It's A Sterling Life on Berkeley Square houses!

I have been busy working on my housing project called Abundance Avenue!  It is actually the next section of my quilt design.  Right now I am playing around with the needle punch tool and 'punching' the roof for my Easter house abode. I already punched out a design for a pink roof and was NOT pleased!  This is the biggest obstacle in this FAB-ulous design CD- to finally decide what you like the best for your project!

So I switched to a teal blue and I am much happier!  Here are a few pics of the process.

Step #1 - stitch out a placement stitch for the fabric.

Step #2 - Place the felt AND fabric on  top  of the stabilizer.

Then the machine prompts you to start the needle punch section of the design.

Be sure to select the correct needle as well or SHE will NOT be happy and start the 'punching'!

Now SHE is punching....

But the best is the finished design!

Oh wait!  Turn it over!

Next I will start stitching a few houses so you can check them out...

Love is in the Air on Berkeley Square

Love is indeed in the air in this home on Berkeley Square.  I used one of the cottages called Happiness House from the Sarah Vedeler CD to create the Valentine welcome mat for my home.

It was easy to add the wording with the Bernina V7 software and the CrystalWorks heart with the Bernina DesignWorks program.  A very quick project and actually done before Valentine's Day!

Look for more holiday welcome mats throughout the year.  If you missed the Christmas design, you can find it here.

Update on It's A Sterling Life on Berkeley Square

I am having another class this week because some ladies had a conflict with the first one.  But that was Ok because 12 in this class was waaaay too many!

But I wanted to share with you Kathy S's finished center block.  She plans to quilt the quilt on her long arm machine, so she wanted to eliminate all of the crystals surrounding the center medallion.

Here is a close up of her lettering.

She also shared her steps with the Bernina DesignWorks Divas FB page.  Come join the fun here.  The hardest decision she had to make was to find the perfect font  for the design.

She used the V7 software and used the same concept that Sarah Vedeler did with lining up the lettering utilizing the placement stitch in the original files.

Beautiful job Kathy!!

It's A Sterling Life on Berkeley Square class

The first class of the "Sterling Life" project was held this past Saturday at the Bernina Sewing Center in Tampa, FL.  It will be an ongoing class this year with the final class in the fall.

Here is my sample so far...

This is a pretty intense project but it has been well worth the effort as I have learned so much!  I have not added all of the crystals - just a few for my sample to give them an idea of what it will look like.

I decided to make it exactly as the original because I have no idea what I was doing when I started and I thought if I kept to the original colors and supply list, then I would not waste so much fabric and time making mistakes.

However the ladies who signed up for the class had some other color combinations in mind and it was easier to help them out after I had finished the center block.

Basic formula to the design:

#1: Select the color for the background

#2: Select a light and dark of 3 colors for the flower designs.  Make sure there is enough contrast so they do not blend together.

#3:  Make a chart of your color choices and snip and glue a piece of fabric to the chart denoting which is the dark/light pink, yellow/golden yellow and orange and light orange.  Here is a sample of one for a table runner I am currently working on.

With that in mind, here is the first design stitch out from the ladies who were in the first class.

I love this color combo!

This one was a surprise as I didn't help her pick out her fabric!

The first brave soul to purchase her fabric!

This is my favorite color combo!

This is stunning with the crisp, black background!

 A  pastel color combo.

Similar to mine but the background has more of a purple tone to it.

I had to split the large class into two (too much stress for me AND A schedule conflict for four ladies) Look for more color combos with the second class of Part I after February 11th!

Cutting the Sterling Life Flower Borders.

One of my customers is going to create a table runner instead of the center block design for this class. I decided that I would take a break from houses and make up one myself for my home.

I decided that it would really help me understand how to select the fabric if I had a color/sample chart to add small snips of my color choices.  Here is a picture of the page I created.  It may not be professional looking but you get the idea!

I started cutting out the designs and I knew that Bernina had posted a video to demonstrate how to use the cutwork tool and is perfect for taking the fear out of making your first cut.  Check it out!

Then I took a few pictures of my cutting this afternoon to illustrate how I cut out one of the designs from the Flower Border.

Hoop the stabilizer and stitch out color #1. 

The stitch out is the exact size of the cut fabric shapes in my chart above.

Spray the stabilizer and the back of your fabric pieces.  Here I layered 3 cut pieces  ( one extra...just in case).

The files are so well digitized, that they include both a shaped outline for the cut fabric AND a basting stitch to hold them in place.  No need for the top layer of a stabilizer as you see in the video above.

Cut out the designs by following the prompts on the screen.  Each time you turn the dial and change the number, you are changing the angle of the blade.

I hope this mini tutorial will help those you who are new to using the cutting tool.  If you have any questions, please ask!

A Lovely Year of Finishes

Happy New Year!  The first few weeks of the new year have certainly been hectic enough.  Even though I missed out on the deadline to enter for this month's prizes, this is one challenge that I hope to take on in this new year and finish some of my projects!  
                                                        

I will post my first project shortly after I take a picture of it!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is always such a crazy time of the year.  BUT I wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas with  a little of my stitchin'

"Merry Christmas" is from the 82009 Bernina Holiday Magic collection and the cottages are from the Sarah Vedler designs - It's A Sterling Life on Berkeley Square"

Enjoy!