Closing sale

WOW, yesterday was a super busy day!  The first of our weeklong sale.   There is still lots of patterns (quilting and Kwik Sew) left as well as fashion and quilting fabrics.

Our classroom tables and chairs as well as other furniture are available to take home with you.


Fabrics are 50-70% off as well as notions......buy 4 of the same thing and get 70% off.  Otherwise notions are 50% off.

Will we see you today?

Needleworks is closing!!

It has truly been an honour to operate Needleworks Sewing & Quilting for the past 6 years. I feel truly blessed!

As in all things, they come to an end and I will be retiring next week.

We will be having a closing sale Tuesday-Friday (October 11-14) from 2-8pm.  All inventory is 50-70% off!

I will certainly miss my many students, customers and friends that I have been blessed to know.  I will be taking a break from teaching for the fall and will probably start again in the new year.  I'll be keeping the webpage, blog, facebook and email addresses open, so feel free to contact me in the new year if you are interested in hosting a class or want some help with your newest project.

Have a great fall!!!!!

Sale, Sale, Sale!!!!

The entire store inventory is on sale!!!!

50% off

empty a bolt of fabirc and get 60% off!!!!!!

Last week of Summer KidSew Camps

Its the end of summer already!  Some classes are started the rest begin next Thursday.  We have had a blast teaching KidSew classes all summer.  I think we had children here every single afternoon all summer.  So, there has been a lot of projects sewn.

This week we had two new young sewers.  Its hard to believe that these girls are just 7 years old.  They started the week with pillows with their initials appliqued.  They also sewed little zippered bags and finished the week with Reversible Aprons.  Well done girls!!!!  Look closely, they are twins!!

Kyra completed her apron she started last week.

Alexa dropped in and sewed a bag. 

Well done girls!!!!!

Super Sized 9-patch quilt done

We received word early this morning that the mother of a friend at church had passed away.  We knew both daughter and mother.  In fact, they usually sat right in front of us each week and we had many opportunities to chat.  Marie will be missed!

I had a very strong need to make something this morning when I came to the store.  I decided on a cuddle quilt for Fay (daughter).  We had some lovely floral fabric in stock and I felt it was perfect as a memory of this lovely "proper" lady.

I used the basic instructions from Anita Grossman Solomon's article from Quiltmaker 2006 and made my starting fabric 58" instead of 36".  Here is my completed quilt.  2 1/2 hours start to finish ain't too bad!!!!  I again did the full machine stitched binding.  I realized while I was sewing that I had problems with yesterday's Sylvan Shades quilt because I had cut the binding strips from the straight of grain.  The fabric didn't have any give and I ended up with a few wrinkles.  Crosswise strips for the binding is way better!

The cutting method makes it easy to cut and sew 3 quilts at once.  Choose 3 complementary fabrics.  Cut each according to the instructions, re-arrange and sew them into a 9-patch quilt.  The following pictures are a quarter of what the other 2 quilts will look like.  I'll put these aside for now and concentrate on the necessary projects first.

Here's a close-up of the quilting in the border.  This is curretly my favourite feather border pattern.  A simple free form with a meandering spine.  This involves absolutely no thinking!!!!  I can just listen to music and let myself go!

Its hard to see, but I quilted simple flowers and leaves in the centre panel.  This quilting is just to hold the layers together.  I could have done anything.  On the other quilts I'll have a large green and large pink panel to quilt and will do the feathers there. 

We'll miss you Marie, but you are now home!



New Sylvan Shades quilt done!

The last and sometimes worst part of quilt making is the binding.  I usually enjoy the process of sitting with my feet up and hand stitching the binding to the back of the quilt.  No matter how I try, this is not something I can rush through.  I have a quilt at home beside my chair thats been sitting untouched for almost 3 weeks waiting for the final hand stitching.  Unfortunately, I have been way too tired lately and the thought of picking up the quilt and hand stitching has been too much for me.  Maybe the need for new glasses is part of it too.  I just had an eye exam and desperately need a new prescription, especially the bi-focals!!!!

So, this morning I got dropped off early at the store and after looking at the Sylvan Shades quilt for a few weeks pinned to the wall, decided to just sit down and do it! This time I stitched the binding to the back side of the quilt, folded it forward and machine stitched! Its done.......

Step 1 is to cut the binding a bit wider than normal.  I usually sew a double fold binding and cut my fabric strips 6 times the width of my presser foot.  I never do a 1/4" seam allowance on binding.  I put on my regular sewing foot which measures 3/8".  6 times 3/8" is 2 1/4", for the machine stitched binding I cut 2 3/4" wide strips.  I sew them together with diagonal seams, press the seams open and fold in half lengthwise.  with wrong sides together. 

(disclaimer!) Not very good pictures, but I think you'll get the idea - I sew the binding to the BACK side of the quilt is my usual manner. 

I press the binding away from the seam using a bit of steam.

I fold the binding to the right side of the quilt.  Because I cut the binding strips a bit wider than usual, the binding easily covers the seam on the front side of the quilt.  Pin in place.

I move my needle over a bit and stitch close to the edge of the binding.

 Here are some close-ups of the comleted quilt.  It still needs to be blocked, but that will get done at home.

The back view is always a surprise. In this case, I like it. 

 

I quilted with the same Wonderifl Mirage thread (rayon) in the needle and bobbin.  No marking.  I love that.  So I used the blocks on the quilt to determine where and how I would quilt.

This is the 2nd quilt I have sewn using my new Sylvan Shades quilt.  The pattern features blocks in 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10".  The larger the blocks, the bigger the quilt. This red and black one used 4" blocks and measures approximately 44" square.  The purple/green one used the 6" blocks and measures approx 66" square.  Love these quilts.  They are easy to sew and the pattern includes detailed instructions for mitered borders.

check the pattern on the web site.

Blouse/Shirt class

I had the priviledge of teaching a group of ladies this week to make well fitting blouses or shirts.  We started on Tuesday evening by measuring and tracing the correct size pattern.  We then pin fitted the pattern and made all the necessary alterations.  We cut and sewed for two nights.  Here is Lynn's completed blouse.  We had a few others that are very close, but they were a little shy to show off the un-finished projects.