It's for the horse's mouths in those two wall hangings I made. You can see them here: http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-37992-1.htm

I got lots of great advice about quilting them. The delay has been their mouths! :roll: I practiced a stem stitch and it looks bad. I'm not a graceful hand sewer. Bindings are my limit. :|

So, I put the book "The Art of Landscape Quilting" on hold at the library and picked it up tonight. Fabric markers are used a lot in there. Is there any reason for me to not use markers for the horse's mouths? I think I'd baste--big stitches--in the spot to make sure I'm happy with where it is first.

Please say it's a great idea. :D

My horses say it is OK. Yours are little cuties. I have behemoth belgians!

I rarely follow the directions, just do what looks good and what you like.

If you feel more confident with markers go for it. Do you have a couple of scraps of the faux suede left to practice on? My only concern with markers would be "bleeding". Anyway, I love your work, so don't forget to show us how it turns out.

Do what feels right to you. It's your quilt.

Use a straight stretch stitch on the sewing machine if you have one. It works really nicely for this type of requirement. It works kinda like a back stitch.

Barnbum,
I may have a solution for you. You bring up the embroidery thread onto the front and take a matching sewing thread and take tiny stitches along the emb. thread on the design line. When you reach the end, just put the embroidery thread back down to the back and knot it off. (Same with the regular thread.) It is called couching and it looks great in place of a stem stitch.

Oh, good idea.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone~

It is a GREAT idea!!
I have seen it done alot.
Go for it!!

Debbie Mumm uses those a lot in her quilts.

Fabric paints?

How about a Sharpie? ;) :lol:

I think any kind of a marker that will hold up would be fine. I do think I'd try to practice on the exact fabric I want to mark on. It is my experience that markers move differently on different fabric and it would be good to get a feel of it.

I'm curious why the stem stitch is giving you trouble. It is a very easy stitch if you have good instructions. Here is a nice little video if you ever want to give it another try.

http://www.needlenthread.com/2006/10...rial-stem.html

What about using a very thin satin stitching?

I've used my stretch stitch for machine sashiko & think it's a great idea for the horse mouths. My stitch shows 3 vertical dotted lines on the select key, it goes forward, backward, forward for the one complete stitch.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I've had great success with it.

It says right on the Sharpie package not to use on fabric.

Why don't you draw the line you want and sew a very fine satin stitch over it with your machine?

Thanks for all our ideas!! I'll check out my stitches tonight. Horses are almost done for the night and report cards are done...I have time!

I found a stitch that works!! I have two stitches with the single line, then triple line--but they weren't quite wide enough to show (so pretty and delicate though!), so I'm doing to use one that's even thicker. (D-50 on my machine) It should be about the same width as three strands of embroidery thread--which is what it called for.

Now to baste a practice grin.


(I took the afternoon off from work to catch up on fun stuff since I've put in at least 6 hours on school stuff at home lately! :| ;) )

Karla, permanent marking pens are a great idea! I use them all the time, especially on wall hangings or art quilts that won't be washed much or ever. Also my Baby Lock Ellegante has a stitch called Triple Stretch Stitch that I think looks just like a stem stitch. I use it a lot for stems and such.

I did it!!! :-D :-D :-D

The first one is mine (more errors). I did the gray horse's mouth in D50, but it seemed a tiny wide, so I switched to B 04 for the rest. I'm so pleased with how they look! :-D The black showed up well on the dark brown, too. Yay!

They look so much happier! :lol:

Now I need to get something that will trim threads right to the top.

Polly, I love the Sunbonnet Sue quilt showing behind you.

Polly, I saw Sharpies in the photos in the Landscape Quilting book. So, they must be doable! Thanks for your reply.

Very nice job!

Love them!

They look fantastic, What were you worried about? Get that confidence going girl! And remember even the Amish put a mistake in their work if they think it's too perfect, because there is only one perfect being in this world.

POosterman--I'm safe--there are more errors in this baby than in all the other quilts I have made combined. :wink: