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. It you get a chance to visit her website, I think you'll 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 sewer. 

Pillow Toppers

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, zipper 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. Two for Spring and two for Fall classes.

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 1o years and then moved to NC. I took a break and volunteered a lot with the kids schools and 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 somone remarks on it. Because I use it all the time, sometimes I forgot 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 and went through 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 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 8x11 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 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 soooo 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 and had to pay extra. I ended up loading up my backpack and carrying extra thru the airport. Not fun at all. April will bring the Quilted 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 the cording for it today and will sew it up tomorrow.

Happy Stitching

Bridal Dresses Reinvented!

What do you do with that wedding dress in the closet?? Last year I was lucky enough to get a good deal on 6 wedding dresses! This year they are going to be turned into something special to be passed down. Keep an eye on the website to find out what this dress becomes! The possibilites are endless!

The Month of the Lists!

Silly me! I thought that January would slow down and maybe I could get caught up. I'm not sure if I should be happy that I'm busy or scared that I'm busy. LOL Oh well, I will start making lists and see how much sleep I'll be getting. The good news is that I have finished binding my Christmas quilt that I started many years ago. It was my second quilt class ever and I had a blast learning why a 1/4" seam allowance is soooo important. My friend Gene helped me pick out some of the fabrics from Mary Jo's in Gastonia, after I finished my blocks, we lost Gene and her husband to a drunk driver. It took me many years to get back to it, I wanted to be able to do a good job quilting it and needed time to work on my skills. I'm happy to say that it is truly finished and today I'm putting away all the left over fabric.

Today I'll continue working on samples for classes that I'm teaching and a few birthday cards and gifts for friends. My mom, Melody and myself with some of their friends are starting a 2011 Quilt Project Challenge to get some projects finished for this year! I'll be posting finished projects as I go.

Creative Ways to Store Fabric

This evening tied right into my New Year's Resolution. The Charlotte Quilt Guild had Lois Hallock in for a lecture about Creating your Perfect Quilt Space, which is also the title of her book. She spent a lot of time speaking about proper heights of your sewing/cutting and ironing surfaces and ways to adjust what you already have. She also shared tips to corral all the fabric that we have and ways to fold and store it. I've had her book for a couple of years and used some of the ideas, but now that I've been quilting for a while I have a lot more scraps than I did before. My sewing room wasn't set up for quilting when we moved here. My focus was more sewing clothing, bridal veils, christening gowns and embroidery. Quilting is another craft that can eat up a lot of space, but now hopefully I can view my rooms with new eyes. I'm using my 8 1/2" x 24" ruler to fold my 1/2 yard and up fabric, my top buffet drawer is gathering fat quarters by color and my decorator boxes that used to hold projects are my scraps sorted by color. The project boxes that Lois offered at the guild meeting are now being used to store my projects. I'll be moving around my supplies also. I've found that I need to group my cutting and pressing supplies in the dining room instead of the sewing room.