If you want to learn to make a paper pieced teapot or a cute drawstring bag or even an adorable fabric basket, head over to the Pink Penguin blog. She has some amazing tutorials and takes such beautiful photos. I know she just loves to get comments from readers too, so if you make anything using her tutorials, please let her know and tell her Anna sent you! Someday I hope I’ll even have time to make something using her directions!

Happy Stitches,

Anna

Sarah, an WONDERFUL designer and author from Australia posted a tutorial on her blog about how to sew curves. When I saw it I thought, “Oh no, ” and had horrible flash backs of the Drunkard’s Path blocks from my sewing class. Then I read on and looked at her pictures (super helpful in sewing tutorials) and it looks not too bad! Also, her last sentence is “…very different to the curved piecing you would want to do on a Dunkard’s Path block or something of that sort which requires precision.” Ha! She pegged me! That is the reason I had so much trouble that darned precision! So, please, please visit Sarah’s blog post about piecing curves.

Happy Piecing,

Anna

I am thinking about taking this blog in a new direction (anything is better than the direction it was going in, which was NO WHERE.) I keep finding such wonderful tutorials all around blogland and I would like to have a place to list them and maybe if someone finds this blog, they’ll be able to access the list of tutorials. This mostly comes from the fact that a) I have very little time to actually write tutorials for projects and b) I have more time to surf around and find the great tutorials written by others. I sincerely hope they don’t mind me linking to their ‘tuts’ as they are called. I promise to give credit where credit is due, because even though I would love to be the one writing the instructions, I also love to do the research. Also, if I continue along the lines of posting things in alphabetical categories, hopefully that will make it easier to find the tutorials.  So, let’s hope I can keep up with this idea. I’ll also try to keep posting my own ideas about sewing and quilting as I was formerly doing, and sprinkle in those tutorials whenever I can.

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

OK, I know. I failed. I didn’t post every day in April. Well, turns out that right after I made that decision to post every day, work and life got in the way. But I would like to pick up where I left off and continue posting something about quilting or sewing for every letter of the alphabet. The fun part will be that you might not know when I will post so it will be a surprise! 

Disclaimer: The following is completely my opinion about fabrics in general. Please take it with a grain of salt and don’t be afraid to try using other fabrics in your quilting/sewing adventures.

Historically, women used scraps of clothing and even feedsacks to create warm quilts for their families. These women were very resourceful and used every bit of fabric they could find.  Typically, these fabrics were made from cotton because that is what was available at the time. Cotton is durable and warm and easy to find. Fast foward a hundred or so years, the industry of quilting has spread to become a huge market. The advancement of technology has allowed graphic designers and people who normally work with computer images to have their designs transferred to cottons to create a wide variety of cotton fabrics.  New fabric lines emerge for each season and every month there are different colors and patterns available.  A few of the more well known fabric manufacturers are Moda, Michael Miller, RJR, and Free Spirit, among others.  Even more than the names of the manufacturers, the designers names can ring a bell in some fabric-a-holic’s minds. My favorites come from Amy Butler, April Cornell, Anna Maria Horner, Anna Griffin,  Blackbird Designs, oh the list could go on and on.  These designers work with the manufacturers to produce beautifully designed 100% cotton fabrics. Sometimes the designs from the cottons are translated to flannels and even heavier, decorator weight fabrics.  I have found, in my limited experience (about four years) that Moda, one of the largest and most well known companies, usually searches out some of the best designers. I have almost never seen anything from Moda that I haven’t liked.  Not only do they produe yardage of the fabrics, but they have begun marketing pre-cut fabrics so that a quilter can have a sampling of every fabric in a collection. For example, charm packs include 5″X5″ squares, pre-cut, one of every fabric in a collection such as the new line from April Cornell, Nature’s Chorus.  This charm pack has 40 squares but only costs about $8.00 (depending on where you live and purchase from). Not only can I get this great sampling but the number of patterns developed specifically for using charm squares has really expanded once pattern designers saw the need. The same goes for pre-cut strips (2 1/2″ x 42″ strips, one of every fabric in a collection) called a Jelly Roll. I love jelly rolls. I probably have 10 or more at home. I even have some great patterns to go with them, I am just too hesitant to unroll the beautiful fabrics and cut into them. Oh, but I digress from the topic of cotton fabrics.  Recently, with the ec0-friendly boom, there has been an emergence on the market of other fabrics that strive to have the same feel as cottons, bamboo, for example, is a renewable resource that has been turned into some very soft fabric. In fact, if you didn’t know it was bamboo, you’d probably think it was cotton or even silk.  Since these are new to the market, they are a little more per yard than quilting cottons, but I am sure those who buy bamboo fabric would say it is worth it.   Well, I would say that concludes my discussion of cotton fabrics.  I hope this has given you some insight into the world of cottons and that you will do some reseach of your own to find what you like. The best way to do that is to visit your local quilt shop and touch and feel the different fabrics. Believe me, they will call to you. Until next time.

