Bernina Software Club Recap

Hi one and all!

I just finished teaching a class on Reverse Applique using the Bernina Software 7.  I teach this at The Sewing Cafe in Pismo Beach usually the first Saturday of the month.

I own a Pfaff Creative Sensation and the pictures I took are with the hoops that go with that machine.  For those with other makes of embroidery machines the same steps would apply.

Anyone is welcome to read along for the steps to sew out the Reverse Applique.  For those who took my class here is how to sew out the designs we created in today's class.

The Heart Design

The applique fabric that we created needs to be sewn first.  

If you want to use organza for creating the applique fabric, remember to use 2 layers.  The hoop I used is a 150mm x 150mm hoop which fits nicely with the size of the applique fabric to be stitched out.  If your hoop is larger and not square you may consider adding a water soluble stabilizer to stablize your fabric.

If you need to use a water soluble stabilizer, soak to remove ALL the stabilizer and iron to flatten before using it in your reverse applique.

If you are using non-transparent fabric as I did for the completed stitch-out, place a poly mesh or no-show mesh as a stabilizer.  

For the heart design I hooped a poly/no-show mesh with the "top" fabric (pink solid).

                                           

I stitched the first color which is the quilt design in this case in gold metallic.  I sewed the second color which is the first heart that we converted from a vector to embroidery.  This heart defined where the fabric needed to go.

                                            

I layed the applique fabric UNDER the hoop and made sure the embroidery fill covered the heart stitch line.  I pinned in place from the top of the hoop.  I stitched the next color which is the "pink" heart and stitched the "green" heart.  Even though the stitching stopped at each color, I continued to use the same needle color.  DO NOT trim the applique fabric underneath.  Wait until the rest of the design is completed.

                                          

DO trim the pink fabric within the heart close to the stitched heart line.  Be very careful not to clip any threads of the applique fabric.

        

Finish stitching the heart design.

                                       

Turn the hoop over now and trim away the excess of the applique fabric.

Layered Reverse Applique

Make sure the 3 layers of fabric are large enough to hoop comfortably.  

Use starch or Best Press to stiffen the fabrics.

                                       

 

Layer the 3 layers of fabric in the order desired.  Place a piece of medium to heavy weight tearaway stabilizer under all the layers.

Place the fabric/stabilizer sandwich in the hoop, BUT don't tighten the hoop yet.

Feel the fabric in the hoop and if there lumps smooth them out and carefully pull the fabric along the sides of the hoop to release the excess fabrics.  Once the fabric within the hoop is flat tighten the hoop.

Stitch the first color, which is the body.  When the machine stops, remove the hoop from the machine, but DO NOT remove the fabric from the hoop.

                                      

Carefully remove the top layer of fabric inside the body.

                                 

Carefully remove the second layer of fabric from inside the body.

                                     

 

Sew the wings of the design. 

                                      

Trim the top layer of fabric out of the areas of the wings that will have the diamonds.

I am finished with the stitching and trimming, but I think I might add some embellishments, but I don't know what they will be yet.

Thanks for reading

Jane

 

     

   

Off To Get Creative

         I am off to see the Wizards and other great features of the TruE 3 software at Pfaff's Get Creative.  I have enjoyed what TruE has had to offer so far.  I have access to 6D Embroidery software and it has way more features.  This new version of TruE looks like it takes us closer to the complete functionality of 6D.  One of the still missing ingredients is a graphic editor.

My background is in PCs and I still use them quite heavily.  I have owned a Mac for a little over a year.  The approach to a Mac is different than a PC.  Many people I have talked to prefer to use an outside graphic editing program like Photoshop and Illustrator, so TruE may not include a graphic editor in their software.

I am excited about the Felting kit and I will get to see how that works.  I also  have access to the Bernina software and look forward to figuring out how to use the felting tool with the Benina punch work function.

I will let you know how Get Creative goes, stay tuned.

Let's Get Serious

Maybe it is time I get serious with my blog.  I looked at the date of my last post and it has been 2 1/2 years since I wrote.  I have been encouraged to try again.  When I started my blog I was learning some photo editing as a way of learning the graphic program included with my Bernina embroidery software.  Since then I have started working at a local sewing machine dealer who has 2 stores and I teach at both stores.

