October 2015 Foot of the Month Club

It sure has been a long time since last post... but finally: here is the picture of our next 'Foot of the Month' project. The featured foot will be "Narrow Hemmer Foot" and the actual project is to hem napkins with this foot. But the napkins needed a placemat to go with them. The project came from the Brother website, and I just modified it a little bit :)

The club will be on Wednesday, October 14th. 2015 

at 10am - 12 noon or 2 - 5 pm.

Supplies:

v  ‘Hemmer’ -foot for the machine

v  Sewing machine with its accessories

v  ½ yd of solid color fabric for 2 napkins

v  3/8 yd of prequilted fabric for 2 placemats

v  ¼ yd of orange fabric for binding and pumpkins

v  Fusible cut-away stabilizer

v  Orange, and green embroidery threads

v  Monofilament thread

v  Matching thread for napkins

v  80/12 sharp needle

v  General sewing supplies

September 4th & October 2nd, 2014 Serger Club

Next serger club project at Quilts and Lace LLC will be a coat hanger cover. The featured techniques are serger tucks, lace insertion and ruffles. We will have kits available, but here is also the supply list:

v      One 6.5” x 42-44” piece of fabric *

v      Optional: Two 2 ½” wide strips of fabric (WOF) or eyelet or lace for ruffle *

v      Scrap of fabric for testing settings *

v      13” edging lace *

v      2 spools pretty thread, such as machine embroidery thread – different colors ea; can also use serger thread or woolly nylon

v      1 spool serger thread

v      Coat hanger (this is also your pattern)

v      Fabric marking pen

v      Optional: fabric folding pen

v      Rotary cutter and ruler

v      Generic sewing supplies

v      Serger w/ standard or clear foot

* These items are available as a kit.

New Classes added in 3rd Quarter Schedule:
Rie Hawkins-Lutz will be teaching several fun classes in August - September - here the pictures:

 "Bugs in My Garden" quilt on Tuesday, August 26th, 10 am - 1pm.

"Hold Everything" bag on Wednesday, August 6th, 10am - 5pm.

"Classmate" tote on Tuesday, September 9th, 10am - 1pm.

1st Quarter 2014 Class Projects at Quilts and Lace LLC

The first quarter of 2014 calendar is filling up fast, I am running out of dates to put classes on - I need another 1 or 2 days to be added to each week, please... :)
Well, since that is not likely to happen, I will just need to delay some of my planned projects until the next quarter. Here are pictures of couple of the ones I have planned so far for the January - March 2014 projects:

The Ultimate Serger Tote

"Quilting with Embroidery Machine" - table runner

Stitcher's Garden 2 Quilt

Almost 3 years has passed since my last post - wow! We have been busy opening a sewing store in Melbourne Florida, selling Baby Lock and Brother sewing machines as well as sewing supplies, teaching classes etc.... and most of all: LOVING IT!! Our store is called Quilts and Lace LLC - yes, like the name of this blog! Actually, the shop was called after the blog.

This is the entire Quilt

I have not taken much pictures of my projects, but today we thought that it would be a good idea to post pictures of an applique quilt that I have been teaching in our store. The name of this quilt is Stitcher's Garden 2.

Block #1

Block #2

Block #3

Block #4

Block #5

Block #6

Block #7

Block #8

Block #9

Block #10

Block #11

Block #12

Block #13

Tucks and Folds Jacket

I am very bad with my updates to this blog... sorry...  But I have done quite a bit sewing and teaching since the last post.  One of my projects is this jacket that I made for the 17th annual Myrtle Beach Quilt Gala, which was held on February 25th and 26th, 2011.  I was inspired by Jenny Rayment's books on fabric folding and after playing with different designs I created this jacket.  I used only two cotton fabrics to make it (+ cotton batiste for lining). 

I was shocked when I was told that this jacket won the first prize in the 'Wearables' category - wow!  Still can't believe it...   In addition to this prize, I also won the Blue Ribbon AND Best of Show for my version of "Jenny's Heritage" quilt in the 'Large Quilts' category!!  Pictures of the quilt are in my earlier posts.

Here is the picture of the back of the jacket:

And here is a close-up on the sleeve:

... and a close-up of the yoke:

Fall classes at Accent Sewing

I am so exited again to be able to teach several classes at Accent Sewing this fall!!

We will do a few serger projects, like the reversible apron on the left.

Another serger project is a plastic bag keeper on the right.

I just love to play with sergers! And this project (picture below) definitely qualifies as a 'play' - this baby bonnet has serger lace in the brim and serger smocking on the bonnet for gathers. The bonnet is done almost entirely with a serger, only the ribbons were attached by sewing machine.

I will also teach heirloom sewing projects, as the sampler quilt and celtic table runner.

Texture Magic Purse

Texture Magic by Superior Threads is sooo cool material! I played a bit with this shrinking fabric and used a pattern for 'Textured Tote' to create this purse. I experimented with different stitches, some freemotion and some straight lines, and decided a cross-hatched wavy stitch on this tote. I also taught a class on this at Accent Sewing during last spring.

One of my favorite experiment was done on off-white silk, with shiny Designer 6 -thread in bobbin and using a cross-hatched feather stitch. I think I will use that on some clothing later...

