Tag Archives: christmas

Top Ten Holiday Gift Ideas for a Sewist–Even If It’s You

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I love a good list. So when I needed some gift ideas, I thought…why not go to my sewing room and share with you some of the tools I use the most?

They are things I probably would not want to live without, and I’m sure each of you would have your own items to add to this list. But I recently came across someone online who was fairly new to sewing and didn’t have any quilt shops nearby. And I thought, well, if someone is new to the hobby, and getting a machine for Christmas, or just is interested in the tools I use non-stop…well, here’s a peek.

Whether you are a beginner or an old pro, I hope you’ll find something to consider.

1 Karen Kay Buckley Scissors

I love these scissors because the finger holes are not small. I have several pairs of the green ones because I keep one pair downstairs for hand sewing, one in a container upstairs for binding, and another near the sewing machine for miscellaneous small tasks.

2. Numbered Quilt Pins

I never really thought I’d use these but now I would never assemble a quilt without them. I label rows and point the pin in one direction. That tells me when I go to grab all the pieces for row assembly, which direction to sew. It’s fantastic and I would screw it up every time I turned around with a stack of fabric in my hand, without these pins.

3. Telescoping Magnet

A telescoping magnet is the best tool you never knew you needed in the sewing room. And, what a great stocking stuffer. These are available at most hardware stores and online. I find more pins and screws (because I always have a screw loose) than I ever thought imaginable. And if, like me, you are clumsy and occasionally knock over a box of pins…well. Trust me, you need a good magnet to get into those corners on the floor under the machine.

4. BobbinSaver

Here’s a trendy gadget that I resisted as unnecessary until I was gifted one. And now, I don’t know what I’d do without it. They come in multiple sizes, so be sure to get the right one. My bobbins are larger than standard, so I need the larger size. Comes in regular and jumbo for those Bernina bobbins that are large.

5. Clover Roller

This humble looking little roller can really save some time. This is perfect for tiny piecing, when you don’t really want to run to an iron for every itty bitty seam. It really works.

6. Cast Iron Thread Stand

Sorry for the awkward shot. But when I taught lessons, one of the first things I suggested for someone to purchase after they got a new machine was a cast iron thread holder. Especially if you do any fast sewing like embroidery or machine quilting. I can’t speak to Viking or Brother machines. But on Berninas and many others, the spool cap can catch the thread and break it. I find that this is one of the smoothest thread paths ever, and the thread feeds like a dream.

7. Machine Embroidery Bobbin Thread

Such a simple purchase, but for a machine embroiderer, it’s something you cannot live without. Bobbin thread from OESD. You can use it in your bobbin any time you do machine embroidery. It’s inexpensive and comes on a large spool. You don’t have to use your higher priced embroidery thread in the bobbin. 5500 yards. It comes in black or white.

8. Curved Basting Pins

We can argue about this one. I don’t mind. Everyone has their own process. Obviously, someone with a longarm would not need them. But I quilt on my domestic machine at home. And I hate basting with thread. It just doesn’t work well for me. So I’ve grown to love my curved basting pins. I lay my quilt out across several banquet-sized tables and I don’t have to crawl around the floor. It works for me. So…I never have enough of these.

9. Stabilizer Organizer

To the naked eye, this may not look organized. But shockingly, it is a free-form sort of organization. If you are an avid machine-embroiderer, you know that stabilizer accumulates. Often you don’t know what you have, and can never find the right thing when you need it. Believe it or not, this really helps. I tuck the label inside the roll, so I always know what’s there. This particular organizer cam from Nancy’s Notions and is no longer available. BUT. I found another online that I think would be just as great. (In fact, maybe mine needs an upgrade).

10. Babylock Accolade Serger

Finally, last but not least, you knew I would have a machine recommendation. And I would like to give a shoutout to the Bernina 435 machine which is on sale right now. It’s an excellent machine. But this Babylock Accolade serger has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made. It’s versatile. It has all the normal serger features, plus a wonderful cover stitch and chain stitch. Do not be put off by the list price. No dealer will ever charge that much. But it’s a worthwhile machine. I can make a t-shirt in about 2 hours. I hem shirts and pants professionally. I use it for quilt backs, valances, garment sewing, and 100 other things. You’ll never regret a serger. And you can see the thread dust on mine, as I often also use it to finish quilt fabric before I wash it. (I tend to wash quilt fabric before using it because I don’t like to handle the finishing chemicals) All in all a great sewing room tool and gift idea.

I hope there’s a little bit of sewing in your holidays and that you get everything your heart desires under the tree or however you celebrate the season. Remember that sewing is not just a hobby. It’s a way of life for some of us. We think in terms of this project and the next. And the next and the next after that.

May you find a way to share your love of sewing…with the next generation, with a friend, or in gifting someone with a product made by hand. That’s what the season is really about.

Merry Sewing!

I Did Some Holiday Soul-Searching, and All I Heard was…Cricuts

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In my quest for a white-ish, neutral holiday color theme, I got the crazy idea of making some of my own putz houses. Now, you need to understand that I really am not adept with paper crafts, and I’m demonstrably terrible with a glue gun. I rarely use one.

