“Dear Santa…” for the sewer
his is the time of year we are often asked to help “Santa’s helpers” pick out gifts for those who have a passion for sewing/quilting and may already have most everything that goes along with that.
Or if you are not one to help guide “Santa” with your wish list, we have the following suggestions that include some of the items you may want but not already have.
Check out Heirloom Creations Top 12 list.
Heirloom Creations Gift Card is always the perfect and easiest option!
Mini Fingertip Rotary Cutter
Scrapbook lovers will be very familiar with this cool tool, the Mini Fingertip Rotary Cutter. It gives you fingertip-level control so you can cut extremely precisely on all sorts of surfaces. This is definitely a cool tool that should be in many quilters’ arsenal of cutting tools. Only $9.99.
AccuQuilt Go! Fabric Cutter
Do you love to quilt but hate to cut? So do we. Now there’s a better way! The AccuQuilt Fabric Cutter is the most revolutionary way to cut fabric ever offered. It’s fast, accurate and easy. Cut multiple layers in seconds with no cutting mistakes. Better cuts make better quilts. It also includes free die and 10″ x 10″ mat.
Sewing Machine Case on Wheels
The innovative transportation system from Tutto is manufactured from ballistic nylon and features a fiberglass frame that folds to 3″ for storage. It has top access or side load, stacks up to 150 pounds, and weighs only 11 pounds empty.
Sewing Chair
Heirloom Creations stocks premium sewing chairs adjustable for short and tall sewers. Foam bases are firm and stay firm with little to no compression over time, and have a cushioned spring for support when lowering body into it. There are many colorful fabrics to select from. Come try them out!
Gingher’s Designer Series Dressmaker Shears
Gingher’s new designer series pattern, Bianca, is reminiscent of sunshine and spring blossom. Hand-crafting ensures that each pair of scissors is a unique treasure, sure to become an heirloom. Unsurpassed in quality and beauty, the Bianca is offered as a limited edition only.
Gypsy Grippers
The Gypsy Gripper has a comfortable grip handle, and two large suction cups with handy lock & release levers. Just press the suction cups onto any plastic ruler with a smooth solid surface, and then flip the levers to lock The Gypsy Gripper in place. Now you can move the ruler quickly, and hold it easily in the exact position with gentle downward pressure. Your ruler hand will be up and away from the fabric, and out of harm’s way if you slip with the cutter. When you need to switch to another ruler, just flip the locking levers to release The Gypsy Gripper. It is available in 3 sizes.
Ruffler Attachment
Recently popular by the making the Ruffled Play Day skirts the ruffler attachment is absolutely the best way for sewing copious amounts of gathered fabric! The ruffler is adjustable for sewing small pleats for pleated ruffles as you can control both the depth of each pleat and the distance between pleats. You can gather or pleat a single layer of fabric while attaching it to the straight, base layer in one operation.
Bernina Magnifying Glass Set
This set of three glasses offers varying degrees of magnification to suit your visual needs. They attach to the machine to facilitate precision work. They work with all Bernina classic series sewing machines. Get a close up view of your work with these magnifying glasses.
Electric Quilt Software
While Electric Quilt version 6 is the newest and most advanced version of our best-selling Electric Quilt software, it’s also the most user-friendly. This incredibly full-featured quilt design and drawing program has been especially designed with beginners as well as advanced designers in mind. Use it to design quilts, draw blocks, scan in fabrics or select from over 20,000 blocks, fabrics, colors, embroidery, photos, threads, quilt layouts and borders, all included in EQ6. Use EQ6 simply to try out colors, or print patterns in any size. Or use EQ6 to forge a quilting career, producing professional, high-resolution block and quilt images print-ready for books or magazines. This is software you’ll never outgrow!
Sew Steady Table
Available for most sewing machines and sergers, this 18” x 24” table adds a wonderful extended sewing surface for quilting, sewing, craft and home dec projects. It provides extra storage underneath the table for all your sewing accessories while sewing! Front edge corners are rounded for extra comfort, and it can double as a light box. It has a permanent inches and metric ruler printed on the table. It can take a couple weeks for delivery on some older sewing machine models as they must be custom made to fit precisely.
New Serger
Heirloom Creations stocks the latest innovative Bernina and Husqvarna Viking sergers. Sergers are the perfect addition to any sewing room to speed up basic construction and decorative edges.
Want something else for Christmas? Drop off your very on “Dear Santa” list and we will keep it on file for Santa’s elves!
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My Stars!