Silly Yo-yos

Some times one must do silly things... and this is an example of just that. I had purchased several of the yo-yo makers and got hooked into making a whole lot of them while watching tv. Then I saw this design in a book to decorate a sweatshirt. Of course, being me, I just could not follow the instructions, but had to make some modifications again: instead of machine applique and hand embroidery, I scanned the design into my embroidery software and digitized it, and withe couple quick hoopings the base of the design was done. Then I just added the yo-yo's for the hair. I also taught a class on this sweatshirt at Accent Sewing last spring.

Finnish Quilt Show

I noticed in early May that there was a quilt show in Mikkeli, Finland during the summer, so I gathered some fabrics, books and magazines for inspiration, and here is the result: it is an adaptation of Lizzy Allen's Black & White Dreams -quilt. I digitized the applique heart in embroidery software and used my 6-needle BabyLock BPM6 embroidery machine to create the center block. The 3-D flowers and the black quilting are also done with the embroidery machine. The rest of the quilting is done as free-motion quilting using my Bernina artista 730E (with BSR, of course). The quilt was on display at the quilt show and it even received few votes from the audience! A picture of this quilt was also included in the September issue of finnish Tilkkulehti.

Another applique project

This is an older project which I did about 3 years ago. It hangs in the hallway of our Finnish house during the summer time. It uses various applique techniques and surprice: is not totally black & white.

Summer classes

I spent the summer in Finland and enjoyed the lovely, warm weather we had. Of course, the most enjoyable part of the visit was to see my family and spend lovely time with them!

But I was also lucky enough to get an opportunity to teach sewing classes, too!

In early July we travelled to Vaasa where I taught a 2-day machine embroidery class to a lovely group of 8 very talented ladies.

Then late July we travelled to Oulu for a 3-day class with another very talented and lovely group of 12 ladies. In Oulu I taught one day about silk ribbon embroidery with a sewing machine, one day various machine applique techniques (the picture of our project is on left), and on the 3rd day we were sewing a party dress for a doll (pictures of the dress and silk ribbon embroidery are posted in my earlier posts under Martha Pullen projects).

And last but least, the quilt guild from Imatra came to our house in early August for an afternoon with serger techniques.

Gift from a friend

A good friend gave me in November this center panel, a lovely picture of a beach. Finally this week I made it into a little wallhanging and it now has found a place on our loft wall. This is a very unusual project for me - it is blue!!! The fabric in the inner border is also a gift - from a lady in Finland during our Yahoo patchwork advent calendar exchange last year. And then I just happened to have a fat quarter of a fabric with sail boats for the outer border. The quilting is freemotion stippling using a home sewing machine (my lovely Bernina aurora with stitch regulator...).

Serger Play

Accent Sewing had this real cool book "Serge and Merge Quilts". Lots of projects and tips how to use a serger with quilting. I made two of the right away and here is the "Down the Pathways" quilt, where a serger was used for embellishment. I also made another one, but again forgot to take a picture before taking it to the store... I will be teaching classes on both of these serger quilts - cool!

I also made a neat purse using a serger, but... you guessed it... it is at Accent Sewing and I will teach a class on it this spring.

Another serger play... I made these two scarves totally using a serger, and will be teaching a class on them in February.

Pillows, pillows, pillows...

I made a bunch of these pillows last fall, but forgot to take pictures. Then they were in display at Accent Sewing Inc. for several months, and I just recently brought them home.
All of these are done using embroidery machine for some designs and appliques, the instructions (with my modifications) came from Jenny Haskins' book "Jenny's Heritage".

Show time...

Myrtle Beach Quilt Gala is coming up at end of February and I have made couple new items to enter to this show.
In the 'wearables' category I will have a Bargello and Seminole jacket, which I made using (somewhat...) instructions from an older Machine Embroidery magazine. The bottom part is quilted using an embroidery machine, however, the quilting is done with grey thread, so it does not show well in the picture.
In the 'Challenge' category I will have an heirloom quilt, made using dupioni silks and cotton laces. Some of the quilting is done with embroidery machine and some is freemotion.
I will also enter an older quilt (see the very first post on this blog) in the small quilts category.
In March I will have the Jenny's Heritage quilt and my Cathedral Windows Jacket in display of the Charleston Quilt show...

UPDATE: Won a 2nd prize for my heirloom quilt and a 2nd prize for my Dragonfly wallhanging. The Bargello jacket did not win a thing...

Also, won 1st prize for my Cathedral Windows jacket in Charleston; the quilt did not win anything.

Serving Apron

One of those quite useless items, but I liked making it. This serving apron is made of linen and it has a cotton lace in the edge, as well as faggoting stitches around the hem.

Pillowcases

Feels almost like I have had a pillowcase factory going this fall... I have made several pillowcases as gifts and then this one I made just for fun. It has appliqued hearts and pretty ruffle.

Travel Bags for Shoes

I made couple travel bags for shoes, this one is the ladies version made out of cotton batiste using heirloom techniques. The little hearts are shoe sachets to be placed inside the toes of the shoes to keep them not being crushed.

And this is the men's version of the shoe travel bag and shoe sachets.