stitch on you base fabric which is a stabilizer. Embroiderers use stabilizers. It's heavier than an interfacing. It's placed in a hoop. This is a mesh stabilizer and it has a fusible side to it. You can see the shininess of the fusible. Here's the flip side which goes to the underneath of the hoop. Denise, you taught me a great tip. That is, with a hoop you like to put a little extra grip on it. Absolutely, we're working with one layer here. A tape that is sticky backed, and it's grippy on this side is placed on the outside of the inner hoop. You peel away the yellow section. That backing is placed next to the hoop. This is the sticky part. Then the grippy part is on the outer side. The reason for doing this is that we're only going to hoop this very thin stabilizer. I have the stabilizer with the fusible side up. Notice I haven't cut the stabilizer at all. I'm not trimming it. I'm leaving the roll attached. Then, using the palm of your hand, sink it down. When you do so, and after tightening the screw you get a very tight, drum-like hold of the fabric. That's really what's needed. The fabric that you're going to use for this particular shadow design is cut with 6-1/2" squares. Cut them in half diagonally. We have white on white, but they're cut in half diagonally into a half-square triangle. We started off with a 6-1/2" square. Then of various colors of fabric several blues, several greens, 2-1/2" strips. In the book that accompanies today's program if you're wondering exactly how to measure these we tell you that. Also, you just make it a little bit larger than the template about an inch of each section. Use an embroidery needle and all-purpose thread not embroidery thread. Not rayon thread, but all-purpose cotton thread or poly-cotton. 100% polyester is our thread of choice in both the needle and the bobbin. I've done the simple part of giving the set up. Denise is going to show you how to do the piecing in the hoop. Absolutely. We are embroidering here so we need to select our design for the block. This is our simple shadow block. We'll select that on our machine. We'll bring it to "sewing" and then we'll be able to start embroidering. That design that I had on the template is just what you have on your screen. Exactly, and as you noted the design has numbers within the design. Those actually stitch right onto the stabilizer. But don't worry, they'll be hidden within the seams. We're embroidering with black thread today for the contrast. Normally, you would select a color that is going to coordinate or blend in with your fabrics. This is going to give us a guideline of where to take our fabrics and position them. Remember, we're piecing our quilt block right in the hoop. These are perfectly digitized designs for precise details. The little numbers of 1, 2, and 3 have stitched right on the stabilizer. Exactly, that tells us which areas to place our fabric first, and so on. We take our fabric for the number 1 area that Nancy has already cut to fit that size. We're going to position the fabric over the top of the stitched outlines. We want it to be over the top of the outlines and past it for a little bit of a seam allowance. What we need to do next is than take our fusible and actually iron the fabric right to our fusible stabilizer. We're going to take, of course, a quilted Teflon and place it right underneath the hoop. This is a fabric like you would use for making an insulated casserole carrier or some pot holders. Make sure it's long. There's a reason why this is a bigger piece of fabric because we both have made a mistake. That is, we've cut it small and then stitched it down to the stabilizer! So, it's so large that you know you have to pull it out. Absolutely, that's definitely something that can happen very easily so you want a visual reminder to take it out when you're done ironing. Now that the fabric is fused in place we can then start our machine again for the second color. Normally, with decorative embroidery you would change the color of the thread. The machine is always stopping to tell you something with this process but not to change the thread color. We're now piecing our first fabric to the stabilizer. It's fun just to watch it stitch. Precise details every time. Yes. Now we're going to see some color being added. Absolutely. Since we predetermined our fabric size according to the template we really don't need to trim any excess fabric off our pieces here. We'll take our next color of fabric and we'll be positioning it next to our next area of stitching to fill in. You just take the edge of the fabric lay it right next to the edge of the stitching line that is separating the areas. You want to be about a 1/2" past our area here. Position that down. Then we can start the machine again. That's going to piece it right in place. It's going to give us our seam allowance that a traditional quilter would manually stitch. Gingerly hold the fabric but always make sure to take your fingers out of the way. That's an accurate 1/4" seam allowance if I ever saw one. Better than I can do manually. Then the next step is to take this fabric since we've placed it right sides together we now need to flip this fabric over so that it's right side up. Before we do that, we place, of course our ironing surface right underneath the hoop. Since it's a small layer it fits right under there. I'm going to then take our mini iron which fits right inside of this hoop very nicely. I like to press the stitching right as it stitches to set the stitching. Then flip it over. You'll notice that I start right where that seam is and push away with the iron to make the fabric lay flat. We're activating all of those little fusible dots on that stabilizer to grip and hold onto the fabric. Again, we take our ironing surface out and we start the machine once again. This is going to tack it down. Absolutely, right in place. Any excess threads can be trimmed away later. You could either trim this fabric now or wait until the next piece has been stitched. I think we'll add the next piece of fabric. Absolutely. We take our next strip, right sides together position it 1/2" past. You'll notice we're keeping the strips nice and long. We want to sew again holding our fabric gingerly in place and stitching it down. By keeping the fabric nice and long in a strip we'll economize on fabric use. As Denise presses up that last piece she would have one more tacking stitch to hold that last blue piece into place. Then the machine would just stitch