This year I have a plan! I now know what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by – and so far it is working extremely well. The best part is that I am being productive – and there are some good results to show off. But… you’re going to have to wait until May to see what it is that I’m working on!

In the meantime, on January 16 and 17 I spent 2 days at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, CA with a group of ladies in my “Embroidered Applique for Beginners” class at Road 2 CA. This was a 2 day “retreat” where we worked on one project for the entire 2 days. The project was a GO! Bloom pillow – the 15″ one with tulips on it:

I really enjoyed the 2 day class format – and some great results were created. Everyone was working on a Bernina 580 embroidery machine with a Large Oval hoop. That meant that every design you see on the pillow (4 tulips, 4 corner motifs and the center motif) had to be stitched as a single hooping. The students were getting really creative – using the 3 different tulip designs that are found on the GO! Bloom CD – and even using artistic license when it came to which way around the tulips were placed on the pillow top.

Check out the wonderful pillows in progress from some of the students in the class.

 Tamara

 Gayle

 Audrey

 Susan

  Maureen

 Linda

 June

 Roxanne

 Sally

Which one is your favorite?

(By the way… make sure you read all the way to the end. I’m celebrating big time, and have LOTS of stuff to give away!)

Quilt Market happens twice a year – in the Spring, always in a different location; and in the Fall, always in Houston. It’s where people with things to sell show off all their new stuff, and store owners (and their staff and teachers) come to find out what is new in the world of quilting.

For me, Quilt Market is usually a pretty momentous occasion as I usually have a new design collection to show off. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel, usually after several weeks of hard work and a fair amount of chaos. This Quilt Market is no exception!

So… What’s new? I hear you ask!

The answer is…

GO! Bloom

GO! Bloom – 14 individual designs using 3 AccuQuilt GO! Baby dies. In addition, illustrated instructions to make the quilt shown on the cover, and the four pillow tops also shown on the cover. Let’s take a closer look!

The GO! Bloom Quilt is 40″x40″. Click on the image above (and also the images below) to see a larger photo.

The quilt is created using some very delicious hand dyed fabrics from Ricky Tims – 2 yards of Spanish Moss for the background; 1 fat quarter each of Red Hot Mama, Dragons Breath and Cotton Candy for the applique shapes; 1 fat quarter each of Carribean Queen and Coconut Snowcone for the borders. And this gorgeous fabric will be available in a kit!

Then of course there is the thread. It turned out that the AURIfil Silk Hearts Collection (12 large spools of 50 weight Cotton Mako) contained the perfect colors for the chosen fabrics. So… if you purchased the AURIfil Silk Hearts Collection to make the Silk Hearts Quilt, if you have any left over, it can be used again for this quilt!

GO! Bloom Pillow 1 is 17″ x 17″ (to fit an 18″x18″ pillow form).

GO! Bloom Pillow 2 is 17″x17″ (to fit an 18″x18″ pillow form)

GO! Bloom Pillow 3 is 15″x15″ (to fit a 16″x16″ pillow form)

GO! Bloom Pillow 4 is 15″x15″ (to fit a 16″x16″ pillow form)

The 4 pillow tops can also be created using the GO! Bloom Hand Dyed Fabric Collection from Ricky Tims. (You will need to purchase extra fabric for the backs of the pillows).

You can let your imagination have a field day when finishing the pillows. The 2 red ones in the photo above were finished with a ruffle created using my ruffle attachment!

I’m super excited about this new collection and so I’m celebrating it’s “birth”! That means I’m going to give something away!!!

How would you like to be the recipient of everything needed to make the GO! Bloom Quilt?

What exactly do you need?

• the GO! Bloom design collection of course
• the 3 AccuQuilt GO! dies used in the collection
• a GO! Baby (since they are GO! Baby dies)
• a GO! Bloom Hand Dyed Fabric Collection from Ricky Tims
• an AURIfil Silk Hearts Thread Collection.

One very lucky person will win all of these goodies. All you have to do is answer one simple question:

What are the 3 AccuQuilt GO! dies used in the GO! Bloom Collection?

It’s been really hard to not give you all the answer while writing this post! However, the answer can be found in my online store. So… go check it out, then come back and leave a comment at the bottom of this post with your answer. The winner will be chosen on Wednesday March 25 at 10am Arizona time (that’s Pacific time during the summer months). It could be you!

There’s also a little surprise in store for anyone who pre-orders the GO! Bloom CD during the month of May 2011. You’ll also find out what that is by visiting my store! (Just so you know… if you pre-order the GO! Bloom CD and then discover you are the winner of the whole kit and caboodle – I’ll refund your purchase!)

Many thanks to all of my partners for donating their products for me to give away. And many thanks also to my super faithful quilting buddies at home for helping me to get everything done in time for me to be here at International Quilt Market. Quilters really are wonderful people!

The Stars Collection was released in November 2010 as a Premier Collection Special Edition.

The collection contains 35 designs in the following formats:

• exp, art, art60, pes, pcs, dst, hus, xxx, sew, vp3, jef

• Note that due to hoop size limitations, not all designs are available in all formats.

6 small stars fit into a 3.5″ diameter circle.

19 medium stars fit into a 5″ diameter circle.

10 large stars fit into a 9″ or 10″ diameter circle. (5 of these have been split to allow them to be stitched out in a large and/or mega sized hoop)

While not shown in full on the packaging, the Collection contains instructions to make the following quilt:

Of course, there is a silk collection with a coordinating AURIfil thread collection available to allow you to make your own version of this quilt!

It has been pointed out to me that the name of the thread collection is a little misleading! The collection contains 12 large spools of my favorite thread: AURIfil Cotton Mako, 50 weight – 100% Egyptian Cotton. The silk collection contains 16 fat quarters of silk dupioni.

For the Stars collection, I also teamed up with AccuQuilt to create the following dies to assist you in achieving totally accurate cuts in a fraction of the time it would take to print templates, trace them onto fusible web and then cut. Of course, printing + tracing + cutting is still a totally valid option if you don’t have access to an AccuQuilt GO! cutter.

5 Point Medley:

For the small and medium sized 5 point stars.

5 Point Large Star

For the large, skinny 5 point stars.

6 Point Medley

For the small and medium 6 point stars.

6 Point Large Star

For the large, skinny 6 point stars.

8 Point Star

For the small, medium and large 8 point stars. The large star is created by cutting 8 of the star points. This has a couple of advantages: the cost of the die is kept down (less blade = less expense) and the star point can be used in both directions, creating 2 different 8 point star designs.

Star Points

For the large, chubby 5 and 6 point stars. The bigger star point is for the 5 point star. The small star point is for the 6 point star. The advantage of this is twofold: First, it keeps the cost of the die down (less blade = less expense). Second, it makes it much easier to split the design so that it can be stitched out with multiple hoopings in a smaller hoop.

Part 2 will feature some other (mostly smaller) quilts that have been created using the designs in the Stars Collection.

This is the design that I started out with (created in CorelDRAW). For version 1 of the design, I imported the diagram into the Bernina Cutwork Software and used the tools available to transform the design into stitches with some parts cut out (the squares and the central star – all shaded grey). The stitchout for this was fit for nothing other than the garbage! The problem – I knew that it was a good idea to do some “running before” stitches to stabilize the space to be cut out, but did not know what a good offset would be, so I used an offset of 0.6mm. When the cutwork tool did it’s thing, it cut up all the “running before” stitches, so I ended up with some holes with very frayed edges! Further investigation (in the online manual) recommends an offset of 0.8mm.

For version 2 of the design I decided to go back to the Bernina Embroidery Software to create all the non-cutwork stitches, and only use the Bernina Cutwork Software to create the actual cutwork stitches. Here are the results!

This is all the “non-cutwork” stitching. I figured it was probably a good idea to do as much of this as possible before doing any cutting to maintain as much stability as possible in the fabric. I am using DellaQ’s silk taffeta (maybe not such a good idea for a first attempt!) backed with OESD Fusible Polymesh, and OESD Heavyweight Tear-Away in the hoop. I pinned the silk in place and then stitched out a tackdown line to ensure the fabric would not move.

The first part of the cutting process is the “running before” stitches. As mentioned above, I set the offset to 0.8mm – any smaller and these stitches get cut out!

Now the machine is telling me it is ready to start cutting with the tool set to Cut 1.

Here is the actual Bernina Cutwork Tool! You have hopefully already figured out that it works with the embroidery module. I am using the #26 foot. The tool fits into the needle casing, and the blade itself is about 2mm wide and 3/8″ long. The white dial rotates and has four settings, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Here it is in position 1.

The first round of cutting has been done. The left and right sides of the square have been cut – it’s a pretty clean line, more visible on the left than on the right. And just inside the “running before” stitches!

Now the machine is telling me it is ready for Cut 2.

It’s actually very easy to move from cutting position 1 to 2. Sitting down is probably a good thing – just so that you can see what you are doing!

After cut 2, four points on the star have been cut. The blade on the Bernina Cutwork Tool can essentially set to 4 different angles. Vertical and horizontal are always going to be very clean cuts, as are cuts at 45 degrees in both directions. Everything else is going to be cut using the optimum combination of vertical, horizontal and 45 degree cuts. The white showing in the center star is where the silk has begun to lift up, revealing the stabilizer underneath.

Now the machine is telling me it is ready for cut 3.

And finally it is ready for cut 4!

All the cutting has been done! A lot of the pieces are beginning to lift out of their own accord. At this point I removed the hoop from the machine so that I could gently remove all of the pieces which had been cut out. If I had thought about it in advance, I would have done this over the garbage can. As it is, I ended up with a lot of tiny pieces of fabric and stabilizer all over the floor! Some pieces needed a little help to come out, but only a few threads here and there needed clipping.

Here all the pieces have been removed. Some of the edges are cleaner than others. The fact that silk frays a lot anyway probably didn’t help me. A nice crisp fabric would give the best results – I have read that using spray starch on the fabric gives it a great hand for the cutting. However, I was not about to start spraying starch onto the silk!

Here are the results after the satin finishing stitch around the edges of the cutwork. You may notice that the larger star in the center has changed color, and is now turquoise. This is now showing version 3! I neglected to use some water soluble stabilizer underneath the satin stitches on version 2 – and the result was not a pretty sight! The extra stabilizer is necessary to give the satin stitch a solid foundation for stitching on. Without it, one side of the satin stitch is tring to stitch into nothing and the results are definitely not pretty. The settings for the satin stitch need some work. In places the “running before” stitches are showing through. I’ll let you know what I come up with to solve this problem!

I’m not sure if curiosity or the need for some sanity lead me to stitch the design out again, this time without doing the actual cutting. I wanted to have something to compare against, to see how clean the cutwork is when it is finished. When I have found the correct settings for the final satin finishing stitch, I think the finished cutwork will be very clean indeed!

Go to http://sarahvedelerdesigns.com/hearts-quilt-pattern/ to download your free copy now!

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the new features in v6 of the Bernina Embroidery Software. Life got kind of crazy for a while there! Teaching a class on the new features today got me back into the swing of things, so here goes!

Outline Design is found as the 3rd button up from the bottom on the Digitize toolbar. It’s only active if you have an existing object selected!

Create a new design, or insert an existing design into a new embroidery file. I have chosen to use “Motif 1 Small” from my Heather Feather CD, rotated by 45 degrees clockwise, with the positioning square removed. I placed the design in a jumbo hoop so that there is plenty of space to play with around the design!

Ctrl+A to select all of the design. Outline Design is now active, so click on it.

Here are some examples showing the results of different settings:

On the left, Offset = 1mm, Outline Count = 2, Outline Type = Single
On the right, Offset = 2mm, Outline Count = 4, Outline Type = Single

On the left, Offset = 2mm, Outline Count = 8, Outline Type = Single
On the right, Offset = 5mm, Outline Count = 2, Outline Type = Satin

Some really fun things start to happen when you add an outer border and use the “Fill Holes” option!

A satin stitch border has been added, and then everything was selected before applying Outline Design with:

Offset = 4mm
Outline Count = 4
Outline Type = Single

Offset = -4mm
Outline Count = 4
Outline Type = Single

I think that the Bernina Embroidery Software is the only embroidery software that will allow you to use a negative offset for an outline design function!

Look what happens when you check Outline Holes!

Offset = 4mm
Outline Count = 4
Outline Holes
Outline Type = Single

To fill in the gaps, increase the Outline Count:

Offset = 4mm
Outline Count = 8
Outline Holes
Outline Type = Single

Below the outlines outside the border have been deleted.

In this example, I applied Outline Design twice to the original design. Make sure to group the whole design, including the border, to make it easy to select everything for the second application of Outline Design.

First application:
Offset = 4mm
Outline Count = 4
Outline Holes
Outline Type = Single

Second application:
Offset = 8mm
Outline Count = 2
Outline Holes
Outline Type = Satin

Some of the single stitch outlines from the first application are hidden underneath the satin stitch outlines from the second application. They could be removed if you really want to – each outline created is a separate object and so can be deleted if desired.

The fact that each outline created is a separate object can be put to good use when coloring – each outline can be selected independently and the color can be changed.

I hope that this has given you some ideas and enough insights to be able to go away and play. I would love to see what you create with the Outline Design tool!

To download the new thread chart for Aurifil Cotton Mako, please enter your name and email address here:

You will receive an email with a link to the download page for the file, along with instructions on where to put it.

Thanks to Alex Veronelli from Aurifil for helping to create this thread chart!

