Sewing With Nancy

Crazy quilting became popular in the late 1800's small, random pieces of fabric were hand stitched together and then embellished with elaborate embroidery. Now you can fast-forward to today and crazy quilting can be totally created using an embroidery machine. Eileen Roche, embroidery expert has mastered this technique. Welcome back to Sewing With Nancy, Eileen. Nancy, it's great to be here. Today, if you have scraps of fabric thread and an embroidery machine you can immediately become a crazy quilting expert. Wondering how? All the patches, stitches and elegant embroidery is programmed right into the designs. This process is extremely gratifying. "Today's Crazy Quilting With Your Embroidery Machine" That's what's next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman is made possible by 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 30 years. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. Before embarking on today's crazy quilting Eileen let's share with our viewers the traditional crazy quilting. This is a treasure in my house made by my great-grandmother Alice Lee Larson. You can see the date. She was Norwegian and maybe didn't spell August quite right. But we have a beautiful date. There are silks, twills, cottons, wool all hand-stitched. I just adore some of these crazy embroiders. And she uses a variety of thread. She's actually using yarn and some cotton, and I imagine if we looked closely there might be some silk thread in here. Yes. Unfortunately, some of the patches have seen their better day but with that you can tell that she stitched on a foundation. This was an old Damask tablecloth. A tablecloth, look at that. You can see the weave of the fabric come through. The silk has-- Again, through the test of time, has not quite worn well. It's almost a hundred years old, Nancy. It is, it's very precious. Her daughter, Viola Larson in 1973, this piece is dated made crazy quilting again using the same techniques but with velour scraps. So it's a warm, loving fabric. And it's not finished which allows us to go to the underside and see how it was crazy pieced together. Big, unmeasured, you know just kind of scraps of fabric. Build as you go. Yes. It's just kind of fascinating. You can see the variety of foundations. We're pointing out some similarities to yesterday's crazy quilting and today's crazy quilting as you'll soon see. Let's just look at these. You just have to take time to admire some of this work. Even if you're not a hand-embroiderer you can accomplish the same thing. Absolutely. On today's machines you can mimic this look a lot easier. We havesome small samples to show you that you can dabble in this you can expand upon it. But beautiful fabrics. These were silks that were remnants from previous work that I had in my stash. So beautiful colors to coordinate and of course the black offsets it just beautifully. And like what you saw earlier the embroidery, this is done with the machine. And it's going to do it automatically for you. Even some of the embroiders, we'll show you some options for this. They could be added before or after. And then even trim or lace that can be from scraps from your sewing area or this was created at the embroidery machine. Now here you have silk dupioni. I do. It's a luscious fabric. But you can also use cottons. Here shows a patchwork block of cottons and it's done on a foundation. So let's talk a little bit about this block or the blocks that we have here and point out to you if you haven't used a computerized embroidery machine you see that it's not just for accent embroideries. There are these beautiful stitches that embellish each seam. We have three different versions and with a large variety of stitches some that have long stitch lengths others that are tiny really beautiful decoration. But one thing they all have in common is that very first color that they stitch is this kind of schematic. It's a numbered sequence and it has outlines that show you exactly where your fabrics are going to go. On the screen of our sewing machine you can see that this is the first thread color of the embroidery design. It's functional. Right, so I always suggest using a contrasting thread unless you're doing all light fabrics on top. But, you know, it's easier to see when it's in a darker color. And instead of the foundation being an old tablecloth this is traditional embroidery stabilizer. Right. It's a poly mesh cutaway. This one happens to be fusible which helps in our flip and sew method. You can see the shine of the fusible. Mm-hum. Let's talk a little bit about the templates that come with the blocks so that you know how to cut your fabric. How do you prepare those scraps? There's two ways to prepare your templates. You can do what we call windowpane or paper doll style where you actually cut right on the outline. Seam allowances have already been included in these so that's good to know. If you're going to work on maybe a test scrap of embroidery that you already have in your stash you would stitch that on regular stabilizer pop