My passion is embellishment.  Embroidery, both hand and machine, beadwork, sewing, some quilting, garment construction, and creating my own yarns and trims using sewing machines, sergers, and embroidery machines are my main focus.  The tools I use include Pfaff machines both embroidery and sergers, Bernina embroidery software, 6D embroidery software, and TruE embroidery software for Mac.  I enjoy using both PC and Mac and have both as tools in creating.  I also have a Babylock Sashiko machine which I am seeing what I can do with it beyond the quilting and topstitching arenas.  I have 2 machines capable of felting and with the launch of the Felting kit by Pfaff my embroidery machines can do felting as well.  I also hand needle felt.  I have purchased a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine along with it's software and see great potential for fun crafting.

Having said all this I like to explore many avenues.  I am new to blogging and how to set up my blog.  Since I may blog about several different techniques, I hope to find a way to archive by technique rather than by date.  I am a reference type of person and will share things I learn on other people's blogs.  I belong to a number of Yahoo groups and so I may share what I learn from there.

I will see you here soon ( have to get back to my computers)

Jane
lacyjayne2010

Blend Mode Play

Hi again.  I have been busy with retreats and sew ins and just now getting back to my Layers education.  I have been playing with blend modes and I think I am ready to move onto the next chapter. This will be the last post for chapter 2 of the "Layers" book.

This is a picture I took of the Wriggley building in Chicago and I thought the sky was a little deep in color for the whitenesse of the building.  I tried to follow the instructions for Matt's building/sky picture.  The issue with his picture was that the buildings were lighter than he wanted so he duplicated the picture onto another layer, applied the Multiply blend and then selected the sky and deleted the sky.


Original picture 

In my case when I followed his instructions the building appeared more gothic with harder edged windows and roof line.  I may not appear in a smaller size like at the right but full screen you see harder edges.  I have not learned how to use various selection tools to their best advantanges and what I do know it would have taken me a long time to remove the building.

So I thought I would test what I had learned so far.

I copied the original into another layer, isolated the sky using the magic wand selection tool and copied just the sky to another layer.  I now have 2 layers and a background.  I deleted the full picture copy and used the Screen blend mode to lighten the sky.  It is a little bright and the building looks pasted onto the sky.

I reduced the opacity of the sky to 60% and reduces the brightness of the sky so the building looks better.

















The last exercise in chapter 2 Matt added a texture to a photograph to change the look of the photo.  Here is my try at it.  I have one of those clipart packages and found some textures to use.

This is a picture I took my first trip to Glacier Park.  An early morning shot of Lake McDonald.  I picked 8 textures to try over this picture.  Some were interesting, some didn't work.

#1

Overlay blend mode of the above sunburst

#2

Soft light blend mode of the above texture

#3

Screen blend of the above texture then the opacity was reduced to 57%.



#4

I tried some other blend modes this one is exclusion of the above onion texture.  Gives the picture an odd negative quality.

#5

Soft light blend was added to the above texture.

#6

Those who know me know I like lace.  I saw this and just had to try it.  I used the color dodge blend mode.

#7

Hard mix blend mode gives quite the edge.

#8

Saturation gives almost a giraffe look to the picture.  Not my favorite as an allover for this picture.

I chapter 2 Matt introduces the eraser for the top layer of a blend mode.  I applied this technique to the next version of the Glacier picture.  Starting at the bottom of the picture I used the textures 7 in the water, 8 in the mountains, 6 allover, and 1 allover.   I started with each of the textures as a full layer then erased the parts not wanted.

#7 texture in the water with an overlay blend mode.  I erased the mountains and sky.



#8 texture was used in the mountains and over the water.  Opacity was reduced to 45%.  I erased the sky only.  I liked the effect it had in the water along with texture 7.

#6 was used allover with the soft light blend at 45% opacity.  No erasing was done with this texture or the next texture.



#1 was used to add more color and a ray effect with the overlay blend and 58% opacity.

Well, if you made it this far im my blend mode play, congradulations and thank you.  I have learned a lot so far and I look forward to continuing the journey.  I just may need to go on a photo outing to snap more picts.  



Chapter 2 Blend Modes

This chapter may take a couple of posts to get through, so I ask for your patience.  Matt starts off in Chapter 2 with the 3 most used blend modes used in layers.  Matt explained that the blend mode list in the layers dock was divided into sections the first section deals with darkening effects.  The next section of the list is where you would choose a lightening effect.  The 3rd section of the list works with contrasts.  The 4th section will work with the differences in the differences of the layers.  And the 5th section works with color effects.  Matt had me bring in a picture.

This is the orginal picture.  The background layer.

