Author Archives: Janice

Back at Last!

Posted on February 8, 2019 | 10 comments

First, let me wish you a happy Valentine’s Day! My latest post at Brother’s blog Stitching Sewcial is all about embroidered cards, specifically Valentines. I wish you all joy and happiness on this special day of love.

The tutorial gives all the ins and outs of embroidering cards, from choice of cardstock size and attaching embroidery. Check it out and please leave a comment at Stitching Sewcial if you find it helpful or inspiring. Here are a few of the other samples. Details of each are included at Stitching Sewcial:

The front embroidery is covered and inside text is Minnie’s quote. It reads:

This one is for our 6 yo granddaughter. The inside text reads, “Vivian Rose, you are our favorite princess.”

More are posted. I had a hard time stopping, since these are so much fun to make.

But much more has been going on since I last posted here at Janice Ferguson Sews. Of course, Christmas was pure joy, with both of our children joining us with all four of our precious grandchildren. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Many gifts were stitched. Mug rugs caught my attention and I made several for my daughter-in-law, but didn’t manage to get a photo. These are so much fun and make great gifts. She is our nature girl and really liked the apron I embroidered for her with this fabulous bear from Urban Threads. Continue reading →

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Posted in accessories, baby accessories, girls, greeting cards, hairbows, Holiday Projects, infant clothing, kitchen, machine embroidery, Tutorials

Angel Lace Cloud Pillow and Unique Technique

Posted on December 11, 2018 | 7 comments

If you wish success in life, make Perseverance your bosom friend, Experience your wise counselor, Caution your elder brother and Hope your Guardian Angel. Joseph Addison

Very appropriate for the Advent season, this heavenly angel pillow could also serve as a guardian angel baby gift or angel of appreciation. I stitched this on 7 linen hemstitched guest towels which hung as banners as a Christmas gift for each of my beloved PlayGroupMamas.

Scraps of lace are stitched on a grid and secured with a feather stitch. Grids in two sizes are free downloads at Brother’s blog, Stitching Sewcial. It may make you re-evaluate the size of scraps too small to save.

A detailed tutorial with step by step photos is posted at Stitching Sewcial.

It was fun to use this same technique on a whimsical version on a dishtowel.

Seeing this photo now, an embroidered gingerbread man would have been more appropriate. Oh well, hindsight and all that.

I hope you are all finished with your Christmas sewing, but I doubt it. We Sisters of the Needle seem to keep on keeping on until the last hour, with more ideas for more gifts for more dear family and friends.

I’d love to hear about your projects and see some photos. So carry on, Sewing Elves! We still have 13 days!

7 Comments

Posted in antique textiles, heirloom sewing, Holiday Projects, linen blanks, machine embroidery, PlayGroupMamas

Christmas Fawn Daydress

Posted on December 3, 2018 | 3 comments

Christmas is just around the calendar corner and it’s rush, rush, rush for me and many of you. I’ve just finished this Swiss batiste dress for Baby Beatrice.

I’ve written in earlier posts about Baby Bea, our new granddaughter via our church. Neither of her parents’ mothers is living, so months before she was born they asked me to serve as her official Nana. That was a happy day! And, of course, she is a doll, just now 4 months old, which for me has been at least 120 more happy days.

Her daddy is an avid hunter, especially for deer. Bea’s little daydress is a reminder NOT to shoot Bambi or his antlered father.

But back to the dress……the pattern is Old Fashioned Baby‘s Baby Daydress.

Like all of Jeannie B’s patterns, this one is a delight to sew and offers several design options. I love the Scriptures and embroidery designs she places in the blank space around the pattern pieces.

The shadow work fawn is from Joy Welsh’s Applique for Kids. It stitches just beautifully with her instructions. The greenery beneath the fawn was extracted from another design which I cannot recall right now.

The holly at the neckline is another design whose origin I cannot recall. I need to keep better records of what I embroider.

Continue reading →

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Posted in heirloom sewing, Holiday Projects, infant clothing, machine embroidery, shadow work by machine

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Give Thanks Decor

Posted on November 4, 2018 | 8 comments

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.

8 Comments

Posted in Holiday Projects, home dec, machine embroidery

Mug Rugs~What I’ve Learned

Posted on October 28, 2018 | 13 comments

I’ve always thought mug rugs were a great idea and always meant to stitch some. Finally, a need arose and a set of these unusual “rugs” seemed like the perfect hostess gift for a perfectly gracious host and hostess.

The second set was made for the guest of honor and speaker, extraordinary Pastor James of Ghana. So two gift sets of 4 mug rugs were made. I don’t enjoy stitching identical designs again and again, so I changed the thread color of the background stitching and some of the lettering.

