SewCalGal has become a big fan of the Silhouette Cameo. You may have seen a previous review that I shared, after I purchased this product at a Black Friday Sale.
I've been having fun creating with my Silhouette Cameo, cutting fabric, paper, cardstock, and more recently Silhouette's new double sided adhesive media sheets.
While this product is not intended for traditional quilting, I do see many ways to use it in mixed media projects. I certainly had fun using this media to embellish inexpensive plastic Easter Eggs for gift baskets for family and friends.
The Silhouette Double Sided Adhesive Paper is a strong permanent adhesive that can be cut using the Silhouette Cameo or Portrait, in an endless amount of shapes. I was amazed at how well it worked for detailed fonts (e.g. "Wendy"), as well as the details on the chicks feet!
The adhesive is very tacky and does an excellent job holding glitter. A q-tip is also a helpful tool to wipe off excess glitter that may temporarily stick to other areas of your project.
The Silhouette electronic cutter makes cutting a breeze. They have oodles of designs available for purchase in their online store and every Tuesday they give one away for free. You can also use their Designer Software to easily create your own design.
Once you have your shape cut on this double-sided adhesive media you simply remove the yellow top sheet, place the shape on your item (e.g. egg), tacky side down, then remove the white backing paper and you are left with a clear film of tacky media on your project which you can easily add glitter, embossing powder or other decorative items. Easy, Peasy, and Fun!
I did find that my Famore Micro-fine tweezers, which I purchased at I Have A Notion, worked great to help remove the paper and backing material from the thin tacky media of the double-sided adhesive sheets. These tweezers can pick up the finest thread and make it so much easier to grab the paper and backing sheets of this media too!
I definitely had fun creating with Silhouette's double-sided adhesive sheets on my Silhouette Cameo. I'm looking forward to using this media to create greeting cards, bookmarks, Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) and more! While it isn't a product marketed to quilters, it is so lightweight that I also want to test it to see how well it works with fabric and the ability to wash out. Hmmm. Might be really handy for applique', binding and more. Stay tuned, as I'll give you a report as I complete my test plans. In the meantime, I hope you get inspired to create with a Silhouette. I'm certainly having fun with it. And, the new Silhouette Double-Sided Adhesive Sheets are certainly helping me decorate for Easter. Super easy and fun!
SewCalGal enjoys using Modern Quilting Tools, including tools that may not have originally been designed with the Quilter in mind, but offer Quilters great value. I've had opportunities for hands on use of the Silhouette products at CHA shows, where I've previously written about them. And, I've continued to research them to better understand their value to quilters. I ended up purchasing a Silhouette Cameo bundle during a Black Friday Sale last year and have absolutely enjoyed this product so much, I can only wonder why I took so long to buy it. I will share this Modern Quilting Tool may not be a tool appropriate for all quilters, but I'm sharing my insights with you today, to increase awareness of this new tool that quilters may want to use.
While I'll share insights with you on the Silhouette, as well as a few examples of how I've been using it, ultimately I view this is a great product for quilters. A few examples of what a Silhouette can help a Quilting, Sewing, or Embroidery Enthusiasts are:
cutting applique (text, shapes) for their projects, including machine applique'.
using fabric ink pens to create quilt labels, write on quilt blocks, draw images on fabric, etc..
applying crystals to your quilts using designs you can purchase or create!
creating projects with heat transfer material
designing and cutting your own stencils for free-motion quilting, painting on fabric, etc..
cutting lightweight metal for use on your mixed-media projects
And, of course, the possibilities for crafters are endless! Think of creating vinyl words for decorating your home, or quilt studio? How about decorating beverage containers for quilt retreats? And, what fun it would be to use the Silhouette Heat Transfer Material to create a quilty tshirt to wear to a quilt show?
For crafters, don't overlook the ability of using your Silhouette to send files to your printer, as well as do a print & cut!
There are currently two Silhouette product models: Cameo and the Portrait. The basic differences in the two models are:
Portrait can cut up to 8"x8" fabric, 8"x10' long for certain materials such as vinyl (Retail $199)
Cameo can cut up to 12"x12" fabric, 12"x10' " " " " " " " (Retail $299)
Here is a good video that shares insights on the differences of these two products.
