Merry Christmas

This year I am excited to be spending Christmas with my family. My Dad, Robert and step mum Trish have joined us from New Zealand and our daughter Cara has come home from London, UK. Of course Christmas in Australia, is summertime and so we also wind down for our summer holidays now.

As a young girl, I lived in Canada for a couple of years so I have experienced a White a Christmas, but for me the warm sun, and lazy days are the norm at this time of the year.  Last night we wandered into the city centre after dinner to enjoy the different decorations. first stop was Crown where there was a delightful display that came to life every half hour. The big tradition is the Myer windows. Myer is a national department shop here in Australia and each year the windows in the city are decorated, telling a selected Christmas story over around 8 windows. The displays are beautiful and always feature animation of some sort. The last window features a traditional scene. 

When our older children were young we would go to look at around 1am, otherwise the line to see the windows is more than an hour long. Sadly last night the line was very long, so we went inside the shop and enjoyed another tradition, coffee and cake at Brunetti. This cafe has served the people of Melbourne for decades and in recent times the family has opened branches all over. 

Coffee finished and we headed off to the Town Hall where we were surprised by a wonderful light show projected onto the Town Hall.  It was like a mini taste of White Night and it was great. I took a video but it was pretty bad, so here is the professional one. http://youtu.be/yhP1hffE1ek

Finally we made our way back to the car, naturally we stopped for a nice drink (at a bar by the river), and gelato. 

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and we will be joined by close friends to celebrate with our Christmas dinner. I hope you all have a great Christmas too.

Sewing Needle Knowledge

Have you ever considered that one of the most frustrating things about sewing, is actually the simplest to resolve?  I am as guilty as the next sewer when it comes to pushing my humble sewing machine needle to work harder than it should and cursing when it doesn't work out.  The weirdest thing is that the sewing machine needle is actually really cheap to replace, and when you get the right needle and thread combo then your sewing goes like a dream.

I discovered this great video about needles and wanted to share it with you.  I personally prefer the Inspira brand of needles.  I find that there is almost no faulty needles in a pack, and the brands in this video are definitely not as reliable!  Anyway whichever brand you use, are you using the right kind of needle, that is the question.

Take a look here:  Sewing Needle Knowledge

Twelve Days of Christmas Decoration Tutorial

I love the song Twelve Days of Christmas, and have wanted to make a quilt with the blocks representing the song for ages.  I have no time to actually do that, but when I found this great Machine Embroidery redwork design, I just had to stitch it out.

The designs can be purchased here.

Here's how I made my cute (and fast!) wall hanging.

You will need

Embroidery Designs

Twelve 8" Embroidery hoops (just cheap ones because they are simply the frames).

Twelve 10"squares of green felt.

Twelve 10" squares of white fabric.

Tear away stabiliser

Red thread (I used Wonderfil) & Bobbin fill

Circular Attachment tool for you machine (if you have one)

White construction thread

Sewing and Embroidery Machine

Chalk maker

Begin by stitching out the designs on the white fabric.  Be sure to centre the designs to make it easier when cutting the 10" square down to a circle.

Using one 10" square of felt and one embroidery stitch out, layer the stitch out on top of the felt, centring the design on the felt.

Using white construction thread, and your circular attachment tool, sew the white fabric to the felt.  I used a straight stitch, and set my circular attachment to a 16cm diameter.  

Keep the work attached to the circular attachment tool, and use scissors to trim back the excess white fabric.

Re-thread with red thread.

Select a decorative stitch, and sew around the outside edge of the circle (this is why you don't remove it from the circular attachment tool!).

Remove the tear away from the back of the work.

Use a chalk maker and trace around the outside edge of the wooden embroidery hoop.

Use scissors and trim around 1/2" wider than the chalk line you drew.  This will allow extra fabric to make it possible to mount the design into the hoop.

Clam the design in the hoop (you can use extra glue on the hoop edge to help the fabric stay in place if you wish).

Use ribbon to loop through the hoops to string them together.

I intended my design to be hung in two vertical columns, but when I asked Louise at the shop to photograph it she hung it from side to side, which looks really cute too!

Enjoy!

How to make Felt Christmas Gift Bags

I'm on a bit of a roll with making Christmas craft at the moment, and with the shops Mega Christmas Workshop coming up, I wanted to design a quick to make gift bag. The result is a pretty and versatile Felt Bag.

