Scant Who? Generous What?

Ever wonder why you sew a perfect quarter inch seam and after putting all your pieces together for a particular block, your finished block still runs a little smaller than it was supposed to be when you square it off?  Well, I’m going to explain that phenomenon  to you and where I learned the answer to this question….

One of the things that always puzzled me was why would you sew a “scant” quarter inch seam. After all, a quarter inch seam is a quarter inch seam. Why would it be anything else. Right? Then a pattern or instructor throws this “scant” stuff at you. I just always accepted what to do, but wondered why? What is the difference  between a quarter inch seam and a scant quarter inch and why would you use one or the other. I’ll tell you. Sometime ago I read or heard someone who answered my question.  It’s because when you press your seam to one side the stitching takes up some of the space in the fabric. Sizing is especially crucial when sewing half square triangles and quarter square triangles. I didn’t believe it myself until I tried it. That is why a scant quarter inch seam is sewn a fraction to the right of where that seam should be. Continue reading “Scant Who? Generous What?”

Embroidery & Sewing & Quilting, Oh My!

floral-elegance-quilt-smOne of my favorite things to do is embroidery. I love the way a quilt looks with embroidery on it. There are several ways to do this. One,  you can make enough embroidered blocks to start piecing the blocks like any quilt with sashing in between. You put your narrow borders on and you add a wide border all around. This wide border can have embroidery on it as well, floral-elegance-quilt_0001giving a beautiful finished look. That’s what I did with my personal bed quilt. I used the Judy Nowecki embroidery design disk, Floral Elegance. I loved this quilt when it was finished and I still do now. Continue reading “Embroidery & Sewing & Quilting, Oh My!”

The History of Quilts

donnas-star-1Quilts have been around for a long time but they started out as a necessity. They were made of old clothing, ragged blankets, or whatever fabric the pioneers could find.  I guess you could call it, early recycling. If they were wealthy enough or lucky enough to get hold of some nice fabric then those quilts turned into beautiful artistic treasures that were  handed down through the generations. All the piecing and quilting was done by hand and could take years to make depending on the designs. These quilts were made of many different blocks or one or two of the same blocks

The “blocks” as they are called all had specific names and for the most part those names have survived and not changed much since their inception.  There are always new ones that creative quilters come up with but your traditional  blocks are still the same, like the Churn Dash, Pinwheel,  Rail Fence, 9 Patch, the various stars and my favorite, the Log Cabin.

Quilts were made for different occasions. Like for a wedding, for a new baby, or just because! But during the Civil War, they were made to help direct escaping black slaves to the next safe house on the Underground Railroad. These quilts were made of one pattern. A pattern that would tell the slaves if that house would give refuge, or food, or a warning that slave catchers were nearby. I’ve heard some people say this isn’t true. Knowing quilters, I would like to believe these stories are true. Continue reading “The History of Quilts”

To Pucker Or Not To Pucker

If you are a machine embroiderer, particularly if you are new, then you know the horror of doing this beautiful embroidery on a towel or anything else, only to have it come out of the hoop with all those puckers around the design.

Puckers are caused by several situations.  Most times it is inadequate or wrong stabilizer, not enough stabilizer, or design is too heavy for the fabric. There is one thing to remember with any fabric or design. If it is a woven stable fabric that doesn’t stretch then you can use a tear away stabilizer. If the fabric has any stretch in it, then you must use a cutaway stabilizer to keep the fabric stable. On T-shirts use Floriani No Show mesh because it has no stretch. If you are doing sweatshirts then use a regular cutaway. Continue reading “To Pucker Or Not To Pucker”

Welcome – A Little Info On Me

 

featherweight sewing machine-tm. I’m going  to talk about a passion I have had since I was about 6 years old. It’s sewing!

I may need to back track a little. My family has always been performers in Show Business. I’m the 6th generation in my family to be performers. My Mother was a dancer and made all her own costumes. With the material she had left over, I would sew costumes for my dolls. I didn’t have baby dolls, oh no! I had dolls that looked like young ladies. I sewed these costumes by hand and did my best to make them look like my Mother’s dance costume.

Then we made a trip to California where my Mother danced in a movie called A Carnival in Mexico. We stayed at the home of a friend who had a day care. She also had A TREDDLE SEWING MACHINE!!! Continue reading “Welcome – A Little Info On Me”

New Blog on Sewing

Just want to let everyone know I have a new website for my blog. You go to sewingscoupe.com and that’s my new home.

I want to  take some of the mystery out of sewing quilts, embroidery, and sewing craft project for you and come up with helpful tips to make things easier.

If you have a special sewing tip. feel free to send it to me and I will add it to my blog.

See you next time,

Molly