The Sewing Zone

Normally Sunday is my day off, but this week "company" was coming to visit the store and I had to get things ready. If you are adept at reading between the lines, you already know that means "clean". Our store is generally organized, but I WORK here. I sew, cut, design, publish, and all that it entails right on the sales floor, in the corner of the Bernina area. It is less than a month until International Quilt Market, so there is a mini frenzy happening as I design, stitch and write the last bit of instructions. I rarely worry about what people think because my customers ARE creative people, they understand the process. This visitor was a bit unusual. "Mr. Bernina" in the form of H.P. Ueltschi, the owner of Bernina International himself was scheduled to pay us a visit on Tuesday. I thought wearing my shoes and getting the threads off the floor might be appropriate.

I came in early, about 8am, on Sunday morning. I made a deal with myself, if I cleaned up the part of the mess I was dreading (instead of hiding it in the closet) I could treat myself to an afternoon of sewing. It seemed like a total waste of time to be cleaning without the embroidery machines running, so I powered up the 830 and let it finish the "quilting" on these pieces for a jacket. The jacket is patchworked pieces of Fire & Ice batiks (obviously I used "fire") and the stitching design is one that is pre-programmed into the Bernina 830. I stitched it randomly over the fabrics and flannel interlining before cutting out the pattern pieces. The jacket pattern is our Fun On The Run pattern. I love the way it fits and I cut it without the button closure in the front - I never button it anyway.

The plan was to clean-up, not just push stuff into a drawer. By my definition that meant that I had to deal with each pile as I got to it. Therefore I did not consider it cheating when I took the time to get caught up with this years First Friday/First Saturday project and assemble my missing blocks. I powered up the 820 and had them stitched together in no time while the 830 hummed away at embroidering my jacket pieces.

I was ruthless with the trash bin, scrap basket and charity box. I think I filled all three. If I couldn't finish it, file it or find it a proper home - out it went. Ta-Da! Clean!

Then I started to really sew! It was like being in "the zone". Everything worked perfectly. Did you ever have a day like that? One where the machine hums, you never touch your seam ripper, everything matches perfectly..... ahhh,.... it was sewing bliss. I didn't want to stop!

I constructed the smaller size tote bag for our new "Zip It" pattern (available soon) and used the 830 and my new found software skills to reduce the same quilting design that I used on this Lauren table runner to fit the 4 inch blocks on the tote bag. The virtual positioning on the 830 makes ME, with my weeks of experience, look like an expert at embroidery.

I don't see myself embroidering kittens or flowers on my shirts, but WOW do I love that jumbo hoop and the quilting possibilities!

My loving husband must have known better than to interrupt my perfect day. He stopped in to change some light bulbs and before he left he suggested that he pick up a pizza for dinner. He is a very smart man. I joined him and our son for a few slices and when they decide to watch an old war movie on TV I jumped at the chance to get back to the shop and sewing until bedtime!

The only disadvantage of spending the day sewing after cleaning, is that I made another mess that had to be cleaned up on Monday morning. Luckily I had another whole day to prep for Mr. Ueltschi's visit. I will tell you more about that as soon as I have the time!

Embroidery 101

I was going to have to dig in and learn to use the embroidery machines sooner or later. It wasn't that I didn't want to try, but lets face it, there are only so many hours in a day. I also have this never ending to-do list that is filled with things that I am totally capable of doing, without learning anything new... and I have "staff" that are embroidery experts. They embroider, I suggest projects. It has been a great relationship.

Last Saturday we had Embroidery Club here at the store. If you are in our area and own a machine or think you might ever want to own one, you should join us. The information and inspiration is excellent and the meetings are FREE. It doesn't matter what make, model or brand sewing machine you own. The meetings are for fun and inspiration. As always, my favorite part of the program is show and tell. Barb S. had a piece to show, but I was fascinated by the shirt she was wearing. It was beautiful. She graciously explained how and why she had made the shirt. The applique was to cover a stain.

BINGO! That was something that I could relate to and the whole how-to process clicked! I could do that! I happen to have a new white shirt with a coffee stain that wouldn't budge. That's a "before" photo of my shirt. With that stubborn stain it was about to go in the trash. With Barbs verbal instructions and a little help from my embroider specialists and Brandon our Tech, I (a total novice at machine embroidery) managed to turn my trashy shirt into a real treasure.