You will need the following:

1 x strip of red felt 21" x 8" (although this can be anywhere between 6" - 10" depending on how high you want your bag to be)
1 x circle 7" diameter of red felt
1 x strip of white felt around 4" x 25"
1 x button
1 x 4" length of fine ribbon (red)
1 pack of Silver Hot Ribbon Art
Spool of metallic variegated thread
Red construction thread
Fusible webbing
Hot Fix Crystals
Hot Fix Crystal applicator
Sewing Machine
Open Toe Foot
1/4 Foot
AccuQuilt Go Fabric Cutter (or cut circles using a compass and scissors)
AccuQuilt Die # 55012
Chalk Marker
Iron

Begin by threading your machine with Decorative metallic thread (bobbin fill works best in the bobbin), and using an assortment of decorative sewing machine stitches sew in rows down the length of white felt.  You need to make sure that the entire strip is covered with decorative stitches.

Iron Fusible web to the wrong side of the white felt strip.

Use your Go! cutter and the 2" and 3" circle's on the die, cut three small and three large circles from the decorated white strip.  Cut just one layer at a time, because the felt is thicker than normal fabric.

If you don't have a Go! (and you really should), then go ahead and just use a compass to draw out the circles onto the felt, then cut them out using scissors.

Use a chalk maker to rule grid lines on the 21" x 8" strip of red felt.  I used a 3" grid.  This will simply allow you to place your decorated circles evenly.

Cut lengths of the Hot Ribbon Art ribbon to make the strings for the baubles.

Use a hot iron to fuse the Ribbon and the baubles into position.

If you find that the baubles want to lift off the felt (mine did) just use a couple of pins to help hold the baubles into position.  It is more important that the ribbon fuses since this will not be sewn.

Choose a blanket stitch on your machine.  I used a simple one that didn't sew back on itself, because I didn't want an issue with my metallic thread.

Put the open toe foot onto your machine, and stitch around the edge of the bauble to hold them into position.  Because my felt was fairly thick I didn't need to use a stabiliser, but if you are using thinner fabric you may need to put a tear away stabiliser under your work to allow it to feed smoothly through the machine.

Re thread the machine with a red construction thread.  With right sides together, fold the red felt strip in half, bringing the two 8" sides together.  Sew a 1/4" seam to form the body of the bag.

Pin the base of the bag, making sure that the right sides are together (this will place the seam inside the bag).  Use a 1/4" seam and sew the base into position.  Here's a hit, sew with the circular base under the sides, this will make it easier to machine smoothly.

Use the machine to stitch a loop of ribbon to form the closure, and hand stitch the button into position.

Now have some fun and add some bling to the bag, with Hot Fix Crystals!

All done!

I will be teaching this bag during the Christmas Mega Workshop at Ringwood Sewing Centre, where I will have some other variations including a cute santa, reindeers & sleigh and more.

Decorated Christmas Gift Bags

I love to re-use those little brown paper bags that some shops use!  I simply raid my supply of useful (but unused?!?) sewing supplies, things like trim, braid, buttons etc and fire up the hot glue gun.

This year I was enchanted by the range of very wide ribbons at my local Costco, and grabbed a couple of rolls.  Trouble is I am wicked (not in a good way) at making gift bows, so I used the bow to decorate one of my brown paper bags.

If you'd like to decorate a plain brown bag like me, here's how:

Begin with preparing your ribbon.  If you are using wire edge ribbon you will need to pull out the "wire" from one edge.  Do this by pulling the end of the "wire", and remove it all.

Now using a ruffler foot on your sewing machine, or a gathering foot if you don't own a ruffling foot, ruffle the edge of the ribbon.  I stitched around 1/2" inch from the edge of the ribbon (the edge I removed the wire from), but you will need to work out a measurement that suits the width of your ribbon.

Draw a line on the bag using a pencil so you will glue it on straight.  

Plug in your hot glue gun, and let it warm up before gluing the gathered ribbon in place.

There are many different ways to decorate the rest of the bag, but I used a black marking pen, and drew some curvy lines towards one side, then I made some yo-yo's to glue onto the bag.  I adore the Clover range of sewing stuff, and the yo-yo maker is always in use in my sewing room.  I used the "small" size, because it suited the design I wanted to create, but there are several sizes in the range.  you will also need some fabric, scissors, needle and thread.

You will need to make a few Yo-Yo's depending on your design.  I used four for the design you see in the photo.

Use your hot glue gun to glue the Yo-yo's into position.

This is just one of many ideas for decorating your Christmas Bags.  If you are interested in more ideas for decorating for Christmas you might want to check out our Mega Christmas Workshop coming up on Saturday 6 December at Ringwood Sewing Centre, Melbourne, Australia.

