Machine Quilted? Tea Towels
Good Morning, Quilters!
We are continuing this week’s theme: mushrooms!
Let’s cook up a batch of Rose’s Mushrooms...
(Be sure to have your doodled variations ready!)
And stir in a new thread–Aurifil Lana 12/2 50% Wool, 50% Acrylic. (Read more about Lana thread here.)
Once you know a motif, you don’t have to reserve it for quilts only!
Try it on a tea towel, or a bathroom towel, or make stationery! Just add a your fabric stabilizer to the back. ( Sulky Fabri-Solvy— is easy to use and rinses out in water.) (affiliate link)
I made a couple of tea towels (Donroven tea towels from Craftsy HERE) (affiliate link)
The red and yellow combination was stitched with Aurifil’s Lana wool/acrylic.
The blue and white was stitched with Aurifil 28 wt cotton.
The key is to use the heaviest weight thread you have to get the best results.
One thing to note here…this is not quilting anymore–because we don’t have three layers, I would call this free motion embroidery!
Those mushroom spores are getting carried away!
Any border motif would work well!
(See my sailboat version HERE)
What about YOU?
Have YOU ever used a motif in a non-quilty way?
Have YOU made towels or stationery?
Or another DIY project?
We’d LOVE to hear!
YOUR Happy Hostess,
Lori
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!
Did you need to hoop it to keep fabric from slipping?
I did not use a hoop and I did not have any problems.
Love the tea towels, need to find the heavy weight thread.
You have such wonderful ideas. Thank you
What about washing the towels with wool thread…. does it shrink differentially?
I think you may have coined a new phrase…Free Motion Embroidery (FME)…how wonderful! Love the mushrooms!!
That is not a new phrase at all. I took classes on free- motion -embroodery back in 1978, and have been using it in my sewing since then. It was not a new thing then either. It takes practice, proper machine settings, and patience and it is really rewarding to do!
I now own an embroidery machine that I use a lot, but still like to do it “old school” as well.
I’m happy to see this art being talked a out and promoted. While embroidery machines are a lot of fun, a sewist does not need one to create beautiful machine embroidery.
I have an instruction book for free motion embroidery that could be done on the old Singer treadle sewing machines :-). You could do some amazing stuff on those old machines. My treadle has the capabilities of dropping the feed dogs so I could try it on that machine…that would be a cool challenge! Just LOVE the idea of tea towels…I’ll be on the hunt for some fun tea towels to try that out on!
Is is fusible stabilizer?
What size needle did you use for your wool thread. Used wool for the first time yesterday and really needed a bigger topstich needle, but made do because it was a practice project using the Sew Kind of Wonderful QCR ruler. Needed to practice curved piecing.
Love the tea towel suggestion. Why didn’t I think of that! That needs to be something I do on some of my towels in my sewing room. Thanks.
Like all of your motifs, the mushrooms are so cute. A fairy sitting atop one of them would add to the cuteness. I’m not artistic enough to produce that, but, I bet you could, Lori!
How creative! Love the phrase free motion embroidery – FME.
Not a new phrase or concept, but one that is beautiful, and should be encouraged in the sewing community. This kind of art has been done with sewing machines for decades, and I hope sites like this one will inspire other sewists to try it. It doesnt need to be “computer perfect” to be beautiful.
This is brilliant! So simple (relatively speaking), yet I had not ever thought of doing this. Great way to combine quilting with embroidery – providing both practice and a uniqueness that regular machine embroidery doesn’t provide. Love this!
What a terrific idea!!! Adding it to my to do list!
Love this idea. I’ll have to keep this in mind.
I would call this more correctly, machine embroidery
Yes, but then how do we distinguish it from the machine embroidery done on computerized machines?
It is thread doodling/drawing. Looks like fun.
Love the mushrooms!
Have you ever free motion quilted a tshirt? If so, do you use a different needle or thread?
As someone who does a lot of machine embroidery on t-shirts, I’d advise a ball-point needle, and choose a design that is not too solid. More open, less dense designs such as these mushrooms work well on a t-shirt knit. You need to use a lightweight cut away stabilizer that is designed for knits. I like to use Floriani No-show mesh. You can get it in either fusible or not.
Whether done on a computerized machine, or free-motion, the shirt will still need the support and stabilization this provides. Also, try to use a lighter weight bobbin thread such as a 60 wt, and lower your top tension slightly. You want the top stitches to wrap around to the back a little.
Brilliant & Beautiful!
A number of years ago I did free-motion embroidery on some reusable grocery bags that I made. I then read that the Japanese used sashiko to reinforce and strengthen fabrics they used for carrying items. I then started using free-motion embroidery on the bottoms of the bags I made. ????. Still using those bags‼️‼️
I love the mushrooms! Rose would be so proud!
Love this! Great idea, Lori!