Happy Stitches to You.

Anna

There are many, many different makes and models of sewing machines on the market today. A friend of mine from work is thinking about learning to sew and wanted to buy a machine so I have, just recently, looked at several different machines (even if it was virtually).  My first machine was a Kenmore which my dad purchased for me at Sears for a Christmas present. Thanks, Dad, for recognizing my desire to learn to sew, even if it did sit in a closet for a very long time. It wasn’t until I actually worked at a fabric store and was “trained” how to use a sewing machine that I felt comfortable using the Kenmore. By that time, I had already sewn several times on a Bernina and it was difficult to go back to the clunky and noisy machine after having used a Bernina which was quiet and had an onboard computer.  There is a very big difference, but many times, the machine you choose will depend on your own personal preference and budget, of course. In fact, it took me two years to pay off my Bernina when I finally got it which was only after the store offered 24 months no interest and no payments. Why not? I mean people finance cars and houses and other luxuries, why not finance a very nice, and well made sewing machine that I have used almost every week since we purchased it?  There are many other things to consider when you perchase a machine though, such as the customer support you get when you purchase it. My Kenmore came with zero customer support. The Bernina coporate company (in Switzerland) requires that the licensed dealers provide classes to teach the new owners how to use the machines, FOR FREE!  Plus the private dealers provide maintenance by certified technicians, unfortutely, not for free, of course.  Think about what you want from your machine, what you will use it for and go from there. I will leave you with a poem I wrote about my Bernina the month we paid it off, November of 2007.

Oh Bernina, how do I love thee?

You help me to make a soft, warm blanky,

I only need one, not even three,

Berninas in my sewing spree.

You help me sew a fun bright tote,

On you I certainly do dote.

I wait patiently for the end of each day,

Hoping that soon I’ll come your way.

I cover you up to keep out the dust,

Use you a lot I know that I must.

I’ll make blankets for children and costume galore,

I’ll make curtains and pillows and new home décor.

In my new house you have your own room,

My husband hopes that he’ll see me soon.

I will make just one more tote from my stash,

For fabric you know, I need some more cash.

At my sewing skills I hope you won’t scoff

Now that we’ve paid the Bernina off.

You can read more about that landmark month, here.

Until next time. Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

It just so happens that in the job that I do on a daily basis, I run into a lot of acronyms. None of them relate to Quilting whatsoever. If you are new to quilting, or sewing or crafting in general, you should probably become familiar with a few acronyms that are used quite often in this crafty realm. So read on and let me help you decode the strange language that us quilters often speak.

 UFO- UnFinished Object, this could describe a lot of projects in various stages of completion. In quilting, it usually means something that you started but had to stop before finishing for some reason. (also see PIGS)

WIP – Works In Progress  Slightly different from the UFO, the WIP implies that you are actually working on this particular project at the moment. So, I might have 10 UFOs and 2 of them are WIPs at this moment.

PIGS – Projects In Grocery Sacks This may be slighty confusing to those of us who live in a place where we call “sacks” something different, such as “bags” but PIGBs doesn’t make as much sense. These are usually projects that came home from the fabric store but haven’t made their way out of the grocery sack or bag yet.  Or some people may decide to sort their projects out by putting all the materials needed in a grocery sack (a good way to recycle) in order to keep them in one place.  I, personally, have several of these.

HST – Half Square Triangle This is exactly what it sounds like. A square piece of fabric, cut in half to make a triangle. Most of the time these are sewn together to create a pattern. Later on, I will discuss a nifty way to create these without having to cut the fabric and then sew it back together.

WILTS – What I’d Like To Sew (or Start) Projects for the future, usually just a list either in someone’s head or even on paper.

WOW – White on White  This refers to the print on the fabric. It means this is a white fabric with a white pattern printed on top.

COW- Cream on White, Same as above, only cream pattern printed on white background

That’s it for now. If I have some time later I hope to post a block for the letter A as well.

Happy Stitches,

Anna 

As I said, the theme of NaBloPoMo for April is letters. So I decided to try to post once a day (at least) something that relates to quilting or sewing and starts with the “Letter of the Day.” I thought it would be nice to give you a glimpse into what I have planned to write about. Of course, this is just a plan, so it is bound to change. I think I will add a block for each letter if I didn’t already choose a block. That way it’s like a double whammy!  So here’s my list:

A – Acronyms for Quilting and Sewing Enthusiasts

B – Bernina

C – Cotton (fabric!)

