Art Journal: Voyage
Tue, August 17, 2010 at 06:00AM "Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem
with yourself in the center
and everything coming out equal.
When you’re good, bad things can still happen.
And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky."
~Barbara Kingsolver
a little spot for hidden journaling, under fabric folds (closed view below)
9x12" watercolor paper, fabric, paper, thread
A little bit of everything, including a photograph of bicycles in Munich from our trip last summer, fabric from the kids clothing when they were little(r), an ATC, cardstock, an acrylic leaf print. Plus there's a lift up spot of white cotton for hidden journaling (thoughts on hidden journaling here).
I want to figure out how to "freestyle" stitch - I can see that you can't have the standard foot down, or the feed dog or whatever it's called because then the fabric feeds a certain way and there's friction. But if you have the foot thing up the machine sort of vibrates and so maybe there is an attachment that keeps the fabric flat but doesn't feed it? Anyone with knowledge in this area, chime in!
¤ More about learning to sew at Sew-a-Go-Go.
¤ More stitched art journal pages: Faeries, The View, Dance, Swing, Motivation.
¤ My first Stitched Travel Journal!
Reader Comments (9)
Lovely projects and ideas! thanks for sharing!
For your question, you need a free motion presser foot. Your machine might come with it, but most likely you need to buy it separately. For more information, you can start with the free-motion quilting section in http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/machine-quilting-tips-and-tricks.html. Enjoy!
very cool!
Kat's information is correct, Tammy. You need "free motion presser foot" or sometimes it's called a "darning foot" for your machine. Then you drop the little teeth that pull the fabric through (they're called feed dogs", and have at it. There are some good videos on You Tube. Look for "free motion embroidery and/or stitching". They should be a tremendous help. Hugs, Terri xoxo
Terri and Kat are right...I was going to comment about the free motion foot...I actually just ordered one for my Singer. LOVE what you're doing here!
Your feed dogs need to be down- the little grabber thing under the throat plate of machine. Some machines do not have an option for lowering them- check your manual. Lower the feed dogs it should say.
Either a" even feed/ walking foot" or a darning foot should work and you do need to have the pressure foot lowered to free motion quilt/ " thread paint" as we like to call it.
I really love using multi- colored threads.
FYI- Thread thickness - the lower the number the thicker the thread- 30 wt is nice, 50 weight is nice too but much thinner etc. . .
This is someone that I know that lives out my way. http://www.caroltaylorquilts.com/index.html
Color and free motion are her mainstays- dyes her own fabrics. Lots of eye candy!!
how inspiring! now i just need to figure out how to get my mom's machine into free motion mode!
Thank you EVERYONE for your wonderful feedback! I was really psyched about how these pages turned out, and I've already made a few more. To clarify, these were done with the feed dog up/working, not free motion.... but we all know that's where we're headed!
~Tammy
Haven't had a chance to read this whole article yet, but thought of you as I started to read it:
http://blog.fabric.com/2010/08/sewingpatternreviewcom.html?cm_mmc=facebook-_-8%2F19%2F2010-_-text-_-Blog+Tout+
Tiffani, Thx for the link about Sewing Pattern Review, it really is a great site. I used the reviews to narrow down my choice of sewing machines but I hadn't thought to search for patterns (for beginners). Thanks!!!
~ Tammy