But in googling putz houses, I found some svg files on Etsy that seemed like something I would like to do. You can find files to purchase all over. Just google putz house svg files. My first inclination was to print them out and then cut them out by hand.

Silly me.

I couldn’t see how to print the files. I did, however, locate accompanying pdf’s. So that at least gave me some vague instructions.

Undeterred, I remembered that my local library has a “maker” lab. I stopped in and asked if I could use their Cricut. Now, I have never touched a Cricut. I have never even known anyone who owns one. Still, I am endowed with a brain that consistently says, “I can figure it out.”

Whether I can or not is debatable.

Luckily, the attendant at the maker lab, was very sweet in explaining that no one is allowed to touch the equipment unless one of the experts is on hand to guide you. ( I think that is an excellent policy). So I set up an appointment for a couple of days later. I was eager to start my holiday decorating. And now these putz houses had become an obsession.

When I arrived, a very nice lady sat me down at the computer and taught me Cricut’s software. I should say she told me what buttons to push to do what I wanted. I am in no way versed in the software.

The next problem we ran into is that I brought 8 x 10 card stock, and a Cricut really likes 12 X 12. In addition, the files were designed to fit easily onto 12 x 12 and not necessarily 8 x 10.

So back to the drawing board, the software, and we resized everything to make it fit on my 8 x 10 card stock. Fortunately, only the church needed the larger sheet. By changing landscape to portrait for some of the houses, I was able to get most to fit. But some did need to be re-sized. The woman at the lab let me use a 12 x 12 sheet she had on hand and that got me through the hurdle.

Once I got them all cut, then I bundled up my sheets of card stock and went home for the assembly. As you can see in the photo at the top of this post, it was not pretty. I definitely put the smaller church together wrong, with the steeple at the back. But I got the hang of it with the larger size and that one is correct.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about them, but in the end I think they were exactly what I was hoping for.

Simple, white structures that I could use on top of the mantle.

I like them.

I don’t think I could have asked for anything better. It’s precisely what I had in mind. Festive, but soft-spoken.

The tree is curated with only the light, white, neutral ornaments, and I supplemented with some ribbon that I got half-price at Joann’s.

Now, when I go out and see all the holiday decorations and the Christkindlmarkets and open houses, I have a singular goal: Do they have any white-ish ornaments I can’t live without?

This experiment in a low-key decorating project has been a success. I have a friend who cherishes every ornament and hangs it with the memories of when she purchased it. I love that.

But I also love NOT that. Those ornaments will still be there next year and every year until I’m gone. Sometimes, you just want to keep it simple.

And I think the only rule about decorating for the holidays is: What makes you happy?

And after that, rule #2 is: Don’t make extra work for yourself.

That second rule is cultivated over time. When your kids are young and you have boundless energy and you are visiting multiple houses and different families…well, bless your heart.

Age and time tend to mellow our holiday ambitions, at least to a reasonable degree.

Wishing you and yours all the best this holiday season. May your decorating (and your stitching!) make you happy.

Kraft-Tex Christmas Village

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So here’s a very easy use of Kraft-Tex and machine embroidery to create a charming village.

I re-upped this border design which I used on my last quilt project. Some simple white Kraft-Tex and an exacto knife, and I trimmed the whole thing.

I attached it with crazy glue to a 1 x 1 block painted white. Honestly, the simplest of ideas. And yet, it’s really effective. For anyone who’s not familiar with Kraft-tex, it’s a tough, durable leather-like textile. It withstands a lot. It won’t rip. It’s washable, if that’s what you want to do.

But I just used a sticky-back tearaway stabilizer (Stabilstick) with a piece of the white Kraft-Tex on top. This particular design is ideal for this application. It’s not stitch heavy, but enough to hold its visibility.

I created three of these village scenes, added some fairy lights, with a backdrop of a white birch, which I already owned.

A bit of white filler which I found in the basement (for making stuffed shapes, pillows, etc.)

And when I was done, I had a charming village which would look lovely on a mantle. I have it on a book shelf in our hallway.

It took very little time to create this scenario, and of course, I wished there had been a series of these borders with other shops and scenes all in the same profile. But this worked out on its own.

I hope your holidays are peaceful and calm. May you enjoy your craft and create beautiful things. Happy Stitching!

Cross Stitch Life Hack

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I love cross stitch. But I am completely inept.

I have watched the YouTube videos. I have studied people moving those needles in and out. I purchased the right fabric. I can sew, machine embroider, hand embroider, knit, crochet, do hand quilting. I’m not afraid of stitching by hand. But for the love of all that is good, I cannot figure out how to cross stitch. I. Cannot. Do. It.

So I did the next best thing.

I digitized.

I found the most adorable designs (from Little House Needleworks on Etsy.)

Using Bernina Embroidery Software 8, I got the idea into my head that I could run a border of these gorgeous cross stitch patterns around the outside of a very simple tree skirt I was making.

But as always, it was not an easy task. Like Tina Turner, I never do anything nice and easy. I do it nice, and rough.

