Author: Tawny

Tired of Pinning?

One of the best ways to hold down a pattern without pins is with pattern weights.  Why buy them when you can make your own?  I picked up my filler in the Sporting Goods section of Wal-Mart.  Believe it or not, my filler is BB’s!  My weights look like bean bags just like children use in their games.  They are made the same way but are quite heavy.  I use leftover fabric from my projects and can finish them with whatever machine I’m using.

With the serger, I use a long rectangle, fold it in half, serge 2 sides, turn the corner, fill with the BB’s and then finish serging.  With the sewing machine I use 2 squares wrong sides together, sew around 3 sides, backstitching at the start and end. Turn right side out, fill with BB’s and fold the edges in and sew closed.  You can make the squares any size you want, mine are approx 3″ square finished.

These 2 pictures are from the 5th Saturday Challenge.  The Bear won 2nd place and the flowers 3rd!  The bear has the challenging fabric tucked in his ears and the flowers are just ingenious and oh so pretty.

5th Saturday Challenge

Checkerboard with pieces and pouchChallenge Fabrics and Ribbon

One of our neighborhood quilt stores, The Quilting Nook, started a 5th Saturday Challenge every quarter.  I was lucky enough to purchase the last bag.  It contained 4 fat quarters with a variegated brown ribbon.  We could make ANYTHING we wanted.  I couldn’t decide what to make so I hung my fabric on my design wall and kept walking by it.  The only thing I could think of was a checkerboard.  I resisted all the way up until the Friday before the challenge and finally gave in and made the checkerboard.  Apparently I need to listen better, because I won first place for the board!  I couldn’t believe all the creativity that showed up that day.  My checkerboard has the pieces that fit in the pouch and rolls up to travel or store.  The prize for the day was the fabric for the next challenge.  I will be posting pictures from this challenge over the next couple of days and then the new fabric.

Acrylic Painting

I spent a lovely evening at the Mint Hill Arts listening to a lecture given by Nancy Cook.  What she does with fabric, ink and quilting is truly art.  She was so open and forthcoming about how she makes her art.  She reminded me how much I really do like to paint.  I’m still a fill-in-the-numbers kind of girl.  I came across a fun little piece that I made.  I used a design from Anita Goodesign and then painted with acrylic paints.  There was a lot of trial and error, but I was pleased with the way it came out.  After seeing Nancy’s work, I see where I could have used quilting to suggest flow and motion and maybe made it look a little more artistic.  If you get a chanced to visit her website, I think you will find it worth your time to see her pieces.  I can honestly say that the photography doesn’t do it justice.  There is so much detail that it’s phenomenal.  http://www.nancygcook.com

Beginning Sewing

The first Beginning Sewing class of the year went well today. Most of my students are new to sewing and I always love being able to introduce them to sewing and their machine.  The biggest learning curves are usually the machine and sewing terms.  Our projects will be a pillowcase, pajama bottoms and tote bag from the book titled, Sew Easy Pajama Pants by Cindy Taylor Oates. The other book we’re using is Nancy Zieman’s Sew with Confidence.  It’s such a wonderful resource for sewing terms and tips.  It will be a great companion for the new sewe

Pillow Topper Class

It’s that time of year again.  The Beginning Sewing Classes are starting up and I’m always asked, “What comes next?”  So Creative Sewing has started offering an Advanced Sewing Class to have buttonholes, applique, piping, zippers and a little sewing with clear thread.  It’s a fun class and some of my students have gone on to make quite a few pillow toppers.  Once you have the pillow made you can button on the topper for the season/holiday/celebration that you want.  So far we have 4 designs for the class.  Two for Spring and 2 for Fall.

It’s That Time of Year Again!

First Communion is right around the corner!  It is so much fun to make the veils for the girls.  I always participate in a show at St. Matthews in December with my veils and christening gowns to hand out my cards.  I made bridal veils, accessories and christening gowns for over 10 years and then moved to NC.  I took a break and volunteered a lot with the kids schools activities.  In the past couple of years I’ve been creating again and found that I really missed it and am glad to have started back.  I actually am thinking about teaching how to make Christening gowns and veils, but time will tell.

Free Motion Quilting

 

After posting the embroidery club, I realized that I had another project that I did free motion quilting on!  I use this 3 ring binder all the time for classes.  All my notes and handouts are in it for the sessions I teach and I’m always surprised when someone remarks on it.  Because I use it all the time, sometimes I forget how striking it is.  I used leftover fabric from a quilt that I made with purples, blues and lime green.  I found the lime green at Quilt Patch Fabrics,www.quiltpatchfabrics.com and went thru my stash for the rest.  I’ve enjoyed working with the silk flowers also.  They’ve stood up really well to being carried around with all of my other supplies.

Embroidery Club is Here Again!

Embroidery Club starts at Creative Sewing, www.leesewing.com, next month and two of the samples are done and in the shop.  Here’s a quick peek.  February is going to offer The Patchfolio for an 8×11 pad with room on the left for papers, pens and a business card.  It’s a wonderful gift or place to keep papers from class and notes.  I will also be offering directions for an ebook holder as an extra or alternative project.  I just received a kindle for my birthday last year and I love it!  I honestly didn’t know if I’d miss my “real” books, but I have to admit that I like the size and weight of the kindle.  It will make traveling soooooo much easier this year.  Last year for vacation I took a BUNCH of books and was stuck at O’Hare airport rearranging my luggage so that I wasn’t over weight and had to pay extra.  Not fun at all.  April will bring the Quilting Laptop Case.  This was a wonderful project to practice free motion quilting.  It’s small enough that shouldn’t prove too frustrating and I sure need the practice.  I usually quilt with my mother’s long arm. Moving the fabric instead of the machine proves to be very different.  I will definitely need more practice!  I honestly think this bag could be used for anything.  I’m off to finish that last project, which will be a cutwork pillow.  I found that cording for it today and will sew it up tomorrow.

Happy Stitching!