2013 in Review – part 2

My favorites from 2013:

Made sewing table for Bernina 820 for quilting:

Finally found a Singer Featherweight in my price range!  Yay!

Singer Featherweight 221

Just this month won a Gammill Charm.  It should come in mid-January.  I’m really excited, but REALLY need to make space for it.

Craftsy courses taken in 2013:

Wow!  Those are just the courses I have taken this year.  I have a few that I recently bought that are waiting to be viewed.  In review, I can honestly say it is money well spent.   As you can tell, I really focused on sewing and fit this year.  If you love learning new techniques and haven’t tried Craftsy, Do It!  You will love their class format.

So now it’s ‘out with the old, and in with the new.”  I wish you all a Happy New Year!

2013 in Review .. part 1

One of the main reasons I began blogging was to document my sewing and quilting progress.  I quickly forget things I have made once I give them away!  As I look back at 2013, I realize I need to do a better job of organizing my final photos.  So there’s one small resolution for 2014.  I did manage to document quite a few of my sewing and quilting projects.  My bragging board goes something like this….

Finishes:

 These are a few of my quilt finishes.   There are a few quilts missing.  One resolution is to improve my documentation of finishes.  I may have to create a separate ‘file folder’ for year end photos.

The Brasilian Dress by Rachal at House of Pinheiro.   You should visit her blog for the free pattern.

My Bostonian Bag.  I’m loving this and need to make another.

I have an Aeroplane Bag in progress.  Maybe that will by my next favorite.

Works in Progress:

The French Jacket

Hand pieced “Oriental Star”. This project began as practice to improve my hand piecing. I’m loving these blocks and have about a dozen or more. This will be an ongoing project until I have enough for a quilt top.

I made it half way through the Star Surround QAL. I have most of the main blocks together and still have quite a bit of piecing to do to finish this one.
See HappyQuiltingMelissa.blogspot.com for her next QAL starting January 2014

Bring Me Flowers BOM by Jen Kingswell
I’m way behind on this one and need to get back on track. This may be a 2015 finish for me. (Yeah, I do mean 2015!)

 

 

 

Marfy 2014/2015 Catalog

I would like to begin this post with a disclaimer … I’m not affiliated with Marfy in any way and receive no compensation for promoting them.  I’m just a little fascinated with their style and want to pass news to those of you who, like me, don’t have ready access to their patterns.

So, having said that, I received this in my inbox yesterday.  I’ve mentioned in the past that while Marfy catalogs are dear, they include free patterns which often make it well worth the cost.  Not to mention the fun of having these style books at hand to browse and be inspired.  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve pulled out my Marfy catalogs looking for inspiration on a style change I wanted to make.

Did you notice this catalog has TWENTY free patterns.  That’s many more than I’ve seen in the past.  Honestly, they are not all patterns I would use, but I think the patterns I do like make up the difference.  Here are a few of my favorites.  The center blouse is simple, classic and elegant.  I can see getting good use of that one for work.  And the dress at the far right is precious.   (The photo here is pretty small.  If you want a closer look, click the photo to go to Marfy’s site.)

And the shipping cost is fabulous!  That’s half of what I normally pay to the ‘States.  I’m browsing the patterns to see what was on my wish list so I can combine a catalogue and pattern order.  The last time I did that, the patterns did not increase shipping costs.  Crossing my fingers that holds true this time.

You know, at some point, I really need to start cutting into these patterns and stop adding to my ‘library’.  I know none of you do that, right?   There is a New Year’s resolution list building in the back of my mind.  That may have to be part of that list in some way!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!  I hope this season finds you and yours richly blessed.

Ramona

The Gammill Charm

I was out and about a couple weeks ago and checking email on my phone (like most of us do at some point), and saw this in an email:

“Guess what? You won! You entered the Gammill Charm contest on TheQuiltShow.com and your name was chosen among thousands of entrants to receive this amazing machine. ….”

I read it and stopped… and then thought, “Yeah, right!”   The next morning when I was back at a computer, I pulled it up again to take a closer look at it.  Email addresses showed John Anderson of The Quilt Show and included Betsey of Gammill.  It looked legit, but I still couldn’t really believe it.

I emailed with Betsey giving her my info.  Honestly, it wasn’t until a regional Gammill dealer called me to congratulate me and discuss delivery that I truly believed I had actually won a Gammill Charm!  You know when you enter these things that someone has to win, but you never expect to be THE one out of how many thousands of entries.  Mark, at the Stitch n Frame in Vicksburg, MS, was so nice and I know I will enjoy working with him as he arranges delivery and sets up my machine….Yes, he actually makes the trip and sets the machine up!  How awesome is that?  I loved the fact that it was the Stitch n Frame that is providing the machine.  They are an hour and a half from me and I love stopping in their shop when driving through Vicksburg, and their online shopping is great.  Their fabric selection and service are just wonderful.

The Charm by Gammill

Okay, back to the Charm… here she is!  This beauty has a 18″ x 8″ throat…can you imagine the room in this thing?!  The table has a 12″ leaf in the back and another leaf on the left side to increase the table space when quilting big quilts.

