Workshop Alert: Don’t Miss Piecing with Silks, Satins & Other Fun Fabrics

Hope Quilt by Judy Zoeler

Workshop alert!!! Are you a quilter who feels your repertoire is limited to only cotton? Then we have just the workshop for you. Join us for Piecing with Silks, Satins & Other Fabrics with world-renowned quilter Judy Zoeler. For one day only Judy will conduct a hands-on workshop, Saturday, March 16th at the Holiday Inn Express in Palatine, Illinois.

Judy will introduce 20 students to the joys of quilting with silks, satins and other fun fabrics. Using her patters and fabric kit, Judy will help students create a fan-themed quilt square and learn special techniques for working with these beautiful yet delicate fabrics.

Space is limited and early bird registration is still available; $60 for American Sewing Guild members and $75 for non-members. Early bird pricing ends this Friday, February 15th. The workshop pattern, kit and lunch are included in the registration fee. To register and for more information click here.

You don’t want to miss this all day workshop. Sewing friends, quilting and good food – what more can you ask for? Hope to see you there!

Float Quilt by Judy Zoeler

Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge

I know, I know…you’ve barely have any of your holiday sewing finished and I’m suggesting a quilt challenge? Well, not me specifically.

a.squared.w is, though.

What is Tangerine Tango? tsk, tsk, tsk. If you don’t know, that means you haven’t been reading the color forecasts here. “Provocative Tangerine Tango, an enticing juicy orange, is a vivacious and appealing refresher to enliven anyone’s outlook this spring.”

Now, I’ve heard from some of you that Tangerine Tango just doesn’t fit into your wardrobe..either you’re just not an “orange gal” or that it’s too bright for your classic wardrobe. So, why not take up the Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge and make a cheery quilt?

If you’re a tried and true Chicago Bears fan, you could use the orange as a memorial to the season we almost and could’ve…should have! had before Cutler’s thumb injury.

Line Your Spring Coat with Tangerine Tango

Still not convinced of making a quilt because it’s too fussy? Still want to hold true to making garments? So, why not challenge yourself to add a bit of Tangerine Tango as a trim…perhaps, some piping…or be bold and use one of these tantalizing Tangerines to tango as a lining in a new spring coat.

1. Free Spirit Designer Solid in Tango 2. TaDot Tangerine 3. Lizzy House Jewels in Orange 4. *VOILE* Solid in Tangerine 5. Alice Kennedy Orange Crush Wavy Optical Stripe Punch 6. dear Stella Meet Me at Sunset Stella Dot Orange 7. Half Moon Modern Big Zig Zag Tangerine 8. Kona Tangerine 9. Half Moon Modern Scissors Tangerine

Here’s the simplest reason to try Tangerine Tango: Winter is finally creeping up on us today with a very cold chill in the air. Maybe a little Tangerine Tango will bringing warmer thoughts until the temperature starts rising again. Follow the quilts that will be posted on the Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge Flickr album; I’m sure that if nothing else, you’ll love seeing what others will be inspired to do with this beautiful, bright hue.

Happy Sewing! Happy Holidays!

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Spooky Sewing Tweet Day

Spiderweb Table Runner from The Crafty Cupboard

The temperature may feel like June, but the calendar is saying it’s October. And time for Halloween sewing! Unless, of course, you’re running the Chicago Marathon today.

In case you’re not making a Halloween costume (you know, you don’t have to be going to a party to dress up for Halloween), and you’re just NOT going to applique yourself a Halloween sweater, here are some fun Halloween sewing projects that we tweeted out yesterday with the hashtag #spookysewing. Enjoy!

• Free Cats & Bats quilt pattern from the blog of Lovely Frankenstein’s Quilt Laboratory (great name!)
• An adorable Halloween pumpkin baby bib from LoveToSew.com
• Charlie the Ghost is a cute doorstop or companion to watch out for trick-or-treaters. From Polka-Dot Umbrella.
• Not enough time for a Halloween quilt? Sew up a goblin-friendly door hanging with this free downloadable PDF pattern from Cranston Village
• This fab spiderweb table runner will test your cutting skills. Tack down with pom-pom spiders or fabric tack for a no-sew project. From The Craft Cupboard.
• It doesn’t get much cuter than this Felty Frankenstein applique! He’s a quilt
  block, hanging, or sew him onto a treat bag. From Holiday Crafts & Creations.
• These super-cute FREE Halloween ponchos from Simplicity almost make you wish the weather was cooler, don’t they?
• We’ve all seen dog costumes, but these Halloween dog costumes have to be a collection of some of the best. A corn cob, Underdog, a dandelion and a French outfit for your French bulldog! From Doggie Stylish.
• Pick a peck of pumpkins with this Halloween pumpkin wall-hanging. Instructions from Jo-Ann Fabics and Sewing.org
• Da-da-da-da-da-da…Bat-mobile! (The scary part is if you remember the music from the original Batman series!) from Sew4Home.
• Don’t forget to hang this Vampire Bat Softie upside down; he prefers it that way. Free tute from Silver Bug Studio
• What would Halloween be without zombies?! This is a cute book with patterns to “raise” 16 zombies from the undead.
• Halloween bunting! Mix black, s-lime green, orange, spiderwebs and purple for a fun look! Tute from Yards and Yards.

