Portland Modern Quilt Guild believes that Black Lives Matter. We are proud to host a new series of online stitching events inviting our guild members and friends to come together, raise funds for racial justice, and amplify the voices and outreach of organizations doing this crucial work. Our first community embroidery event is this Sunday, September 27, from 12 noon-2pm Pacific time, and we’ll be stitching this beautiful design together! You are welcome to join us live, or stitch along at your own pace at home any time.
This lovely Black Lives Matter embroidery sampler was designed by Laura Lupin Howard of Bugs & Fishes and is available as a free downloadable PDF on her blog. She has generously offered it for both personal use and to raise funds for racial justice organizations, so we’re grateful for her encouragement to share her design. PMQG 2020 Programs co-coordinator Susan Beal made hand-transferred samplers on vintage fabrics for 50 of our stitchers. Thank you, Laura! We were so honored that Sara Trail of Social Justice Sewing Academy gave a talk and workshop series for PMQG in June, and now we are thrilled to support SJSA with donations in exchange for these handmade samplers, or the use of Laura’s pattern.
original stitching, image, and pattern by Laura Lupin Howard
Sara will join us on Sunday, September 27, at 12 noon to share more about SJSA’s work, and we’ll stitch together until 2 pm! Please sign up here, whether you’ll have a sampler ready to go or just want to learn the basics with us!
Eight of the 50 transfers Susan made for our community stitchers in exchange for a suggested donation to SJSA!
For Sunday’s meetup and after, Susan wanted to share tips and techniques for making an iron-on transfer, setting up your hoop, and the two suggested stitches for this design, backstitch and French knots. Note: If you only want to create one embroidery piece, instead of making multiple transfers, you can also trace the design directly on your fabric from the paper using a lightbox or window - there are lots of great tutorials for this method.
MAKE YOUR OWN IRON-ON TRANSFERS
To make any printed or hand-drawn design into an iron-on you can make multiple transfers from, I suggest using a 1mm Sublime Stitching bold transfer pen. I found mine at collage in Portland. There are also fine-tip 0.5mm pens, but I found the lines were not as dark and clear. You can use this method for your own original drawings, children’s artwork, and any other purchased or copyright-free PDF designs! I’ve been wanting to figure this out for years and it was really an amazing process - each one is different, and it can give an imperfect result rather than crisp, perfect lines, but your stitches cover everything anyway, right? One of my favorite PMQG sayings is “Your quilt is just one wash away from perfection.” In this case, I’d say the samplers are just one stitch away from perfection!
Laura’s original printed PDF design - use the regular version for tracing, and the mirrored version (on the right) for iron-on transfers!
Print out or draw a clean copy of your design. For Laura’s BLM embroidery design, I printed it enlarged at 110% to fit nicely in a 7” hoop. Be sure to mirror any text so it reads backwards on the paper page as shown on the right above (I used Adobe Acrobat to instantly reverse the entire design) and then carefully trace over all lines using the transfer pen.
First tracing of the sampler design in progress, I ended up layering 4 tracings on this same sheet of paper over a month of making samplers for so many folks.
This is a very meditative and calming process, it does take awhile, but is a nice way to connect more deeply with a special design. I trace the whole design, working in the same direction, with the paper held in place on a clipboard. Be sure to leave generous margins on all sides of the transfer instead of trimming away extra paper (as you can see, this one is centered on a 8.5 x 11 piece of paper) so you can hold it in place easily while you press it with an iron.
Fully traced design - now it’s an iron-on transfer for any fabric!
For a design to stitch in a 7” hoop, I used 10” - 12” squares cut from vintage sheets, and made a total of 50 transfers to send out, working in batches. My first tracing of the pattern was good for about 10 good-quality transfers, and then when it started to fade, I re-traced the design on the same paper, exactly the same way, and ironed a new round of fabrics with it again, a total of 4 times. This method makes a very solid and steady line with the previous layers of transfer ink still adding strength along with the new ones, so consider re-tracing instead of starting fresh with a newly printed pattern each time!
Once you have your iron-on ready, prepare fabrics for transfer. Set your iron to hot with no steam (I use the wool setting for a blend like most vintage sheets, or cotton setting for 100% quilting cotton). Press your square of fabric first so it’s warm to the touch and ready to take the ink transfer smoothly.
