Category Archives: home dec

Thanksgiving Napkins

Burlap napkin ring with freestanding lace acorn from Embroidery Library’s Fall Favorites collection. I’m going to have to press that burlap runner into flat submission with heavy starch and my press!

Thanksgiving is such a joyful holiday.  Gathering with family and friends, counting our many blessings, retelling stories of earlier celebrations of plenty, remembering loved ones who joined us before, and enjoying delicious food.

It’s always a happy  time.  And it always reminds me of a scrap patchwork quilt, with diners coming from locations all over the map, ages from the elderly to the very young.  This year our table will seat guests from 86 to 18 years old, from Nebraska, Indiana, Florida and we hope from New Jersey.  Conversation will come from a pastor, school teacher, retired missionary, engineer, college student, and me, a babbling needleworker/passionate grandmother/blogger/gardener/etc.

This year we are looking forward to welcoming a crowd of out-of-town family for Thanksgiving week and to our harvest table.  They hail from Nebraska, Indiana, Florida, and perhaps (we do hope!) New Jersey!

So many preparations are being made for this big holiday.  New curtains for 7 windows in one guest room have been sewn as well as new pillowcases, and more home dec projects. A sewing room clean-up has even begun, but that is a years’ long process!

When Embroidery Library posted a photo of a napkin with a freestanding lace acorn resting on a dinner napkin, the image spoke to me.  It was just what I wanted for my Thanksgiving table.  The collection includes a turkey, chrysanthemum, and a maple leaf in addition to the acorn, another leaf and pumpkin which I chose. After my selection of these, 3 of each were made for my 9 napkins.

Burlap napkin ring with freestanding lace pumpkin from Embroidery Library’s Fall Favorites collection. That waffling burlap runner WILL be flat very soon, if it takes a full can of starch!

It is recommended that the same thread be used in the bobbin and needle.  It takes some time to wind matching bobbins, but the finished look is worth it.  DMC 50/2 cotton machine embroidery thread was used for a slightly lighter look. This generates a LOT of lint, so it required very frequent cleaning of my Brother Dream Machine. FYI, 2 ornaments fit in a 5×7 frame.

If you have never done freestanding lace before, Embroidery Library has an excellent free tutorial.  I embroidered on two layers of Brother water soluble stabilizer which worked perfectly. Excess was cut away and the stabilizer washed away easily and completely.

Burlap napkin ring with freestanding leaf pumpkin from Embroidery Library’s Fall Favorites collection. That waffling burlap runner WILL be flat very soon, if it takes a full can of starch!

After folding my napkins, I determined that a 1.5 x 11″ wrap of burlap sufficed.  With three strands of burlap, one vertical stitch was taken through the overlapped ends of the burlap with a tapestry needle.   It was then threaded through the ring at the top of each ornament and tied into a bow.

Looking back at one of my earlier Thanksgiving posts, I came across these images which I think you might enjoy.  Norman Rockwell’s traditional holiday feast reflects my personal preference for the mood and setting for this day of gratefulness.  The other shows a more contemporary observance.

Whichever suits you, I hope on November 25 you will have reasons to celebrate the many blessings we enjoy.

Traditional Thanksgiving

Contemporary Thanksgiving

Required disclosure:  I am a paid Ambassador for Brother USA.  Not required: I genuinely love my Brother sewing machines.

 

Autumn Burlap Pillow

Get a detailed tutorial for this pillow at http://blog.brothersews.com/home-decor/harvest-time-pillow

This fall pillow gives you all the colors of autumn, even if you live in Florida, as I do. The fabric selection for this season is just remarkable! A trip down the aisles of my favorite sewing store reminds me of our drives down the Blue Ridge Parkway in October. I can almost smell piles of leaves burning.

You can make this pillow in a very short time. Working with burlap is a drastic change in gears from heirloom and the burlap rose was fun. Every burlap flower I researched online required hot glue and I did not want that. So this is my version of a no-glue posy. Detailed instructions are in the post at Brother’s Stitching Sewcial blog.

This sturdy pillow can bring fall colors to the outdoors as shown above or it can enrich the colors in your home. By changing the print fabric on the sash, you could make this a Halloween pillow. Then swap the sash to fall fabric after Oct. 31.

It reminds me of Halloweens past with my children’s and grandchildren’s goofy costumes, of huge Thanksgiving dinners with family and friends, of fall festivals at church, of tailgating Gator football games, and fall festivals. So many memories of this season…..

Required disclosure: I am a paid Brother Ambassador/sewing expert. Not required: I love my Brother Dream Machine 2!

Check out the tutorial here and leave a comment if you like it. I would really appreciate it.

http://blog.brothersews.com/home-decor/harvest-time-pillow/

Give Thanks Decor

This is a fun and relatively quick project that will be a special reminder of the season of Thanksgiving. A complete step by step tutorial is posted at http://blog.brothersews.com/holiday/give-thanks-tutorial/

Children could be involved in this project and will be delighted to help with pulling burlap threads and stuffing the jars with the fairy lights.

It will be easy for you but I had to struggle with various steps while making this. Double sided tape has always been a staple of my sewing supplies, but now it is my new favorite.

