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Mesh Transfer Canvas
What is it? – Fashion, fashion accessories, heirloom sewing, quilting or home decor. At one time or another all of these project genres present us with a blank canvas to which we can apply our own creative brilliance. Or maybe we can just plagiarize someone else’s brilliance just a little. In any case, we’ve found a really cool design that would be perfect on our project. Take it to the next level. Unfortunately that design is often in a magazine, part of an individual picture, on another sewn project, in an old coloring book…
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Straight Pins
What are they? – The devil is in the details. Isn’t that what they say? How can that possibly apply to us? Just think about what we do when we sew. We spend hours selecting a delicious design or the perfect pattern. The same amount of time is spent finding the most fabulous fabric (and no, it’s not in your stash) and some awesome thread. And then after all of that it’s the details of measuring, marking and cutting our fabric to create those fabulous fashion, elegant heirloom, quintessential quilt or curiously clever craft projects. And we go…
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Bias Makers
What is it? – It’s common knowledge that woven fabric is made on a loom with warp (vertical threads) and weft (horizontal threads). In either direction there is pretty much no stretch at all. That’s a good thing but it also makes it pretty hard to form binding fabric around corners or adapt it to curved shapes found routinely on everything from fashion to quilting to home décor to craft projects. So what to do? How can we use fabric with little or no stretch to finish the curved raw edges found around quilts, placemats, arm…
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Wonder Fuse
What is it? – Appliqué . As a noun it’s an amazing and beautiful fiber art form. As a verb, appliqué refers to the addition of subordinate decorative fabric motifs to a larger, supporting piece of fabric. It has applications to quilting, fashion, home décor and crafts. Appliqué can be elegant or simple and it can create real world, geometric or abstract schemes. By designed intention it can relate a story or simply project a meaningful image. It’s all up to you. And when you consider your creative medium is a seemingly unending array of available and ever evolving…
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Hairpin Lace Tool
What is it? – Scarves, shawls and wraps. Sometimes it seems as if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. But every now and then you see one that is somehow different. Really different. Seems to be made of endless flowing lace. It’s incredibly beautiful with a lacey, open design. And then we ask ourselves, is it knitting or crochet? Well, the easy answer is no and yes, respectively. But it’s only a “sort of” on the yes. It’s actually an old crochet technique that has been made modern with evolving creative application. Hairpin lace, that’s what it’s called. Since a crochet…
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Amour Crochet Hooks
What is it? – Crochet has been around for a long time. Just ask your friends at Wikipedia. Having said that, crochet is still very relevant, even considered cool and growing in popularity as evidenced by trending pieces all the way from grandmother to Dolce & Gabbana. Fashion and fashion accessories, home décor and amazing independent pieces abound. Patterns and ideas can be found in our favorite yarn haunts or online. In this era of expanding creative endeavor, modern textile processes and world-wide search access and sourcing presents us with an ever-expanding variety of…
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Yo-Yo Pillow Tutorial
What you need: Size Large Yo-Yo Maker, item #8701 Neutral shade of thread, Aurifil 50 wt cotton Black Gold Applique Needles, item #4971 Fabric Cuts: 96, 4.5″ red squares (or any darker color) 25, 4.5″ pink squares (or any lighter color) One, 20×20″ red fabric square for the back of the pillow One, 20×20″ white fabric square for the front of the pillow One 20″ square pillow insert Tips: You can use any two colors to make this pillow. To achieve the overall effect, use two contrasting colors such…
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Embroidery Stitching (Punch) Tool
What is it? So what is this thing called punch embroidery? It’s actually one of those “mature” artforms that is pretty much old school, something our grandmothers may have loved. While traditional machine embroidery has its obvious applications, lately more and more of us have had our fiber-creative senses re-attuned to the amazing textures created with punch needle embroidery. Punch needle embroidery is a hand application process that uses a hollow needle to create loops of thread, yarn, floss or even ribbon on fabric giving us a textured pile surface that…
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Swift Bead
What is it? Decorative beadwork has a history dating back millennia to a time when shells and bones were used to fashion necklaces and other jewelry. It was used to signify a special sense of importance to the wearer. The same can be said of crochet and knitting. As an art form they’ve been around for a very long time as well and a unique technique often signified a special sense of importance to the wearer. So it only seems natural that these two decorative art forms should eventually merge into…
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Quick Yo-Yo Makers
What is it? What can you make with fabric yo-yo’s? That’s not the real question. The real question should be what can’t you make with fabric yo-yo’s? Those little creative gems are perfect for all kinds of home décor applications like doilies, quilts, bead spreads, pillows, placemats or fashion accessories like dresses, vests, headbands or standalone projects like purses, bags, jewelry, decorative wall hangings or even toys for the little ones. And how creative can we be when making them? Also unlimited. We have different sizes and shapes of yo-yo…