First transfer ready to iron on, with the pattern face down over the warm fabric - you’ll see the traced letters read normally from the back of the paper.
Place your paper transfer pattern on the warm fabric, with the right (inked) side of the pattern facing the right (print) side of the fabric, and set a timer for 25 seconds. Place the preheated iron on the central part of the design, letting it rest in place for the first 8-10 seconds of the transfer time.
Place the iron on the central part of the design first, then carefully move it to the left and right to heat through first one side and then the other.
Holding an edge of the paper steady so it stays in place, smoothly bring it to first one side and then across to the other, to cover each 1/3 of the design for about the same amount of time. Don’t let the iron sit in place any longer than that since it can scorch the paper, and of course don’t leave it unattended. At the 25-second mark, carefully lift the paper up at one side to check how even and dark the transfer lines look, and if it’s light or inconsistent, continue pressing over those areas the same way until the lines are clear and distinct. Try not to move the paper at all or your lines can blur and thicken.
Finished transfer! I didn’t stop to take photos until my tracing ink was starting to run out - you’ll see a little fill in here and there on this one. Read on to learn how I add missing elements back into a partial or too-light transfer.
When you’re pleased with the transfer, put the paper off to the side, let the sampler fabric cool down, and prepare your next fabric square the same way. Note: I found that fabric blends with a high polyester content did not take the transfer as evenly and the lines weren’t as dark, so I kept pressing at the same heat setting for longer until it looked better. It can also be harder to get a crisp and clear result as your transfer is running lower on the ink. If you end up with light or blank areas for any reason, here’s how to fix those too!
FILLING IN INCOMPLETE TRANSFERS
Here’s one example of an incomplete design as that tracing’s ink was running low - I needed to go back in to fill in some of the details for stitching.
I re-drew missing areas on this poly blend fabric, layering it over a piece of sandpaper to make it much easier to write and draw on.
I placed the partial-transfer fabric over a piece of fine-grade sandpaper on a clipboard and used an acid-free 0.5 Micron pen to draw the lines in, using the paper printed design for reference. You can also pull the fabric taut and tape the edges to the back of the clipboard if it’s shifting around.
PREPARING THE HOOP FOR STITCHING
For vintage sheets or any other lightweight fabric, I recommend layering the design fabric over a second piece of white or neutral muslin so you’re stitching through 2 layers of fabric total. It will give your embroidery more stability and body, and will hide any threads at the back rather than showing through. Smooth the two layers together and place them into an adjustable embroidery hoop. You’ll also need good light, scissors, embroidery floss or perle cotton (I suggest size 8), and a sashiko or embroidery needle. I also suggest a needle threader, which makes it so much easier. I used DMC 310 black perle cotton for my stitching, and Laura used 4 strands of the 6 for hers (shown on white fabric at the beginning of the post!).
Muslin layer behind the fabric to embroider. This is another light transfer I kept for myself since I knew the design so well! For sending to another stitcher, I filled in the lines with a Micron pen as shown above.
Cut a piece of floss or perle cotton that’s about 18” and separate the strands of floss by gently easing one at a time out of the twist of 6, setting it aside, then going back for another strand. When you have the desired number of threads separated, align them nicely together and thread your needle with them, working as if they’re now one strand together. For perle cotton, you’ll simply use the single strand as-is.
BACKSTITCH
I used backstitch for the majority of the stitching in my sampler, which creates a smooth, even, and very durable stitching line. Laura’s great advice is to make smaller backstitches on the curves so they flow smoothly. Here is a video from Vanessa of the Crafty Gemini showing basic backstitch - I’ll also be showing how to do it on Sunday as a demo.
FRENCH KNOTS
French knots are a bit intimidating at first, but once you get the technique down, they are so fun to make - and bring a beautiful 3-D pop of texture into your design! You can vary the size and height by how many times you wind the floss or perle around your needle before completing the stitch. Laura used 2-4 wraps for her French knots, and I used 3 on mine. Here’s Vanessa’s video on making French knots!
FINISHING THE DESIGN
We’ll be sharing some ideas for special ways to spotlight or “frame” your embroidery on Sunday, so look for a follow-up post after the event! Thank you to everyone who is stitching Laura Lupin Howard’s beautiful design with us, in support of Social Justice Sewing Academy!
-Susan Beal, 2020 Programs team