It starts with a scan of the pattern, which needs to be trimmed to the exact pattern size in some sort of graphics software. I’m used to working in Adobe, so that’s what I used. But Bernina’s software comes with Corel, so you can use that too. Then it gets imported into the Cross Stitch application in the software.

Now comes the tedious part. Every single stitch gets reconstructed with a click, and a color choice. If you look closely enough at the above image, you can see that some of it is filled in with color, and some of it still has the cross stitch symbols shown. It took me about an hour to get everything filled in for that design.

The next step is to move it into the embroidery program. The software then converts every click that you made in cross stitch into machine embroidery stitches. And it’s pretty magical. One moment it’s just a weird looking drawing, the next minute it’s stitches that my machine will understand.

And I am absolutely loving the way these turned out.

I still have a long way to go on this tree skirt, and each design from start to finish probably takes about three hours. Could someone do it by hand in that time? Maybe someone who knows what they’re doing. That would not be me, when it comes to cross stitch. But I am just so taken in by their charm and sweetness.

I hope you are tolerating this difficult holiday season.

I leave you with this December thought:

“Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.”


Sewing Through the Midwestern Blizzard

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#SNOWVEMBER, is what I’m told.

Actually, it’s just raining. but they say the snow is coming…and plenty of it. I am skeptical, but that’s nothing new.

These little ornaments on the tree are made from Kraft Tex. (See my previous post for more details.) I think they turned out cute, and I am anxious to try stitching them out on fabric and turning them into little stuffed ornaments. I think that would be adorable. These have designs on both sides, because I just wanted some flexibility. I’ll need to make some minor adjustments to the software file I use to stitch out the designs on fabric. On the new ones, I’ll add a seam around the outside, leaving an opening to turn them. Then it will be just a matter of stuffing them.  I’ll share when I start that.

But for this task, I wanted to show you the greatest little tool I got at the shop as it was closing. I didn’t think I’d ever need it, didn’t really have any idea why I might use it, but of course I purchased it anyway.

And it sat in my sewing room for over a year.

(Incidentally, as we speak, the rain has turned to snow out my window. Maybe they are not all liars after all.)

It’s called a Circle Rotary Cutter from Olfa. I finally decided to try it out for this project and I am in love with it. I guess I just didn’t know how desperately I needed to cut accurate circles. It has a ruler attached so you can set the radius. You basically use it like a compass, with the sharp point in the center, and a blade instead of a pencil at the end. Suddenly I am imagining all the wool projects I’d like to invent using circles, as well as paper, Kraft Tex, felt, and basically anything a rotary cutter will go through.

In minutes I had beautiful, ACCURATE circles. Do not discount the significance of getting a circle perfectly round.

I am off now, to work on a quick quilt that I must finish before the holidays. We all have those last minute projects. For those of you in the Midwest, Happy Blizzard-Sewing!

Just Like Grandma Used to Make – Almost

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This time of year, I really long for some snow.  Like everyone else, I’m really sick of it by March, but late November, early December, give me a little bit of holiday cheer in the form of weather.

At a recent community supper, I was lamenting about the lack of snow and how much I wanted to see it this year and global warming, blah, blah.    A friend looked at me and said, “As long as the weather stays moderate, I can work outside.  Working outside makes for a decent income.  When weather gets cold, we need different kinds of contracts–indoor work.  And while I can still get that, it’s never enough.  The longer I can work outside, the better.”

Oh. Now I see.  (I was blind and now I see.)   I don’t need the weather outside to be frightful, even though a fire is so delightful. I’d rather see people keep their jobs and income.

As for snowflakes, I can make my own.  Grandma used to make wonderful doilies by hand, some of them no larger than the palm of your hand. I still have a few.  But times have changed a bit, and now I can make ornaments with basically the same look, only they are done on an embroidery machine.  Free-standing lace is what they are called.  No teeny tiny crochet hooks.  Though I love the look of handwork, too often, I just don’t have the time.

I used two layers of Aquamesh  Washaway stabilizer.  Once the design stitches out,  cut away the bulk of the stabilizer, and rinse the rest under warm water. It disappears almost instantly.  I prefer Aquamesh over Badgemaster, having used them both now.  Badgemaster has a gummy, gooey feel to it as it rinses and does not seem to rinse as easily.  But in a pinch, it will work just fine.

Then just lay them flat and pin them onto a piece of styrofoam.  They dry out overnight, and maintain a slight stiffness.  Whenever I do this part it reminds me of the way my mom used to wash out doilies (she made plenty of them too).  But she had to starch them to get them to hold a shape, while mine will have a slight residue of the stabilizer to keep them in their shape. It’s a little hard to see the pins in the photo, but they are essential to maintaining the shape and flatness of the ornaments.  Free standing lace embroidery is everywhere these days, and I’ve seen some gorgeous designs for the holidays.

Most of these came from a collection by OESD called Snowflake Elegance #12429.

And I guess they are still homemade, though I have been contemplating exactly what that means.  If it’s made on a machine, is it really made by hand?  When I ask myself that question, I think about what Grandma might have done if she could have gotten her hands on a machine like I have.  I think about my mom and her knitting machines.  And the question then becomes not whether or not I should make use of technology, but with my heritage, why wouldn’t I?