Last month, .Designs in Machine Embroidery magazine hosted a stitch-along in conjunction with Baby Lock to celebrate National Embroidery month. I showed you projects that the other participants made. Here’s my take on the new Farmhouse Sentiments kit from DIME and you can get it at AnntheGran.com.

Farmhouse Sentiments consisted of two fabric panels and coordinating embroidery designs. One of the embroidery components was four different stitch files to simulate woodgrain. Most of the participants used the woodgrain designs to quilt the panel. I used them to make “wood” siding to frame my panel.

For the border, I chose Moda's Grunge fabric in a chocolate color. It had shades of tan, blue, and red throughout and looked like old, painted barn wood. The thread matched the background so that it would blend and let the quilting stand out on it's own.

There are four woodgrain stitch files. I combined the first three into one hoop using Embrilliance Essentials and nested them against each other for the shorter sides. I had to re-hoop and stitch the fourth woodgrain file for each of the two longer sides.

Because the fabric color was a bit dark for the heart, I added floral embroidery to brighten it up a bit.

I took the original design, left, and used Embrilliance Enthusiast to easily edit it, right. I removed a small and medium floral to balance the corner and rotated it before stitching it on the heart. I also changed the color scheme to blue, which works well with the brown background.

This is a great project that gives you several options for finishing. Plus, you have two projects and/or gifts when you are done!

Debbie SewBlest