Samples of Embroidered Applique using Aurifil Cotton Mako

The last few weeks have been spent preparing for this major life event. I’ve never been on TV before, and despite watching shows from the previous series, I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into!

My brief – to demonstrate how to do embroidered applique. The best bit – I got to do it on one of the new Bernina 830 embroidery machines using the ever so large Jumbo hoop.

My plane landed at Cleveland Hopkins airport on time at about 20 minutes past 2pm. Down to the baggage claim to see my suitcase full of quilts sitting waiting for me. What a relief!

Since it hadn’t occurred to me until about 9pm on Sunday that I would need to find a way to get myself from the airport to the studio, and the shuttle was fully booked, I found myself taking a taxi – which turned out to be cheaper!

4pm found me arriving at the Beachwood Studio, met at the front door by Katherine Lamancusa, assistant to the producer and person to turn to if you needed just about anything. Then into the Green Room – which really is very green!

Close to the end of the day, everyone there had already done their thing, so the atmosphere was cheerful and relaxed. Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero was a familiar face, and also rushing out the door so not much time to do anything other than say “Hi! Bye!”. It did mean that she freed up a table, so I got to empty all my stuff out and start to get organized. That’s my green suitcase in the center of the pic, with my table in the back right hand corner.

Jeanne Delpit from Bernina USA was also a familiar face and voice, and had a friendly hug to welcome me. Getting busy turned out to be a really good thing, so after unpacking I turned my attention to preparing fabric for the project I was going to demo on TV.

I had decided to use the designs from my newest embroidered applique collection, the Hearts CD, stitched out on Silk Dupioni with Aurifil Cotton Mako 50 weight thread.

I hadn’t decided what colors I was going to use, but finally chose  turquoise silk for the background, pink silk for the heart, with lime green, turquoise, orange and magenta for the thread.

Everything was finally cut, stabilized and ready! Time to stitch out a complete heart so that it would be “finished” and waiting in the jumbo hoop, for the end of my demonstration.

Pokey Bolton, the host of Quilting Arts TV was finally done with her part of filming for the day, and was also busy in the Green Room, working on a project. And borrowing my rotary cutter!

Everything finally finished and ready, time to go to the hotel. Teri Harris Lucas was also there a day early, and she had a car, and she was staying in the same hotel! So off we went together, enjoying a quiet dinner together at PF Chang’s across the street from the hotel.

Tuesday morning at 8am saw me in makeup getting ready to go on TV! I was the first guest of the day, but Pokey had been hard at work already, taping all the intros and exits for the series. She wears a different outfit for each show, so it seemed like she was back in the Green room every few minutes for a change of clothes.

And then it was my turn!

First to get the Bernina 830 onto the set. Jeanne took the sewing machine, Katherine was in charge of the embroidery module. It really is a big machine – especially when you have to move it!

Have you ever noticed that the people who are usually behind the camera don’t like to have their photo taken? Ray was the camera guy filming to the right of the set – at least from my perspective of being on the set! Billy is the floor director, equally shy when it came to having his photo taken!

Jeanne set up the 830 while Katherine helped me to bring all of my “stuff” onto the set. Where to put everything was the big question of the moment! I’m very glad that I had way too much stuff to show off. A lot of it didn’t appear – but Kathie Stull, the producer, helped us to choose the things that would show off best.

I was surprised how dark the rest of the studio is, and also how quiet! I think there were two camera guys, Ray off to the right of the set, and another guy straight in front doing all the closeups – from above! Billy, the floor director, was off to the left with a monitor to show what was being filmed. I think there was someone lurking at the back of the room, but have no idea what they were doing. A sound guy appeared a couple of times – first to get me hooked up with a mic, and then after we started filming to adjust the sound so that I could be heard!

Pokey was wonderful – very cool, calm and collected! Always there with the perfect question to move the demo along. All in all, this was about the fastest 10 minutes I have ever experienced – apart from the eternity it took for the machine to stitch out the placement line for the heart. Was it enough to give people a good view of what I do? Time will tell! Given that I have a lot to say about how to do embroidered applique, I don’t think I’ve ever been so tongue-tied before. Maybe there will be a next time – in which case now I know what to do – and it wasn’t quite so scary after all!

Above are the results of applying the Morphing Effect to a 2″ diameter circle filled with the lacework fill (default settings) and outlined with satin stitch, stitch width = 0.06″. Below see the results for a square with the same fill and outline.

Top row: Pinch, Ripple, Skew Horizontal, Wave Horizontal.

Bottom row: Punch, Twirl, Skew Vertical, Wave Vertical.

There are definitely possibilities to be explored!

Quick and easy.