around the very edges. Then it's time to add the next block. We'll show you how that's done at the table. Denise finished stitching the final thread color on the machine. Now you're ready to do some trimming. Absolutely. We have our completed block in the hoop. We're going to take our scissors and we're going to trim away our fabric strip. That way, the fabric strips will be ready for next time. We want to cut about a 1/2" away for our seam allowance. You pop it out of the hoop and then you re-hoop it. We want to conserve on stabilizer so we're going to hoop tight right next to our finished block. Usually, you'd cut the stabilizer and you'd cut another section. This saves a lot. Then you can do some trimming after you've stitched all of your blocks which could be quite a few. Because of the preciseness of the stitching line you can use those as guidelines with your ruler. Denise recommends just to trim 1/8" which isn't very much, right from the last stitching. My goodness, all of your blocks are perfectly sized. You wouldn't have that black thread but you'd have perfectly square blocks. The you can determine the layout. Here comes the fun part. With this simple Amish shadow, you have options. We have the Amish shadow traditional layout. That's having the triangles all in one direction. That's a lovely layout. Then, for the Fields and Furrows you'd do some rotating. We'll give you all these guidelines. It's kind of magical. I always like this part of quilting to see what options you have. You can see the fields and the furrows. The block that we're going to be working with is a point on point, putting four blocks together. A little sleight of hand here. Maybe you'd move these around and determine how you'd like the look to be. Once you have that determined, you take your finished blocks you put them right sides together, aligning your areas. You stitch with a 1/4" seam giving you your two blocks together. We like to press these seam allowances open. Give plenty of steam to the seam. Steam to the seam! Then block out the moisture. Have the moisture wick up through a wooden block. This is a tailor clapper. You don't pound it, you just press hard. The neat thing that happens to this is that the seams get so crisp. Nice and flat, precise seams every time. Notice how these points align. Even if you're a non-quilter, you can't go wrong because the machine does all the stitching and gives you the accurate stitching as well as the cutting line. That's how you make this basic block for a non-quilter to turn into a quilter. Combine piece-in-the-hoop techniques along with traditional embroidery when sewing a charm block. Pre-cut fabrics are used, which make this quilt block even faster to create. We named this the charm block because we're using a charm pack of fabric. Usually there are 32 pieces of fabric. They're 5" squares that come in a package of coordinated fabrics. For many of them, we're going to cut them in half down the middle, creating two half-square triangles. The blocks that these fit are the charm block. We have an 8", 6" and 5". For the 6" and 8", we're just going to use these charms that are cut on the diagonal. The template is much like that basic shadow block the simple shadow block. It's not the pretty embroidery but it has number systems around the edge so you know exactly which sequence to add the fabric. When Denise created the sample for today she merged the piecing block technique along with pretty embroidery. Denise, why don't you show us how that's done. Absolutely, it's very easy to merge in decorative designs into this block. It's a great place to showcase designs. We have our block up on our screen. We always merge that in first. We're then going to add our decorative element. Today, we're adding in lettering. We'll select our font from the built-in instant gratification fonts here. Then we're going to add our lettering. Adjust the sizes needed to fit inside of your block area. Continue your little message here. We have our three letters, then we're ready to sew. What Denise has already done on her stabilizer she hooped the same type of stabilizer. She did the first thread color, which is the outline stitch and it gives all the numbering systems. Denise, you've also added the center block. Absolutely. We have that started, our stitching our first fabric, and our second stitching. I advance the machine to be at the next piecing selection. Then we're going to take our half charm. We're going to position it right sides together right up to that stitching line where we left off. You're lining it right up, so there's no guess work. Then we put our foot down and we start sewing. Again, just gingerly hold onto that fabric. It's going to put on a lock stitch so your fabric is nice and secure forever and it stitches right along. You'll notice that we cut the fabrics always with just a little extra lined up so that if you get a little cattywampus it's not going to matter at all. That's right, we have a little bit of extra fabric around. We then put our pressing surface under. We take our mini iron that fits right in the hoop right under that machine and we press from the seam edge. Press it right in place right on that fusible stabilizer. It gives us a nice, crisp edge. We then take that right out and continue the stitching process. So the first thing you do is align the fabric. You stitch it, press it, and now it tacks. All eight of the charm half-square triangles are going to be added in this same way. Denise, why don't you show them the sample that has all eight charm squares stitched because now the pretty part is going to be added. Absolutely, we'll take our in-process hoop here take that out. Because you can take the hoop out of the machine. There's no fear of misalignment here. You can always take your hoop out to trim your fabrics, if needed. Today, we're going to advance right along to the embroidery selection. As we were doing construction we had our construction thread in. We now want to put in our decorative thread. We're putting in a nice decorative rayon thread for a bit of sheen. There are a lot of piecing selections here. So you're advancing-- Advance right along past that. It's kind of like the cooking show. They always have a souffle in the oven after they made one. We have the embroidery already done. We're just going to add the finishing touch. We'll pop that right in. We're right next to our lettering here. Then we'll go ahead and stitch that right in place. Function and embroidery, all