The Silhouette is an electronic cutting system that is driven from PC software. The software allows you to use any Font on your computer, resize purchased designs, rotate, merge with other designs, and more. You simply send your design to your Silhouette machine when you are ready. There are two versions of software: Basic software (free) and the Designer Edition). Highlights of the differences in these two software applications are:
The Studio Software, aka basic software, is free to anyone. It is easy to use and allows you to use designs that are available from the Silhouette online store, as well as "basic" functionality to create your own design by way of adding text, combining two or more designs, etc..
The Designer version has the ability to do everything the Studio software does, plus create your own designs in the Designer Edition. It is also an easy to use software application that allows you to take your artwork and turn it into a design that you can use to cut, draw or use to create stencils, and more. There are also many more tools in the Designer version (e.g. guides, knife options, shear window, eraser options, rulers, sketch window, eyedropper, pivot point rotation, SVG file compatibility, eyedropper, etc.). SewCalGal definitely recommends the Designer version for anyone comfortable with a computer and interested in creating their own designs. But, don't overlook the Designer edition comes with 51 pre-loaded designs, which pretty much pays for the cost of this inexpensive software!
Silhouette on-line store has thousands of designs that are typically $.99 each and there is a free design every Tuesday. Your Silhouette also comes with a free $10 download card. From a perspective of quilting, sewing and embroidery enthusiasts, there are not all that many designs that are appropriate for applique' projects, but many that are appropriate for painting on fabric, applying crystals on fabric, etc.. And, SewCalGal anticipates more "quilty" related designs will be added to the Silhouette store in the future. But, again, the Designer software does allow you to easily create your own designs that will work well with quilting.
I had fun creating baby quilts for Operation Homefront. I found a cute gecko design and I used the Designer software to create a whale. I found the software very easy to position designs to minimize waste. It may take a little practice, but the efficiency is far batter than using die cutting machines. And quite easy to apply to small scrap pieces too!
In addition to using the Designer Software to create my own whale design, I found it very easy to use to create a detailed butterfly, a jumping rabbit, a cute dinosaur and more! All very easy to design and cut, far more economically than die cutters. And, it is actually easy to cut the exact shape and size that you can get on a die cutter too!
I also enjoyed using the Silhouette to cut applique to embellish baby onesies to go into Baby Gift Baskets, for Operation Homefront. This example isn't a great example of minimizing fabric scrap, as I could have easily placed the designs closer together in the software, but I'm sharing this to show how the software does work. You can see how I wanted to make an extra cut in an uncut area and simply moved my design to the respective grid for that area. Easy Peasy.
For those that digitize for machine embroidery it is really quite easy to scan in your design created in your Silhouette Designer software to create a machine embroidery design. But it still makes a wonderful applique' on any project stitching with your domestic sewing machine. And, of course, the shapes you can create with your Silhouette would also make great stencils for painting on fabric, or marking for free-motion quilting. So, I hope you can see that the possibilities with Silhouette are endless.
Silhouette does have their own fabric interfacing, which I've not yet had a chance to try. I have used Steam A Seam and Misty Fuse, with my projects so far, and have had good luck with both.
I haven't had a chance to try many of the products that are available for the Silhouette, but am hearing good feedback. I definitely want to play with their Fabric Ink Starter kit to write on fabric (e.g. making quilt labels, drawing on quilt blocks, etc.). And, the possibilities certainly look like fun for using their stencil vinyl with some fabric ink. For crafty projects, I'm coming up with all sorts of ideas for Easter (and other ideas) for using their new Double Sided Adhesive. Of course, their flocked transfer paper would certainly be fun too. Have I peaked your interest on what a Silhouette can do for quilting, sewing & embroidery enthusiasts? Wait till you see what this product can do for Crafters. If you are not already a crafter, this product will certainly bring the crafter out in you...as well as help you have great fun creating with fabric and more. Stay tuned, as I'll be sharing more insights on using Silhouette soon. You can find more info on Silhouette products here:
I think everyone that attend the Quilter's Christmas Party (physical and virtual) all had fun. I know I did. While I didn't get a chance to take many pictures at the physical party, I still wanted to share insights with you today.
SewCalGal wishes to thank the following Sponsors that have generously donated prizes for the Quilter's Christmas Party:
Both the physical and the virtual Quilter's Christmas Party were held on Sunday, December 9th. Everyone that attended received a Door Prize Ticket just for coming.
While I'll soon be announcing winners of the Door Prizes and Raffle Prizes, as well as the Golden Ticket Prizes (aka Grand Prize), this coming week. But today, I wanted to share highlights with you on the recent Quilter's Christmas Parties.
