Sadia’s Blog

It depends which software you are using…if you are using Embird Digitizing Studio then it is called “Sfumato”. If you are using any other software, then it is called Photostitch. Both are the same which squiggly lines that make up the design. I believe the name Photostitch came from the idea of transferring photos into embroidery. A great idea!

I’ve never been very fond of photostitch or sfumato. Both techniques are excellent just that I am not fond of letting a software take over to create the design. With that in mind, I have been experimenting to create a photostitch look type techniques. My Studio lesson group has been extremely patient with me and I really don’t want to keep them guessing and waiting any longer. So finally I think I have created a new technique for them to learn and work with. And what an easy method it is indeed. One can take pictures of family members, pets, vintage photographs, etc and create embroidery designs with them. I must give credit to one of my favourite places on the net for vintage postcards: http://www.lacetoleather.com/VictorianGraphics.html  These are excellent for anyone who wants to digitize something vintage yet not feel that any toes will be stepped upon. The lady with the hat was my first experiment. I did do an extensive lesson on Sfumato some years ago and although it is an excellent way to create embroidery using photos yet I was not satisfied with the auto selection of stitches. Besides I want embroidery to be quick and without a lot of stitches.

Literally all digitizing softwares now offer the pentool type effect. This is where one can digitize without the clicking of placing the stitches. The stitches happen fast and one must keep a certain pace to allow the fluidity of the stitches to occur…otherwise you end up with a gob full of stitches in one area. The pencil etching type design on the side is what I came up with using the pentools in Embird 2006 to create a Sfumato or Photostitch type design. The number of stitches is phenomally low and it is a 5×7 hoop design with absolutely no jumps at all. Great for decorating T-shirts for the summer! The time it took me to create the design….about 10 minutes. WOW! Okay, I’m kidding. It did take ten minutes to draw it out but to get all the jumps out and then to enhance by duplicating stitches and adding took another ten to fifteen minutes. So basically about half an hour and then to stitch out…well, the design has 3,500 stitches which means about ten minutes of stitch time.

There really is not a lot in the technique except one has to watch the light and dark areas of the photograph. Eyes and mouth are another important area to watch. Too much lingering with the mouse in those areas can cause needle breaks due to too many stitches. As the pentools option allows the mouse to move without using the right/left mouse clicks the stitches are automatically placed.  The lady with the hat sketch is one of my favourites. I love the taupe look of the photograph and the fact that the eyes are so much to the side that one must be extremely careful to not give the effect of the pupils missing. The feathered collar is another area to watch. Lots of dark areas there with light in the center. Notice in the stitchout how the eyes are so very very light. The Napolean type hat with its dark and light areas was another place to watch.

I’m just about finished with the lesson and the technique. And YES….did I say I’m in total control while digitizing….LOL.

Whew! Its finally done and the machines are stitching out the final samples as I write. This would be almost nine months that I have spent working on a collection…YIKES! Well, not completely nine months as I would work a bit now and then. Nevertheless, it has taken a long long time and am I sick of seeing the various greens…you bet. LOL. I had no idea that Mother Nature has so many shades of green.

The screen shot does not do the designs justice and as soon as all the nine panels are complete I will post pictures. What I see stitching out so far is eye catching indeed!

I think the longest time was spent in working on the Weeping Willow branches. I had no idea when I placed the tree there that what a task it would become! The only panel that still bothers me…you guessed it. The bird in the middle panel just does not get me and I may yet change some of it especially the bird. I can’t have a bird by itself, it has to have friends…. I’ll know more when I put all the panels together.

At least for now it is done! YAY! And I can now think about finishing the Southern Charm II designs. I had thought about eliminating them altogether but with so many writing me to create more of the southern state flowers I think I might go ahead and finish it. Ofcourse it might be a while before they are done….so the two collections will be released separately. The original designs had pussy willows, azaleas, rhododendrons, and forsythias which I might add to. The designs that were originally for the AEC are now obsolete as they were created specially for the Conference and therefore will not be sold. I will however do major changes to add some aspects in the collection.

