It’s our third week live from the new Kansas City studio, but it was our first episode with a full sewing project and man, did it feel good to be back at it. The set looks good. The new Baby Lock Chorus sews like a dream. The viewers are there and commenting. And the Lovey Love (pattern by Melly & Me) went swimmingly.
Today’s project was a sweet little toy, perfect for folks wanting to try sewing with Cuddle®, but aren’t quite ready to jump into the deep end of stuffed animals with me. The head is only three pieces and requires some careful sewing, but the rest is so simple there is nothing to keep anyone from being able to create it. Plus there were a few fun extra tips that I got to share and it all went really well, I think.
Last year was an adventure, for sure, getting to meet so many shop owners, sewists, and quilters out there on the road. But there’s something really good about being in one place producing sewing tutorials. The continuity of space, not to mention internet, cannot be overstated. For everyone who supported the Sew Together Tuesday: On the Road series, I cannot say thank you enough, for their patience, acceptance, cheerleading and hospitality.
We’ll be taking a break next week and getting ahead of the next few projects, but I’ll be back before then. Until then…
It seems to me that we all know someone who has been affected by breast cancer these days. Co-workers, family members, neighborhood friends–it’s far too common. In those times when we hear of a loved one’s new diagnosis, we want to be helpful, do something kind and thoughtful.
That’s where the tutorial for the mastectomy pillow came in. I thought it would be a good project for those like myself who know people diagnosed with breast cancer and can sew. We did this a couple years ago for Sew Together Tuesday and since then many have reached out to say that they made one for a friend or family member.
But recently a viewer reached out to let me know that she’d made more than one mastectomy pillow. In fact, she made 52 of them!
Jennifer Roney is a breast cancer survivor and while she signed up to participate in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer fundraiser and walk, she wanted to do more. She bought a few yards of Cuddle® fabrics and got to work. She was able to make eight pillows out of every yard and kept going until she had made more than 50.
With each one, she printed out a note to explain her motivation, then gathered them up and brought them to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon. Jennifer suggests to reach out ahead of time, as she did, to your local hospital to make sure the donations will be accepted.
I love this idea and wanted to share with you because even when you don’t have someone specific that you need to sew for, you can share your talents with strangers that do. If we all work together, we can combat breast cancer and the toll that it takes on men and women.
The #SewPink Initiative was created by ByAnnie.com LLC to raise awareness for breast cancer throughout the year. Our efforts culminate in an annual blog hop during October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month to promote self-care, awareness, early detection and support for those affected by breast cancer. To learn more and see the calendar of events visit: https://www.ByAnnie.com/SewPINK
This year we are again joining forces with Fat Quarter Shop to promote a fundraiser. Their goal of raising $20,000 to donate to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
After eight weeks off the road, we had our first stop at Pins and Needles in Middleburg Heights, Ohio and boy was it a good one! More than 100 folks showed up for the livestreaming of Sew Together Tuesday. They were as excited to be there as I was and were just the cheerleaders I needed to get this season off on the right foot.
As you can tell, the store is huge! Owner Jan Brotek bought the building and converted half of the huge space in to a sewing machine and fabric store, while the other half became a classroom. It was amazing to get so many people in there, and they have it all wired up with microphone, speakers and a projection system so that everyone can take part. Ideal!
Located southwest of Cleveland, Pins and Needles sells new and used machines, including sewing , embroidery and long-arm quilting machines, as well as fabric, notions, patterns, tools, thread and much more. It was impressive!
Over the two days, I taught the Sweet Sixteen Pillow workshop, Self Binding Blanket workshop and the Sew Simple Blanket workshop to 50+ folks from all over the area. There were ladies who’d driven in from southern Ohio, as well as western Pennsylvania. What a fun crowd and some lovely finishes.
We managed to corral about half the class near the end to show off some of their projects outside the store (luckily it had stopped raining earlier!) .
Thank you so much to Pins and Needles for hosting Sew Together Tuesday and workshops with me. I had a great time with everyone and it was nice to see another part of Ohio! If you missed the show, you can watch via YouTube:
Here we are, back at it again with another cross-country trip. In the spring and early summer we made our way across the southern states and all the way up to New Hampshire for classes. This time we are starting in Ohio and heading across the Midwest and over to the West coast for the winter, stopping at a new quilt shop every week to film an episode of Sew Together Tuesday.
If you’re near any of the shops along the way, I’d love to see you! Our Lives are open for anyone to come (though you’ll need to sign up through the store first) and watch behind the scenes as we broadcast my sewing endeavors on Facebook and YouTube. If you’re at home, you can watch it, too, of course!
Join me for a Sew Together Tuesday LIVE or a workshop (or three) at these shops. Reach out to the store directly to sign up:
This week I’m talking all about using Cuddle® on your cotton quilt, in particular about how to wrap the backing around and make an easy binding with Cuddle®. I’ll be live at 10am PDT/1pm EDT on Tuesday, June 14.
To help you out, I’ve made this PDF for reference to know how to make a mitered corner with Cuddle® and how to figure out the sizes to cut both the batting and backing.
When Hawke and I show up in shops, we often get asked the same questions each time, so we thought it would be fun to answer them for everyone and not just those that can get to our workshops. We had a handful of questions that had been sent in and then took live questions from folks. We had a ball and hopefully you’ll enjoy this look into our crazy lives.
I earned a lot of my sewing chops by sewing garments, so when we got a request to do a Sew Together Tuesday about using Cuddle® for clothing, I was down for it, but I knew I’d want some help. I reached out to Bianca at Thanks, I Made Them and Ajaire from Call Ajaire to see if they’d join me to talk all about the patterns, fabrics and sewing techniques they’ve used. They both agreed and yesterday we had the joy of sitting down for an hour-long chit chat for Sew Together Tuesday.
It was great to talk about all the garments that can be made with the fabric thanks to the wide variety of looks, textures, and stretch. We showed a bunch more projects in the video, but here are a few of my favorites:
During our stop in Mesa, we’d gotten word that the STT RV was fixed and ready to go, so the morning after the show we headed back, yet again, to Las Vegas to pick it up. We did the rodeo between rental RV and the STT RV, took care of some business (like all the Zoom meetings I could fit in one day) and headed south again for our show with Rena Dearden of Rustic Horseshoe in Cornville, Arizona. (An aside: that area of Arizona is one of my most very favorite places in the whole U.S. You can read about some of our adventures over on our Makers at Large blog.)
I made the Rustic Horseshoe Nutty Nag stuffed animal in 2020 for a Sew Together Tuesday and thought it would be super fun to come out, see her and talk about the process of making patterns for stuffed animals (seriously, what an interesting career!).
If you’re anything like me, you grew up with those candy hearts as a part of every February. I not-so-secretly still love them, so when the idea was tossed around to make our own conversation hearts for Sew Together Tuesday, I jumped at the idea. And I’m so glad I did, they turned out so great!
Several years ago I visited Cozy Creative Center, so when I pulled up and this was the storefront I was confused. This isn’t how I’d remembered it at all and I’m usually really good at remembering that sort of thing. Turns out, they moved down the street, so it was the same street name, different storefront. LOL! Not only is a different building, it’s bigger and better than before.
Located just 20 minutes from downtown San Diego, Cozy Creative Center is packed with just about everything you could need including hundreds of Cozy Quilt Designs patterns!
