Recycling Shirts - Creative Textiles DVD

Colouricious have been around a while now and they produce really good quality videos.  I particularly liked this one - you don't need to buy anything to experiment with the ideas here, just put some old worn out clothes to good use.  I have done some printing on fabric - I used stamps left over from my card making attempts and I have lots of acrylic paints - it's so easy to do.  I have mediums which I could mix with the acrylic paint to make it into fabric paint and it would dry softer - for a wall hanging it doesn't really matter about it drying stiff.  Rather than sponging the paint onto the stamp which I find a bit messy, I squeeze paint onto a polysterene plate (you could use a tile or piece of glass), spread it evenly with a brush then press the stamp gently onto it - then stamp the fabric.  Acrylic does dry rather fast but you could mix it with Extender to keep it wet a while longer - or just work fast!

Just Hands On TV

I subscribed to Just Hands On TV about six months ago.  For £6 a month you get to see two new videos each Friday.  This sounded ideal - Friday is my day off and to settle down with a cappuccino to watch two quilting videos after showering and dressing sounded like the perfect relaxing way to start my weekend.  (You can get to watch a limited number of non subscriber videos for free if you choose not to pay the £6 fee.)

On the first Friday I couldn't find my two subscriber videos so emailed the owner to ask what I was doing wrong - what I had found was a lady talking about an exhibition which I thought was an advert to get you to visit and a further video showing how to use a particular plastic ruler - for that to be of use you would have needed to buy the plastic ruler from the web site so I just took that for another advert.  The response from the owner was that those two videos were indeed my two paid for videos.  Over the following months there were a few videos of interest to me but some were quite short and usually finished before I got to the end of the cappuccino.  In December one of the offerings was a very poor quality video showing someone talking about mini quilts and I decided to call it a day.  My decision was more than confirmed when one of last Friday's videos was a 1 minute 24 second demo of how to sew a quarter inch seam with your sewing machine.

I consider myself to be an intermediate quilter who is working on improving more advanced techniques and I would reiterate that some of the Friday videos I saw were very interesting, but I don't feel there is enough advanced material to hold my attention.  Some of the videos are introduced as a "quick and easy" way to do something - I don't want quick and easy.  I want to continue stretching myself - I can find quick and easy quilting projects all over the internet for free.

I don't want to dismiss this website completely because if I was a beginner it would be a fabulous place to learn all sorts of "quilty stuff" and give you lots of tasters to inspire and develop your own ideas to begin your quilting journey.  Give it a try and see what you think, you can cancel your payment at any time if you use Paypal and there are lots of videos to browse through when you join.  We're all different and what doesn't suit me may be just the thing for someone else.

When I decided to spend this £6 a month it was to be instead of buying more and more monthly quilting publications and I can confirm that I stuck to this and haven't bought a quilt magazine since last June - pat on the back for me for sticking to that!!

Another Binding Foot

Revisiting the Janome Life blog I came across the smaller Janome binding foot - I've wondered about it from time to time but never heard any rave reviews or seen it in action.  Here's some pictures and guidance which originally come from the Haby Goddess

You can watch a video to see the foot in action - I'm quite impressed, it would be a time saver for smaller binding projects - it might have to go on my shopping list.

Janome Horizon Quilt Binder and Janome Life Blog

I said "no" to the £118 quilt binder attachment when I was offered it at my local sewing shop, mainly because of the price and secondly because I presumed these cumbersome, overpriced pieces of metal would not be able to mitre the corners of the binding.  I stand corrected - here are the very detailed instructions for using the binder and mitreing the corners.  I need to think more about this, and there'll be plenty of thinking time as I'll need to save up.  It looks like it does a very good job.  Do I really need the thread stand I wonder?  I don't use large cones, so I could put that money towards a binder if I decide to go that way.

The instructions are on Janome Life blog - another find whilst browsing the internet today.  Authored by Janome Canada Educators - what a fantastic (growing) resource.

Not to be missed on the Janome Canada website are "Inspiration" videos.  Drop down the box under "Learning Centre" to find the videos.

You don't have to be an owner of a Janome sewing machine to use these resources, lots of them are of interest to any sewing machine / overlocker user.

Christmas is SO last year.............. Talking Threads

I've only just got round to watching the Talking Threads Christmas Specials and what a treat.  Parts one, two and three are available on line.  Poinsettias from organza, needlefelted cards, machine embroidered cards and a twisted, strip pieced bag.  Well worth viewing and I always think January is the time to do your Christmas sewing, or at least get it planned and buy in the supplies.  Leaving it until autumn means dark nights and so much else to do.

Talking Threads Christmas Specials           
Part One                     
Part Two                           
Part Three

More Sewing Videos.....

Sewing Republic is a Bernina site with a wealth of projects ideas along with techniques viewable on quality videos. Project patterns and instructions are downloadable in .pdf and a video demonstrates how to make the project up. A site to book mark for when I've got some browsing time.

Quilting Video

On the Sewing with Nancy website there are some good videos on sewing, embroidery, quilting etc. In particular I enjoyed the 3 part Quilter's Edge series where Nancy and Darlene Zimmerman went through various methods of edging your quilt. Some of these are in my new book, mentioned in the previous post and at first they look complicated, but after I've seen the video, they're not so scary. There's a bit of advertising to sit through, but it's worth waiting to get to the show. Initially I had a problem with buffering but when the video started I clicked "pause" and left it for a while. Then pressed play and it came through without any interference.
http://www.sewingwithnancytv.com/

One Seam Wonder Flying Geese video

Here's another video from My Quilting - a "one seam wonder" method of creating Flying Geese.

Flying Geese video

Here a video from UTube showing a very easy method of making "Flying Geese" Posted by My Quilting