Virtual Party Highlights:
Martha (Quilt to the Edge) shared a great tutorial to make really cute quilted coasters.
Nina Lise (Mrs Moen) shared a tutorial on how to make really cute pillow covers. And, her post today (12/10) is for a giveaway where you could win one. Her giveaway is open thru December 16th.
Terrie (Bits and Pieces) shared a tutorial to make really cute bookmarks.
Kelly Jackson (I Have A Notion) created captured on video some of the party participants dancing a fun jig.
And she also shared that she is donating a Beam N Read Light as an additional raffle prize. Thank you Kelly!
Dana (Stormy Days) shared a wonderful story that I hope everyone reads. It is really what Christmas is all about!
Physical Party Highlights:
Insights on Operation Homefront: Gayle Morelan, from Operation Homefront shared insights with everyone about this Nationwide program. SewCalGal's summary is that this program typically helps low-level enlisted soldiers and their families. They work with various banks to help provide mortgage free homes where the need is great and funds can be raised to assist. Typically, as wives are often in a location where they do not have friends or family to throw them a baby shower, group baby showers are frequently held where the wives are invited and given baby gift baskets and/or items appropriate for babies. Many states, offer homes where a wounded soldier (and their family) can live as they exit the Military until such time they are well enough to get a job and find a place to live on their own.
The Operation Homefront also showcases emergency situations on the respective state website, where you can essentially help Military families with special needs. For example, a Military family of a wounded veteran is struggling with finances to cover rent, after a death in the family has resulted in them taking on caring for two more children, expanding their family of 5 to 7. While donations to Operation Homefront are always appreciated, they also share such insights where you can donate to directly help situations like this.
And, 94% of every dollar donated to Operation Homefront goes to needs defined in their Mission Statement. To clarify, only 6% is used to cover rent of their warehouses, printing flyers, website maintenance, or other administrative costs. Few non-profits are that efficient!
As they also are in need of toys, for a Christmas Party for kids of special needs Military family, many attending this party also brought toys to this party to donate to OH.
A few members of Champagne Quilters attended the party and shared insights. This is not a quilt guild, but a group of quilters, that belong to various quilt guilds. Monthly they meet to work on making baby gift baskets that are donated to women, about to have babies, when their spouse is off in a war zone. More volunteers in every state are needed to help in this manner. It might be a good opportunity for quilt guild's, or individual quilters. Anyone interested can contact their local Operation Homefront to drop off such donations.
And many attendees brought items to donate for these baby gift baskets.
Julie Herman (Jaybird Quilts) attended the party. She recently moved from Philadelphia to Southern California and SewCalGal was delighted to have her attend. She also generously helped to create fun at the party, by decorating the tables with oodles of quilt magazines and patterns, which attendees were allowed to take home for free. Linda Nitzen of Sizzix gave an insightful demonstration of cutting fabric with the Sizzix Big Shot and Big Shot Pro. Plus, we were all treated to a wonderful show of beautiful quilts, table toppers and wallhangings that had been made using Sizzix die cutting tools.
Linda also donated a Sizzix Big Shot and dies that will be used to help raise funds for Operation Homefront, by way of a Silent Auction that will be announced by SewCalGal shortly. SewCalGal also did a quick sharing of the Silhouette Cameo, SLICE Fabrique and the AccuQuilt GO!.
We had a yummy potluck lunch.
There were plenty of door prizes (oops, I forgot to take pictures of all the door prizes wrapped and under the Christmas tree). Wonderful raffle prizes.
And the Grand Prize (aka Golden Ticket Prize) was definitely a prize everyone wanted. Packed full of notions donated by Kelly Jackson (IHAN), a Beam N Read Light, threads donated by American & Efird LLC, and multiple packs of beautiful fabrics donated by Hoffman California Fabrics!
Everyone at the physical Quilter's Christmas Party and virtual party all had fun. I'll be sharing more insights, announcing the winners for the door and raffle prizes, as well as the winner of the Golden Ticket Prize (virtual party) the week of the 15th, as well as more info on the Silent Auction fundraiser for Operation Homefront.
While the party is over, if you still wish to make a donation to Operation Homefront, you can do so by clicking this button and donating any fund you wish through their website.
