Happy days are here, Carol from Just Let Me Quilt jumped back in for another Virtual Cookie Exchange! Now it feels like the magical time of year again, thank you Carol.
For a while now I have been learning to digitize and I have a few successful finishes under my belt, Crazy Christmas being my latest. The 5 block wall hanging is all machine embroidery and so much fun to make but, I must admit, finishing it was a little different since typically I do not make wall hangings.
Testing
Not only am I still learning to digitize, I am still learning what stabilizers to use, what when and how. . There are so many to choose from and so far I love the sticky stabilizer and the wash away. Another product I decided to try is Terial Magic, basically it’s a very firm starch. Here are my test with it…
For this block I used a dry iron to press my background fabric. Then used 1 layer of fusible no show mesh stabilizer and 1 layer of cut away. Not too bad but room for improvement.
Misted with Terial Magic like you would spray starch and pressed. Added one layer of fusible no show mesh stabilizer. I was really impressed, no puckering at all.
This block was sprayed with Niagra Heavy Starch and 1 layer of no show fusible mesh stabilizer. The puckering looks worse in the photos than it really was.
Perhaps more starch to stiffen the fabric would have helped.
Since the result was good with misting Terial Magic on the fabric I decided to follow the directions on the bottle, (lol- I know) and use 1 layer of fusible no show mesh stabilizer.
The fabric came out much stiffer but essentially the results with just misting worked as well and I didn’t use as much product.
Trying different stabilizers for a project with roughly the same amount of stitches confirms that learning comes from trial and error, and there is no right or wrong way. I’ll continue my trials with Terial Magic and Niagra with different stabilizers. I’ll reserve my final opinion until I have laundered it.
Crazy Christmas
If you have followed along so far you will please to hear that I am sharing my designs with you. They wll be available to download for free through the end of the week. If you make something with them come back on Thursday’s and share your project in Put your foot down (linky party) or social media @aquiltery. Merry Christmas!
There are 4 file types- PES, EXP, DST, AND JEF. Each file will include the designs for a 5×7 and 8×8 hoop.
More stops today
Visit the other stops in the hop that are sharing today. You can view the entire schedule at Just Let Me Quilt.
DECEMBER 2nd
I have not even been brave enough to try out the embroidery function on my machine, but I’m very impressed with your experiment. The wallhanging is sweet, Keep on having fun, and thanks for sharing your work.
You should try out the embroidery function, it is so much fun watching the machine bring the designs to life. Thank you for stopping by. If you like applique you could still download the design and trace the shapes onto a fusible.
What a cute little quilt! I love the “crazy” look of it. 🙂
I am not familiar with digitizing, but it looks like you certainly have the hang of it. What kind of machine do you own?
It is so much fun! I have a Babylock, a Brother and the machine I stitched this out on is an Elna 830L.
I don’t digitize but I do have a couple of embroidery machines and I really appreciate your mini lesson. Your wall hanging is terrific and I will definitely download and use your gift to us. Thank you
You’re welcome, have fun.
What a sweet little project! Very interesting seeing your results with products. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season!
Thank you Joan, I am still in trial and error with stabilizers.
I am very impressed with your digitizing work and learning what works best! Thanks for sharing all that information!
Thank you Carol.
Lovely wall hanging
Thank you
I am impressed with the Terial Magic for embroidery and love using it for labels. It is perfect for the beautiful embroidery you did for this project and fun to see your testing process.
It has been a great learning experience and I will definitely try it on labels-thank you for the tip.
Hoe cute is this wall hanging. So cute for Christmas. Laura
Thank you
This was really good info on embroidery…thank you, Denise! Your designs are so cute and fun. You’re amazing to have learned to digitize and be creative with it. xo
Thank you Carol for hosting another fun hop. Now I need to go visit the others to see what they have shared.
It looks great, Denise! You did a great job with it and testing with different stabilizers. That is definitely a chore to decide which is best. Love how your wallhanging turned out. Sorry, I didn’t get a chance to test these for you. Working on catalog quilts for January!
I love you embroidery wall hanging.
Thank you so much
Very nice! Looks like you’ve been having fun with your embroidery module. Merry Christmas!
I am loving the embroidery. Merry Christams.
You are a super digitizer. Thanks for all the tips. Yay, for machine embroidery.
Thank you, that is so kind.
That is an interesting experiment. Thanks for sharing. I think many of us have issues knowing which stabilizer to use, when. 2026 is going to be the year I learn my new embroidery machine! It’s time to lose the intimidation factor – and remembering how easy my old one was.
It is a struggle and most of the time I don’t use enough stabilizer. I think the Terial Magic will improve my results and I can’t wait to try it with sticky stabilizer. Have fun on your new machine.
Lovely!!!
I love using Terial Magic! I dilute it 1-4 and spray, or I use it full strength. I find that it cuts down on the amount of stabilizer that you need.
It certainly does, I look forward to using it more.