in one. It lines it right up in that center block. Absolutely, no fear of taking your hoop out of the machine just don't unhoop the stabilizer. Yes, right. As you did before, Denise you have the stabilizer as a continuous roll. Absolutely. On our first sample, we definitely had a continuous roll. For this sample here, we just cut it to make it easier to take in and out. But we always recommend keeping it right on the roll. So, with about, oh, I'd say, eight minutes of sewing with the piecing of the eight pieces and adding the decorative stitch you can create a block that is so accurate at every point not because of my skill or Denise's skill just because it's computerized. It's a great way to become a quilter if you've never thought of quilting before. During the past four years, we've followed the progress of an amazing non-profit organization whose byline is "To mend communities one sewing machine at a time." From donating machines to now teaching and paying it forward it continues to expand. Please welcome Margaret Jankowski the founder of the Sewing Machine Project. Margaret, it's great to have you back. When I heard about your new initiative of incorporating sewing classes and paying it forward I knew we had to tell our viewers about this. Thank you for having me back, Nancy. I really appreciate it. We're really, really excited about this new program. It began here, in Madison, Wisconsin where we teach local classes. We teach people to sew, then incorporated in those lessons is a pay-it-forward element where they make something for their own community. After their lessons are complete then they keep the machine that they learned on. We've been working with many different populations here in Madison. It's been so successful that we decided to offer it nationally. Now you've expanded to many different states. We have classes going in Mississippi Alabama, Louisiana, and more applications are rolling in all the time. You were telling me that you work with a community center. In the community center you've had, as you said many different populations. But then, I think it's interesting it's six classes for the session but then they pay it forward by making something that is needed in the community. Absolutely as a class, we actually ask the community center what their needs are. So for instance, one of the centers where we work has a really active food pantry program. In the wintertime, there are many homeless clients so the class made fleece hats for those clients to keep them warm in the winter. You've also made baby blankets and tote bags. Absolutely. So they work on this machine they get to know it, and then they use it. Absolutely. You know, one of the other interesting ways that we've asked people to pay it forward we've worked with Bhutanese immigrants here in Madison, and we didn't know their language. We needed an interpreter. We had them pay it forward by coming back and acting as mentors in other classes. That was their way of helping out and helping us with the translation. The Sewing Machine Project obviously started by having many sewing machines donated. You have them repaired. But you said, right now you're machine rich. We are pretty machine rich. Yeah, we have a lot of machines. Although, as we are sending them out to these different groups around the country, that's helping us, you know keep the flow of machines going. But there are a lot of other things that we need, too. And they are? Well, one of the top things would be we need funding resources coming in, of course as many non-profits do. Yes, of course. We also need notions, things that people would use in sewing kits, pins, and scissors, and rulers and that sort of thing, basic sewing needs. Basics, to get them going. I think one of the statements that you said to me when we had a little pre-interview is that you stated, "Everyone has the power and the responsibility to mend their community." I think that's very poignant. Thank you. No matter of your economic status, you can pay it forward you can help mend the community by sewing. Mm-hmm. You've certainly done that with your communities in teaching them. What is the most gratifying part about this for you? Because you volunteer. I do. Oh, there are so many levels of gratification. One of the things that really has struck me is that when I began this I thought it was really just about us giving sewing machines to someone else. But what I've learned is that it really serves everyone who touches this project whether it's volunteers or donors. Everybody feels the power of this project. A used sewing machine that's been given a tune-up has so much life to it. Absolutely, it gives people a tool and the means to not only, you know, save money and help their family but also to potentially make some money to support their family. A lot of self-worth comes from the ability to sew and quilt, and use your hands and create something. Good job, Margaret, from donating machines at hurricane areas in Katrina and also Kosovo now, to paying it forward, teaching. I congratulate you and your co-workers. Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me back. You're welcome. If you'd like to have more information about the Sewing Machine Project you can go to all things Sewing with Nancy at NancyZieman.com where you can watch 52 of the most recent shows re-watch my interview with Margaret or the program I just did with Denise. Most of all, click on Nancy's Corner then you can get a link to the Sewing Machine Project website and find out more information. Do go there, watch the show, rewatch it. Also, contribute and be part of the Nancy's Corner organizations. Thanks for joining us today. Bye for now. Nancy and Denise Abel have written a fully-illustrated book entitled "Stress-Free Quilting with Machine Embroidery." That includes all the instructions from this two-part series, plus free embroidery designs. It's $14.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373 or visit our website at sewingwithnancy.com/2718. Order Item Number BK2718 "Stress-Free Quilting with Machine Embroidery." 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. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program

with Nancy Zieman has been brought to you by

Baby Lock, Madeira threads, Koala Studios, Clover, Fuller Brush Vacuums, Amazing Designs, and Klass Needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Riley Blake Designs. Sewing with Nancy is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.