Sweet Home Quilt Co.

I’ve been quilting more than 20 years and through the years have devised methods that work for me – they probably wouldn’t pass muster with the Quilt Police, but they work for me! This includes quilt bindings. My method for finishing binding ends invisibly works perfectly and I’d challenge you to figure out where my quilt bindings start and stop. But lately I’ve been making a lot of small projects and sometimes my method is a little cumbersome on small things and doesn’t always end up looking as neat as I’d like.

I was happy to run across this video showing an alternative method of finishing off the binding ends that I think will work very well on small projects. I’m going to try it this weekend on a bag I’m making…I’ll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, you might want to try it, too!

Melisa

The laminate fabrics available today are fun to sew with, and almost as easy as sewing with regular cotton fabric. This video gives some great tips for sewing with laminates as well as easy instructions for inserting a zipper into a cute travel bag.

Check out our selection of laminates and whip up a few of these cute travel bags for Christmas gifts. And don’t forget our great selection of colorful zippers from Atkinson Designs to coordinate with your choice of fabric.

Melisa

Check out this fun website that I stumbled upon.

http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/

Enter the title of a book you enjoyed reading, and the website will give you a list of other books you might enjoy. Let me know if you find something really interesting, would you?

Melisa

Free motion machine quilting is like anything else…it takes lots of practice to master it and make it look good. And even once you master the basics, while it looks good, there are tips and techniques that will take it “over the top” without much more effort. Hyper quilting, a phrase coined by free motion quilter extraordinaire, Patsy Thompson, is one such technique.

Check out this link to Patsy’s blog where you’ll see how this simple technique can take your free motion machine quilting from “good” to “WOW!”

http://www.patsythompsondesigns.com/blog/index.php/archives/247

Grab some cheapo muslin and start practicing! Be sure to check out the Education tab on Patsy’s website where she offers many machine quilting video tutorials that will help perfect your free motion techniques.

Melisa

I’ve used pizza boxes (new, of course!) for years to store projects in my sewing room, but those stacks of white boxes on the shelves are kind of boring. Today I ran across this video showing how to cover your pizza storage boxes with fabric…definitely not boring! The video makes the process seem a little labor-intensive, but I’m sure after making one or two, it will be easier and faster.

(The video is in two parts for some reason…)

Just think how much fabric you’ll actually use out of your stash to cover your storage boxes, and how pretty they will look on your shelves. I’m thinking a label with double-sided tape will do the trick for noting the contents, and when you finish a project (!!!) just change the label and add a new project to the box! Sweet!

This is going on my to-do list….send me pictures if you make some for your sewing room!

Melisa