The process is a bit easier than working right on a shirt. When you embroider a garment you have to have a perfect placement. For my project the design was embroidered using white Isacord thread on a cream organdy fabric before it was placed on the shirt. Organdy has a bit of a sheen to it, it adds a little sparkle and holds the design together. The design I selected isn't a stand alone lace. I understand from the experts that without the organdy, the whole thing would have fallen apart - and we don't want that!

I am getting a little ahead of myself. Before I stitched the design I had to select one with a solid outline. I couldn't find one I liked, so we used the Version 6 software to outline the design that I had selected. The outline created a stitching line about 1/4 inch away from the design that would later become my cutting line. I popped the organdy into the hoop with 2 layers of wash away stabilizer and pushed the start button on the machine. - simple!

The idea is to create the applique, cut it out, remove the stabilizer, then place it on the shirt and stitch it in place. It worked like a charm. I used a spray adhesive on the back of the lace (after I removed the wash away stabilizer). The 505 spray allows you to peel and stick the applique in place until you are happy with the placement. Another layer of tear away stabilizer went inside the shirt while I stitched around the outside edge. Then I added a few clear seed beads for pizazz - don't you love it! Ok, I will admit it - I'm hooked!

Next month we are going to use some embroidery magic to make the cute little pouch in the embroidery hoop - the entire thing - zipper and all - in the hoop! I can't wait!

Meanwhile I am in Cleveland for yet another round of Bernina training. This time we are working on the 830 and using the Cutwork tool. Someone is going to have to figure out how to add more hours to my day.....

Look! SNAKES!

This is just me being me, and if you know me well, you also know that I find this ridiculously funny.

Nancy Halvorsen's newest book just arrived to go with her latest fabric collection. Deb couldn't help pointing out the featured table runner.

Anyone see snakes? Cute little colorful garden snakes? Possibly cute little headless garden snakes? Poor things, why would she have cut their heads off?

Ok, maybe it is me........

Guest Blogging

My BFF Bernie sent me an email the other day, whining that she was bored and suggesting that I update my blog to give her something to read. HA! I wrote right back and suggested that she do it herself. As a result, today you get to be treated to a Guest Post from my friend from Florida, fellow fabric designer, mother of three, and the most laid back Catholic I know.... Bernie! I was a bit amused at the topic Bernie selected, she is obviously on her best behaviour in front of strangers, so I couldn't resist adding my own comments in italics.

Hi! This is Karen's friend Bernie, here for a "guest posting" because Karen's "to-do" list is longer than her arm. Longer than my arm. Longer than all of our arms put together. We've been really good friends for more than 20 years. Since she moved back to PA in 1991, ours has been a long distance friendship, only seeing each other once or twice a year. Thank God for e-mail!

We used to write REAL letters, with pens and paper and postage that took some real effort. E-mail is the only part of technology I "get". (We didn't weren't that good at real letters either, most of them were started one day and finished several weeks later and mailed several weeks after that! It was not uncommon to get a letter that included at least 2 major holidays.)

I was going to write about my experience at quilt judging. Just a few weeks ago I was a scribe for the judges at our local quilt show. To be honest, although it was educational, it was also a bit like watching grass grow..... for TEN hours. Maybe another time.

Instead I have decided to write to you about my pet peeves. Why you ask? Because someone cut me off this morning while they were driving and texting, completely oblivious to the fact that they almost caused an accident. That drives me crazy. So, because of that, I am in kind of a mood, and Karen has given me an audience. (Up until now, Karen was also unaware that Bernie HAD any real Pet Peeves!)

A few of my Pet Peeves in no particular order.

• The aforementioned texting or cell phone use while driving (I don't get the whole texting phenomena anyway, if you need to tell me something, call me.. but not while driving)
• Garish lighting in department store fitting rooms... wouldn't more flattering lighting sell more clothes? (I can attest to Bernies complete dread of clothes shopping, she has emailed me volumes on the subject and that was before she was slated to be Mother-of-the-Bride this summer).
• People who use "supposably" which isn't even a word, instead of "supposedly". Same goes for "irregardless" which should be "regardless" (.... wait a minute, I think I do that...)
• General rudeness, texting (there it is again) or checking a Blackberry in the middle of a conversation or talking out loud in church or the library???
• Running out of bobbin thread with 6" left to sew. That's a killer. (see why we are friends!)

