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In the 1990s, when machine embroidery became available to those of us who sew at home, it was tricky to achieve professional results. The embroidery was easy, but the hooping was rather difficult. As technology advanced, so did the hooping techniques thanks to experts like my guest, Marie Zinno, who has embroidered thousands of projects and is here to fill you in on her secrets. Welcome to Sewing with Nancy. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, Nancy. I'm so excited to be here and to share my embroidery tips. Some of the products that I like to embroider... This baby bundle of items is not only adorable, but it's also the perfect place to begin learning how to team up effective hooping techniques with the appropriate stabilizers. "Hoop

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A Guide to Successful 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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making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 30 years. Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. This series is all about preparation. Preparing you embroidery. Putting it in the hoop, choosing the right stabilizer, and, Marie, we're starting with a very simple project, but one that many of us would like to give away. Of course. It's a purchased baby blanket that you would embroider with your own embroidery design. And we're just going to show you a couple techniques on how to do these kind of stretchy fleece baby blankets. Yeah, it has a lot of give to it. First, I would start by selecting my embroidery design, which I've printed from my embroidery software. And that just gives me an idea of the size of the embroidery design. It will tell you the stitch count, as well. Then, I just put it on my blank to make sure that it's in position and in the proper area. Isn't too big or isn't too small. But then to get it exactly where you'd like it. Exactly, exactly. So then I would use what I call a hard template. These are templates that are created specifically for embroiderers. And, actually, it'll say, "For baby blanket." Yeah, it's right side up. And it fits right inside the satin stitched line of this purchased baby blanket. Of course, you can make your own blanket and use the same way when you add your satin trim. It has some openings. And there's these-- mostly it's for text and for embroidery designs. And then I put in a target sticker that comes included with the kit in that center hole. Make sure it's straight. And then, you remove the template. And, yeah, that target sticker has a cross hair on it to help you with the proper orientation of your embroidery design. And it also has an arrow, this side up. That would be more important as we go along in doing more detailed items. You can work on a nonslip surface, a nonslip mat. That's what we're using today. Very helpful. And during this series, we're going to work with a lot of stabilizers, but the basic stabilizer is a cutaway. That's right. We're using the poly mesh or no-show mesh stabilizer because this blanket has a lot of stretch to it. And, actually, we're embroidering an area that's on the bias so you even get more stretch to it. I'm using a 5" x 7" standard hoop because I'm going to add a little text to this embroidery design at the machine. And I want to just plan ahead for that. Of course, I would make sure this is perfectly lined up, and then I would line it up with my needle on the embroidery machine. Which we'll do in a few minutes. And then there's another option that we have for... to make hooping even easier. And this is what we call a "magnetic hoop." It comes with a protector so you can easily get it apart. And it's a flat hoop, so it helps you. You can manipulate the fabric to a point, if needed, if you have puckers when it's in there. And then, you lay the top frame on there. The magnetic hoop will not interfere with your computerized embroidery machine. Twenty years ago when the machines came out, it was an issue, but not anymore. Technology has progressed on that. And we can get the design 'spot on' at the sewing machine, but this is nice and taut in here and ready to go. So, the next step after we have things hooped properly is to do the positioning at the machine. Now, if you have an embroidery unit for your sewing machine, you apply it. If you don't have an embroidery unit, maybe you can just learn and see how easy it is to do the embroidery. It's learning something new. But the first thing you're going to do is get your thread in order the way that it's going to stitch. Color one, two, three, four, etc... And I line that up to the right, usually, of my sewing machine. I always put in a new needle, an embroidery needle, and use the appropriate bobbin thread that's recommended with your sewing machine. You're going to put in a foot, the embroidery foot that comes with the machine that you will know when you set up the unit. And then, you're going to insert the hoop into the embroidery unit, and, Marie, you've already done that. I've already done that. And I've actually already brought up my embroidery design because it's saved in memory. I did it in embroidery software. But right now I'm going to take a second to show you that we placed the target sticker on our blanket, and the proper orientation should actually be the opposite of the way the design comes up on your screen. So I'm going to rotate this design 180 degrees. Very easy on this machine. It has all the degrees that you can rotate it. And I'm also going to add an automatic basting file, which is another wonderful feature in this machine. The reason I'm doing that is to hold the water-soluble stabilizer right before I'm ready to stitch. It's just a long stitch that's going to put all layers together. Many machines have that. That's right. But, Marie... If you didn't have that with your sewing machine... And you want to have a basting file that you can use for many different embroidery projects, then you can do that in software and save that as just one file on either your machine or on a memory card or stick. You can kind