A few days ago I received some gorgeous pictures from a dear friend Jeannie Miller. I have known Jeannie for quite some years and am in awe of her innovative ideas and projects. The quilt top is absolutely breath taking, don’t you think! Recreating red and white or blue and white quilts is back in fashion and I certainly will borrow Jeannie’s ideas in creating a red and white quilt for myself. The designs are from Victorian Quilts I. Using two designs she created two different blocks and what an amazing look!

And if that is not all, she sent me a picture of her version of a duffle bag using the “Grommet designs” created for Creative Needle Craft and designs from Tambour Lace trims and Vintage Linen I designs.

 Thank you Jeannie for sharing such lovely projects. If you live near Port St. Lucie, do visit the Keepsake Quilte Shoppe and take a hands on class with Jeannie.

I have to admit my life has become hectic yet at times I do have a look at various bills and legislature debates etc pertaining to IP laws. One of the most interesting bills: H. R. 4279 -PRO IP Act of 2007 has drawn considerable interest. The bill would create some extremely enormous penalties for copyright infringements. So basically, commit an IP crime and you may find yourself in more than a few hundred thousand in the hole…something to the effect of double the amount what is stated so far with even longer prison time. The Cybercrime website http://www.cybercrime.gov/ has more information on reporting IP infringements as well as several more cases brought to justice.

Friends, I’ve been a staunch promoter for anyone and everyone who respects others’ property, therefore to me this bill, although a bit severe, has a feeling of “YAY”. The hours, months, years some one spends creating has to be given some respect and if it cannot be respected but shared without concern or feeling…well, I guess those who infringed had it coming. The going was good while it lasted folks….but its time to pay the piper!

Any quest requires an enormous amount of concentration and imagination…such was the case in creating the “Needle Lace I” files. I have to admit that even I am surprised at the delicate feel and workmanship that has finally taken shape. They do have a definite hand created look which was my ultimate goal along with low stitch count.

The handkerchief on the top side is one I created for a friend using voile as the material. The Needle Lace designs are created in such a manner that they can be stitched out on water soluble stabilizers by themselves or attached to the fabric in the hoop using a buttonhole stitch. The freestanding laces however can also be attached to fabric by themselves using a fine 2.5mm zigzag stitch. I did find that as the laces are so delicate they tend to curl up especially when there is some wss left in them. The best results that I found were when all the wss was washed out of them, repeated soaking and changing of the water is essential. The monograms are from the Vintage Monogram I collection (the smallest size) which really set off this vintage looking handkerchief. Ofcourse, I can see the raised brows…who used  handkerchiefs nowadays…..LOL. Well, they are excellent for gifts, whether it be a birthday, wedding, birth etc. I can remember well the number of vintage handkerchiefs that I had to pay huge amounts for just so I could make a quilt out of them. Well, there’s another idea!

While on handkerchiefs, I decided to create another using a template of a vintage one that I have in my various antique stashes. It did take some planning but in the end the handkerchief is extremely delicate (I again used voile) more so than the one above. Btw, voile is a superb fabric….I simply love it. Not only does it hold its shape well but as it does have a bit of poly mix to it, the shrinkage is not so much as regular cotton. It is also a great fabric for summer weight blouses, baby heirloom items etc. I purchase mine from http://www.dharmatrading.com and the price is quite good.

As the laces are so delicate, I had to remind myself to trim off the long tie off threads before washing out the wss. That is just about the only item that I have not as yet figured out how to master. I hate jumps therefore do not have them in my designs but how does one go about eliminating long tie off threads? Well….I could have shorter tie off threads (most home embroidery machines will have an adjustment for this) but then they are even more difficult to trim…oh well.

Another item I discovered was that with the delicate laces, it is imperative that one blocks just like hand crochet items or hand created laces. I did this until one of my testers pointed out that a good steam will do the same trick as long as all the wss is washed out of them. Well, after trying it out once, I realised that was more easier than setting up areas to block or shape the laces.

To try out something fun I decided to create home made linen towels. For any linen I normally scour AllAboutBlanks website but the inspiration had hit me so strong that I couldn’t wait. The fun thing about these laces is that since they are one color, any decor can be enhanced by them. The apartment that I rent during the week (yes I live away from home during the week and return home on the weekends) has a lovely master bath with toile wall paper in black. The laces along with the Marrakesh designs were perfect for the towels!

My table topper and jacket and blouse that I started about two weeks ago using the laces are still in the works but hopefully I will have them finished sometime this week. In the meantime, I plan on releasing the designs definitely witin a day or so…if not sooner…with a huge sigh of satisfaction of yet once again mastering something that I had long wished for.

I certainly would like it to be! Seems like I have seen winter for the last six months and still Father Winter seems to not want to leave. Today was the first day in months that I got my hands dirty and I mean really “dirt” dirty. The excessive rains have really helped the ground and things seem to be sprouting up everywhere. I was pleased to see so many of my plants peeking out. The tulips have finally bloomed after three years! I thought they had all been devoured by voles and moles…oh well!Sitting down this evening I happened upon an interesting blog…This garden is illegal“! Not only is the blogsite quite interesting and lots of great information for part time gardeners like me. Another interesting item was a quiz to see what kind of a flower one is….well, I went for it. Well, I’m a “Snapdragon”!

Not only is the blogsite quite interesting and lots of great information for part time gardeners like me. Another interesting item was a quiz to see what kind of a flower one is….well, I went for it. I’m a “Snapdragon”! 

“Needle Lace” is perhaps the oldest form of lace where literally only a needle and thread were used to create stitches that would imitate lace. These laces were extremely fine and took an awful amount of time to create. History shows us examples where these types of laces originated somewhere in the region of Turkey and later were adapted to using thicker threads, cords etc to create laces. Italian “Punto in Aria” laces were another form of needle laces. “Punto in Aria” literally means stitches in air which meant that fabric or any other medium was not used to create the lace rather threads were intertwined with needles in such a manner to create laces.

My journey with machine embroidery has been to recreate the vintage laces and embroideries. A year ago I ventured into testing out a new type of stitch which is completely manually punched to create “Needle Lace”.  Not only did I vie for extremely low stitch counts but also stability as well regardless of the type of thread used. The final result as you can see is a lace that is so extremely fine that it can be pulled through a ring! Not only is the stitch count very low but also the stitch time is extremely fast as well. A piece such as the runner on the side would take several months to create….however, on a home embroidery machine would take only two hours!

The designs I created for the first Needle Lace collection are all the basic square. My imagination had created various shapes and edges but I had to stop as the collection was getting away from me. Not only that I wanted the ability to add onto the collection as imagination would hit me. The collection is almost finished with the finer points now being applied and I hope to release it very soon now.

Want a sneak preview! I cannot ever imagine working on something for this long a time frame and so hard, not to mention the number of changes ….but that is what art is all about. One simply cannot say that the finished product will always be the same idea as what one started with.

I am however, extremely pleased, more so because there are so many elements and I had been very afraid of the stitchcount and the density. Time after time of stitching out myself various panels and also from my testers has only shown that the stitchouts are smooth and continuous without any problems.

Digitizing something this huge is indeed a lesson and ordeal in itself. I thought I had learned a lot last time when I first created the Secret Garden but I was surprised when I learned quite a lot more this time…well, one is always learning. As I used Embird Digitizing Studio for all my digitizing, I forced myself to use the outline pen tool for literally the whole design. That was not an easy task as each line had to be placed precisely. My biggest problem arose when I started work with the iron works…that had to use the column tool. The same with the leaves of the Weeping willow. Each leaf had to be precise so it looked natural and also gave a shading effect of light and dark. My neighbour who is a wonderful artist gave me guidance at many many times. I am still not pleased with the bird and may do something there yet….

For friends who do use Embird Digitizing Studio, try out the pentools option and use the outline tool to create stitches. What I love about the tool is its complete freedom in allowing me the shading effect without having to use so many threads. Do practice…you will love it.

The last and first panel is almost completed. As that shows the weeping willow, I have spent about two months on it alone so far. My trusted and ever so wonderful testers have been extremely kind to me and never have they complained when I change the look and ask for a repeat testing…thank you so much.

The Secret Garden II will hopefully be released sometime in May now, early I hope….fingers crossed. Where does the time go???

Somewhile back I had recieved pictures of a gorgeous shawl made by a dear friend. The way she used the designs was unbelievable and I had to share.

Posted: April 21st, 2008 under Main.
Comments: 1