it out of the hoop and then place that windowpane template over it, centering it. Then you could-- Trace if you wanted to. Trace if you wanted, with a removable marker, or not. And then you'll know exactly what size it should be. Now Eileen has pre-cut these five swatches or patches that are going to go on here. And you can see, you don't have to get them exact. Oh, no, and actually bigger is better. Because, you know, the flip and sew method can be a little tricky. So if you leave some room for error then you won't have that many challenges when it comes time to piece them in the hoop. You can see, mine are really oversized. But that's okay, because the scraps that you wind up with after this project are often usable for the next project. So let's go stitch this now. All crazy quilting is enhanced with embroidery whether it's by machine or by hand. You need to choose your beautiful thread colors. I'm working with rayon thread in multiple colors more than this that I'm showing you. Then in the bobbin, for computerized embroidery I'm using the bobbin thread recommended by my sewing machine manufacturer. It's light-weight it's not the same weight as the rayon. Make sure you put in a new needle. It's so important, don't you find, Eileen? Absolutely. You get a fresh start with a brand new needle. We have our embroidery units attached to our sewing machine and you have already stitched one of the designs we showed you earlier. I have color one which has all the numbers and the outlines of the different patches. I'm already on color two and you can see color two is an outline of my first patch. So it's time to lay that fabric right-sides up over that outline. Lower the presser foot. I'll keep my hands out of the needle's way but I will hold on to that patch just for a moment to get it started. It looks like I didn't position my patch just right. I have a little corner out of position but it will be covered. By the seam allowance. By the seam allowance. So I'll be fine on that patch. It's like paint by number because you have two, three, four, five on that embroidery hoop and you know where to go next. Absolutely and it's so fun to watch it come alive. Now the needle will advance over to color two. Color two is just another seam. That's going to connect patch one and patch two. So in the hoop I will position my fabric. Now this time I position it right-sides together. I can lift the fabric beneath to make sure that my edge is going to be caught. Lower the presser foot. And again, keeping my hands out of harms way way out by the perimeter of the hoop I'll just guide the fabric so it can cover that seam. Now the fun part is next, Nancy. The revealing. Or the unveiling, I should say. Right, we wait until the presser foot lifts and moves to the next line then I just finger press that open. Of course, silk is so responsive it just does flatten right out. Time to take the next patch, patch number three. Do you ever tape that down, Eileen? Yes, this would be a great time to tape that down. Thanks, Nancy. I keep the transparent tape out beyond the boundaries of the block. But you know, you really can even stitch on that transparent tape. No harm at all. Again, I'm lifting my seam allowance to make sure that my new edge is going to cover it. I think I have this patch upside-down so we'll flip it in this fashion. Okay, lower the presser foot, and off we go. So really it's embroidery at its simplest form just doing straight stitching to construct this patch unlike my great-grandmother and my great-aunt they did it free form on their Damask tablecloth. This is done easily and you'll have just the same patch look patch after patch. That's right. If you'd like to you could do some trimming of that seam allowance. We're just going to expedite a little bit by-- See how fast this goes. And I will tape this section down again in the seam allowance. That's just a little bit of insurance. Now, I have quite a bit of excess fabric here so I think I will take a moment to trim this patch away and reveal you know the area underneath which is number four. And just right-sides together aligning that raw edge. And again, it's always wise to lift it. If you're working with skimpy fabric sections you can even flip this back and make sure you're going to cover the area that you need to cover. Sure. Once you're confident flip it back align that raw edge and lower the presser foot. Off we go. This is fun. It is really, you know building a block by numbers just as you said earlier. While this is finished stitching we'll take a break and do this off camera. Now that I have patch four applied and flipped back and even taped down it's time to add my decorative corner. This is an embellishment we've already done on a piece of fabric. I want to make sure that it's going to fit in the area and lower the presser foot, and go! Again, I'll just kind of hold onto that so it doesn't shimmy across the hoop. Even though that embroidery had a little stabilizer on it it's just fine to add. Oh, sure. It's very light-weight and it won't-- No harm. No harm, no foul.