of see that we have that as cutaway. So you can see that it's just a long basting stitch around the design. Around the... perimeter. And it holds either the water-soluble stabilizer or it can also hold a project in a hoop, if you're having trouble. So now I have rotated my design. It's going in the right orientation, but I really want to line it up with that target sticker. That's the whole reason I used it. So I'm going to use my jaw keys. And I'm just lining it up easily with the target sticker. I'm eyeballing it at this moment, but some machines have great features that you can actually use. And this is actually a little laser light that helps you see the exact center of the target sticker, so I know I am perfectly lined up. And another important thing to do is to actually remove that target sticker before I stitch or it will be included in the design, which I have done many times. But, it's not really a problem. So, at this point, I'm going to add a water-soluble stabilizer. Notice I'm just kind of placing it on top. And you can see it actually moves to the first color of my embroidery design, which is very helpful. So you don't have to change colors. If your first color is going to be pink, which ours is, then the basting file is going to be in pink. Move your hands out of the way. I kind of just babysit it for a second to make sure that the basting file does tack down properly. That's all. Just doesn't get bunched up anywhere. Always cut your water-soluble stabilizer a little bit larger than your design. People like to save the water-soluble stabilizer, but this is always a good point to just always cut it a little bit bigger. Sure... and then it's going to start to stitch the lamb. That's right. But it'll stop because it might want to do it in another color. which is what our machine will do. And I'm just going to start stitch......the beginning parts of the lamb. And now, it's just changing the thread colors and watching the magic of the machine. This program is on hooping, so we're not going to do a lot of the embroidery, But after you have stitched the entire design. I've removed some of that basting file just with a nippers, just nip it off, tear away the water-soluble stabilizer, and from the back of the design, then you're going to cut away the extra fabric. If you have some extra water- soluble stabilizer on the front, just dab it with a little Q-tip, and the water will come out. And then you have your first project, and that's how you hoop up a baby blanket. Next, learn Marie's tips for success when embroidering on baby burp cloths. The bulky center panel can cause hooping issues, if the wrong type of hoop is selected. Yeah, burp cloths can be very difficult to hoop so we've selected a woven diaper. It's really just a cloth diaper, and I'm going to embroider one end of my cloth diaper. So, I like to always print, again, a template, a paper template, of my embroidery design so I know it's going to fit and that it'll be stitched in the right orientation. And then, I would use my hard template to place on the burp cloth. Kind of take into consideration where the ribbon will be stitched at the end. Sure, I like that idea. So, you use that. Right, because you don't want to be down too low and lose part of the embroidery design. And then you would place the little target sticker right in that center hole. Make sure it's nice and straight, and that you have your cross hair going in the right orientation. And now, for a stabilizer, we used, with stretchy fabric, we used a stable stabilizer. Now we can use a tear-away. Right, this is just a simple tear-away because our burp cloth is not going to stretch. It's just a woven fabric, so it's not very stretchy. And then I place the top of the magnetic hoop on top. And, at this point, you can kind of tug and just make sure it's nice and straight in your hoop. Make sure the top and bottom frames are lined up. And it's ready to go. And you're ready to go. This program is on hooping, and the reason we didn't use a traditional hoop is because of the thickness in the middle. Sometimes this can spring apart. Yeah, all burp cloths or diapers can be different thicknesses, so you have to take that into consideration. And after doing the embroidery, which this is on hooping remember, you just tear away the extra stabilizer in the back, and you don't even see it. So, with stable fabrics, you use a tear-away; with stretchy fabrics, you use a stable stabilizer. And that's Marie's hooping tip for success. That's right. Why not keep a stash of terrycloth bibs on hand for quick gifts? We recommend purchasing neutral colors and embroider them. Present a one-of-a-kind gift to a new mom. When we hooped the blanket, which had stretch in it, we're going to use that same idea for hooping this terrycloth bib because it has the same amount of stretch, or give. So, in standard or a magnetic hoop, you'd place the cutaway stabilizer, the bib, and then do the embroidery with a topper or a water-soluble stabilizer on top. You notice that in this program, we are adding a motif plus some copy, some words, to personalize it. And Marie is going to give us some tips on how she does that. That's right. I've already embroidered my owl design, and I actually did some text in the program lettering, that's included in the machine, and I actually saved it in memory. So, we're going to stitch "Who's hungry?" underneath the owl that I've already stitched, and we're going to use the scanning feature to take a picture of what's already been stitched in my hoop. So, it's actually taking a photograph of what's actually in my hoop. And there it is. Magic! It is. It's so great. Now, I can edit the text because I need to rotate it. I don't want it to stitch on top of the owl. So I'm going to rotate it and use the jaw keys to fit underneath of the design. And we're just going to add the text. Put the foot down and start stitching the "Who's hungry?" underneath the owl. It's a great way to personalize different projects and make it more unique for the gift that you're giving. Now, if you did not have a scanning feature-- not all machines have that-- you could simply