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PROJECTS: POM-POM’S
I know most of you out there have made a Pom-Pom at one time or another in your life –or– you have had something with a pom-pom on it. If you haven’t used Clover’s Pom-Pom Makers you have been working too hard. My 7 yr old grandson, Garret, loves making pom-pom’s…especially the big ones. That’s just how easy it is to use the Pom-Pom makers. Check out these pom-pom ornaments. How creative and fun!
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On The Road … Again!
Ooooh wee! I just returned from San Antonio, Texas, and the Bernina University event for Bernina Sewing Machine product dealers. Being from the great Northwest where cool temps prevail I have only read about the Texas summers. At this point I’m thinking reading about them is much better than experiencing them! Our event center was only a few blocks from the site of the Alamo and the famed River Walk so off we went one evening to see the sights … WALKING! I now know I will never again be…
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Needlework in Columbus
The spring/summer season in the Northwest has been less than pleasing, so you can just imagine my happy heart when we arrived in Columbus, Ohio, for the The National Needlework Association (TNNA) trade show and the temps were w-a-r-m and s-u-n-n-y, except the days when we got a thunder and lightning show. Each year in Columbus I am blown away by the beautiful flower pots and displays. I’m thinking heat and humidity have something to do with it. No wonder I can’t get ripe tomatoes up here! I always look…
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Tips & Tidbits: The Skinny on Scissors
I often wonder why there are so many different kinds of scissors on the market and decided to do a little digging for the history of scissors. All too often the things we use daily are taken for granted. We don’t stop to ask how they first came about or when. The first known scissor appeared in ancient Egypt around 1500 BC. This was a spring scissor made of two bronze blades connected at the handles by a thin, flexible strip of curved bronze which held the blades in alignment to…
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Summertime with Fran
Summer is connected to warm days and sunny adventures in my memory — peaceful times spent with friends and often alone in quiet places thinking about the complexities of life. Of course what was complex about the life of a 7-year-old in the summer? It was all bare feet, playing in the woods, riding bikes with friends till someone’s mother told us all to go home for supper. There were cookies and lemonade with “gramma” and “grampa,” swimming in the creek. Oh how precious our childhoods were but it isn’t…
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Catching Up!
Life has been hectic since Quilt Market and most days I wouldn’t know if I were coming or going without the help of post-it-notes and gentle reminders from Carol Porter and Bill Gardner! A big thanks to them for always having my back. Time moves too quickly and once I post an entry I think of a zillion things I forgot to share. During the blogs on crochet lace I started two receiving blankets for the new baby our Graphics Designer, Leslie, was expecting. I finished the blue one and…
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Featured Guest: Diane Gilleland
Our guest blogger this month is Diane Gilleland, author of Kanzashi In Bloom, published by Watson-Guptill, and Editor-in-Chief of CRAFT. [slideshow] I do a little bit of just about every craft under the sun, but one thing I do make a lot of is flowers. A flower form, whether it’s a rosette or a shaggy mum or a flat daisy, is just the perfect small project, and a lovely way to mess around with a new craft technique and see what possibilities are in it. So, given my years…
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New Products Revealed!
It’s been a busy few weeks! After spending a few days at Nancy’s Notions Sewing Weekend in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, I was home two days before heading to Salt Lake City for the International Spring Quilt Market. As always, though, it was worth the trip … or trips! What a treat it was to leave the cold soggy Northwest and head to sunny and warm Beaver Dam for the weekend. It’s always a blessing to spend time there with the customers who flock to this high-energy weekend of learning and…
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Featured Guest: Marcia Layton
Our guest blogger this month is Marcia Layton, author and pattern designer with a decided penchant for using yo-yos on her quilts. She’s authored two books, both published by Martingale & Company — Handprint Quilts (2003), and Calendar Kids (2007). I wasn’t always obsessed with yo-yos. I started my quilting career back in the late 1990s by making little quilts with children’s handprints. I was a preschool teacher at the time and had plenty of little handprints to play with. I started experimenting and dreaming about all the different things…
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Must-Have Tool: Ball Point Awl
The Ball Point Awl is used for making a hole by carefully stretching the fabric without thread breakage, but I use it for just about everything. I love this little awl! It’s awesome for pulling threads out when I can’t find my seam ripper, and it doubles as a stiletto when I need to guide the ends of my sewing through the machine. Turning corners is much easier with the help of this little tool. If you don’t have one, you should! My grandmother-in-law was from Sweden and loved to do cut work…