I always learn so much when stitching out designs. Digitizing the idea is one portion but I also find there is so much learning when doing the stitch out. It helps me identify areas to watch for when digitizing. When I stitched out hooping one, I realized that the spiral was not the correct size nor did it have alternating rows. This taught me to be careful and watch to ensure using the same master design. Watching the decorative stitches also helped me really see the underlay and coverage for my appliqué. I still need to practice (and review the lesson) for ‘points’ on appliqué’ stitching. This gets tricky for me in ‘true view’ – sometimes I am not sure how to adjust. I also want to understand how to prevent my block outlines from stitching, while also allowing my quilting motif to be stitched. While my design is not perfect – I love the learning
I learned a lot this month about digitizing and also me as a digitizer. I realized at the very beginning of this month, as a digitizer, I needed to complete my design in Corel and have the outlines/placement lines fully created in Hatch. I needed this to think about and determine the type of cover stitches I will be designing in Hatch and ultimately need to quilt around.
The first thing I did, at Sarah’s recommendation in this month’s class, was rethink my quilting design. It is simplistic but I like how the spirals add to my design. I also realized that it is best to export SVG files from my digitized Hatch placements, rather than Corel Draw because of edits made to improve the design in Hatch. With our stitch sampler and lesson, I now understand how to adjust the cover stitches so each applique is well attached to the backround. I had not thought about adding batting to my applique in the past. I love this affect and tested it with my butterflies in our second sampler this month. I am not sure if I remember correctly how digitized holes work. In my samplers I have stitched outlines for the shapes but not embroidered objects.
In sampler 2 – (my table runner design) – I have tested the different stitch technqiues on the different types of ‘shapes’ in my complete design. I learned an important lesson with this sampler – make sure if you adjust placement on the design that all the placement lines are moved WITH the decorative stitches. If you look at my padded butterly wings you can see my error/learning!
For my full table runner design, only the placement lines are currently digitized in Hatch. I have printed out and taped together my Hatch design. All of the SVG files were exported out of Hatch and were all cut on my scanncut. You can see them laid out on the printed design layout from Hatch. I am ready to start digitizing my full design in Hatch. I am interested to see how we will break the design in Hatch. Reflecting back I would give this month a ‘3’ it was challenging but not overwhelming.
Taking Sarah Vedeler’s 2023 Digitizing Plus course. Have stayed very buzy working on our project: creation of a table runner 60 inches wide by 16 inches tall. In January, we worked on the idea of a large wave created using shapes rather than a solid boundary. I envisioned mine as large leafs.
Month 01: I had a lot of fun playing with shapes, exploring new tools, and brainstorming several ideas. This challenge kept me busy playing around with and remembering the functionalities in Corel. For my design, I saw the wave design as large leaves. I decided to create additional applique for my design, adding a lotus blossom, dragonflies, and butterflies.
I tested several potential ‘fills’ for my wave design both on and off the computer. I used Go dies by Sarah Vedeler to cut sample pieces. I utilized 55414 Heather Feather Border and 55088 Heather Feather #2. I also explored the idea of creating Mosaic tiles. This lead me to remember how to create and place shapes along a path.
I also discovered a new tool – CorelDraw -Pointilizer. This tool provides the ability to apply circles, squares, or custom shapes as a fill. This caused me to remember to use an ‘outline’ to place objects on a path. To create the mosaic design, I needed a ‘shape’ that I could fill with my mosaic design. I went through several different design ideas for my waves before arriving at my final iteration. I added my texture quilting using designs I created for class last year. I am excited to see how this will work when we move to digitizing in Month 2.
For month 02, we were challenged to rethink our quilting, create our cutting files, create our digitized outline in Hatch, and create stitching samplers for applique. Below is the change I made for my quilting around the design.
It took some time to digitize my placement lines, the foundation for applique’ embroidery in Hatch. The best results, when importing to Hatch, were exporting only the objects from Corel (no outlines and no quilting) When imported into Hatch, I used the following steps:
Autodigitize – Insert Artwork
Artwork – Prepare artwork for embroidery-OK
Autodigitize – Click to outline – move cursor over the image bitmap there are two options:
If hover over a single shape, will mesh the object, and place an outline around single object
If hover over the background, will mesh all background, and create outlines around all of the shapes.
When you have made your choice, left click and you will see the outline in the sequence bar. Make sure you have selected – outline-singlerun-2.5mm in object properties.
Next, I hid my imported bitmap, and worked on finalizing and fine tuning the outline.
Select – outline in sequence window
Edit – break apart (this will create the separate objects) You can now move, reshape, etc. for each object.
Edit – select/select some/select all – use smooth objects (This feature really cleaned up my feathers. I used it to smooth all of them upto about .9mm)
Next, when happy with the placement/outline results, I exported as an SVG for the entire design.
I printed and taped together my Hatch placement lines.
I imported the SVG into a new Corel file.
Then I created my SVG files for cutting on my ScanNCut.
I placed my cut pieces on my Hatch placement line printout.
I used my standard mat and rotary blade on the scanncut. The fabric was prepared with Best Press and Heat’n Bond Light.
I finished up my contributions to the community project by creating ‘dream catcher stockings’ for 700 foster children. For me Christmas is about ‘giving’. It means everything to me that these stockings will go to children and young adults who often do not have anything to call their own. In the end I sent 3 big stockings that I designed, digitized, and stitched out for the oldest children graduating out of foster care and into transitional adult housing. For the younger children I made 12 small stockings and 10 large stockings.
I was able to ship my Big Christmas stockings and documented instructions to Meaning of Life Designs last Friday. Now I am onto the second community project: as a collective group our goal is to make 700 Christmas stockings for foster children. I am making 14 of the smaller stockings. I prepped and cut all the materials yesterday (Sunday). The plan today is to embroider all of the stocking fronts. The last step will be creating the backing and putting the whole stocking together. These are due by December 1 so should have plenty of time.
Big Stocking ProjectPrepared materials small stockings
Yesterday was all about prepping to begin sewing and embroidering. Cleaned up digitizing, prepped all the materials, and got my files on the ScanNCut and Luminaire. The backs and fronts, to be quilted, are prepared along with the batting. The stabilizer is cut so that I can stitch out all the placement lines this morning. The 3 lining fabrics have been cut, pinned, and are also ready to sew today. I plan to quilt all three backs first, then embroider the fronts. I chose to keep my front designs separate files to allow for flexibility on future projects.
Currently designing 3 large stockings – 18” wide by 24” long. The fronts have nameplates where the stockings can have a customized name added. The front and backs have batting and the back is also quilted. I have also created 3 different designs to embroider on the stocking fronts.
Had fun designing and creating the signs with my Scan ‘n Cut DX. I used VViViD Blue Low-Tack Adhesive Vinyl Stencil Masking Film Roll (12in x 30ft) that I purchased from Amazon. I found using the lever set to ‘1’, 1/2 cut turned on, pressure of 2, and speed of 3 gave me the best consistent cutting.
meditativesewing.com 