Author: Carly (Admin)

Learning about knit embroidery

Reading a lot of the embroidery information, knits take a lot of work to get right… so naturally as my second/third embroidery attempts I decided to play with knits.

The items I am experimenting with are for an experimental pattern themselves so there isn’t a worry about messing up.

elephant

This was a free pattern. I backed the pure cotton knit with a heavy interfacing and put a ball point needle into the machine. It took a while to get the hoop nice and tight but not stretched. Next time I think I need to get a slightly heavier interfacing as it was still very thin. I started with tension setting 3 and tried increasing it but that made the bobbin show more so I went down to just under 2 which worked a lot better. Tight close stitches are not suited to knits and the machine got stuck at the top of the left trunk ripping the fabric a little. The machine seems to cope better with horizontal stitches over vertical stitches. Once I get the software I will be able to trial a few stitch combinations.

steg

Again a free pattern all on the under 2 tension. I’vd discovered I have to initially hold the bobbin thread to prevent the thread coming through as seen with the white tipped spine. The other white bits in this piece were when the top thread unhooked from the first tension holder, something I will have to watch and work out how to prevent.

A very exciting new toy

carlygooch

Even before getting hooked on sewing I had an attraction to the embroidery machines. Designing my own little characters and decorating endless sets of clothes has been a dream for a while, but honestly there was no real justification for me to have a machine. Then my opportunity came with some birthday money and extra work. For many months I took turns with my workmates carrying around an annoying support phone that just knew the most innapropriate time to call. It feels really good to have a fantastic reward!

After getting a great deal at craft show it was finally time for this little wonderful machine to come to my home. I picked it up today!!!

machine
sewing

I have HEAPS and HEAPS to learn but are over the moon!!!

Look at those feet – my first daring bakers challenge

macaroon
Macarons with vanilla and ginger creme filling

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

This was my first official daring bakers challenge. I managed two attempts at this challenge. The first one was with my mother in law, where I took a range of my baking toys up to her house and we made puff pastry and the macarons. It was the first time either of us had made them so we were really pleased when they turned out.

4
Plain macarons with a cremecheese and fresh lime filling (made with Angie)

Lesson’s learnt

  • Double baking teflon sheets works a lot better than baking paper. We had one batch on the paper and the other on sheets, they came off the sheets a lot better.
  • Both batches used aged egg whites, I think this helped in the success of nice feet
  • I need to pipe better to make a flat biscuit instead of the points
  • I need to use a smaller sieve for the flour and sugar to limit the lumps
  • I don’t actually like the taste of macarons

The last point is actually interesting… The first batch I found interesting and the next batch I decided I didn’t really like the almond flour flavour. Andrew isn’t a fan either. I found many workmates loved the biscuits this morning so at least they went to an appreciative tummy.