• Blog

    Friday Finds – Beaded Jewelry

    We hope you’ve enjoyed the posts this week featuring our French Knitter.  Many of you have shared with us how you first learned french knitting using a spool with finishing nails, and you can still make i-cords this way.  Our French Knitter has taken that craft to a new level by incorporating three interchangeable heads allowing you to incorporate different sized beads into your designs. It’s so easy and fun to create custom jewelry pieces this way. Here’s a few finds to further inspire your beaded jewelry making. Making Jewelry…

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    Watch Us Wednesday – French Knitter Jewelry

    We recently created a new video showing all the information you need to begin creating beaded jewelry using our French Knitter.  Carol Porter shows you how to cast on, cast off, and work beads into your design.  You won’t want to miss seeing her beautiful jewelry creations in the video.  She’s worked with everything from monofilament to leather for a wide variety of lovely designs.

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    Friday Finds – Kanzashi

    Carol Porter created this fantastic display of the Kanzashi Flower Makers and finished flowers for her class at Portland Quilt Market. She used a cookie sheet with adhesive magnets on the back of each flower and template in her beautifully color coordinated guide to the available shapes and sizes of Kanzashi Flower Makers. The flowers shown from left to right are round petal, pointed petal, orchid petal, gathered petal, and daisy petal. The sizes from top to bottom are extra small, small, and large.  It’s prettier than a sheet of…

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    Hobo Tote Blog Tour Day 5

    I would like to give a big thank you to Nancy for inviting me to share my Hobo Bags on this tour. I have made every single bag and style that Nancy has created….well it’s my job! Each one has its own distinctive purpose and I have my favorites. Hobo Bag with matching E-Tablet and Paper Keeper The Hobo Bag is one of my favorites due to its volume. Plenty of interior pockets hold all of my essentials while the “floor” capacity holds all my carry-on stuff…making this my go-to…

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    Hobo Tote Blog Tour

    Nancy Zieman is hosting a lovely blog tour beginning today showcasing her beautiful hobo tote template.  Ten designers use the template with their own style to inspire you.  Fran Ortmeyer and Carol Porter will share their beautiful hobo totes right here on February 21st and 23rd.  We hope you’ll stop back by to see what they’ve been sewing and enter to win the lovely prize packages. Visit Nancy’s blog to see all the details and the complete tour schedule.

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    Back in my Sewing Room!

    Seems like a long time since I’ve been in my sewing room! I was away May 16-21 in Kansas City MO. for Spring Quilt Market.  Market is always a highlight for me as I love to see what’s happening and see friends I’ve known for years. Clover presented new items: Those fun three-sided boxes called Clam Shells. Oh what fun I’ve had making these.  Please see The Clover Blog for a full lesson on how to make them.  Clover sells the insert and the rest is up to you.  Fran…

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    Sewing with My Daughter-In-Law and Granddaughters

    Melanie is a nurse and helps her family out by taking 12hr shifts on the weekends…Sat/ Sun or Sun/Mon.  We try to visit my son and his family every other weekend.  So far we seem to visit on the Saturday that Melanie works.  My other boys and their wives live in the Seattle area too so our visits are often filled with family gatherings. In order for Mel and me to get good solid sewing time together…I need to be there during the week.  So I pack up my “office”…

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    On the Road Quilting Retreat

    Last week my sewing room went on the road!  One of my most favorite activities is attending my Quilt Group’s retreat.  This was our 24thretreat together, we started retreats in1986. Destination is Ocean Shores, Washington. One of our members has a home there and most of us arrive by Wednesday afternoon.

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    Carol’s Sewing Room!

    I’ve been given the opportunity to have my own Blog Space on the Clover Needlecraft Blog.  Though I wonder sometimes how truly exciting my life is, you are welcome to join me on my creative journey anyway. I am a seamstress, quilter, designer, teacher, author, knitter, wife, mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother!  As the Director of Education for Clover I need to know every tool and technique that Clover produces…so now, I can honestly add that I have learned the “Art of Crafting” as well.