Free Pattern

As the weeks go by and it get's closer to Christmas I am terribly aware of how much more sewing time I have.  It is a horrible thing to confess but I am a serious procrastinator and if I can put off starting something until the last frantic moment I seem to do it.  It often ends in tears but I've been that way for so long I'm not altogether sure I can change the habit of a life time!

Anyhow for many of you there is still time to get one last Christmas project done, and I found this delightful pattern which I'd love to share with you.  I think I'd be tempted to make some of the blocks for a table runner too!

To get your own copy of this pattern you just need to join our mail list and it will be sent to you!

Click Here!

Where Has the Year Gone!?!

Oh my, it was not my intention to leave blogging so long.  Every week I have thought "I must get onto that", but one thing after another has kept me from all those good intentions.

Soon we will be moving our blog, because it will be integrated with our new look website, which is currently under development.  However I thought I'd recap my mad, mad year for you so you had and idea of why I've not been blogging for months and months.

In January my darling daughter was home for Christmas. She lives in the UK and so coming back home (down under to Australia) is very expensive for her.  We had a fabulous, crazy busy time which must have been good because she is coming home AGAIN this Christmas!  Also in January we had to replace our darling Julie, who, just two days before Christmas was diagnosed with cancer. The news was very, very bad.

Our dear Julie is on the right of this picture with (left to right:  Cathy, Me, Jim)

In February it was the calm before the storm.  Thankfully the wonderful Louise came into our lives, and took over Julie's role in the shop.  Louise buzzes with energy, matched by her talent and she is a wonderful, wonderful addition to the shop.  But it was hectic trying to get in training before April, which was looming as a busy month.

In March, darling Julie lost her short battle with Cancer, too soon.  It was heartbreaking for all of us, and goodness knows how her beloved daughter Michelle managed things.

Our European holiday took in London, Bath, Rome, Athens, Olympus, Istanbul, Izmar, Dubai.

In April, Louise went on holiday (arranged before she came to work for us), and I had my 2014 National Digitising Retreat.  We also had the huge Australasian Quilt Convention and Jim and I left for a huge 27 day holiday in Europe.

In May we were on that amazing holiday!  Drinking in the Ancient Roman Culture, and visiting so many amazing places.  When we got home Cathy broke the news that she was leaving to take a job closer to her home.  Thankfully every cloud has a silver lining and the magnificent Mary joined us.  Mary and Louise had been co-workers in a previous life and so we quickly fell into a great rhythm.

In June Leah joined us taking on a role as In-house tutor.  She took over all the new owners classes, and began working with me, Louise and Mary to develop more classes that will be released in 2015.  Leah came from elsewhere in the industry (no names mentioned) and has many, many years of experience.

In July we had a big show at Jeff's Shed.  I don't think anyone knows the real name of the show since all us locals just call it the "Jeff's Shed Show".  Go figure.  Also in July we announced we had taken on the Bernina brand of products.  Big, big news!

In August we hardly stood still, and seemed to rush from one thing to anther - where did August Go?

A once in a life time experience was a banquet dinner on the Great Wall of China. This is an event that has to be approved by the Chinese Government and is so rare.  We were very blessed indeed to have had this arranged for us by Ernest and his staff at the Blessington Group.

In September Jim and I took of to China as a guest of Blessington, the group that distributes many of our major brands. We had two weeks of excitement travelling around this exotic country.  We also had a weekend convention on the Sunshine coast. Both of these were wonderful, but took extra effort from us to find people to care for our disabled son. Not an easy task!  More stress than I care to mention.

Jim and I collecting an Achievement Award at the Blessington National Marketing Convention 2014.

In October ... .we had two shows, Stitch! Craft Alive and the Stitches and Craft Show.

Now were are exhausted.  Jim is like the walking dead, and I have completely lost my  mojo.  No wonder, it has been such a busy year.

I hope you will now forgive the lack of blog posts.  However I do have something for you in this post....

In a couple of weeks the world will see the launch of the new "Go!Big! from Accuquilt.  This amazing electric fabric cutter is great.  We got to see it at Convention last month and I was impressed at the detail that has gone into the design, not only is it easy to use they have thought of everything safety wise too.

Here is a free pattern to celebrate the launch of the GO! BIG!

Fabric Frolic Quilt

Finished quilt top drying in the warm summer sun.

I am a world champion procrastinator! I always leave things as long as possible before getting around to them, and this has always been a problem of mine.  Having confessed this, I am unlikely to change, so it is just how I am.