To make a donation to Operation Homefront click here. And, be sure to enter "SewCalGal" in the comments so that I can recognize your donation accordingly. Operation Homefront will be providing SewCalGal a report tomorrow, which will be used to allocate raffle tickets for which will be used to select winners for raffle prizes and the Golden ticket prize. And, SewCalGal will be able to announce the total amount of money raised. But, so far we've exceeded our goal of raising $1,000 for Operation Homefront. Yippee! Thank you to everyone that has donated for this cause.
I hope you'll take time to visit the Blogger's Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy Ellis (Amy's Creative Side). You'll find a variety of beautiful and inspirational quilts, from all over the world. And, there is plenty of time for you to enter too! And, you can vote for your favorite and get entered to win a prize when you vote.
I'm sharing my Feather Christmas wall-hanging that I recently completed. I had fun making this quilt, as it goes together really quickly. Although, I spent more time with free-motion quilting, as I wanted to have a pretty heavy amount of FMQ on this quilt. {Don't look that closely, as I'm still learning FMQ}
Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats
Finished quilt measures : 24"x28
Special techniques used : applique, pieced, free-motion quilting Designed by: Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio Made by: SewCalGal
Quilted by : SewCalGal
Best Category : Home-Machine Quilted Wall-Hanging, Two Colors
This beautiful design is by Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio. It is a fun applique' quilt design that you can do easily with cutting out pieces from templates provided in the pattern, or very quickly using Sarah Vedeler's AccuQuilt GO! Heather Feather dies.
Cherry is actually at Quilt Market, but I hope she'll enter her version and/or her other designs in this Festival. If you are at Quilt Market, check out her designs in Brewer's booth and Island Batik's booth. And, you can also find these designs and more at her new site: http://www.shop.cherryblossomsquilting.com/
I'm currently working on her Feathered Wreath design:
And, for next Fall I'd love to make her Autumn Bliss design.
I hope you have fun visiting all the blogs entered in this Quilt Festival. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing them all!
The schedule of events is this :
October 26 – 31 Linky open (you can enter your quilts)
November 1 – 4 Nominations are made (nominate your favorite quilts)
November 5 -8 Vote for your favorites
November 9 Winners announced
Thank you to Amy for coordinating the Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival!
Are you a Quilter that loves Modern Quilting tools? Many of these tools have helped quilters design quilts efficiently and accurately, some help make the process of cutting and creating easier, and some just expand our doors of creativity. You can always visit a blog of a quilter that loves their Modern Tools to learn more about how they use their Modern Tools for quilting, sewing, embroidery, etc. These bloggers have a badge on their blog that identifies them as a Quilter that loves their Modern Tools, and they are also on a list on a page of this blog labeled “Quilters with Modern Tools”. Today, I want to share insight with you on a new system that Fiskars has introduce that I believe is going to be very popular with quilters, sewing & embroidery enthusiasts, mixed-media artists, and crafters alike. While I’ve not yet had an opportunity play with this new product, from what I have learned, it really looks like a great newtool and available at a very competitive price. Fiskars has just introduced their new “Fuse Creativity System ", which goes above and beyond the capability of many die cutting systems. This is a new product that will actually start appearing on the shelves at JoAnns the end of July/early August. It was first introduced via HSN on June 18th , where it was well received by quilters and crafters and sold out quickly during the world-wide launch.
The system is
designed as a Modern “Crafting” tool, not a tool specifically for
quilters. But, SewCalGal does view that
it has many features that will benefit quilting, sewing and embroidery
enthusiasts. And, definitely enhance
creativity for those that enjoy scrapbooking, cardmaking, mixed media arts, and
more.
Fiskars promotes “The Fuse
Creativity System®” as being much more
than another die-cutting machine. It’s the only system on the market that can
die-cut a shape, press a textured pattern and ink the pattern all in one pass
through the machine. The simplified plating and manual crank system make it
easy to create embellishments for accenting homemade cards, scrapbook pages or
just about any other paper craft project.
Currently,
you can choose from Medium Design Sets that cut classic shapes in thick
materials, Medium Design Sets that cut intricate shapes in light
crafting materials, Border Design Sets and Large Design Sets. Medium Design Sets that cut thicker
materials accommodate additional letterpress plates available in their
Expansion Packs, and their Adapter Kit lets you use your existing dies from other
systems with this machine. Try different combinations of dies, letterpress
plates, inks and crafting materials for a virtually limitless range of
designer-quality results.