laughter

The pieces are cut larger. It's just a process and you get a rhythm to this after a while. You do get a rhythm to this. Okay, and then we'll just flip this back and reveal the beautiful fabrics underneath. Now, I'm going to take a moment and tape that down so that it won't get caught as we do the decorative stitches. Just bear with me one second. While Eileen's getting this ready the next stitches will be, as we mentioned these beautiful decorative stitches that were done by hand traditionally and now are done by machine. Big, wide, lovely stitches that would be kind of hard to do if you had to do them by hand. You're ready to do that stitching. Now often when you're working on the decorative stitches you are stitching over maybe a light fabric and a dark fabric so color choice can be a little difficult. Always select colors that are going to pop. The whole idea about crazy quilting is that the stitches are visible. Exactly, and a lot of times crazy quilting in the hoop may be just with fabric. This time it's fabric with embroidery with decorative stitches, big decorative stitches. Right. This is a technique that more is better. Yes, absolutely. It's just kind of fun to just watch what happens. And each decorative stitch is a different color segment so you can add colors, you know seven different colors if you'd like throughout the block. So just take the time to have all these stitches stitch out. Each time you can change color as you can see here. Next we'll show how to personalize just as my great-grandmother did. Eileen finished stitching all the decorative embroideries the decorative stitches on her block. This is a different block, of course. But now to add some personalization a date, a monogram, just to give it that same traditional look but in a modern way. Let me show you how. I'm going to add the monogram with build-in lettering on my machine. I'll select a script because I think that goes with the style. I certainly don't need that extra large so I'll go down to a medium size and touch set and then sewing. Now because this is a build-in design I don't know exactly how to place it in the block. I'm going to use a target sticker that just has a cross-hair with an arrow pointing on one end. That's designating the top of the embroidery design. In this case, the top of the letter 'E'. On the editing feature of the machine I'll use the jog keys to move the hoop so that I am centered right over that target sticker. I have to rotate my design because, you know I want to fit that 'E' in that space. So I'm going to use a little tool that is will tell me exactly how many degrees to rotate the design. And I've positioned it centered over the target sticker. I just want to make sure that the edge is parallel with the hoop and I swing the dial so that the red cross-hair sits on top of the cross-hair underneath. It tells me to rotate 344 degrees. I'll go into rotate, and I will rotate 340. Oh, you know I'm too close to the edge so we'll do that first out here. We just do it by tens and we'll get right to 340. Then when I move back to my target sticker I'm able to stitch the design. Lower the presser foot, remove the target sticker and embroider. That's how easy it is to personalize a quilt block. In another little patch I could add a date if this was maybe a memento for a wedding or some special occasion in a family. And just let it stitch. So many options are built right into embroidery machines today. You have lots of different lettering. Of course with the different colors of thread the sky's the limit on your creativity, really. It's beautiful. Now we've used all silk fabrics and while this is kind of stitching I'm just going to show you that you certainly could use cotton fabrics. This is what this block is made out of. You can see the traditional cotton fabrics not quite as shiny. Then you could also consider using cotton thread rather than rayon thread. So the choice is-- You know, depending upon the flatness of the fabric you may want to use the flat, cotton type of thread. And look, those are beautiful even on tonal look. I like that look a lot. We're going to be doing some more embroidering but while this is stitching I'll just talk about when you're embroidering in a hoop and creating a block the last stitch always happens to show or some of the last stitches will give you a cutting line and a stitching line. So every block will be exact. If you remember from my great-aunt's blocks they weren't always alike. Here they can always be alike because you're going to be trimming along the other edge, stitching-- Let's see if we can show you on the inner edge of this. So you have exact lines to do the trim. That's what I've done here. No matter what, if this is you're first time piecing a quilt you can have it exact. If this is your first time embroidering you're going to have it exact. This is a great transitional technique. Then when you go to piece you actually just sew on that inner line. That's your seam lines. You don't have to be concerned about the seam allowance. So many, many embroidery in-the-hoop projects have those exact stitching lines. The 'E' is coming to a close, isn't it? Yes, it's just about done. Once it's complete I want to add some decorative flowers in another patch. Here you can use a traditional template. And just in closing, Eileen, if you can show if you're familiar with embroidery you know about templates. You can just kind of show what that is. A template is a printed image of your embroidery design. Really any software that you have you just go to file, print. You can also stitch them out but it's easiest to use software. It has an arrowhead designating the top of the embroidery design. Then you just position it in the area where you want the design to stitch out. If it's square to the hoop you, wouldn't have to rotate it