D - Drunkard’s Path block

E – Easy First Projects

F – Four Patch block

G – Grandmother’s Flower Garden block

H – Half Square Triangles

I – Irish Chain block and quilt

J - Jacob’s Ladder block

K – King’s Crown block (this should be interesting since this one is new to me)

L – Log Cabin block

M – Monkey Wrench block (a.k.a. Churn Dash) or Moda (fabrics!)

N - Nine Patch block

O – Organizing Your Sewing Room

P – Pillow Cases (OK, not Quilting related exactly, but close)

Q – Quilting (of course)

R – Rotary Cutter

S – Star Puzzle block or Star Flower block

T – Tote bags

U – Unsewing

V - Variagated Thread

W – Washing Fabric

X – X - Squared block

Y – Yellow Fabric in Quilts

Z - Zippers (unless anyone can suggest anything better since I am deathly afraid of sewing zippers!)

My friends always tease me that I can talk about practically anything for at least two minutes. We’ll see if that’s true. They also say I can almost always relate whatever we are talking about back to sewing and quilting.  Well, why not? Hope this list sparks your interest and gets you to come back and visit often. Until next time.

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

Ever heard of National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo)?  I hadn’t heard of it either, until last November which just happens to be NaBloPoMo.  That’s also how I heard about Ning which is a social networking website (like Facebook or MySpace) and that’s how I started the Quilting Friends social network.  Well, the goal of NaBloPoMo is to post every day for the month of November. If you do, you get entered into a drawing for some sort of prize given away at the NaBloPoMo ning site.  Yeah!  So, I tried, but it turns out I posted two or three times a day and not at all on the weekends. So, I didn’t really qualify. But that’s OK with me. Well, after the excitement over the one month of posting everyday, people started to get really excited about this idea and the NaBloPoMo creators decided to choose a theme each month and sort of challenge people to post everyday of the month something related to that theme. Wow, this is a long story leading up to the exciting part. The theme for April is…(drumroll please) Letters! OK, what does that have to do with quilting or quilting blogs or tutorials or anything that is supposed to be related to this blog? A lot actually. When I saw that the theme for April was letters (of the alphabet or letters that you write to someone) I immediately decided that I could probably come up with at least one topic for every letter of the alphabet that related to quilting, and I did! I have the list all ready, and I must admit that I cheated a little bit. I went to the Quilter’s Cache website and searched the alphabetical listing of their block tutorials, but only on the letters when I got really stuck. The rest were my own creation. So, in a few days, beginning on April 1, I will try to post something on this blog every day that relates to the letter of the day and to quilting. I figured that alphabetizing the tutorials I link to or create and post here is a great way to create a searchable database, so to speak.  That way, if you want to find out how to do, say, zippers, you can come over to Merrily We Sew Along and instead of having to search through days and days of posts, just check the catagory list to the right and look for “Z” and you’ll go straight to all the “Z” posts. I am sure zippers will be at the top of the list if it’s there.  Isn’t it fun when things just fall into place?  This will also help to keep me focused, because I do tend to wander off on bunny trails during my posts (see beginning of this post).  Since I have the Sew Good Sew Far blog for random quilting thoughts and other stuff, I hope to make this blog more focused and useful.  Also a slight disclaimer. I am not the end all be all of quilting. In fact, I could probably admit that I have not officially be quilting for a year yet and I have never actually quilted the top, batting and backing of a quilt and then bound it a used it as a quilt! Wow, what a confession. But, I do know how to search the Internet for all the other wonderful tutorials about there (with credit to the source, of course) and I hope to expand my skills by creating some tutorials of my own. I’ve probably already mentioned that in my introduction post, and I’m sorry if I repeat myself. Well, I guess that’s it for now. Hopefully you aren’t kept in too much suspense but perhaps enough that you’ll visit often and even leave a comment or two. By the way, you may have realized that even though there are 26 letters in the alphabet, there are actually 30 days in April. If you know me, you know that I almost never have a shortage of things to say, especially if the topic is sewing or quilting, but I have a plan to help fill in those extra four days. But that’s a surprise. Who knew I could be so sneaky? (Bet my husband did.) Until next time.

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna 

Hi, 

Anna here. This blog is a spin off of my other sewing/quilting blog, but I want it to be more focused on tutorials and information for quilting and sewing enthusiasts. I have a lot of plans for this site and am looking forward to developing it into something SEW FUN!