Designs Plus Volume 10: Free Project
Digitized Refrigerator Art Quilt
As the mother of three very creative girls, I often had more art than refrigerator. Just about the time my girls advanced out of the scribbling stage, the sewing machine companies marketed the first embroidery digitizing programs for the home sewer. My passion for machine embroidery was fueled by my girl's artwork and this unique, family quilt was the end result. It currently hangs in my husband's office. The designs have become our family crest and I smile every time I see them. I use them to make shirts for myself and sweatshirt jackets for the grandmothers.
I've worked with several versions of software. While each program may operate a little differently, they all still have the same basic tools. It is best to refer to your manual for details on operating your specific program as well as its recommended specs for scanning. Depending on the original artwork, I will use the auto digitizing tools, the closed curve drawing tool, or the open curve drawing tool.
Auto Digitizing Tools
These tools work best for artwork that has very distinctive, solid lines. I used them to digitize the girl with the flower dress. This is probably the quickest way to set stitches to your artwork, but the artwork itself may need some tweaking first. Since this tool will automatically recognize a selected area of your bitmap (or other acceptable file format), you must be sure that the artwork and scan are clean. For example, if a line dividing two areas is very fine, the scanner may not pick it up as a solid line and therefore your tool will consider the two areas on either side of the line as being one area. If your scan shows noise (extra shadow) this will be considered part of your drawing. You also want to be sure that your original artwork lines are not too thick, because the auto tools will set stitches to the white area inside of the outlines. If the lines are very thick you will end up with gaps between the stitched areas. Since children don't tend to draw with consistent lines, it's a good idea to trace the design yourself with an ultra fine point Sharpie on another piece of paper. Then, use your drawing for the scan.
Closed and Open Curve Tools
 If you are comfortable with drawing on your computer by clicking points along a line with your mouse, both curve tools are great! With the curve tools you are basically tracing a design as though you were working on tracing paper. As with all of the digitizing options, your scanned picture shows up in your software; but instead of using the auto tools to let the program set the stitches for you, you use the tools to draw right on top of the scanned image. The closed curve will be used for any closed shapes in the drawing. You simply click along the lines of the image for the particular shape and hit enter. Depending on the selected stitch settings, the shape will either be filled with stitches or an outline of the shape will be digitized. The open tool is used for outline drawing when there is not a closed shape. This is the tool I often use in duplicating children's artwork because it allows me to get that sketchy look (as shown in the rainbow drawing). When creating this "sketchy" look, I simply move my mouse back and forth, clicking at the ends, to create long straight lines. I use the image on screen more as a guide. I'm interested in the overall idea of the piece rather than the details.
No matter what tools you use for your designs, all of the solid stitch areas can be manipulated to change stitch directions and sometimes even textures if desired. This will add much more interest to the completed design. The properties for the outline stitches can be changed as well. I used a narrow satinstitch with the opencurve drawing tool to create the little "head person" drawn by Michelle. If you are new to digitizing, this is a great way to start out. The children's artwork provides emotional motivation and your designs don't have to be exact (since the intent is to look like a child's drawing). You will be able to produce simple designs that you are happy with while you hone your skills.
The Quilt
For this project I simply decided on the number of designs I wanted to digitize and created a quilt layout that would be accommodating:
The six embroidery designs are stitched on white cotton, then cut into 6″ squares.
One piece of black fabric is cut into a 6″ square for the center block.
Sew solid color triangles (I used six colors) to all four sides of the six white squares, and the one black center square - then press. With my seven squares assembled, I sewed them together, as shown.
Add the whimsical dark background fabric to complete the quilt top.
Add layer of batting and quilt back.
After the quilt was sandwiched, I quilted a simple stitch in the ditch around the triangles.
I free motion machine embroidered my girl's names and their ages.
Bind quilt, mitering corners.
Like every mother, I can't believe how fast my girls grew up. Melissa, Kimmy and Michelle are old enough now to digitize their own designs. But I'm glad we have this embroidered reminder of when they were so very young.
Designs Plus Volume 10: Free Designs
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