• Session 12,  Sewing/Quilting

    Wonder Fuse

       What is it? – Welcome to the wonderful world of Wonder Fuse.  What is it?  It’s appliqué.  Well, more accurately, it’s how you do appliqué.  Why do we want to do appliqué?  Unlimited creative potential.  We can take any fabric, plain or with design, and cut it in any shape to represent pieces of any scene intended by the artist and then attach them all together permanently to embellish our finished project.  What genres does it apply to?  All of them.  This art form is used extensively in quilting,…

  • Session 11,  Sewing/Quilting

    Nancy Zieman Hobo Tote

      What is it? – For today’s active life styles a handy tote is a required accessory.  Satisfying requirements of both form and function they are both fashionable and useful.  Totes of one kind or another are available everywhere.  So many styles, so many colors, so embellishments.  But therein lies the problem.  Which one?  Choices, choices, choices.  Well, here’s another choice for you.  What if you could make your own tote?  Pick your own style, pick your own fabrics, pick your own embellishments.  And what if you could have more…

  • Session 7,  Sewing/Quilting

    Silk Threads

    What is it? – China, circa 3600 BC.  That’s where it all started.  A young Chinese empress expressed a desire for a luxurious new fiber and silk was the result.  Threads of different types had been around for many years but this was different.  In fact, silk was very different.  It had a texture and luster that set it way apart from anything else.  It rapidly became the luxury fiber distributed only among the powerful and wealthy.  But the appeal was too great to keep under wraps and its use…

  • Session 6,  Sewing/Quilting

    Create-a-Pincushion

    What is it? – Pincushions have been a necessity for about as long as the needle and pin have been used.  Picture someone sewing by candlelight in the Middle Ages.  She puts her needle down to adjust the fabric or throw another log on the fire and when she reaches for it again . . . well, it’s nowhere to be  found.  Necessity truly is the mother of invention.  The pincushion was developed initially out of a need to organize and store pins and needles and then developed into so…

  • Influencer

    A Few of My Favorite Clover Tools for EPP by Diane Gilleland

    A Few of My Favorite Clover Tools for English Paper Piecing By Diane Gilleland My new book, All Points Patchwork, is all about English paper piecing (otherwise known as EPP) – a lovely hand-sewn patchwork technique. I’m a big fan of hand-sewing in general, and my toolbox is brimming with Clover! So I thought I’d share some of my favorites, and how they make my EPP easier. (If you’d like to see some EPP in action, by the way, check out these videos.) Applique Pins, Fabric Glue Stick The first…