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Archive for June, 2010

Have heard about Hoopsisters?

Saturday, June 26th, 2010

Over four years ago, sisters Lynda Remmers and Annie Moody were at a sewing getaway with friends. While Lynda digitized a wall hanging for her family room, Annie worked on a crazy quilt pattern. Some late nights were spent discussing the possibilities of this new quilt technique. Lynda went home and began teaching the technique to her customers at Sewing Concepts in Woodstock, Illinois and Annie, an Educator with Janome America, Inc. began teaching it across the United States. Everywhere Annie went, her students wanted to know where they can get more patterns and Lynda’s customers couldn’t wait to see what she came up with next. Lynda and Annie decided these patterns needed to be shared with everybody and they were inspired to design more.

 Annie Moody, Co-founder

Annie enjoys designing and creating using software, technology and doing whatever is possible inside the hoop of her embroidery machine.  She has taught all over the United States and in Japan.  Her projects and articles can be found on Janome America’s website, Marcus Brothers website, the Janome Digest magazine and The Quilter Magazine.  Annie appears as a regular guest on Kaye’s Quilting Friends and on KayeWoodTV.com. Annie’s quilts have been exhibited at shows at the local level and national level. Her quilts have been exhibited at the American Quilters Society show in Nashville, Tennessee and the MQX show in New Hampshire.   Her passion is teaching others to do what she loves to do.  She always asks her students to bring the same thing to every class and that is excitement and enthusiasm.  She is an “Embroidablock” addict and will probably never start another quilt using traditional methods.  Although there may be a few unfinished quilts in her closet she may have to complete the old fashioned way.

 Lynda Remmer, Co-founder

Lynda Remmers, along with her husband Duane, opened Sewing Concepts in the spring of 1989 selling Janome sewing machines. 21 years later they operate two stores in Illinois, one on the Woodstock Square, the second in Carpentersville, IL. Lynda is responsible for the classes in both stores. It can be a challenge coming up with new ideas and recycling old favorites to keep people interested. Her favorite is embroidery and software classes. The potential is unlimited!  Lynda’s customers love combining quilting with embroidery in a new and creative ways.  The quilters are seeing the value of embroidery machines, and the embroiders are having fun quilting. They can’t wait for the next project!“Embroidablock” is an innovative and fun technique that gives even the new quilter professional looking results with every block. Annie and Lynda’s unique look combines piecing with embroidery to produce a look of elegance and add interest to your quilts.  Not only will each block be perfect, but the technique also requires minimal cutting and little or no math. Let your embroidery module do all the work for you, from piecing to beautiful decorative stitches and all over embroidery.  From a distance, some areas of your quilt look like printed fabric, but up close, it takes on a whole new dimension with all over embroidery motifs stitched in well-thought out places.

Stephanie Pennington-Grant has been leading a Hoopsisters group for Thimble Pleasures that meets monthly in the shop to work on their projects.  I stopped into their group recently and was amazed at their projects!  I recently started the mystery quilt – having never used my embroidery module before!!  (Nuts, you say?!)  Learned to use the module and the technique in one 2-hour session!  It’s that easy!  My first block is below……..(shhh, it’s a mystery! )  If you are like me and want the motivation to use your embroidery module (or you want to try one out in the shop…..) – join us!  I guarantee you will get hooked!!  Finished mystery quilt to follow later…………..

Content adapted from www.Hoopsisters.com.

 

 

Teacher Feature: Susan Powell

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

Several of us to took a fun class with Susan Powell recently, “Cityscapes” (also known as the “breaking the rules” class).  If you want a relaxing, fun  day – take this class! ’ Bring your Scrap Therapy boxes and your creative juices!  Some of us made cityscapes, some made tropical island scenes, and others made light houses…….everyone loved the freedom to to use color, texture, and imagination!  Susan is a supportive, encouraging teacher with a great art background to help you with composition and color.  Her attention to detail in her landscapes and buildings (she LOVES windows) really adds a special flare and interest to her quilts.  Susan is an accomplished local artist and  has done many public showings of her works! 

 ’See what we did……

 

A Look at the 2010 North Carolina Quilt Symposium

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

‘Not all of you could attend, so I thought you might enjoy a brief look at “Sumposium”!

Thursday

4:00 We arrive at Johnson and Wales University (JWU) in Charlotte and check into the dorm. The campus and facilities are beautiful! Everything is new and clean!  We take a few minutes to meet our neighbors and unpack.

5:30 Dinner is served!  More chatting and mixing!

7:30 Meet the teachers and “show and tell”!  All the symposium teachers are introduced and show off the projects they will be teaching.  There are so many wonderful classes, how could anyone go wrong here?  You quickly learn that these teachers are  funny, funny people!  BIG joke the entire week-end, the size of one teacher’s underwear!!  Still laughing!

9:00 Snacks, then back to the dorm to meet folks in the student lounges! We meet quilters from all over NC and beyond!

10:30 Bedtime, gotta get up early, classes start at 9:00!

Friday

7:30 We’re up and showering!  Gotta look good!

8:00 Breakfast

9:00-12:00  My first class!  Jenny Raymond teaches studio design!  (You already know I have “studio envy”!)  Jenny is a garment designer turned quilter who does gorgeous designs with appliqué……she is a frugal mid-westerner who has LOTS of studio ideas that I will share with you on the blog!

More than 400 quilters were registered for symposium and 270+ stayed overnight in the dorms. The combination of lectures and workshops allows for concentration on a topic and wide variety of learning experiences.

12:00 Lunch (Heaven forbid we don’t eat!)

