A love like GNOME other....

 

....February is Machine Embroidery month--along with cold and snow here in Iowa--great time to try something new!!!

As an AccuQuilt GoGetter, I have the opportunity to try new things and encourage you to try them too!! Just ask my sewing friends--encouraging others to go outside their boundries and try new things is what I do--LOL!!! Even though I have worked with numerous AccuQuilt applique dies, I had never used machine embroidery with them. There are free downloadable files on the website for most dies, PLUS there are for purchase ones using the dies with a little extra pizzaz added to them. I chose one of the for purchase designs to work with for this project. Embroidery designs are 15% off for the month of February. Check them out HERE.

Here are some tips I learned from doing this project:

Terri's Tip #1--ALWAYS do a test sew. I thought I had my fabric and thread choices down pretty good--but wow did they not show up good on the fabric I was going to use!! The fabric is a cotton jersey. I used a jersey needle.

Terri's Tip #2--back the light colored fabrics with a fusible interfacing of some sort to prevent the show through of other colors.

Terri's Tip #3--try cutting different mediums with the applique dies. This is a Kimberbell glitter. Heat Transfer Vinyl or HTV is another term for it. It cuts super easy. Has a fusible back and a shiny protective film over the glitter. Just pay attention when cutting if shape is directional. And remember to take the shiny film off before embroidering.

Terri's Tip #4--I did not put fusible web on the back of my applique shapes--GASP--I know right?!? The embroidery design suggested using a glue stick to apply a bit of glue to shape backs--so I tried it--and it worked!!! I wanted the finished design to stay soft.

Isn't he just such a happy little gnome?!?!? The embroidery design was made by V-Stitch using the GO! Gnome and GO! Cookie Decoration dies.

After doing the embroidery, I finished cutting out the front pattern piece. 

Added some lettering cut with the Silhoutte Cameo. SVG file for just the lettering can be found HERE.  The tshirt pattern is a free raglan found HERE. Don't those fabrics from Island Batik just make the design sing--love the swirling dots in the beard--it's called Almond. Ask for them in your local quilt shop!!

Ta-Dah!!! The finished project!!!! Love all the details about it!! I might just be wearing it every day this month!! Don't forget to check out the machine embroidery designs HERE --where you can find the adorable gnome!!

" If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13

Cast Iron....new pattern from Lizard Creek Quilting

...with a pattern name like Cast Iron, I just had to find the perfect backdrop for it!! And our little town had just the spot!!

There is a great little pasture on the edge of town where these horses graze. The golden hour in photography was approaching. So I coaxed my dear husband to get in the Ranger and off we went into town.

He braved all the mosquitos that come out at sunset and crawled down the steep roadside ditch to hold the quilt for me!! How supportive is that?!?

Cast Iron finishes at 64" x 80", so it is a great size lap quilt. While it looks super complicated, it is actually strip pieced into 8" blocks. Color placement is key to creating the zig zag effect. Pattern includes a detailed color combination chart along with a coloring page to come up with your own color placement!! Both print and PDF download patterns are available on my website Lizard Creek Quilting. Use the code CASTIRON in my shop for 30% off the PDF download until 2/7/2020.

Fabrics are from the Mesa Verda by Kathy Engle line for Island Batik. Look for it in your quilt shops soon!!

"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."
--Mother Teresa

"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." Proverbs 27 : 17

Window Box Blooms....new pattern

This quilt was so much fun to design and make!!! And what a perfect day to introduce it!! There is snow on the ground here in Iowa today!! But the flowers where blooming so beautifully this spring when I made the quilt!!

The fabrics are from the Foundations line of Island Batik. This means quilt shops can order them anytime and they are readily available. 

Can't get enough of these blooms!!! The pattern includes full size templates for the curved pieces. Or use AccuQuilt GO! Flowering Snowball die #55252.  Use my affliliate AccuQuilt link in sidebar to order your die!! Don't let the curves scare you! These are very gentle curves and great first time curve sewing project!!

The pattern is available in my shop as a printed or instant PDF download. Use the code BLOOMS for 40% off the instant PDF download pattern. Code good until 11-18-2019.

"A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love." --Max Muller

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another!!"  1John 4:11