At a lovely dinner at the home of members of our church, Pastor James spoke passionately to a large group of guests about the challenging conditions in Ghana. Our host and hostess, a physician and nurse, had gone there on a medical mission trip this past summer. Continue reading →

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Posted in kitchen, machine embroidery

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Halloween Projects~Quick and Easy

Posted on October 19, 2018 | 6 comments

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

Continue reading →

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Posted in Disney, Disney projects, Holiday Projects, home dec, machine embroidery, techniques

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FREE Peekaboo Pumpkin Treat Bag

Posted on October 16, 2018 | 5 comments

 

Now here is a quick, easy and fun fall project for you.  Since orange gourd designs are appropriate through Thanksgiving, you can stitch up a whole pumpkin patch of these to share. Even without an embroidery machine, you could trace a pumpkin and stitch the entire project on your sewing machine.

A detailed photo tutorial and the free design in 4×4 a d 5×7 are available at Brother’s blog, Stitching Sewcial. You can be very creative with this little pumpkin, using various colors of felt, burlap or even a sturdy fabric.

I especially liked using my Brother P-touch Embellish ribbon and tape printer  to print BOO! for the black pumpkin tie.

black love the imprinted ribbon

 

There are so many great projects posted at Stitching Sewcial, like Angela Wolf’s lovely burlap jar covers embellished with Scan ‘n Cut letters FALL.

 

 

Having recently purchased a Scan ‘n Cut I was especially interested in this project.  Check out Angela’s post and her tutorial here.  I just love the long fringe at the top and bottom of the jars.

And here is another fall project from Joanne Banko, Fall Wreath–a great post, great project, great tutorial with a great free sunflower swag design.

 

Happy Fall to you all!  Enjoy stitching for this colorful season.

 

 

 

5 Comments

Posted in Basic no-embroidery Machine Projects, free patterns and designs, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery, party accessories and ideas, Tutorials

Lacey Heirloom Bonnet

Posted on September 28, 2018 | 6 comments

When I did my stitch rehearsal for the flowers, I couldn’t decide if I preferred the lighter or darker pink. So I alternated them and was pleased with the result.

Who can resist gazing at a baby in a bonnet? The site warms the heart of every mother, grandmother, auntie or friend.

The pattern for this linen confection was included in Simplicity 8024, though it was modified greatly. The addition of lace, embroidery, hemstitching, and sculpted antique pearl buttons on the ties removes this from the realm of boy caps. Embroidery floss was woven through the hemstitching holes to add a little more color.

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in baby accessories, heirloom sewing, infant clothing, machine embroidery, Tutorials

Bees for Bea

Posted on September 21, 2018 | 10 comments

This is longed for and long-awaited baby Beatrice, whose name means “she brings happiness.”And she surely has! Our church, family and friends prayed long and fervently for her safe arrival into the loving arms of her adoptive parents.

The afternoon of her baptism a few Sundays ago, friends hosted a barbeque for the entire church and other family friends in Beatrice’s spacious country back yard.

This sign greeted guests.

Did I mention that the theme of Bea’s nursery is Winnie the Pooh? Can you tell?

Of course, it was HOT!

I made the smocked bee sundress for Bea, complete with bloomers and a hat. She is tiny, born 2 weeks early at just 6 lbs. Even the newborn size is huge on her. But babies grow and there is still plenty of steamy summer weather left here in central Florida. It should fit her soon.

Using black on such a tiny baby gave me pause. But there is no way around it when you are dealing with bees. The picot edged bias softened it a little but I much prefer white or pastels for newborns.

At the top of her hat sits an adorable little bee which I found on the facebook Smocking DeStash site. I bought 20 because I knew there would be many opportunities to use them for Baby Bea.

This country barbeque in a huge yard with pet goats and chickens was just the sort of fun children love. Still, they needed a few special activities. So while they were eating I discreetly hid bees all around. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Posted in accessories, infant clothing, Nana fun, smocking

All About Lace Tape Part 2a

Posted on September 10, 2018 | Leave a comment

There have been some questions lately about the use of lace tape. I completely forgot that I had not finished my intended Part 2 post, as I meant to stitch up a few more samples. But I didn’t.  So here is an incomplete–there is so much more!– but informative post about lace tape, especially for Georgia. I hope that when life slows down, if it ever does, I’ll show you more about this fabulous product. But for now, this is all I have.

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Here is Part 2 about lace tape, with more posts to come. Aside from being very busy with life in general, I’ve put this off because so much time is required to stitch out samples that illustrate the techniques. So instead of covering several applications, future lace tape posts will deal with one or two techniques.

To begin, I want to show the two types of lace tape and their differences. The product I sold and used in my classes was made in Japan. The newer variety of lace tape is made in Switzerland. Both kinds are available from Farmhouse Fabrics.

Why is it so important to know the difference? Because there are many uses for which one or the other is better. As the techniques are detailed, my suggested preference will be noted. FYI, I have updated Part 1 with these suggested preferences. Continue reading →

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Posted in heirloom sewing, lace tape, techniques