THE EMROIDERY STORY OF THE 2013 AIREDALES AROUND TOWN QUILT

Cindy Johnstonbaugh and Lori Taylor did the machine embroidery for this quilt.  Below, Lori explains the embroidery process that went into the making of this quilt.  All the blocks, except for the center four in the Town Park, have embroidered signs.

Each block maker was instructed to send me two pieces of their awning fabric as well as small samples of the other fabrics they planned to use in their blocks so that we could coordinate thread colors for the shops’ name with the other colors in each of their blocks.  We also asked each block maker for thread color suggestions and the name of their store if they had one.  In some cases, the block maker left that decision to Cindy and me.

As the awning fabrics arrived in the mail, I created a loose-leaf binder with clear pockets for each of the blocks.  I included the block maker’s name and block information, the drawing of their block, the awning fabric, and the sample fabrics that were sent.  I decided that we wanted more opportunities to experiment with both fonts and thread colors than just the one extra piece of awning fabric would allow so I visited every fabric store in our area, some multiple times, as well as online fabric vendors, and purchased more fabric like the samples provided by the block makers.  At the same time, I also purchased a multitude of matching and coordinating spools of embroidery thread.  As I purchased all the practice awning fabrics, I cut many, many practice samples of each and marked them for embroidery.

At the same time, Cindy and I were also searching online for our font options.  We were limited by size, proportionate to the awning’s size, and also needed appropriate styles that would be both readable and realistically be on awnings or on buildings.  Cindy found a great font package on eBay which we purchased.  I found quite a few font software packages too and bought many of them.  After loading mine on my machine, I loaded them on a thumb drive to take to Cindy’s.

Cindy hosted me for several days at the Johnstonbaugh home from the beginning through the completion of this project.  I loaded up my embroidery machine, suitcase of hoops, boxes of fabric, threads, markers, stabilizers and supplies.  We set up my machine near hers in the sewing room and the fun began in late July 2012.

Over the next couple of days, Cindy and I practiced and experimented.  First, Cindy had to download fonts from my thumb drive to her laptop and then she loaded them from her laptop to an embroidery machine-compatible thumb drive to download to our machines.  We bought many more fonts than we used, but it was good to have so many options to determine what we did and didn’t like and what did and didn’t work.  For hours each day, we hooped many of the marked practice samples and experimented with many different fonts and thread colors.  In addition to all the threads that I purchase, Cindy made her enormous inventory of thread available for the project.  It turned out that we selected many of Cindy’s thread colors for the final versions.  As we experimented with fonts and thread colors for each awning and made our final selections, I would write the block name, the thread brand and color code(s) and the font name on a slip of paper.  We would carefully place that slip of paper with the selected spools of thread in a plastic bag.  We would then save the final pattern of the name for that block’s building in the embroidery machine’s memory.

When we were finally done with the entire selection process of font style, size, and thread color, and had saved the final version of the building’s name for each block, we started the embroidery process on each block maker’s actual awning fabric.  Over the course of another couple of days in Cindy’s sewing room, Cindy and I spent hours, measuring and marking the actual awning fabrics, preparing the stabilizer, hooping the fabrics and finally sitting, each at our respective machines, embroidering the final awnings.  Cindy is a very experienced embroiderer and my mentor.  I relied on Cindy to help me rectify the issues that invariably occur when doing these types of projects.  Cindy always could and did.  This project could not have been completed without Cindy.

Cindy and I had a great time doing the embroidery project for this quilt and felt very privileged to have a small role in the creation of each and every block of the 2013 Airedales around Town quilt.  While I admit I greatly missed doing my own individual block in this year’s quilt, I am thrilled to have had this opportunity to create this unique embroidery feature in the 2013 Airedales around Town quilt.

Cindy and Lori at their respective machines working on the signs for Dairey Delights and Pink’s Bakery.

Cindy Johnstonbaugh

Lori Taylor

                                       

  The finished signs still in the machine's embroidery hoop

                   

Cindy's Dana (@ RB) supervising thread selections

Remember Incentive #3 ends today, August 16th at 8 PM EDT.  If you donate during this time, you may have an opportunity to win the cute Airedale Puppy Tile.