Do you see stars or do you see hexagons? This fascinating optical illusion is made by a combination of sewing and weaving! Tubes of fabric are woven without ever having to sew a “Y” seam. No piecing is required. And, it is completely reversible so you can use different border fabric on each side to make two different looks.
Join us Saturday, December 5 from 10 – 1pm for the Woven Stars Table Runner class. Click here for a supply list.
Forget all the old fashion tube turning methods you have ever tried and check out the video below for the only way to turn tubes quickly using the Fasturn Tool. Heirloom Creations has these wonderful tools currently in stock!
HELPFUL HINT: Since the seams will be pressed to the edge of each strip, it is helpful to press the seam OPEN before turning. Once the tube is turned, steam press or use Best Press to set the edge.
Tubes are then laid out in order according to the pattern. The weaving process consists of a series of “over one, under two” in a precise order. The cool part of this table runner is that it is completely reversible! Finish by adding a border with fusible batting and binding as desired.
Patterns are available for both the Woven Tumbling Blocks and the Woven Star Table Runners. Call Heirloom Creations at 605-332-4435 to order.
And the Winner Is…
Recently, a poll was taken on the Bernina Blog website as to which foot was the most popular. Below are the results. I must agree, one of my favorite-can’t-live-without foot is the Edgestitch foot!
By far the most popular foot was Edgestitch Foot #10/10C/10D, with 26% of the votes. Everyone loves this foot not only for edge stitching, but topstitching, understitching, stitching-in-the-ditch, joining edges, attaching trims – it really is a foot that comes in handy for almost every sewing project!
In second place, with 16% of the votes, was a favorite for patching and topstitching, 1/4″ Patchwork Foot #37/37D.
Close behind, with 14% of the votes, was Dual Sole Walking Foot #50, popular not only for quilting, but also for sewing difficult-to-manage fabrics and multiple layers.
Very nearly tied for fourth and fifth place were 1/4″ Patchwork Foot with Guide #57/57D, with 12% of the votes, a must-have for piecing quilts, and also useful for topstitching; and…
… the BERNINA Stitch Regulator, with 11% of the votes, a foot many said enabled them to create perfect free-motion stitching for the first time ever.
A big thank you to everyone that participated – it was great reading all of your comments!
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If you are interested in any one of these feet for your brand of sewing machine, contact Heirloom Creations 605-332-4435 for assistance.
Keep a Batting Journal
Tip from “The Quilt Show” e-mail:
Do you love the way a particular quilt batting worked in one of your quilts…but find yourself unable to remember which type of batting you used? Why not include this vital detail in your on-going quilt journal, or start a journal to record this and other important data about each quilt you make. A three-ring binder works well for keeping your quilt “documentation” organized and easily accessible.
Chances are you already are documenting some information about your quilts: your name, the name of your quilt, when it was made, for whom it was made, and so on. (If not, you should be!) At the same time, spend a moment or two to include details about the batting you used in the quilt. If possible, include the label from the batting package. If you just take this simple step, you ‘ll never again need to “un-sew” a small area of the binding to peek at the batting.
Cathedral Windows by Machine
I was inspired to try Cathedral Window Quilts after receiving the new book by the same name, by Lynne Edwards. The wonderful color combinations as well as the umpteen variations throughout the second half of the book got me thinking…do I have to do this by hand or can I do it my machine?
Come to find out, doing it by machine looks just as good…and what a time saver! But if you have been looking for a good hand sewing project, this one is very portable and easy to work on.
A cathedral window quilt is not the same as a traditional quilt. Window panes are traditionally made from muslin or cheesecloth to create the translucent and light look generated from windows. The window frames are often made from heavier cottons or calicos. In the old days colors were used infrequently; however we now have an abundance of materials that can be used with translucence qualities, such as silks, organza, light cottons and many more.
The beauty of the traditional Cathedral Window blocks is that the finished product requires NO batting, NO hand or machine quilting and NO binding! When you are done, you are FINISHED!
While testing the variations, it reminded me of origami paper creations I used to do as a child, except this is with fabric. Many of the variations finish as actual blocks with seam allowance. This allows them to be easily inserted into a regular quilt with other blocks.
There is a special ruler that was made to partner with the book by Creative Grid. If you decide to purchase the book, I highly recommend purchasing the ruler at the same time. That way if it takes you a couple years before you actually try the techniques you don’t have to go searching for a ruler that may or may not exist at a later date.
If you want to experiment with a variety of techniques via a hands-on class, join us on Thursday, November 12, 2009 from 6:30 – 9pm. Call 605-332-4435 to register. Click here for a class description and a supply list.
If you want just the book and the ruler, call Heirloom Creations to order.