There are more, but I didn't want you to think of me as a complainer, I'm pretty easy going. (That may be the understatement of the century! Bernie is the definition of "easy going". She has been known to eat Thanksgiving dinner on paper plates. Her youngest son wore his "He-Man" pjs to school because he wanted to and her recent house guests came to visit in December and didn't leave until the end of FEBRUARY!)

Surely you have some Pet Peeves of your own... here's your chance to tell the world, or at least those reading this blog, by leaving a comment. I know I feel better, so will you.

Bernie.

What Do You See?

I want all of you to look at this quick snapshot of a project that I have been working on and tell me what you see. Obviously it is a work in progress, some of the blocks have been stitched, some still need to be trimmed, but you get the idea. It will be 9 blocks that measure 8 inches each. Once the blocks are stitched together there will be very little space between the flowers. I have a simple border planned, but it might not go any further than it is right now.

Opinions please?

This is my design for a floral fabric group from Timeless Treasures that features a flower design for each month of the year. They asked me to come up with a plan, and I thought several different ideas would be appropriate. This project is just one of them. After all, we don't all celebrate our birthdays in the same way. I think consumers would like an assortment of projects to choose from. The other reason I thought a variety of projects would be appropriate is that a the prints that you don't see here have a white background, they look silly on the black base fabric.

I think that the large flower template is the perfect place to show off the individual prints. I like the way that the black background blends in and the flowers "pop". I also think this would make a great table topper, perhaps even on your patio table... maybe in a few months, because this is what my patio table looks like now!

I want all of you reading this to give me your honest opinion of this work in progress, post a comment. What do you think of this design? The reason I am asking is that I sent the working photo (above) to Timeless and they told me to put the project on the back burner because to them, it looks like snakes. - snakes! Question marks, I can see..... snakes?

Have I been snowed in for too long or does someone in New York need therapy?

You decide.

I can take it.

6 to 10 inches???

Meet my snow removal crew.

Otherwise known as my husband and son. These guys aren't professionals, which explains why they waited until the snow stopped falling before they started trying to remove it.

Our local weather people predicted that we would be getting somewhere between 6 and 10 inches of snow with this latest winter blizzard. I wasn't happy about it, but the truck and my guys can handle 6-10 inches.

We woke up today to TWENTY TWO inches of snow and no power. Opening the shop was out of the question for several reasons. The most important one is that we couldn't GET there.

That probably seems reasonable, considering the volume of snow on the ground, but we live NEXT DOOR to the shop! It is a mere 650 feet from the house and as you can see from the photo, we own a plow!

Today I learned that you can't plow 22 inches of snow. It is just too much. We also live on a hill, so there is the question of exactly where do you plow it to?

Starting at 6am, my snow team began plowing and salting and shoveling and scraping their way to the bottom of the hill. I offered to help, but the third shovel was at the shop (remember, the power was off and there wasn't much else I could do). After much deliberation I trudged over the hill to the shop to check on things (heat, lights, etc) and shoveled my way back to the top of the driveway. That's my path - just one shovel width wide - that you see in the photos.

It is now TEN hours later and my snow team has almost cleared the driveway and they still have the entire parking lot to deal with.

Thankfully, tomorrow is Sunday and the shop will be closed. That gives us a whole extra day to deal with all of this white stuff. The bad news is, they are predicting snow for Wed., Thurs., Fri., AND Sat.

I hope they are wrong!

Sewn

All work and no play makes Karen a very dull girl. It also makes me cranky. Lately my job has been 99% computer and paperwork and 1% sewing. I love my job because of the sewing, not because of the paperwork.

Today after I caught up on overdue to-do list I decided that enough was enough. I designed, stitched and wrote the instructions for this bunny pillow, the newest addition to our Button Pillow series. The carrots are actually buttons and the carrot tops are a row of green ball fringe. Remember ball fringe from the ...... 60's? Our local customers can expect to see the pattern and kits for this project in the shop very soon. Once I create the UPC codes the patterns will be ready to ship as well.

This project started last fall at Quilt Market as Debby and I were selecting the lacy trims to embellish our romantic crazy patch project. I spied the bolt of green ball fringe and something clicked. I insisted upon adding a bolt to out order. Deb thought I was nuts. The idea for those carrot tops has been brewing for several months now and I am happy with the way it turned out. It is just what I wanted, a quick sense of accomplishment - geez that feels good!