Today, after putting it off for months, I finished off the Ringwood Sewing Centre's version of the Fabric Frolic Quilt for 2014.  Each shop made the blocks for each other last year, so all I had to do was put together a quilt design.  I was absolutely stumped, and it took me so long to find inspiration, finally it came from Pinterest (isn't it great), and once I saw something like what I imagined I was off.  The result is a great looking quilt, although it remains a hexagon, which might cause some people worry, it doesn't concern me at all, it would look great on the centre of a bed, on the wall and even as a table quilt.

Right now the wet top is drying flat in the yard to remove some nasty size issues (sometimes happens when there are so many contributors to a quilt), and goodness knows if it will be quilted before the Frolic begins, but I do hope to twist Jim's arm and get him to whip it onto the Handi Quilter Fusion frame at the shop.  He will use Pro-Stitcher and have it done in no time at all!

This is the Ringwood Sewing Centre block, made using a stain glass window technique.  The theme for the Fabric Frolic is Crystallogy and all our blocks were inspired by a particular Gem.  Ours is inspired by the Opal.

I wanted to take some time and share on my blog, just how the process goes in terms of putting it together, so a photo How To.  When you get your pattern during the frolic it will have all the sizes you need to cut of the fabric, so this is just something to show you how it was done.

I began with 7 hexagons, with the longest measurement (through the middle) of 12 1/2".

First I prepared the background and star points.  You will need to have a 60 degree triangle ruler that is at least 12 1/2" long!

Cut you background setting fabric (the gold colour), in 6" strips.
Cut the framing fabric (I used a stripe and a pattern) in 1 1/2" strips.

Sew one strip of patterned fabric on either side of the background setting fabric.  This makes it quicker to cut the triangles, and saves quite a bit of wasted fabric.  You will still get some waste, but not as much as if you only did one side of the fabric!

Now, using the 60 degree triangle ruler, cut triangles that are the same measurement as one side of the hexagon, my sides were 5 3/4, and I cut at 5 1/2, but regret this, and advise you to cut a little bigger rather than smaller, it is easier to trim off excess fabric once the triangles are ready to sew in position.

Your triangles will be assembled in pairs using a 1/4" seam.

You will make six sets for every hexagon block you make.  Set these aside for a few minutes, and cut the fabric that you are using to make the star points.  I used black.

Cut the same size triangles as you cut from the pieced fabric, to 6" triangles.  The cutting instructions will be given to you when you pick up your pattern from Ringwood Sewing Centre during the Fabric Frolic.

Using a 1/4" seam sew three black triangles to the hexagon block.

 

 Assemble the three side units, by sewing the setting diamonds to the black star triangles.

Sew the prepared units to the block as shown above.

Repeat this process for all your blocks.

Lay your blocks out to work out the arrangement that you like the most.

You will make the large setting diamonds using the same method that you used to make the diamonds within each hexagon block, and the cutting sizes in the instructions you will receive during the frolic.

Happy New Year!

My husband, Jim tells me that he finds it hard to find the perfect gift for me!  Mental note to self, drop more hints, leave pictures circled, and if in doubt just tell him what I want.

This year he struck gold with not one, not two but three great gifts.  The first was practical - my lovely (oh gosh I miss it) Samsung was faulting so it needed to be replaced, and it was, with the new iPhone 5.  Now I confess to having fallen in love with my Apple Mac, and it is my laptop of choice over my HP.  But since I use my Mac it made sense to go over to an iPhone because my Samsung didn't talk to my Mac.  While he was at it he upgraded a free iPad Mini and gave me that too.  Now all my technology should hook up and that will be more productive (forgive me Samsung).  

My third gift was low tech, a beautiful veggie garden.  It is a u-beaut (Australian for great) kit set job, that went together like a dream.  The whole garden is enclosed with insect screens which should eliminate the need to use pesticides, and in the cooler months there are vinyl screens to turn it into a hot house.  I've finished moving all my plants from the vertical gardens we made about a month ago, and planted lots of seeds.  I think Jim is going to put in a watering system, and so all we will need to do is wait to harvest all the goodies. 

We had a lovely Christmas eve with family and friends, and with the shop re-opening today it seems like forever since Christmas Day!  

I've got so much to do to prep for classes beginning at the shop in just 2 weeks, and of course the digitising retreat.  Time to stop wasting time on Pinterest (gosh isn't it easy to spend hours being inspired?), and get on with samples.