I added a layer and filled it with a black to white gradient.  With the second or top most layer selected Matt had me apply the Muliply blend mode.

Multiply leaves the dark and dispenses the light.  In the picture you can see the black area of the gradient made the area of the picture directly below darker.  The blend graduates in color until the area below the white gradient is transparent.




The next blend mode Matt had me try was Screen.  It is in the lightening effects section of the list.

As you can see the opposite happened.  The area below the black section of the gradient layer is transparent and the section of the picture below the white area of the gradient is almost white.





The above examples he had me do to show extremes of the blend modes and not actually how to use them in a real edit of a picture.  The next set of pictures shows these 2 blend modes used for real and I was fascinated.

Again the original picture as the background.

He added a black and white logo, so I found this design in my stash.  The pick outline was added so you could see the edge of the design file.

I made sure the black and white design layer was selected.  Then I chose the Muliply blend mode and just like the Multiply example above the white became transparent.  I further rotated the design, reduced the size and copied and pasted more and nested them to cover the picture.  This was great fun and inspiring.

Next I used the same background layer and black and white design and applied the Screen blend mode.

I ran into a problem here as I started to rotate, copy, and paste.  The white corners overlapped the next designs and rows.  I had to open the black and white design on its own, then rotate it 45 degrees.  I cropped the design as close as possible.  The I copied and pasted it back into the background file.  The I could poceed as before with copy and past to make the allover design.  I then applied the Screen mode to black and white designs.

Here is a scrapbooky use of the Screen blend mode.

Here is mom again.  I will add a motif and the word Mom to her picture.

I created my own white font and motifs on black background in Corel Draw X5 and made a jpeg file to open in PhotoShop Elements.  I selected the capital M and copied it to a new layer, and did the same with the lower case o and m.  Now I have 3 new layers.  I selected the capital M and made larger and then selected the other letters one at a time and placed them next to the capital M how I wanted them.  I then selected the 3 letter layers in the layers dock and right clicked and selected Merge layers.  Now the 3 letters are now on 1 layer.  I selected one of the motifs and copied it.  Clicked on mom's picture tab and pasted the motif into mom's picture.  I clicked the black background with white lettering tab and selected Mom, copied it and pasted it onto mom's picture.  I played with placement until I was satisfied.

Now for the big finish.  I selected the motif layer and selected the Screen blend mode and did the same thing to Mom.

I admit these techniques are more crafty that photo editing, but I'm thinking printed fabric or giving words to my pictures.  More on blending modes in my next post. 

If you are in a creative block or at a crossroads ask the question "What would happen if I did...?" and do it.  Until next time.

lacyjayne2010

I have worked through the next section of Chapter 1 of the "Layers" book.  Some of the tips and tricks Matt emparted were upgrading a background to a layer, using a gradient and reducing the opacity of the layer above the gradient layer to give depth to the background/layer.  Pictures were added and adjusted in size and bordered.  Stripes were added and reduced in opacity to blend a little with the background.  The "Layers" book is written for the full blown version of Photoshop so I had to search a little for how to do somethings and other techniques weren't available in Elements.

PSE 9 version

Corel Photo Paint   

In the lesson Matt didn't cover lettering, but in Corel I added Jeep Man. 

  



The Background layer

 

I changed the background into a layer. 

This is the gradient layer that is under the background layer.









This is the background with the gradient underneath.  The background layer's opacity was reduced to 85%.  When compaired with the original the center is slightly paler.

These are the 3 pictures, selected parts, and resized.

White frames were added to the pictures.  In the book Matt added a layer above each picture's layer.  This way there would be absolute control over the white frames. 

In PSE9 there was a little automation.  When I located the stroke function in the Edit menu it added the white frame to the same layer as the picture layer I had selected. 

In Corel Photo Paint I couldn't find a stroke function so I used the rectangle tool and made a white rectangle just slightly larger that the picture I selected.  This rectangle was represented in the layers list at the top of the list and covered the picture it was to frame.  I moved the rectangle layer down the list to just under the picture's layer and now I had a frame.

 There were a couple of stripes added (the blue and red translucent stripes in the middle).  Their respective layers were moved from the top of the list to just under all the pictures, but above the background layer.  In the Corel Photo Paint version I added white Stencil font lettering to complete the composition.  I hope my husband likes it.

The next Chapter in the book handles some blend modes. I look forward to it.

I am still learning about the page layout for this blog so I ask for your patience as it developes.

Until next time

lacyjayne2010