Here’s an extra #spooksewing link that wasn’t tweeted yesterday: A video tute to needlefelt Halloween scary eyeballs from the crafty folks at Etsy.com.

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Follow us on Twitter at @sewchicago. We share tips, links on the Web and from other tweeters.

As Seen At The American Sewing Guild National Conference

Photos contributed by President Connie G.

The American Sewing Guild National Conference was held in Los Angeles this year. Eleven of our Chicago chapter members attended and filled their days with learning new techniques and meeting old and new friends. Below are some pictures and tidbits that our President, Connie G. sent back.

Running In Stitches Neighborhood Group leader Celeste wrote about her ASG Conference experience on her blog. Be sure to take a peek at her jeans-to-skirt reconstruction with the pretty machine embroidery.

Sights and Thoughts From Connie

Gel-bleached jacket

Linda MacPhee Transforms Fabrics
In Linda MacPhee‘s class, a denim jacket was transformed with dishwasher gel bleach. Use a squeeze bottle to control your lines. Save your squeeze ketchup bottles and use that or buy the squeeze bottles at your local craft store.

Linda is also know for her “beggar fabric.” But, beggar fabric is not easy to find. So, Linda made her own by cutting holes  in a top fabric and laundering. Then the fabric is backed with a dotted sheer fabric. Beggar fabric doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it’s a great way to use up scraps and remnants.

Embellishments
Think that twin-needle is just for heirloom sewing? Try this: thread up some colorful thread in that twin-needle and wander your fabric. You’ll create a fun stipple that is perfect for quilting or embellishing a plain fabric.

Use fleece as inserts to mimic bias to add texture to your piece. Since fleece doesn’t fray, you don’t need to worry about turning under tiny edges…just cut and sew. With fleece, you can also bend it any which way you desire without worrying too much about grains. Although, keep in mind that some fleece have a nap.

Fleece inserts

Button embellishments

Add dimension to your machine embroidery with buttons! Don’t have an embroidery machine? Use your decorative stitches in rows with variegated thread. Or maybe even try hand embroidery.

Upcycle

Do you have a bunch of sweaters that need a new life? You’re either tired of them or they might not fit as well as they used to? Gather them all up and upcycle them into a new sweater. Don’t worry about matching; the idea is to create a patchwork. Use your serger for quick construction…and leave the serged edges to the outside of the garment for additional texture and interest. Go ahead and raid your husband’s and children’s closets…because you’re fabric shopping!

Tip: Try to use similar fiber content within one garment. If you mix an all-wool piece with swatches from a cotton/acrylic sweater, you may end up with a shrunken, felted panel at the next wash.

Learn From the Experts

Sandra Betzina

One of the many advantages of the American Sewing Guild National Conference is having access to many wonderful teachers who are known thoughout the sewing industry. Some classes are hands-on, while others are lecture. Sandra Betzina and Linda MacPhee were just a two of the instructors that were at this year’s ASG National Conference.

Did you go to the ASG National Conference this year in Los Angeles? Tell us your experience, we’d love to hear from you!

Tweet Day: Shark Sewing

(Image source: http://www.aquirkygirl.com)

Shark Week. It’s become not just a must watch of Discovery Channel for the past 24 years (yes, 24 years of Shark Week!), but also spawned themed sewing posts around the blogsphere.

At the end of Shark Week, we tweeted an entire day of shark-related sewing patterns, tutorials and inspiration with the Twitter hastag #sharksewing. Did you see it? Did you follow us? Well, if you missed one or two or even a few, here’s a recap of the tweeted links.

Happy shark hunting!

• Cute shark stuffie tute (tutorial) from In A Handbasket
• A shark hooded towel tute from Kissed by a Frog
• Super easy shark fleece scarf. A no-sew project, if you use fabric glue.
• Shark sock-puppet pattern. Great project for kids
• Shark-ingly cute fabric…in board shorts! From @QuilterPatSloan
• An amazing shark quilt
• Super easy and cute baby shark hoodie from @seekatesew. Probably a 1-hour project. You only need a grey hoodie and white felt.
• Beautiful leopard shark quilt
• Have you ever seen a sharktopus? Here’s a cute half-shark/half-octopus on @craftster
• A denim shark stuffie. Love the zipper for the mouth
• “Live Every Week Like It’s Shark Week” cross-stitch, posted on @craftster
• Not a tute, but you might be able to figure out how to make this shark costume
• This isn’t a pattern or a tute, but it might give someone an idea for Halloween. Dress your dog as a shark!
• One for the knitters, @HalosofHope has a shark hat pattern available for limited time. Make one for you and one to donate. Note: Sorry, but the limited time for this pattern has expired. However, Ravelry.com has a similar shark pattern available…and it’s free!
• A big shark pattern (free and downloadable) from Thread the Needle Through
• The big shark toy was also posted on @BurdaStyle

Watch for another day of tweets with a theme. Who knows what the next topic will be. If you have a topic that you’d like to see, tweet me at @SewChicago or email me.