put them together on the screen. Exactly, yes, you could do that. It's very easy to do right at the machine, which is wonderful. You can do it in software, too. So, we'll let Marie's machine stitch away, and you can see how we've added, the copy has been added. You release the basting stitch file, just kind of clip it away, tear away the top, cut away the back, and cut around the design, and we'll just show you this again on the finished project. And I like your little rickrack addition that you added. Oh, yeah, it's a great trim to add to any bib or ribbon. Always looks great. So, there you go. A way of adding text to a motif and personalize a gift at the same time. Next, learn the hoop it up techniques for embroidering a hooded baby towel. Positioning, hooping, and nesting are all part of the embroidery process. Marie, I think these are one of the best gifts you can give a new mom for the little baby, whether it's bath time or swimming lessons. Doing a little personalization is just a great thing. But this is not necessarily-- It's not an easy thing to do....the easiest thing to hoop because it's......not flat. If you're buying a purchased hooded towel, it is not very easy to hoop. It's possible, and we're going to show you how. Yes, exactly Basically, start it by just buying a blank hooded towel that I've actually fused our poly mesh or no-show mesh stabilizer onto the inside area of the hood only. And you can see this is fusible. I kind of peeled back a little bit so you can see. There's definitely a shiny side to that and that is what goes down on the fabric. You give it a little press. Yeah, I'll show you. We have the iron here. So it's cut to size. I cut it to the shape and area of the hoop that I'm going to......to use because I'm going to use a 4" x 4". And then you just kind of press it on, and make sure that stabilizer is on there. We're just......using a little ironing. We have a little area. And then I would turn it right side out to mark my center, to mark my placement for the embroidery design. Okay. I'm going to stitch that cute little frog design. And I'm using this kind of great roller that is... So you can just find the center. Yes, you can find the center. And, again, we're going to use those handy target stickers to help place your embroidery with the cross hair going towards the top of the hood so we don't embroider upside down when we're at the machine, which is quite easy to do. Now if you hooped it like this, you'd be in trouble. There'd be no place for the hood. Right, yeah. On the standard home machine, it's hard to embroider something like this. So now I'm going to turn it inside out, and I'm going to, sorry, go this way because I would like the bulk of the fabric or bulk of the towel to be over the hoop and over the attachment. So here's the attachment area. I'm just going to show-- And then you just kind of lay this in here and take the top frame of your hoop. Again, most hooded towels, this will work in the 4" x 4". There might be some hoods that are a little smaller, a little tighter, and you might have to struggle with that. But for this particular project, it works in this nice 4" x 4" hoop. You just kind of get in there nice and taut, and then you would take it over to the machine. And here you can see that we have it on the machine, and to get the design to the correct orientation, we have to do some rotation. You can see that just on the screen. And then, after getting the needle right over that target sticker, removing the target sticker and putting on a stabilizer, you can start to do the embroidery. And here, we're embroidering away, and notice how you have the towel nested. That's right. It's very important to keep the bulk of the fabric over the attachment and out of the way. And one of the nice, handy little home tools that I like to use is painter's tape. It's that blue tape that really doesn't stick to the terrycloth, but it keeps the bulk of the fabric out of the way of the needle and the embroidery unit. So, you're not going to worry about that falling in to place and stitching through all the layers together. So, those are Marie's successful tips for embroidery. The onesie, a baby basic, can be one of the most challenging garments to hoop, but knowing the tricks of the trade streamlines the process. We'd like to show you how. Now, Marie, when working with a small sized onesie, you've got to get in here and get the hoop navigated, plus you have to do the stabilizing. So, share your tips. Okay, well, I like to make my life a little easier by printing a template of my embroidery design, and it's a small sized design, so, therefore, I'm going to use a 4" x 4" size hoop, which is the easiest size hoop to use for a onesie. And I'm also using what I call one of these hard templates. That will help you line up the center of your onesie with the neckline. And place your little target sticker in here. You know, it's easy to do one onesie, but if you're going to do a number of onesies, you might want to mark them all in the same place. At least, that's how I do it. If you were going to be adding a lot of text to your design, you may want to lower that. Just move it down a little bit. Just as long as you know you're in the center and the right orientation. And then, I like to use the fusible poly mesh or no-show mesh stabilizer. I cut it a lot bigger than or way bigger than my 4" x 4" hoop, and that eliminates the stretch that you would have with the onesie with the knit fabric. So, you would iron this on. And again, this can be released later by just re-ironing it. So we ironed on the fusible stabilizer. And I'm going to use a fun little tool that's called a hoop guard that works to help eliminate the lower flap of that to get in the way of your embroidery. So, my onesie is marked, and I'm going to work upside down, actually. I'm going to put this upside down. And inside out. So, I line up the top frame of the magnetic hoop that I'm using. And it's a little hard for you to see, but maybe if I open this up. Yeah, there you go. You can see, okay, we're not straight in there. See, the cross hairs is a little crooked. So we're