GRANDMOTHER'S SEWING ROOM: Lace Ornaments

 I have been a member of the Calico Cabin Quilter's Sew-ciety for about ten years or so now.  I have been president for almost two years. We will vote again in February, where I will step down to give someone else a chance to be president.  Sometimes I didn't follow protocol (forgetting to call for a motion), and sometimes I'd forget things or make the wrong copies, but through it all the gals have been wonderful!  I wanted to make them all a gift since they've put up with me for so long. hehe


I have a Janome 200E embroidery machine. I absolutely LOVE it!  It has a 7x7 hoop but only does about a 5 1/2 square design. I would eventually like to get a larger one, but need to use this for a while first.  I bought this last year from Gamill Sewing Center in West Plains. I love working with them: the staff are so friendly and helpful!

When I bought my machine, my mother bought me a set of machine embroidery thread for my birthday. She ordered them through Designs by Sick. (Terrible name but great deal on the threads!! PLUS this is also where I got the patterns for these ornaments).

 FSL stands for "Free Standing Lace".  These are actually embroidery designs that are not on anything.
Well, they start out on a plastic paper that is water soluble: after the design is finished, you run it under hot water and the plastic melts away leaving only the embroidered lace ornament.  On some of these, I put tulle between two layers of the melt away plastic. When the plastic was washed off, the tulle helped give support to the design.  On some I left the tulle out, because they are called Free Standing Lace, after all.  I think I will just 'eyeball' the designs from now on and if there is a lot of 'space' in the ornament, I will use the tulle. If it is a pretty filled design (as in the calico cabin ornament above), I will not add the tulle.

The snowflake here has the plastic still in it: If you look at the stocking and the angel, you can see the tulle in the design.

Some of the tulle tears off easily. Some needs to be cut off the design,but be careful because you might slip and accidentally cut some of the design.  I was actually bold enough to 'test' the tulle before I bought it. At Wal-Mart (yes, our local Wal-Mart still sells material!! Yay!), I found the light color I wanted and pulled a bit on the corners and bought the one that tore most easily.

Wanda, one of the wonderful people from Gammil's, has a burning tool that she uses along the edges of her FSL projects, which burns the tulle and leaves a nice clean edge. I hope she is able to find one for me! (They were out of stock and she was trying!).

I passed all these out at my last Quilter's Sew-ciety meeting: I sure hope the gals like them!!  Now, I need to make some for myself! (My ornaments are buried deep in the remodeling mess, and I doubt I get to them in time to decorate my tree this year.)  I'm sad about not being able to get to all my decorations, but am excited about my new family room!! Guess I'll need to add a "Grandmother's House" feature to my blog!