Tag: fabric

Want to sew, but not in the mood to make a quilt?

October 5, 2024

Quilting is fun, but it takes time to complete a quilt. Occasionally, I want a quick finish project to keep me motivated. Yes, I have patterns/tutorials on hand for placemats, potholders, bowl cozies, coasters, drawstring bags and zipper pouches, but sometimes I want something different. Thought I’d share my go-to websites for quick project inspiration (usually free to download).

Moda Bake Shop – use the buttons on the left sidebar to drill down to the type of project you want

Riley Blake Designs – go to the Free Patterns tab and then Sewing Patterns to access project patterns.
(Tip: check the updates tab to see if there are any pattern corrections to your project)

Fabric Editions – click the Projects tab and scroll down to the category of project you want to make.
(Tip: sewing and fabric shops use many of these project ideas in their classes)

We All Sew (sponsored by Bernina) – click on the Projects tab to access different project categories.

Sew 4 Home (sponsored by Janome Canada) – click on Inspire tab and then Sew4Home (also look at Project and Canadian Designers tab for some great options).

JKQuilts – click on Resources and scroll down to Free Patterns to find a wide variety of projects
(Tip: sign up for their monthly newsletter to get free, well-written patterns designed by the shop’s own staff).

Sewcanshe – click on Free Patterns tab.

Apple Green Cottage – close out the pop-up window and scroll down the page to access free patterns.

There’s also Pinterest, Etsy and probably your fave YouTube sewist/crafter that I didn’t mention here. One caveat about Etsy: some patterns are poorly written. If you aren’t familiar with the designer, read customer reviews and see if the pattern is available for sale elsewhere, as well.

A series of three storage pods made using a free pattern from Fabric Editions.
Storage pods made 3 different ways using free pattern from Fabric Editions.

Left – fusible fleece on outer fabric only with SF-101 fusible interfacing on lining.
Center – one piece of lightweight foam in middle (non fusible) – came as a kit with pattern
Right – fusible fleece on outer fabric only

My fave version is the one with the foam; however, I’d use single sided fusible foam to reduce fabric slippage when sewing. If you are a beginner sewist, I highly recommend using the fusible products in the LEFT version. It’ll be much easier to sew and you’ll be very happy with the results.

Time to get busy quilting

July 7, 2024
Quilting a quilt using a sewing machine.
Machine quilting my jelly roll race quilt in using an elongated wavy stitch pattern.

It’s hot outside. I can’t think of a better way to keep cool than to spend afternoons in my basement sewing space diligently chipping away at the pile of tops needing to be quilted. The pictured quilt is a version of the Jelly Roll Race 2 quilt using one of three Liberty of London jelly rolls I purchased from Mostly Mutts Marketplace back in April. I have two more tops to quilt made from the remaining jelly rolls. Each quilt top is a different design, but all three will share the same backing and binding fabrics. This one was quilted using my walking foot and the long, curvy stitch 99 on my Janome 8900. The other two will provide me with some much needed FMQ practice. All will be donated to my guild’s community service partners.

At the last community service sew day, one of my bee group members presented me with a floral charm pack and challenged me to see what I could do with it without spending any money. My personal challenge has been to make donation quilts using existing stash, fabrics procured from the free table or given by friends as much as possible. Here’s a disappearing 4 patch based off something I saw on Pinterest. It uses the floral charm pack, along with some batiks and white background from my stash. It’s now also ready for quilting. I didn’t spent any money on the top, but I did buy backing fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby.

Quilt top in a disappearing four patch design
Disappearing four patch quilt design inspired by a photo found on Pinterest!

Personally, I’m on a mission to complete the half-done quilt tops and get the stack of completed tops quilted ASAP. Larger quilt tops will be sent to a long armer and I’ll do the rest myself (practicing various FMQ motifs learned in class). At the moment, I have no plans to replace my Janome 8900, as my system of piecing on a FW or small Elna and reserving the 8900 for borders and machine quilting seems to be working well.

Should You Consider Buying Wholesale?

May 29, 2016

For me, the answer has quickly become a resounding, “YES” for 3 reasons:

  • My go-to Hancock Fabrics store near me is about to close.
  • Joann’s is consistently out of stock on bolts of SF101 when I need it for projects and online orders have meant Wonder-Under arriving at my doorstep instead of SF101. This is especially aggravating when it means approximately 1-1/2 hours of time wasted plus the gas to get to the store and back or time spent trying to educate the customer service rep on the difference between Shape Flex and Wonder Under.
  • When I reviewed my biz financials and saw the total I spent last year on supplies for t-shirt quilts, sewing camps/classes, and stitching club at school, I KNEW I could meet the annual minimums required by several wholesale sewing vendors.

Most wholesalers are geared toward retailers. However, if you look, you will find a handful of companies that cater to cottage businesses. EE Schenk and Checker Distributors are two that I suggest you try if you need a company that supplies a little bit of everything.  Should I decide to start vending sewing notions in my Etsy shop, it will be an easy transition for me as I already have a wholesale supplier set up.

Buying wholesale means you save on a per yard basis on the fabric you buy, but you are required to buy an entire bolt. That could be 10-15 yards of fabric, depending on the manufacturer.  That’s enough for  at least 2-3 quilts.

Will I buy wholesale for everything? Of course not!  My approach to fabric & notions purchasing will mimic how I spend the library budget at my day job. I often visit the local bookstore to preview unfamiliar titles before I commit to buying them with library money. I’ll likely by a yard or two of fabric from my LQS to see if it’s worth springing for the entire bolt.  Or I need a FQ of a particular college sports team to use in a baby quilt. Or I need a single spool of a particular color/brand of thread I don’t have on hand.  I’ll still support my LQS, but wholesale purchasing will allow me to be more profitable in terms of $$ spent on supplies and in time spent sourcing frequently used materials in my business.