Finally Back to Normal

The past two weeks have been so busy.  Lucky we had a holiday here in Australia yesterday.  It was Anzac Day, and holiday shared with New Zealand, to remember those soldiers that have fought, and died preserving both of our democracies and way of life.  We spent the day as a family, visiting our adult son James who lives about 50 minutes away in a country town called "Warburton".

I'm dying to tell you all about our new product range, AccuQuilter.  This product is a range of portable cutting machines and dies especially for cutting fabric.  We had training this week and I was fortunate to be able to bring one of the cutting machines home with me, along with a few dies that enabled me to get started on some samples for the shop.  Jim has promised that he and Julie will quilt them for me on the Avante 18 using Pro Stitcher (He is so multi skilled!) which will be great, because as you know quilting does take a while!

There isn't much waste at all since you can easily line up your fabric with the blades in the die cutter.

I decided that I wanted to make a quilt using the Parallelogram die, in a zig zag pattern, so last night I set up the Go! Cutter and found some scraps of fabric.   My son Kevin, who is 13 (and is intellectually disabled), was in charge of cutting and did a great job!

This morning I was able to get my columns pieced, and pressed so that I will be able to pin them ready for assembly either later today or sometime over the weekend.

I used the AccuQuilt Parallelogram 3 1/4" W x 3 1/2" H (Product # 5004) to cut the parallelograms.  To make this design you need equal quantities of mirror image parallelograms.  Simply cut the parallelograms using the AccuQuilt (yes this die can fit on the Baby Go!  too).

Place one white Parallelogram on top of one printed parallelogram.  Notice that there will be a small "ear" at the end of the raw edge that will be the seam line. 

This small ear will mean that the edges of the blocks form a straight line when stitched and pressed.

I assembled the parallelogram's in pairs, then sewed the pairs together to form columns.

I pressed all my seams towards the darker fabric (no the white), and this did make the columns more tricky to piece, so take time to pin the columns well so that you get neat points, or press your seams so that one column runs up and one runs down.  This will make getting good points easier.

 

As you see it isn't finished yet, and if I was making it to keep rather than as a sample for the shop, I would have made it much bigger (I needed to make a sample that will hang in the shop).  Hopefully it will be all finished by Monday ready for quilting next week.

All AccuQuilter product will be added to the shop website www.michellessewingbasket.com.au over the coming week or so.

 

 

 

 

A Great Day to go to the AQC!

Yesterdays drizzle has cleared to an invigorating blue sky.  It is the kind of day that fills you with energy no matter how tired you are.

Today I'm going to forget about the housework that hasn't been done for months (I figure, what's another day?) and head off on the train as soon as young Kevin get's picked up for school.  I might even take our camera so I can take some photos (although I'm pretty sure we can't take pictures of the quilts so maybe not something I need to carry about?).  I'm planning on taking some time on the AccuQuilt stand.  We will be stocking this product, which is now distributed by the lovely Ernest, and his Blessington Group.  Training is next week, and after looking at their website I can see that it is something I will love.  I am hoping to get the Studio set up for myself and can see that it will really speed up the whole cutting/prep process.  Some of the patterns on the AccuQuilt sight are really great .. what do I mean some of the patterns ... they all look good.

I did get some of the Instruction sheets for the projects from the 2013 National Digitizing Event so if you are keen to digitize some of the projects you can now buy the instructions.  There are five TruEmbroidery projects so I know that owners of TruEmbroidery will love those.

So that's my plans for today.  Better get moving.

2013 National Digitizing Retreat

I can hardly believe that the 2013 National Digitizing Event is over.  I have been working on this project for five months, and I'm sure you have all experienced the kind of fatigue that you feel when something that you work and plan for so hard, is over.  So this afternoon I'm delaying getting on with some work I need to do to tie up some loose ends.

The really great news is that everything about the retreat was wonderful!  Right from the minute everyone started to arrive there was an excited buzz in the air.  All the delegates got along so well, and seemed to really love the projects, even when they needed to focus really hard to achieve a good result.  I'd like to publically thank the Blessington Group, owned by the wonderful Ernest, and his "right arm" Di, who threw their resources into this project right from the start.  Their belief in me was invaluable.  I'd also like to thank Cheryl Bryant and Letitia Moore from Blessington who came and taught for me for two days.

So I know that there are lots of people who couldn't attend wondering what it was all about.  Well last year I had the idea that we needed to have a Retreat for customers who digitize using 5D and TruEmbroidery.  I took a deep breath and organised this event. 