going to straighten that up, and then we're going to attach the bottom portion of the hoop. At this point... This is where the magic comes. You are going to pull the bottom snap portion over... The guard. Over the guard. And you can manipulate the fabric, make it a little taut, that you need to because I've already fused that stabilizer. And then I would use some blue painter's tape-- again, my favorite household tool-- to keep the fabric out of the way from falling into my embroidery. And you would just stick it on there. This is not a project that you'd walk away from. No, you have to embroidery-sit. Sit right by there. And that's what we're doing right now. We're sitting by the machine as this is embroidering. You can see we're doing a close-up of this. Notice that the metal part is toward you. Always toward you, right. Because otherwise, it would get caught in the machine mechanism. And then when you're finished embroidering, and, really, I've done onesies, it's kind of hard to do without that, you can release this, heat it up. Heat it up, and then......just cut away. You'd like to kind of round the corners so you don't leave a demarcation. That's right. So, get everything out of the way, add a stabilizer, do the embroidery, have the fun part, and then you have a onesie ready to go. That's right. Nancy's Corner goes on location to the annual Quilt Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, where we visit a community service project already in progress. As long as women and men have been sewing and quilting, they've been giving away of their works of art. And that's what we're doing today at the Quilt Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, a three-day quilting event which includes a community service project where men and women are making full size, mainly twin-sized beds this year to give to others. And we're doing some giving away right now. I'd like to introduce you to Elizabeth Klaus, who is the director at DAIS. Elizabeth, tell us a little about DAIS. So, DAIS is the only emergency domestic violence shelter in Dane County. As an organization, we also run seven other comprehensive intervention, prevention, and education programs for victims of domestic violence and the community at large. DAIS has been around 1977, and over the past few years we have been working on a very large project to build a new shelter and facility on Madison's north side. This past summer we were able to move into that new home, and we're very thrilled to be there. This expanded our shelter services from 25 beds in our old place to 56 beds in the new place. So, as you can tell, these quilts will go a long way for DAIS. So the beds, some of the beds, will be adorned with our quilts that have been made here or made at home and brought here. This is a column quilt, a design that we're making now. You can go to Quilt to Give, which is the name of the quilt, dot com and get the free instructions. But so many have been donated fabrics, and I'm thrilled to be giving many quilts to the DAIS organization so that they can be given to people and used by people who really need a boost. Absolutely, Nancy. This project means so much to us because a lot of times our clients will come to use DAIS services or come into our shelter and will have little more than the clothes on their backs. Sure. And they need a lot more. Absolutely. To be able to give them something that's so beautifully homemade and thoughtfully crafted for them means a lot to our clients because it not only means that they'll have something beautiful it means that the community has created something with them in mind, and it really means a great deal. Now, the Domestic Abuse Intervention Services is in Madison, where we are having the Quilt Expo. The other half of the quilts are going to Enchanted Makeover, a makeover organization who goes into shelters nationally. So women's shelters around the country will be benefiting from this. And, Elizabeth, what I find is that when I make something and give it away, the gift is in the giving, and it's the process that makes me really happy. Absolutely. The best part of my job is coming out here and meeting people like you who are willing to use their talents and their time to really give us a gift that goes beyond the object itself to really have something that is a thoughtful keepsake, as well. And what's amazing to me is that today, as I was here, two women brought completely finished quilts. They didn't want any recognition. They just wanted to hand it over and for us to give it to someone who really needed it. So if you have a quilt at home that you are making and you just don't know who to give it to, perhaps there's an organization-- There are many organizations around the country that could appreciate it and use it, and you will be making a person very happy. Absolutely. So, a little bit of fabric and a little bit of time and you'll definitely have a great way of encouraging someone and working with them and helping them get through a difficult time. Elizabeth, thank you for being with us on this special edition of Sewing with Nancy, and we hope that we'll see you again and provide more quilts to you. Yes, thank you so much, Nancy. You're welcome. To learn more about the Quilt to Give project or watch several seasons of Sewing with Nancy programs online, at your convenience, go to NancyZieman.com. You can also follow my blog and join us on social media platforms. Next time on Sewing with Nancy, Marie returns to share more embroidery hooping techniques. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now. Marie Zinno and Eileen Roche have written the book, "Hoop

It Up

Guide to Successful Embroidery" which is used as the reference for this two-part series, and includes six embroidery positioning tools. It's $29.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 800-336-8373 or visit our website at sewingwithnancy.com/2924. Order item number BK00125, "Hoop Guide to Successful Embroidery" 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. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman

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