"Woo Woo sharkies" available on Spoonflower.com

Also be sure to check out other shark fabric at Spoonflower.com. Or will you design your own for next year’s Shark Week?

Follow @sewchicago

Eve Kovacs Wins ASG Creativity Contest Honorable Mention

This month, our Sew-lebrity Spotlight shines on Eve Kovacs. Eve Kovacs is not only the group leader for the Wearable Art special interest group of our chapter, but she is a recognized and award-winning wearable arts sewist. There is probably even a secret fan club judging by this person’s blog post declaring Eve as her hero after seeing Eve on Sewing with Nancy.

We’re celebrating Eve today because she has won the Honorable Mention in this year’s American Sewing Guild Creativity Contest. Congratulations, Eve! We’re very proud that our Chicago chapter was so well-represented with Eve’s beautiful jacket and pants.

Eve’s ensemble was made from Simplicity 2288, and uses a combination of several different fabrics: a handwoven silk ikat from Thailand, three colors of silk dupioni, and a cotton sateen.

“The jacket design incorporates a number of panels that provide opportunities for combining fabrics in innovative ways. My goal, with this ensemble, was to use the silk ikat as an inspiration for the color, the surface design and the styling of the pieces. Since I had only a single panel of about one yard of the ikat, a good solution was to use it for the center front and back panels of the jacket. With careful cutting, I had enough left to make cuffs to accent the sleeves,” explains Eve in her contest description.

“The colors in the ikat inspired the selection of the purple sateen and the magenta, olive and light lavender silks. The geometric pattern in the ikat inspired the design of the patchwork on the middle-front panels of the jacket. I paid careful attention to the proportion and position of the colors so that the patchwork complements the style of the ikat by mimicking the pattern in the weave.”

Eve machine quilted all the jacket panels to give a subtle texture and to unify the design. She used diamond shapes on the ikat and zig-zag shapes on the patchwork panels. The side panels and sleeves are quilted with diagonal lines of double-needle stitching. (Love how many techniques Eve Kovacs was able to incorporate!)

“The jacket panels are accented with piping to give the ensemble an oriental look. This necessitated changing the collar to a cut-on shawl collar to ensure that the piping flowed smoothly around the edges of the jacket. To complete the Asian styling of the ensemble, I cropped the pants and added a piping embellishment at the hems.”

One thing that you appreciate about Eve Kovacs’ wearable art is that it truly is wearable. It may take a bolder personality to wear the garment, but it’s definitely wearable in everyday life.

All the winners and honorable mentions can be viewed on the national American Sewing Guild contest page.

[edited] You can find more of Eve Kovacs’ beautiful creations on her webpage.

Congratulations on your beautiful outfit, Eve!

Sew-lebrity Spotlight: Ina R. – Love Means Not Counting The Days…Or Months

My apologies, dear readers, for the lapse in posting. I’ve been so caught up in visiting museums, neighborhood groups and tweeting, that I’ve started many blog posts, but haven’t finished any. But no worries, I’m back on it and have many things to share with you.

This month’s Sew-lebrity Spotlight is Ina R. from the Material Girls Neighborhood Group, where she showed her recently-finished quilt that took her 18 months to make. Yes, you read that right…18 months! Not that anyone’s counting. 🙂

You might wonder how someone can spend more than a year on a project. But when the recipient is a special girl for her bat mitzvah, it’s easy to understand that every stitch is knowing that it will bring a smile.

The quilt is a combination of appliqué and machine embroidery in the corner squares.

I don’t know if Ina realizes it, but this quilt is a bridge of the traditional and modern quilting. The appliquéd blocks are pretty traditional, but the colors and the design simplicity of the pink block crosses over into “modern” quilting. You haven’t heard of modern quilting or modern sewing? I’ll have a post on that in the coming weeks.

Brava to Ina for this amazing work of love!

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Do you have a project that you’ve been working on for quite a while? Email me your story and a picture; we’d love to showcase you with it!

Ty Pennington Makes Quilting Cool and Manly

(Image source: fatquartershop.com)

What do Ty Pennington, Jimmy Kimmel and Quilter’s Home have in common? Wait, did I just throw in Quilter’s Home in that group? You betcha! During last night’s appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show, Jimmy showed the April/May issue with Ty on the cover and tried to give him grief about it. But Ty Pennington didn’t shy away from it. I love his reply:

“Quilting, a lot like jazz, is a gift America has given the world,” Ty says proudly.

Of course, Ty has been designing fabrics for Westminster Lifestyles since June 2010 and has been designing home products for Sears for quite a while. He’s also had a line of home dec fabrics for a couple of years. But now, his fabrics are coming in lighter weights.

Ty Pennington’s fabrics are definitely is what is considered the “modern” design. Very graphic with contemporary colorings. Design patterns are a color with a neutral. More urban than country. More nature than floral.

Unfortunately, Ty Pennington’s fabrics are not available in any Illinois stores, but can be purchased online. And it looks like he’s offering some patterns in fleece and cotton laminate. Check Ty’s website for more information.