There were two classrooms, and the event went for three days at a hotel in the city (Melbourne, Australia).  I never really got my act together with regards to advertising the event, so it was not surprising that I struggled with numbers, but with a customer flying from New Zealand, and others from ACT, WA, SA and TAS there was no turning back.  On Sunday, the first day of the Retreat I taught an all day class for guests wanting to digitize The Song of Angles, this included some intense instruction on design splitting for customers with 5D and innovative ideas for digitizing a two part design for those with TruE.  Meantime my darling husband Jim was taking boot camp classes for students wanting to brush up their basic skills with 5D Design Creator and 5D Quilt Design Creator.

 

The Song of Angels. 

 

 On Monday there were four classes, taught by Cheryl and Letitia.  We had a gorgeous Stain Glass Design, a shadow applique design called "Pretty Lady", a design creating insertion lace, and a thread velvet design.

Shadow Applique on Lingerie bag.

 

Stain Glass Patchwork

 

Insertion Lace Design on Pillow Slip

 

Thread Velvet silk slippers

Tuesday was another action packed day with four more classes, a Cutwork design, two applique designs (owls and elephants), foundation pieced crazy patchwork in the hoop and finally a Feathered Trapunto wall quilt using 5D Quilt Design Creator.

Owl Applique

Elephant Applique

 

Box made using Foundation Pieced Crazy Patchwork Blocks

Another view of the fabric box made with Foundation Pieced Crazy Patchwork Blocks

Cutwork Tulip Table Cloth

Feather Trapunto Quilt
 

Due to the success of the 2013 National Digitizing Retreat, I'm thrilled to say we will do it again next year!  So start saving your penny's and keep watching this spot to learn more details as they come to hand.

Meantime if you teach you may like to buy the "Digital Master Instructions" that come with my permission to copy and teach the lessons from the Retreat.  Customers too will be able to download digital copies of the instructions by the end of the weekend (I need a day or two to load them onto the website). DVD's will come, but it takes a bit longer to organise these so just keep watching my website for updates on stock of these www.michelleaitkendesigns.com.au.

I've also been asked to start scheduling webinar classes so that customers from overseas can do these classes with me.  I have decided that I will do this, and will endeavour to time the classes to suit customers in both North America, and Australia and New Zealand, more details on this as I organise the classes.  Keep watching the web site, www.michelleaitkendesigns.com.au.

 

Taa Daa, our Re-Constructed Green Bag is all Done

Today I've been sewing at home with my youngest son Kevin.  We have de-constructed and then re-constructed a "green" bag featuring a computer generated image that Kevin coloured in Microsoft Paint.

Kevin started by 'painting' a picture of a Dragon using Paint.
Next we unpicked just one side seam, and the seam's holding the straps onto the bag.
The paper backing was removed from our Magic Fabric, and we ironed the Dragon to set the ink.
Next I helped Kevin pin he panel into position so that the side's of the panel were hidden under the straps.
Kevin sewed around the picture using a 3.5mm long stitch and polyester thread on my Pfaff.

 

I helped by re-stitching the binding back up on the side of the bag that we opened.



And Kevin's bag is now complete.
I made a girls version too!

 

I love this project ... it would be a terrific class for kids to make their Mum special bags for Mother's Day!

Any shop owners out there reading this .... you can buy the Magic Fabric wholesale from MAD Patchwork, and customers can buy it from Michelle's Sewing Basket (although not online because right now we are working on a new site, if you need to buy online just email the shop at sales@michellessewingbasket.com.au.

Our new Parents/Kids club project samples are underway ....

I had planned such a nice Easter, with a lovely Lamb roast for lunch or dinner on Easter Sunday, and some beautiful Tasmanian Salmon for Good Friday.  Poor Jim was struck down with a nasty bout of gastro which had him in bed for a couple of days so he missed the salmon.   I was joking about him forfeiting his Easter Eggs, when I became ill on Easter Sunday.  Thankfully the good old Raspberry Juice worked a trick and killed off the nasty germs, but it has left me feeling rather dizzy.

Today is the first day that I felt like working, and so now instead of being ahead, I'm going to be pushing it to finish off all the samples before the National Digitizing Retreat.  I also have to get the samples made for the new Parents/Kids Club classes.

I've got a list of great projects, one of them is to use the computer to make fabric which is then appliqued onto those boring green shopping bags.  Kevin has a very short attention span, but I did get him in front of the computer for a while ... just long enough for him to colour in a Dragon picture using Microsoft Paint.

His Dragon came up beautifully, and I have printed two onto fabric, which just needs to be heat set.

 

So the next step is to de-construct a couple of "green" bags, ready for him to sew the Dragon Patches onto both side panels.