but if not, you could use a tool to determine how many degrees to rotate the design. So you see, personalization is very evident and very possible with crazy quilting. Sewing and quilting are very personal crafts. So is the business of creating with needle and thread. Please welcome Stephanie Struckmann via Skype who has made the art of sewing her business a business within her home. Great to see you again, Stephanie. You too, thank you for having me. I'm so excited. Oh, I'm glad to interview you. Tell our viewers your business experience of setting up a sewing studio a learning lab within your home. When did you start, Stephanie? I started five years ago. I started teaching sewing lessons probably six or seven years ago when I worked for a small sewing machine shop. One of the managers suggested that I start teaching and I took her up on it right away. Then the machine shop probably within a year or two announced that they were closing. They were very grateful to allow me to e-mail their community group that they had kind of built up just letting people know that I still wanted to teach sewing classes and that if anybody was interested to please let me know. So I started an e-mail list. I told them I was getting married and I was graduating and I still wanted to teach sewing lessons. I talked to my then fianc about doing that after we got married and he said, yeah, definitely. So as they were closing I purchased a couple of student machines. Good. Yeah, we talked about-- Originally, it was in one room. It just wasn't working out. It was right in front when people walked in the door. I kind of wanted the house to be more homey. Sure. So I talked him into moving it into our living room with a fireplace in it. I like the fireplace as a thread rack. That's very clever of you. Yeah, yeah. It was a nice flat space to kind of keep it out of the way and make it pretty. How many machines do you have set up in your sewing studio? I have three main ones. I try to keep my classes if it's not a private lesson, to two to four students. The classroom I originally had it in could fit six students. I had about six machine that I could kind of rotate through. But then I kind of decided, six to eight students sometimes is a little bit more difficult especially when it's children. So we decided to move it into the other room and so I try to keep classes from two to four students because it's a little bit smaller. You have some interesting categories that you teach. You mentioned younger girls or young boys learning to sew but you have some other combos or other options for teaching. Yeah, definitely. I get a broad range of people. Yeah, I like the kids classes. I start from seven and up and sometimes the parents decide whether seven is too young. I've had some really great sewers at seven. Then I've had a lot of moms and daughters which can be a really fun bonding experience for them and for me to get to know them and their relationship. And then a lot of women, just friends that want to get out and do something or young moms that want to sew things for their kids or home dec. Sure, well, that's quite a variety. If someone was thinking about starting a sewing business within their home what would be your top two recommendations or suggestions to them to give them business advice? I think just to make sure that you have a good spot that you can really call I don't want to say home but kind of, you know, home for your business that can be comfortable. You definitely when you're bringing students especially kids into your home you definitely want to make sure that it's comfortable and that parents feel comfortable leaving their kids there. I even have a spot that if parents want to stick around while their kids are in class they can kind of sit there and read a book or check e-mail or whatever. Sure, what a great idea. What's the biggest challenge that you've had over the years of teaching sewing within your home or having your home business? You know, I would say that the biggest challenge and something I kind of touched on earlier was classes that are too big especially when it's kids. You know, when it's adults adults can be more patient if you're helping other students and they need help. They can also look over the shoulder of someone else and be like, oh, okay, that's what I need to do. Whereas children, if you have a classroom of six to eight new sewers that don't know what they're doing it can be really overwhelming unless they really pick up on it. But you hate to leave somebody behind who actually is doing a really good job and understands but you know, they're waiting for other people who need help. That might be a situation in a lot of classrooms in general. In other words, less is best for beginner sewers. Yeah, I like the two to four, is a good number. Well, Stephanie, thanks for the advice. Good luck as you continue to teach sewing to a variety of ages and good to see you. Thank you, you too, always good to see you. Well, thanks to Stephanie. If you'd like to re-watch this interview you can go to nancyzieman.com watch the show, the interview or 80-plus programs. This wraps up our first program of "Today's Crazy Quilting With Your Embroidery Machine" with Eileen Roche. See you next time, bye for now. Eileen Roche has written the book "Today's Crazy Quilting With Your Embroidery Machine" which serves as a reference for this two-part series. The book includes a CD with three crazy quilt blocks, three in-the-hoop projects and twelve accent designs. It's $29.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373

or visit our website at

sewingwithnancy.com/2821. Order Item Number BK00126 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; Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Pellon. Sewing with Nancy is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.