Cuddle fabric – Teresa Coates

10 October 20228 October 2022

#SewPINK: Sewing to Support Survivors

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.

You can find the pattern we created for Sew Together Tuesday here: Mastectomy Pillow Pattern and the tutorial video here: Mastectomy Pillow Tutorial You can also use my tutorial for the ByAnnie Bosom Buddy made with Cuddle® if you want to add a little something extra.

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

To find screenings available near you:

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.

ByAnnie.com will match every dollar raised on the #SewPINK fundraising page.

Make sure to check out everyone’s blog posts this month for lots of ideas and inspiration:
✂ Oct. 1 :ByAnnie.com Kick off

✂ Oct. 3 : Emmaline Bags

✂ Oct. 4: Hugs ‘N Kisses

✂ Oct. 5: Clover and Violet

✂ Oct. 6: Fat Quarter Shop and the Jolly Jabber

✂ Oct. 7: Sewfinity

✂ Oct. 10: Teresa Coates & Shannon Fabrics

✂ Oct. 11:Beyond the Reef

✂ Oct. 12: Sallie Tomato

✂ Oct. 13: Suzn Quilts

✂ Oct. 17: Snuggles Quilts

✂ Oct. 20: Pat Sloan

✂ Oct. 21: Knot and Thread Design

✂ Oct.23: Sookie Sews

✂ Oct. 24: Mister Domestic

✂ Oct. 26: A Bright Corner

✂ Oct. 27: Sew Cute and Quirky

✂ Oct. 1 : ByAnnie.com Final Wrap Up

Happy sewing!

1 September 20225 September 2022

Sew Together Tuesday at Pins and Needles (OH)

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:

This week we’re live at Creative Passions Quilt Shop and Retreat Centers in Chesaning, MI. You can catch that one live Tuesday at 10amPST on the Shannon Fabrics YouTube and Facebook.

Happy sewing!

25 August 20222 September 2022

Sew Together Tuesday hits the road again

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:

08/30 Pins and Needles (Middleburg Heights, OH)
09/06 Creative Passions (Chesaning, MI)
09/13 Always in Stitches (Noblesville, IN)
09/20 Linda Z’s (Arlington Heights, IL)
9/27 Patched Works (Elm Grove, WI)
10/04 Sew Trendy MN (Eagan, MN)
10/11 Calico Hutch Quilt Shop (Hayward, MN)
10/15 Red Roxy Quilt Co (Decorah, IA) guest appearance
10/18 Inspired to Sew (Cedar Rapids, IA)
10/22 KC Maker Studio & Fabrics (Mission, KS) workshop only
10/25 Quilt Cabin (Colby, KS)
11/1 & 11/4 International Quilt Festival (Houston, TX)
11/8 Quilting Mayhem (Snohomish, WA)
11/15 Hunter’s Design Studio (online only)
11/16 Montavilla Sewing Center (Lake Oswego, OR) open sewing
11/29 Green’s Sew & Vac (Medford, OR)
12/06 Tater Patch (Merrill, OR)
12/13 Cali Quilt Co (Rancho Cordova, CA)

13 June 202219 June 2022

Sew Together Tuesday: How to use Cuddle® Minky to Self-Bind a Cotton Quilt

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.

Download the PDF: How to Make a Self-Bound Quilt

16 February 202227 March 2022

Sew Together Tuesday: Apparel Sewing with Cuddle®

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:

*Lined Open Front Coat (Butterick 6382) made by me and modeled by my daughter*

25 January 20227 February 2022

Sew Together Tuesday: Conversation Hearts

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!

I worked on this in between classes at Road to California and wasn’t quite sure I’d be able to pull it off, but with the help of Hawke, Mary (my friends and fellow Shannon Fabrics Brand Ambassador) and Shannon Fabrics pattern writer, Rose, it all came together the morning of the show. Phew!

3 September 202112 September 2021

Parents, Paper Piecing and KC Maker Studio & Fabrics

After a nice weekend in southern Kansas, we made our way up to Kansas City on Sunday afternoon. I knew it was going to be a special Sew Together Tuesday for a couple of reasons: we were using my friend Sam Hunter’s “Bloomin’ Too” pattern and we were visiting a brand new shop: KC Maker Studio & Fabrics.

We’d worked together with Hunter’s Design Studio to get her patterns in stock for the event, plus she had all the Sweet Strips and a nice variety of Cuddle® fabrics in stock, ready to go. I felt pretty good about it, despite not having as much prep time as I would have wished.

As we were getting set up and I was making a post on Facebook about the day’s show, Hawke told me I needed to help him get something in the RV, so I started heading that way, still typing away and he started recording…

20 August 2021

10 Tips for Sewing with Cuddle Minky

If you are new to sewing with minky fabrics, I know they can be a bit intimidating. Minky is completely different than quilting cotton, requiring different techniques and tools.

I’ve found that lots of quilters have wanted to use minky, but when they’ve tried it with their quilter techniques, it’s been a frustration. Cuddle® is the Shannon Fabrics brand of minky fabric and I work with it exclusively (obviously, since I’m their National Educator!) and along the way I’ve learned a lot that can help learn to tackle this fabric in a way that makes is successful and not stressful.

For Sew Together Tuesday, we visited Red Roxy Quilt Co. in Decorah, Iowa and filmed this updated version of the 10 Tips:

You can read more about the tips that I shared and get the downloadable PDF over at the Shannon Fabrics blog!

Happy sewing!

17 May 202125 May 2021

Oops–a cutting mistake & how to “fix” it

Sometimes I shouldn’t be talking while using a rotary cutter and this was the result recently. I was making a sample for an upcoming Sew Together Tuesday and instead of cutting the square, I kept on cutting into the fabric. Oops! Considering this was nearly two yards of Cuddle® fabric, I wasn’t about to just throw it away and start over. I had to figure out a way to fix it.

21 March 202121 March 2021

Longarm Quilting with Cuddle minky & Hawke [Sew Together Tuesday]

Last March, my bosses at Shannon Fabrics asked me to cut my travels short and come home. I was pretty sure my workload would decrease and I’d be able to finally spend some time learning to longarm quilt, so I bought a small Grace Company Q-Zone Hoop Frame and Q’Nique 15R from CaliQuiltCo. I’ve worked with Tayva many times and she was just starting to sell the machines, so it was an easy choice on where to buy one.

Fast forward a few months and the reality began to set it that not only was I not going back on the road, I wasn’t going to have any less work to do! Sew Together Tuesday had gotten some momentum and suddenly I was busier than ever. So the whole set up sat immobile for months. Then I had a bunch of quilts to finish and not enough time to do the design, piecing and quilting. So I asked Hawke to help out.