Summer is here!

Yes, summer is here and it is hard to find time to sew.  My life has been super chaotic but I had to take time to prepare a few samples for the "Home Sweet Home" event at the Bernina Sewing Center in Tampa, FL.

As part of my presentation, I created a barbecue apron and chef's hat.  The design for the barbecue apron came from Bernina's Inspiration Magazine #64. 

Here is the link for the BBQ signs file and a picture of the apron from the magazine.  If you would like a free pattern to make your own barbecue apron, you can find a link here.

The file for the chef's hat came from the Bernina International site.  You can find the link here for the DRAW file.  If you would like to make your own chef's hat, you can find a free pattern from You Can Make This here.

Next up are the towels that I designed to accompany this ensemble.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Daily Art Hub posted this free design on New Year's Eve.  I made sure to find some free time to design a Paintworks project to share with the Facebook Divas.

I thought I would share it with everyone after all the design is timeless!

It was very quick and easy but the hard part was trying to find a project but maybe Nancy W, our DW Paintworks queen can think of an idea!

You can find the DRAW file here.

You can find the EXP file here.

Speaking of Nancy W here is a Christmas project she made for her husband's co-workers.

 Here they are packed full of goodies!

Here is the T-shirt I made using the Dream Princess collection.

All of the Bernina DesignWorks collections are like "take-out" food.  Ready to go!  Just send the files to your USB stick and the machine will read them.  You DO NOT have to own the software to use them! 

May the new year brings you lots of good health and happiness AND stitchin' time!

Let's Celebrate this festive season!

This past weekend, my niece was visiting and I was inspired to bake Christmas cookies!  Now I must tell you this is H-U-G-E!  I haven't made cookies in years..

Why?
#1 - the big guy and I do not need them! (just ask our doctor!)
#2 - who eats them but us? ( no kids at home OR grandkids!)
#3 - I would rather be sewing than baking!

So to help celebrate this festive occasion, I am sharing this week how I made this 'no bake' gingerbread man.  Here is the finished guy on this very cute apron with fabric from my stash!

The pattern is the Lady Godiva apron from Abbey Lane and it was very easy to make!

                                           

Here is the gingerbread file that I used. 

After 'working through the wizard', select Create new and Cotton 2 for your fabric.

Here is the gingerbread man design. Download the file and save it to a folder on your desktop labeled "Gingerbread Man".

From file, Locate the gingerbread gif file and select your largest hoop.  This guy is pretty big at 6" x 8" approximately!

Select Trace and only 2 colors (black and white).

Change your paint palette to the Eddings markers.

Here is the DRAW file for the Gingerbread man.  If you want to skip the above steps, then just load this design into the program as a "New Graphic" and continue with the directions below.

Now start "coloring" your design!  Select the color chip and add a fill and an outline to each section of the design. You will notice some white colors 'sitting on top' which is why the design won't fill in.  Just drag off the white and delete it. Then continuing coloring your design.   I selected gray for the "rick-rack' color.

Here he is- all colored in!  If you would like the PAINT file, you can find it here.

 This would be a quick and easy project for a gift bag or a kitchen towel.  I found a cute idea with the arm cut off and the saying added! (How I did this, is another entire lesson!)

Come back tomorrow for the "how-to" in turning this guy into a cutwork file!

Welcome to Tidbit Tuesday!

Just a little tidbit - not too big of a morsel to digest! That is what today's lesson is all about!

This week I am featuring designs from the Colorful Snowflakes from www.dailyarthub.com

After you download the file, select the first snowflake from the PNG folder and load it into the software.( hmm - where did I put that folder?...)

Oh - there it is!.... Select your largest hoop using the #93 foot.

Next - select the TRACE function.

Then trace the design....

Look - there are only two colors!  This will be easy!

The background of this design is white and so I will drag it over and then delete the white background.  How to do this?  Just click on the upper right hand corner of the white box and drag it to the right with your mouse.

Hit the delete button on your keyboard.

Oh no! The inside of this snowflake has a white fill and if I delete it, it will be a solid designs.

The Trim tool is the 3rd icon from the right on the toolbar above. Think of it as a pair of scissors and you are going to snip out those little sections from the inside of your snowflake.

So hold down the shift key and select each of the sections AND then the entire design.  Select the trim function and it cuts out the design. Delete the little white triangles.

And like magic, I have a clean painted design!   Save your design as Snowflake1_PAINT.DRAW

The last step was to hide the PNG snowflake file ...>View>Backdrop>Hide

Save your design as Snowflake_PaintBorder.DRAW and send it to your USB stick.

After I loaded this into my machine, I selected Endless Embroidery and added one more design.  I must admit it was quite large.  You may want to reduce it to create a border for a holiday towel design.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson today.  It was a chilly 52 degrees this morning here in Tampa, Fl.  Why not leave me a comment with the temperature and your location?  

Welcome to A+ Monday!

After a number of conflicts, I am going to cross my fingers and hope this works! So welcome!

Several of the divas have been busy over the past holiday season, so there are only a few photos to share.

I am bestowing the title of "Queen of Paintworks" to Nancy Wilson.  She has painted more projects in one year than any of us have painted in 3 years!

Here are a few of her recent designs.

Here are two pre-made table runners that she made for a baby shower.  She used an assorted number of fonts.  

All fonts are from one of our favorite sites for fonts www.dafont.com.

The script on the table runner on the left is "Contribute" and can be found here.

The girls are "Girl Character"  and the link can be found here.

The baby designs are from "Baby's World" and the link can be found here.

Here is a gift bag she made for her Bernina dealer.

For the sewing gift bag, she used the font "Tailoring" from www.dafont.com. You can find the link here.  Isn't this a perfect font for us sewing divas?

Here is a bag in which she played around with a number of different fonts.

Did I tell you that she has her OWN folder on my desktop with all of her paintworks designs?!

Here is my design from the recent Bernina webinar. The dove is a free file from OESD from the webinar.  You can find the link to the webinar and handout here. 

I used  $1.00 font Cimochi from www.the Hungry jpeg here. They also have several free fonts and designs here

Here is my finished pillow.

Alberta C shared her table runner pics from her most recent DesignWorks Decoded class.  Mine is not quite finished!

This week I will be featuring a file from www.dailyarthub.com called Colorful Snowflakes here.  They offered it for free on Sunday and it is a perfect collection to practice your Paintwork skills!

I did join their Art Hub Club on Black Friday as I thought $35 was a reasonable amount to pay for a subscription.  However I am in no way affiliated with any of the links I post here!  One of the reasons that  love this site is their designs are 'commercial' free as long as I post a link back to their site.

So please come back tomorrow for "Tidbit Tuesday" and I will show a quick technique using the first snowflake.