Today I want to inspire you and encourage you to watch this video. It's really a series of four videos so it will take some time, but I think you will agree it will be worth it. The program, from the BBC, searches for Great Britain's best home sewers. Unlike our drama filled Project Runway, The Sewing Bee features regular people who just love to sew. I appreciate that it offers good technical tips and some sewing history along with a most delightful use of music. I also love the What are they doing now? at the end. Without giving anything away, let me just say it's never too late to follow your passion and find time to do what you love no matter what your age. The Sewing Bee celebrates the love of sewing.
I encourage you to watch The Great British Sewing Bee.
Here it is Thursday and I'm just now beginning to feel slightly caught up after our crazy shop hop weekend. My house is still a disaster and the storeroom at the store looks like a bomb went off in there, but today I cleaned my office, filed a months worth of paper work, ordered a bunch of fun buttons and cool do dads and took a long deep breath. As fun as it is to put on a party of that size, it sure is good to get back to my "normal"!
Tonight I'm playing with surprises for Bernina Club on Wednesday and Thursday and making a final decision on what new recipe to try for refreshments. Oh, and packing my suitcase for Portland. Quilt Market is next week!
Bill and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary on Friday.
I had an eye infection.
He suffered from a bout of diverticulitis.
I went to bed with a hot compress.
He took antibiotics.
We're such a fun couple.
I've been under a bit of stress lately - emptying a vacation home and getting ready for our annual shop hop. Friday morning I was feeling physically rotten and completely overwhelmed. Saturday I awoke to a much improved eye and the offer to help cut 1300 shop hop felt thingies from two sweet friends. What a difference a day makes!
I wanted to show you our quilt for the shop hop. The theme this year is baskets. Each of the eleven shops was to provide a 12" basket block in "basket colors". It was up to the individual shops to set and fill the baskets any way they saw fit. Although the basket idea was basically mine I'll admit that once we had all of the blocks together I was stumped as to how to set them. They all seemed so...brown, but after a few days of trying different setting ideas we came up with this and
I absolutely love it!
We have a limited number of setting kits available for presale so if you're interested please let us know.
We hope you'll join us May 3, 4, & 5 for our fourth annual Heart of the Valley Shop Hop. Our team has been putting our heads together and with the help of Pinterest I think we have some super fun surprises planned for you. (How did we ever exist without Pinterest)? All I can say is you will not want to miss the party!
Then after only four hours of sleep, got up extra early to make more kits for these -
our make-it-take-it project for March (tutorial to follow). Although we always plan enough kits and goodies for extra guests, we didn't anticipate such an overwhelmingly wonderful turnout! (You guys are just awesome)!
This morning before I hit the shower and head out the door for our Thursday morning Club, I linger over an extra cup of much needed coffee and thank God for your friendship and continued support.
We do love spoiling our customers!
Encourage one another,
Next Bernina Club is April 17 & 18. We hope you can join us - we already have it planned and it's going to be good! = )
You know, I see a lot of books in this business and to be honest, I haven't been a huge fan of late because I rarely find books with more than one project in them that I think you all would want to make. #runonsentence It just seems rather expensive to have to buy a whole book for one stink'n project.
So when uber talented friend and customer Terri Harlan dropped off an advanced copy of Pillow POP I was anxious to have a look.
A bunch of us gathered around the cutting table
and flipped through the pages
oohing and awing over
pillow
after
pillow.
All delightfully modern
and all beautifully done.
This is the pillow Terri submitted for the book.
It's a modern twist on a Cathedral Window. She calls it Violet Cathedral.
I call it mine. I can't believe it but Terri GAVE Violet to me! #oneluckygirl
Just look how happy she looks in my house.
I totally recommend Pillow POP for anyone who wants fresh, modern pillow ideas and inspiration.
I promise you'll find lots of pillows you'll want to try. #suchadeal!
Which brings us to the give away.
If you'd like a chance to win this copy of Pillow Pop just leave me a comment. I'll select one lucky winner next Sunday. Good luck everyone!
A few weeks ago I joined in a Holiday Tag-a-long and when I posted my tags on my blog some of you emailed me with questions. So I thought I would share some of my tips with you all here today.
The first thing you need to do is trace your tag shapes onto medium weight fusible interfacing and because you will be using your lines as sewing guides you need to do this step very carefully. Cool tip: I discovered that if you cut your interfacing into 8 1/2" by 11" sheets you can feed them through your printer, eliminating the need for repetitive tracing. Tracing is my least favorite part of this project so I was excited that this step worked in the printer.
Cut the tags out on the lines
and fuse them to the wrong side of your tag fabric. Put front and back of tag fabric together - with right sides together.
Tip: Shorten your machine's stitch length to 15 - 18 stitches per inch.
The smaller stitches will help make the seams smoother and makes going around those curves a breeze. Sew right next to the interfacing leaving two to three inches open on one long side for turning.
Trim seam allowance to about 1/8" all around, 1/4" at opening. Clip curves up to seam being careful not to cut stitches.
Turn right side out. Poke seams out carefully and press well, making sure seams are open, smooth and flat.
Tip: I discovered that if your tags have large appliques on the fronts like mine do you can sew all the way around without leaving an opening. Split one layer of the tag fabric (the side without the interfacing) by cutting a two to three inch slit in the center of the tag.
Turn, poke out seams and press. Top stitch with matching thread.
Attach applique by sewing through all layers. Embellish as desired.
On these I made photo copies of old photographs and stitched them to felt, then sewed them to the tags.
Here's a neat tip for turning this type of applique.
Cut design out and layer right side to the fusible side of iron on medium weight interfacing.
With shortened stitch, sew on desired line - all the way around.
Trim seam allowance 1/8" and clip corners.
Cut a two to three inch slit in the center of the interfacing only.
Tip: Turn right side out using a Point Turner to poke out corners and smooth seams.
Lay on top of a piece of felt that has been cut slightly larger and iron in place. (Remember the back side of the applique is now fusible).
Top stitch the applique onto the felt with matching thread. Cut felt with scalloped shears* or pinking shears. * We have ordered scalloped fabric shears and scalloped rotary blades - let us know if you want us to save you one.
Sew on buttons. Attach to tag by sewing through all layers - I do this step by sewing on top of the felt very close to the applique with matching thread.
These are so much fun to do and they make darling ornaments, Valentines or gift tags. You will want to pop over to Flickr and view some of the amazing tags from the Holiday Tag-a-long group.Then, why not whip up some tags of your own and Tag-a-Long with us? We'd love to see what you come up with.
These tags were inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Nana Company. For some fun tag ideas treat yourself to a peek at some of Amy's amazing creations then join us for a Holiday Tag Along.
Every time we go to market I tell my team, "Don't let me buy panels"! Panels can be so tempting but our big plans to make some fabulous project with them never seems to materialize and they almost always end up on the sale table.
Last spring we had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Janet Wecker Frisch in the Quilting Treasures booth. We told her what huge fans we (and you) are of her work. We reminisced about her legendary Animal Alphabet collections and then we bought her panels.
I have been dying to show you these. I know you girlfriends, and I know you are going to love these.
Janet has combined two of our favorite things, gardening with sewing in these sophisticated and inspirational prints.
There are two sizes of panels perfect for pockets on bags, pillows, apron patches and quilt blocks.
Sewing Seeds is an amazing collection and although I cut a piece of each of the fabrics to take home, models won't be necessary to sell this group