Did you know it is described as permanent? That’s good news for Give Thanks as it beautifies your mantle, piano, bookcase or anywhere.

We always celebrate fall in a big way, but Thanksgiving is the crowning glory of the harvest season. So hop over to Stitching Sewcial and see just how this comes together. If you like it, I would really appreciate it if you would leave a comment there.

FYI, there are so many fabulous ideas and tutorials posted at Stitching Sewcial. You needn’t have a Brother machine to enjoy and reproduce many of the projects. Take a look!

Required disclosure: I am a paid and proud ambassador for Brother sewing machines. I LOVE them.

Halloween Projects~Quick and Easy

NOTE: This is reposted from several years ago, but still has some good ideas for quick and easy Halloween projects. I hope you find something you like.

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Halloween has never been a favorite holiday of mine but our grandchildren get absolutely giddy with the fun it brings. This year, I’ve joined in the celebration with sewing projects.

This candy jar was so quick and easy. Our grandchildren are all big Disney fans so the iBroidery.com design with Mickey and the pumpkin seemed perfect. It was embroidered on orange felt then glued to a fringed circle of black burlap.  The embroidery was glued to a strip of fringed black burlap  then adhered to the jar with double sided tape (one of my all-time favorite sewing notions).

candy jar alone

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Live, Love Life

This pillow was made for our precious granddaughter, Laurel.

enjoying our visit to a New Jersey tea room

She just turned 14 and I couldn’t resist offering some grandmotherly advice to mark the occasion.  Putting that advice where she could read it every day seemed like a better idea than delivering a “Things to Remember” lecture. Continue reading

Elegant Table Linens and Precious Memories

This project and a detailed tutorial are posted here at Brother’s blog, Stitching Sewcial.

I loved embroidering this elegant set of table linens for Brother’s blog, Stitching Sewcial.  Aside from the sewing details in the tutorial posted  there,  many “back stories” go with it that I just have to share with you.

First, I have loved these designs since I first saw them on my Dream Machine.

Like the design used on the quilted bed footwarmer, I was so eager to find the perfect project for them.  Then….I did! Continue reading

Quilted Bed Foot Warmer and Free Design

No one likes cold feet–not at a wedding nor in bed.

There are many ways to keep your toes warm, like this. Who wouldn’t love that? But you need a lot of puppies.

Or you could do this:

There are risks with this method. Mildred “Mimi” Turner almost burned down our hotel (and her feet) when we were teaching in Australia’s cold Blue Mountains.

This quilted foot warmer is risk free, readily available, pretty, and fun to make. It is also my latest project for Brother’s blog, Stitching Sewcial, for which I am a paid sewing specialist (this is a required disclosure). The blog post includes a FREE download link for the quilting design used for the spaghetti bias Celtic knot in the center of each square. But more about the special use of that later.

The design measures 7.76 x 7.87″.

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Kiss the Cook Dishtowel for Basic Machines

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and many readers have already mentioned that they are working of projects for the day that honors love.

Many, of course, are stitching special outfits for their children or grands. One dear grandmother is making 35 gifts for her grandchildren’s classmates, some pencil toppers and the others toothbrush wraps. I’ve never heard of toothbrush wraps and think it’s something I need to find out about. Do you know anything about them?

Others are creating gifts for family and friends. Since not everyone has an embroidery machine, I’m going to be adding blog projects, like this dishtowel, which require only a basic machine. Continue reading

Thanksgiving Table Runner

Yes, I know Thanksgiving is over but life has been hectic around here. I’m waaaaay behind! But this could easily be made as a Christmas runner. Keep that in mind.

This table runner was made for Brother’s blog, Stitching Sewcial.  It included two of my favorite sewing techniques, hemstitching and machine embroidery. A detailed photo tutorial is posted here http://blog.brothersews.com/home-decor/thanksgiving-table-runner/

The hem of the pale sage linen was mitred and then hemstitched. I just love hemstitching. It gives such an elegant finish to just about anything. My Brother Dream Machine (and all of my earlier Brother machines) executes this technique flawlessly. This linen was fairly heavy so I used a large wing needle.

The embroidery design from ibroidery.com is so nice for the end of a runner. Only the colors gave it an autumn look and it stitches out perfectly. With other color and different seasonal text it could used again and again.

The opposite end read Thankful.

The companion embroidery was mirrored along the outer edges of the center, leaving room for a center piece.

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Christmas Quilt–Disney Stippled

Surely you know that Christmas is just around the corner. In anticipation of the holiday and all the joy that goes with it, this quilt was made. Quilting, machine embroidery, and stippling combined to make a quilt with which I was almost entirely pleased. I regretted running out of time before I quilted the green gingham squares along the edges and they waffled.

As a “Brother paid expert consultant”, my assignment was to use the new Disney Mickey and Friends Christmas designs in a Dream Machine project. As you can see, I chose to make a quilt.

Detailed and photo illustrated instructions are posted here at Stitching Sewcial.

Six of the new Disney designs were chosen, each of which would fit in the 4×4 frame. For the other blocks mini designs were chosen so as not to compete with the new Mickey and Friends Christmas embroideries.

This is the center block, stippled and in place.

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