My Sewing Thoughts
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Let’s Get Organized! Quick Tips to Organize Your Sewing Space
Quick Tips to Organize your Sewing Space After the whirlwind of the holidays, my sewing studio looks like a tornado went through it. Every year at this time, I spend a couple of days organizing and reevaluating my projects, my stash, and my systems. Although I do tend to give away some fabric, re-prioritize some projects, and change a few things – there are some basics that just really work so they stay. Here is my list of tried and true tips to keep your sewing space organized: Fabric Folding – I fold my fabric in a very specific way. Here is the full tutorial with all the explanation. Trust…
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10 Reasons You Didn’t Finish Making That Gift (And quick alternatives you can do in minutes)
I never learn. Every year, I over-commit myself to a number of gifts that I can actually make and give people for Christmas. And every December 26th I resolve to start earlier so I can actually get them all finished. One year, I failed so miserably at finishing gifts, I literally just gave my family the fabric with ‘IOU’ notes attached. My family members were not thrilled. I didn’t get the normal warm and fuzzy feeling that I cherish from giving people I love handmade items. No, instead, I felt horrible. Not a great way to start Christmas morning! In order to help you avoid that feeling, here is a…
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Why Blendables are the Bomb for Quilting
“You will love the intriguing results you get with Sulky 30 Wt. Cotton Blendables Thread.” I remember being in a quilting class when I heard this statement. Honestly, my interest was peaked because of the word ‘intriguing’. I would never have described my quilting that way, but gosh, I sure wanted my quilting to be intriguing! So, I got some Sulky 30 Wt. Cotton Blendables Thread and tried them out. Before I tell you my thoughts on them, let me tell you a bit about the thread itself. Blendables are different from other variegated threads for several reasons: They are a masterful blend of different colors within the same range of tone and intensity…
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A Case for Polyester Thread – Top 7 Reasons to Use Polyester Thread
Polyester – The word conjures up different images for different people. For some it’s the polyester leisure suits of the 70’s, and for others it’s fabrics in bright neon colors. When I googled the word polyester in Google Images, most of the images were of bright fabrics, threads, workout clothes, the occasional sweater, and strangely, this image: Come to find out – they are experimenting with using shrimp to dye polyester (The more you know!). At Sulky®, when we say polyester, we are talking about thread. We have several lines of thread that are polyester: Poly Deco™, PolyLite™, Sulky Invisible Thread, Sulky Bobbin Thread, Sulky Prewound Bobbin Thread and Glowy™!…
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Trends from Quiltcon 2017
Trends From Quiltcon 2017 Quiltcon is a quilt show like no other as it focuses specifically on the world of Modern Quilting! The quilt above won Best In Show. It is titled bling by Katherine Jones from Tasmania, Australia. The quilt was paper pieced from solid fabrics; the inspiration for this quilt was a princess cut diamond. I got a chance to chat with Katherine at the show. She is a lovely woman with a passion for all things quilty. Modern quilters use quite a lot of thread! Look at the beautiful machine and hand stitching in the quilt, Madonna by Brittany Bowen Burton, that won for Best Machine Quilting.…
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Liquid Solvy Starch Recipe and Uses
As I said in my last post, I prefer to make my own starch and my favorite recipe the is one from the last post because it takes the wrinkles out of the fabric without leaving anything but a nice smell behind, but sometimes, I need a little more stability. When I am piecing anything on the bias or sewing with more delicate fabrics, I really want the fabric to act more like cardboard than fabric during the actual sewing process. The best way to achieve that is to make Liquid Solvy! An added bonus is I can make this with the left over Solvy bits that I pull off…
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My Favorite Homemade Starch Recipe
Several years ago I started making my own starch from scratch. I took a class with Edyta Sitar, and she made her own and gave me her recipe. I changed it slightly to fit my uses, but this is basically the same recipe. Homemade Starch Recipe 1 cup of Potato Vodka 4 cups of distilled water 15 drops of organic lavender oil Why make your own starch, you ask? I have several reasons. First, it’s the absolute best at getting out wrinkles and not leaving any residue. Second, I have friends with allergies and this starch doesn’t have any harsh chemicals. And lastly, but arguably the most important reason, if…
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How to Take Back Your Love for Quilting
Have you ever had something happen that just stole your love for quilting? Maybe you overheard someone say something really harsh about a quilt that you worked really hard to make. Maybe it was an overly critical comment on a quilt you put into a juried show. Maybe it wasn’t one thing; maybe it was just the continual lack of time to actually do it, and slowly but surely, you just stopped making them. You didn’t stop wanting to make them, you just were afraid to make them; too worried it wouldn’t be good enough, or the stress of trying to carve out the time to quilt became too much.…
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A Tribute to Carol Ingram – We Love You
Carol Ingram – A Tribute All of us at Sulky have lost a dear friend this week, Carol Ingram, designer extraordinaire. With her most generous spirit, Carol has shared her incredible artistic creations and designs with us for almost 20 years. Many of you have seen and duplicated many of her beautifully designed projects created for the Sulky Certified Teacher Classes in either the Sit and Sew events, or now, online. Carol died suddenly and peacefully Tuesday morning. She was an incredibly gifted artist in all mediums, and those of us who sew, are forever grateful to her endless generosity with her projects. She was an inspiration to everyone she…
