Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Sewing Weekend Starts Tomorrow!

Not a very big secret around my part of the world... you see, I live in Wisconsin and it's home to the sewing capital of the world, Beaver Dam, home to Nancy's Notions retail store and catalog business.

We were discussing this one time in our sewing guild after-meeting lunch, how long have we been going up there?  I don't know but I have commemorative pins that go back as far as 1997.  I'm sure I went a couple of years before they started giving out pins too.

It's the best show I've ever attended in Wisconsin or many other states.  It's well organized, the people are helpful beyond imagining, there's too much to do and too little time to do it in, and I haven't missed one since I started going.  I'd have to be hospitalized to miss it.

I haven't decided what kind of things I'm looking for this year except that they have a really good price on rotary cutter replacement blades.  I'm always looking for bargain fabrics for the church's quilt group, and of course I'll have to check out the doll shoes and accessories for Miss A and Miss K.

I'm ready for a long weekend immersed in the sewing world!

Sew on...

Monday, April 28, 2014

Three Days To Go!

It's almost here!!  That's right, Sewing Weekend starts this Thursday!  Can you tell I'm excited!!??

My favorite time of the year is nearly upon us.  Well, upon me anyway, I don't know about you.  I've signed up for some awesome classes at Sewing Weekend in Beaver Dam.  Of course I'm going to Nancy's class, and then my second favorite teacher Mary Mulari.  It doesn't matter how many times I see these ladies, they always have something new to say.

I also signed up with three people whose names I know but I've not seen them before... Deborah Jones' Letter Perfect Monograms & Lettering (I assume for machine embroiderers), Gail Patrice Yellin's It's All About Embellishment, and Pamela Leggett's Knits and Fits.

My suitcase is in the hall ready for packing and my tickets are in a safe place.

Here's what I've been working on while I'm waiting for Thursday:


This is a scarf, well actually a cowl, that I'm knitting from some of the hand-dyed yarn I picked up a the Loopy Ewe website.  It's teal and green with pale blue and some brown tossed in.  It probably will go with my gray winter coat but I bought it specifically for the brown color.  Once I've knitted the required length, it gets seemed together in a big loop, then folded in half and draped around neck and shoulders.  I have brown and teal in my wardrobe a lot so it should go with a few different outfits and match my turquoise bracelets.


Just for fun, I'm making a striped doll sweater for 'Audrey Anne', our American-Girl-From-Target.  I usually knit front and back at the same time to make them even and symmetrical, but with two colors sometimes this results in a tangled mess.  I'm trying to remember to turn back and forth at the end of each row instead of around and around.  Old habits die hard, I'm afraid...



Never being one to be happy with just one project in the works, I recently purchased this book with the idea of maybe making each block once to see if I'd enjoy making the whole quilt.  So far all I've done is pour over the book for a couple of days and think about fabric.

Maybe I'll see some I'd like to use while I'm at Sewing Weekend!

Sew on...