sewing class – SewingMachinesPlus.com Blog

‘Winging it.’

Good morning My Sewing Friends,

I appreciate all the comments I received from my last blog. I feel the need to preface this one with the explanation that I always try to do the best I can about measuring and sewing seams straight and accurately. I felt a little guilty telling you that I kind of “winged” it in the blog time before last about the scrap quilt made from pieces that were matched not measured in size. I just want to say that I firmly believe anything you attempt to do, do it well, or do it again to make it better. Perfection with sewing comes with practice, but don’t be hard on yourself if it doesn’t turn out the first time. Your time is valuable and the reward of doing something that looks great takes work and focus. But please, enjoy it along the way!

Angela jumps down now!

Today I want to do a product review that saves a lot of time and makes great sense to do when you are planning a quilt. So many ideas are available through quilt patterns and packaged quilt kits. Online stores have a multitude of pattern quilts and instructions.

Those are great for ideas, but to me, a quilt designed by the person sewing it, is much more rewarding and showcases your personal style.

Fly into the comfort zone

Come out of your comfort zone and design your own patterns using different textures, shapes and colors. Look through quilting magazines for inspiration, Pinterest or other sewing books. Most quilts are made by geometric square, triangles, parallelograms, and blocks of different sizes. Sewn together or apart, so many options are available, but make it your own with your favorite elements.

Make a design board of your favorite shapes and colors, then decide which type of fabric designs that you enjoy looking at, and the colors that would blend in your home or those you may make for donations or gifts. All fabric fits into design groups. Learn about which are modern, traditional, tribal, and vintage. Look at the different patterns and discover that most are blocks and triangles, strips and even other cut pieces that when cut from different pieces can form a very sweet quilt made like a picture.

So, let me introduce to you to the product regarding these concepts to build the precisely cut quilt pieces that would you would love making and know that you have the only one like it. The products are the AccuQuilt GO Cutter Line of fabric cutters.

SewingMachinesPlus.com has these products that fit any budget. You can quickly cut accurate blocks, triangles and many other shapes with these fabric cutters. The idea is that a die is in the machine and up to six layers of cotton can be placed on a cutting mat and be cut all at once. What a time saver! No turning the fabric on the mat and measuring again and again and cutting with your rotary cutter. The best part is they have a wide assortment of strip dies, alphabet, parallelogram, rectangles and blocks as well as other small shapes for baby appliques and seasonal shapes.

You can have all your shapes and strips cut to be able to sew a quilt in record time.

AccuQuilt Go includes

In summary, the AccuQuilt Go line of Fabric Cutters have the following to promote beautiful sewing projects.

Faster than rotary cutters or scissors
Safe to use
Portable and lightweight ( See the “Go Baby” and the “Go” Cutter (Great for sewing class or retreats and smaller projects)
Includes die and cutting mat that last for many die cut pieces
Additional dies of many types are available for designing patterns besides
blocks and triangles
AccuQuilt “GO BIG” Electric Cutter for larger projects and more die choices
Ask about financing – you will save so you can purchase the fabric you love (love this one!)
Ask about Limited Warranty on the machines when you order
Still can be used when following patterns and with ready made design kits if you are not ready to “plunge in the fabric pool” and design your own patterns

There you have it! Order online from SewingMachinesPlus.com or call them and ask for help to decide which cutter best suits your needs. Then send me a picture in the comments space below of your beautiful personally designed item. I would love to see it. Start small and you will finish projects and love the results!

Ready? One, two, three, AccuQuilt GO!

By the way, tell SewingMachinesPlus.com that Angela sent you!

Have a happy sunny day, and Keep Calm, Keep Sewing!

**Above images from Accu-Quilt Website

Whether you are attending a sewing class or planning a leisurely vacation, sewing on the go is something you will want to do sooner or later.

We’ve talked a lot about sewing rooms here on the blog, but we haven’t addressed the issue of sewing on the go here before now.

Sewing on the go won’t work if you aren’t properly prepared, so I’ve made this short video to cover all the areas you need to address to ensure you have what you need when you take your sewing on the road.

Here’s everything you’ll need:

Sewing on the go: portable machine

Janome Jem Gold

I already discussed this machine in my beginner sewing machine buying guide. It is definitely my choice for best lightweight portable machine.

Sewing on the go: machine carriers, luggage and totes

You definitely want to think about this before you get ready to take your sewing to go. I hadn’t ever considered this myself until the day before I taught my first sewing class at the community center. I suddenly realized I was going to have a lot of equipment and gear to lug and I had no idea how I was going to carry it all!

So I grabbed a thick piece of table linen and whipped up a humongous bag to carry everything.

So I grabbed a thick piece of table linen & whipped up a humongous bag to carry everything.

While this bag has proven itself to be quite useful in other ways, I don’t recommend this solution for sewing supplies and gear. I only used it that one time for this purpose and then I found a more suitable option. I have appreciated the ample sack for carrying beach supplies for myself and my kids, and it carries three of our ukuleles in boxes safely in the trunk when we travel with them these days.

For toting your sewing machine and supplies, save time and trouble by ordering one of these great choices from Sewing Machines Plus:

Here is a link to SMP’s full selection of trolleys, totes, and cases.

Sewing on the go: sewing supplies

Here is the list of supplies to be sure to include in your travel sewing kit:

Be sure to get an extra pair of dress shears to keep in your go bag at all times.

You’ll also like to have a portable rotary cutter.

Here is the combo cutting mat/ pressing board mentioned in the video.

And here is that Rowenta travel iron.

The clover mini-iron is available in a couple of different options:

Here are the cooling sleeves for the mini-iron.

Tag / sewing class

Professional Quilt Pieces by AccuQuilt