I’m a little blown away!

And I have to find a place for her!!

Merry Christmas to me!  :-))  I am so excited.  Thanks so much to The Quilt Show and to Gammill for hosting this giveaway!

Sorry for the excessive use of exclamation points, but truly, this is an Exclamation Point type of post.

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you have a safe and blessed holiday,

Ramona

Sewing Your Own Jeans

A couple weeks ago, after I splurged on Crafty’s awesome $19.99 sale, I spent a couple days watching  classes on making jeans.

Angela Wolf has classes on Pattern Review as well as Craftsy.  In Sewing Designer Jeans she uses her own jean pattern to talk you through the art of making your own jeans.  Some great tips are on distressing the denim to create that broke-in look of your favorite washed and worn jeans.  Other tips include topstitching options and, my favorite, hammering those multi-seamed, hard to sew areas for a flatter, easier to sew seam.

Another class I’ve had in my Craftsy library is Kenneth King’s Jean-ius.  The idea is to take a pair of your favorite, best fitting jeans and create a pattern from them … without taking the jeans apart!  Since I no longer have a favorite fitting jean, I wanted this class more to learn to clone a pair of pants … any pants.  My favorite part of this video is the construction of the jean.  Kenneth talks you through so many why’s and how’s of putting together a pair of jeans and shares some of his favorite methods.  This is definitely a class I will be revisiting.

I recently purchased the Jamie Jean pattern by Named Clothing.  I’ve been a little obsessed with discovering what difference the European cut made in a pair of pants and my daughter has been needing blue jeans, so it was a good excuse.  I have the pattern cut and ready to sew… but no time!  It appears they may have to wait until after Christmas.  But many of the tips from those jeans classes will be put to the test.  🙂

And lastly, I found this post by Don Morin on drafting a pair of American Jeans based on your own measurements.  Creating custom patterns based on measurements has also become a bit of an obsession lately.  I’m not looking for anything fancy, just something that actually fits!

I measured myself, which is always dicey, and drafted a pattern.  I’m pretty proud of myself.  Of course, the proof is in the pudding, so we’ll have to wait to see how the muslin actually fits.

All of this activity was actually from a couple weeks ago.  With Christmas and high school football championship games, it’s been pretty busy around here.  And Christmas is next week.  I’m not ready!  Oh, and my husband is having knee surgery Monday…before Christmas!  It’s going to be crazy around here.

I really need to sew up a few zipper bags before Christmas….let’s see if I actually get it done!

I hope you’re doing a better job of organizing your time.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Ramona

Leah Day has a new project for 2014…Check it out!

Leah Day has a new project for 2014…Check it out!

Leah Day has just released a Building Blocks quilt pattern that talks about piecing AND quilting (and more, I’m sure).  In 2014 she will also be releasing videos to go along with this project.  Sounds like a great learning tool.  And it’s on sale through the end of the month.

Check it out!  Click on photo or link above to go to Leah’s site.

 

Craftsy.com and The Iconic Tweed Jacket

In my recent post, I shared that Craftsy.com was running an awesome sale on their classes.  If you read it, you know I had quite a few classes in my cart and was trying to decide if I should cut it down a bit.  However, it was too hard to choose, so I didn’t cut any classes from my cart.  Shocker, I know.

This weekend, I watched The Iconic Tweed Jacket with Lorna Knight.  There seems to be so much going on with this style jacket right now.  I’m participating (and way behind!) in the French Jacket SAL hosted by Inna at The Wallinna and Leisa of A Challenging Sew.  I also recently picked up Claire Shaeffer’s book Couture Sewing: The Couture Cardigan.  So when this class came out, I was VERY tempted.  At the same time I wondered how much of the information would be a repeat of what I already have available.  In the end, I took the chance and added this one to my Craftsy cart during their fabulous sale.

While some of the material does repeat, a lot of it is still fresh.  Lorna approaches this jacket a little differently in places.  I found myself mentally comparing the different techniques and choosing which I thought would be my favorite method.  To begin, she constructs her jacket using the seam allowance and not by marking the seams as I’ve been shown previously.  I love her method of stabilizing the front center, neck and sleeve hem.

Most of all, I enjoyed her teaching style.  (Of course I’m a sucker for the accent…I thought it might be Irish, but she appears to be British??)  She is very methodical and seems to anticipate the questions you are thinking in your head.  The pace was wonderful, neither too slow or too fast.  Lorna offers great tips along with her reasoning for the methods she chooses.  I will definitely be referring back to this class.

If we’re lucky, Craftsy will have plans to bring Lorna back for other classes!

Another review you might find interesting is Red Point Tailor’s:  The French Jacket courses review – part 1

I also watched most of Angela Wolfe’s, Sewing Designer Jeans, and I finally finished Sandra Betzina’s Pants Fitting class, but those reviews are for another day.

And by the way, did you see A Challenging Sew’s post yesterday?  Leisa is planning a sew along (SAL) beginning in January using the free patterns Marfy has made available.  For all you newbies to Marfy, and to current fans, this should be a fun SAL.  (See previous post for more info on these patterns.)

That’s it for now.  Happy Holidays!