SewMod

Did you do your homework?

November 16, 2010 in fabric, free motion quilting, quilts | by Lorrie | 7 comments

I did!I’ve resisted free motion. It makes me throw small tantrums and I know my sewing machine does not like to be called naughty words. It’s my own fault. I’m impatient and want it to be done right the first time. That’s just not the way it works when you quilt though. And when someone told me it takes many, many hours of practice to get it right…well…I have many, many projects I’d rather be doing. So, I kept putting it off. So, I promised Paige I would give it a try to show you guys my progress. I’m starting from the beginning y’all… starting with Doodling. Sure it looks kinda shaky and I ran over my lines a couple of times and I froze up when I started to think about it too hard, but I’m going to practice, practice, practice. Hope you guys do too…Keep in touch and let us know how you’re doing!

I spent yesterday with Shelley from Elsie’s Girl blog finalizing our fabrics for Welcome to the North Pole quilt we’ve been wanting to do together.

I’m using the new Sheri Berry Christmas line, 12 Joys of Christmas, with a black night sky. You can’t tell from the pic but it’s a black with grayish dots (my snow falling).

Its kinda retro and I’m excited to get started. So, hopefully I’ll have some progress to show you soon.

Tomorrows post…more Christmas. I just want to apologize now for my Christmas fabric addiction:)

Talk soon

Lorrie

Free Motion Monday – Part 1: Start Doodling!

November 15, 2010 in free motion quilting | by PaigeAlaine | 4 comments

Are you hesitant to drop the feed dogs and machine quilt your top with anything other than straight line quilting? Well, I hope to help get you thru the initial fears and help guide you to freeing yourself to experience Free Motion Quilting! Over the next several weeks I will post steps to practice for the week – this is a process which requires practice practice PRACTICE! If you jump into quickly your brain won’t be trained to think outside the “square box” and frustrations will set in. Quilting should be fun not a dreadful task inhibiting us from taking our quilt project to the next level.

I’m a strong believer in doodling! If you can’t draw it you can’t sew it so this week’s practice is FUN and SIMPLE…make a stack of all those old spiral binders or scrap sheets of paper you don’t know what to do with and start doodling. Draw continuous loops and hearts and if you get bored move on to flowers or whatever shapes you fancy – big and small. Fill up the paper as you are listening to music or a movie or sitting on the deck enjoying a sunny day. Don’t worry if you have to start and stop but see if you can keep your pen down the entire time. Focus for 15-30min intervals a couple times a day or every other day. It’s all about practice and training your brain and hand to work together…remember when you started writing in grammar school?! It takes time.

So…Kitty says “get doodling”!!

Fabric Friday

November 12, 2010 in fabric | by Lorrie | 3 comments

Good morning!

Paige and I would like to share a few of our favorite fabric lines that are available.

I am crazy for Riley Blake fabrics. They are so fresh and sweet. Here is a couple of fabrics from the line I picked….

This group is Quite Contrary by My Minds Eye.

You must head over & visit www.rileyblakedesigns.com to see better pics of this line (still learning the ins and outs). The strawberries in this line are sooo cute! Don’t forget to check out the other lines available too. The website also offers free patterns and a link to their version of the Moda Bake Shop…Cutting Corners, which offers tutorials.

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Paige chose a great fabric pattern with lots of color combos and contrast. Its Fall 2010 by Etsuko Furuya, a Japanese designer.Paige loves the turquoise and those cute birdies! Aren’t these fun fabrics? You can find these at www.hawthornethreads.com

Thanks for hanging with us this week…we appreciate your comments. Don’t forget to stop by for Mondays post. Paige tells me your not going to want to miss it!

Have a great weekend:)

Lorrie & Paige

Have you met the “Lil Twister”?

November 9, 2010 in demos, quilts | by Lorrie | 8 comments

No, now all you Oklahoma quilters out there don’t start to panic. I’m not talking about that kind of twister, because we know its usually not a “lil” one. At least not the one I had the pleasure of meeting:)

It’s a tool for making pinwheels easy!

I had a class last night at the LQS, taught by the fabulous teacher over at Elsie’s Girl Blog… Shelley. Lets see if I can give you a little demo of what I learned.

Start out with 4 background strips and 4 of your favorite charm squares. I used the ever so pretty Bliss by Moda.

Sew the charms together and add the borders and you will have this square.

Place your twister ruler at angle with lines that intersect on seams between the two borders & the first square.

Cut around the entire block and continue across the row until you have something that looks like this.

Now pick them up in order and sew the cut squares together.

I made a Twisting Tables table runner from the book Let’s Twist at http://www.country-schoolhouse.com.

Just like the book says…Fun, Fast, And Easy!

Welcome to our blog!

November 6, 2010 in Uncategorized | by Lorrie | 17 comments

My name is Lorrie and I love to create, whether it’s sewing, quilting, cooking, or crafting. There is creativity flowing through my family. One of my grandmas taught me to embroider; the other taught me to sew. My mom gave me my first sewing machine and helped me learn to quilt. I think that Singer sewing machine was the best gift!

When I began sewing, it was Halloween costumes for my son.

Now my little scarecrow is 15, so I no longer get to do that.

But, I visited a local quilt shop several years ago with my mom and since then …I don’t think I go one day without thinking “what am I going to work on today?” Should I work on my unfinished appliqué, should I begin cutting out a new quilt? Maybe make a cheesecake or a new leash for Daisy May?

So many possibilities! So, come join us and hopefully we will inspire you to create something too.

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Hi, I’m Paige and memories of my first quilt given to me by my grandma inspires me to design and create handmade items so others can experience the same feeling I’ve had of receiving such a special gift made especially for me!

The first quilt I sewed was an Ohio Star block paper pieced on my mother’s Singer back in 1995. Her machine had two speeds zero or 150 mph! Many times I had to make sure my fingers weren’t part of the seams! Oh, and I used regular copier paper so you can imagine the fun I had picking all the paper out of the seams. Shortly afterward I invested in a Bernina Virtuosa 150 which is amazingly precise, smooth and reliable!

Then on a very impulsive day almost four years I invested in a Gammill Classic Plus. Since I loved to draw and doodle transitioning from my Bernina to the longarm for machine quilting was amazingly easy. In August 2007 started up a longarm quilting business PaigeAlaine Quilting & Designs. It was very successful but time was becoming a factor especially with a full time job during the week. So, a few months ago I decided to stop quilting for clients and focus on designing patterns and quilting my own treasures!