SewCalGal definitely
wants to create with this system. Can you image the fun of using this system
with fabric inks to stamp on fabric? Wouldn’t
it be fun to use some of the Fiskars dies to stamp with fabric ink to embellish
your fabric?
There are a few
blogging quilters that have reported that both AccuQuilt and Sizzix dies work
in the new Fiskars Creativity System, but I have not had the opportunity to
validate this capability.
Product Details
obtained from Fiskars:
The closed
machine measures 12” tall, 15” wide and 6” deep. Open the machine measures 24”
long and 8” tall. The cut width accommodates 12” materials. The machine weighs
23 lbs. It is a sturdy machine and won’t move around during use.
Fuse
Creativity System®, 3 years; Fiskars Design Sets, lifetime, which is a much
better warranty than I’ve seen with any other die cutting system.
Fuse
Creativity System Starter Set (includes Fuse Creativity Machine, cutting plate
with rubber mat, spacer plate, black ink pad, and one Design Set that includes
a cutting die and two letterpress plates) $299.99
·
Steel
rule design sets – Medium (4” x 5”) $19.99
·
Photo
etched design sets – Medium (4” x 5”) $29.99
·
Letterpress
plate expansion pack – Medium $19.99
·
Adapter
kit - $89.99
·
Cutting
plate with mat – Medium $14.99
·
Rubber
mat refill pack – Medium $12.99
Here is a really cute
felt bird project made by designer Lisa Storms, using the Fiskars CreativitySystem. This cute bird would certainly be cute in an
applique’ quilt, wallhanging, table topper or embellished clothing item. I also look forward to when a machine
embroidery digitizer digitizes this shape for applique’ machine
embroidery. So many possibilities.
The
Fuse Creativity System is new and is introduced with a fun selection of dies,
but certainly more dies will be introduced in the future.
Again,
I don’t yet have hands on experience with the Fuse Creativity System so I can’t
answer every possible question about this new product. But, as I get a chance to play with it, I’ll
definitely share more insights with you.
I love how modern quilting tools help me make quilts and other items, faster than traditional quilting tools and methods. While I'm not saying that I'm ready to give up my rotary cutter, rulers, or tracing pens, I will admit that I certainly find that it doesn't take me as long to make things when I use a modern tool, and it is even more fun and even faster when I use two or more modern tools on the same project.
Here is an example:
I wanted to make some "Happy Easter" banners to go into gift baskets & care baskets for family & friends. But I didn't have a lot of time to spend.
Using the AccuQuilt GO! and the GO! Triangle Isosceles die I quickly cut 5"x6" pennants, after preparing 6 1/2" wide strips of fabric with top & bottom fabrics pressed together with Steam-a-seam. This quickly created two sided ready to go pie pieces, that made perfect pennants.
Using the SLICE, by Memory Makers, I quickly cut 2 1/2" letters, using single layer fabric strips that were also prepared with Steam-a-seam. SLICE also has a good fabric adhesive product, but I've had good luck with "fresh" steam-a-seam and it happened to be what I had on hand.
note: The SLICE will cut designs in a variety of sizes, from 1" to 4" in 1/2" increments. For this banner project, I found the 2 1/2" letter size to be my preferred size.
It was very easy to iron on the letters cut with the SLICE to the pennants cut with the GO!
I used Aurifil threads on all of the banners. On some of the banners I sewed a simple straight stitch, free-motion stitch, to secure the applique letters to the pennant, and a curvy wave to secure the two sandwich pie shaped pennants together. Yet, on others, I had a blast using free-motion machine embroidery (threadplay) to embellish and secure the letters on the pennant. Aurifil's beautiful colors and quality worked great. And, I just love the free-motion machine embroidery outline that highlights each letter in the banner!
This project was so simple and the banner really looks cute up on a wall. And I had fun create banners quickly, in a variety of styles. I just wish my camera could take better pictures, but I hope you get the idea.
The possibilities of projects using an AccuQuilt GO!, GO! Baby, or Studio and a SLICE, are endless. And your projects will surely be very fast and accurate! Yes, using modern quilting tools are my preferred way to sew. And using two or more modern quilting tools together just increases the fun and possibilities.
I've been getting many behind the scenes questions on AccuQuilt products vs SLICE. As such, I'm planning on sharing more insights in the near future on each of these machines, as well as how they can work together to create a very complimentary project. SewCalGal enjoys both of these products, as well as other modern quilting tools, and hope you will too!