1:00 – 2:30 A visit to the Symposium quilt show!  Wow! Lots of interesting quilts! We are seeing more and more bead work and embellishments in the designs…

2:30 – 5:00  Artisan bread making class with Chef Rineheart from JWU. Awesome!  We learned 3 different doughs and ate some great bread!  ‘Not quilting you say?  There was a long discussion about the use of contrast in baking – just like quilting!  And what quilter doesn’t like bread?

5:30 Dinner!

7:30 Vendor show

9:00 Snacks – make your own ice cream sundaes!  Delish!  (Are you getting the picture of how busy you are and how much fun this is?!)  Then back to the dorm, to chat with neighbors and see what everyone made that day…….truly amazing!  The learning never stops!  We met a neighbor from Greensboro and shared a glass of wine!

Saturday

09:00 – 4:00  I took an all day workshop with Jenny Raymond on “Magic Machine Appliqué”.  Look at these photos!  This technique is fun and I sewed with silk for the first time.  Of course, we had lunch at noon, but food wasn’t on my mind!  We were making tulips and embellishing them before putting them on the quilt!  Jenny is a fun teacher, organized, and gave us good tips and tricks!  Can’t wait to finish this when I get home! Afterall, this class was about technique! 

5:00 – 7:30 Dinner and a nice walk around campus.  The weather was great, warm and breezy!

7:30  Iron Quilter America Contest!  Two great quilt teachers pair off to make 3 quilt projects in 45 mins using 2 secret ingredients!  This was a funny show!   Here are the esteemed judges!

9:30 Snacks and more show and tell in the dorms.  Could symposium almost be over?  It just started! We met quilters from Pinehurst and had a great time talking abou their classes, their guild activities, and the quilt shops in their area.

Sunday

8:00 breakfast

9:00 – 12:00 I attended a series of three lectures while other quilting classes conducted their last session of the symposium.  The first speaker was Charlotte Angotti from South Carolina.  Charlotte showed us several of her quilts along her “quillt journey” and told many funny stories!  Quilters are a funny  bunch and love a good laugh! ( By the way, YES, Charlotte can appliqué!)  The next lecture was titled “All the bad qults” and that textile artist/quilter showed us how she completely changed her “ugly” quilts into works of art with paints, cutting, embellishments.  Finally, Laura Wasilowski told her quilt story using slides of her quilts.  Laura is a very talented fusible appliqué quilter and also a very clever singer and poet! I just loved this session with one of the top quilt teachers ever!

12:00 Lunch, check-out, and home to practice all the new techniques I learned from the great teachers and their students.  This was a wonderful week-end of sharing the love of quilting!  Put the 2011 Symposium on your calendars!!

Thread – It’s More Than Color – Part 3

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Sewing with specialty threads

If you are sewing with specialty threads you will most likely have to adjust your needle and tension. Remember to always adjust the upper tension of your machine with the foot down.  It may not register the change if the foot is up.  Once you find a setting you like, write it down!  Then play with the tensions to see the different effects that you can achieve by “pulling” the bottom thread up to the top.  Many threads really perform better in the bobbin with a cotton or invisible thread in the needle.  If you like the effect, consider buying a separate bobbin case and leaving the tension set up for bobbin work.

Problems with fancy thread?  Try these suggestions and see if it helps.

  • Slow down.  Speed and fancy thread don’t mix.
  • Rethread your machine.  Experiment with not putting the thread through the thread guide that is just at the top of the needle.
  • Change the needle. Are you using the proper size?  A too small needle will shred medium and heavy threads.
  • Lower your tension.  When the top thread loops on the bottom, the tension is too loose 
  • Try another spool of your thread or change brands of thread.  

If you are going to embroider with your machine, choose your thread weight according to the design.  Embroidery thread is available in sizes ranging from 30wt (heavier thread for lots of fill) to 60wt (thinner thread for more detail). Embroidery thread can be rayon, polyester, cotton, or silk.

  • Rayon makes very shiny embroidery threads which are readily available in many colors.  However, they are not always colorfast.  Make a test piece to check for shrinking and color fading. To prolong the life of your rayon thread, keep it in the freezer. Be sure to bring the thread to room temperature before sewing. 
  • Nylon (polyamide) thread will melt and fuse at a low temperature. Nylon thread goes brittle, yellows over time, and melts at low temperature.  Unfortunately, most invisible monofilament thread is nylon. 
  • Polyester monofilament invisible thread does not go brittle, or yellow over time or melt at low temperature. Polyester embroidery threads are made of long stapled fibers with a silk like finish which are them durable and color fast. They will not shrink or stretch so your embroidery motifs will not distort over time.
  • Cotton thread is available in weights from 30 to 60, and is usually a long staple thread with a high luster finish. It is most appropriate for embroidery on heirloom sewing, quilt embroidery, religious garments and altar adornments. The longer the staple thread, the better quality it is.  If the thread doesn’t say, assume it to be short stable.
  • Metal/Plastic combination threads provide intensely shiny and colorful embellishments. They aren’t actually threads. They are made from thermoplastic with an aluminum coating which are then cut into thin strips with a laser and wound. It must be completely unwound to be used because of static cling.  It must be sewn with a metallic needle.
  • Metallic thread is made from aluminum coated core thread which can be  cotton, poly-cotton, polyester, or paper.  Easier to use than the metal/plastic combination thread, it also should be unwound before it is sewn using a metallic needle. To prolong the life of your metallic thread, keep it in the freezer. Be sure to bring the thread to room temperature before sewing. If you have a lot of trouble sewing with metallic thread, loosen the top tension and/or use a thinner thread in the bobbin.  Make sure you are using the needle recommended by the manufacturer.  It may be necessary to load the thread in the bobbin and quilt upside down.

When in doubt about choosing thread, just ask someone in that cute little quilt shop in Chapel Hill!

Friday, September 10, 2010
225 South Elliott Road Chapel Hill, NC 27514 · 919-968-6050