This has been an unusual winter for us in Oklahoma! We had lots of snow - 12.5" on Christmas Eve, which set an all-time record! - and lots of cold, chilly weather. So I am glad to finally see a bit of spring arriving! OESD has a new design collection out entitled Garden Song. There is also a matching fabric collection from Benartex. Nancy Halvorsen's collections have always been best-sellers because her art appeals to a wide cross-range of people. The designs in this collection would look great on any number of gifts for friends and family.

I recently made a greeting card holder out of a placemat and zippered plastic bags for an All About ME (Machine Embroidery) program, and embroidered it with Garden Song designs. It turned out really cute! Now all I have to do is remember to buy the cards to put in the organizer!

Ed. Instructions for this project are only available at All About ME programs. Check our schedule for events in your area.

Check out all of the entries (comments) at our Holiday Contest 2009 blog, and see photos of many of the great projects at our flickr site - Blog Holiday Contest 2009 Group. Below is a photo from EllieKiwi, showing her beautiful Santa Bags. Wouldn't you like to find one of these waiting for you on Christmas morning?

A big THANK YOU to our contest sponsors: BERNINA of America, Inc., OESD/embroideryonline.com, Brewer Sewing & Quilting Supplies, and Benartex fabrics.

By far the most popular foot was Edgestitch Foot #10/10C/10D, with 26% of the votes. Everyone loves this foot not only for edgestitching, 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!

"Winter Parade" by Wilma Sanchez includes two large panels in addition to the sweet border fabric shown here, as well as a colorful variety of companion fabrics. I love the parage of the animals through the snow! It would make a great pillowcase! The bright primary colors add to the fun feel of this collection.

"Winterscapes" by Benartex Studio is a pretty collection of greenery, snow, and holiday greetings, with lots of muted greens and blues. Use the panel as is to make a wall-hanging or lap quilt, or cut it into pieces and combine it with some of the coordinate fabrics. I love the little diamond design fabrics - I can see these becoming some of my favorite "nearly solid" fabrics.

The prize package contains all sorts of patterns and supplies and fabric for your sewing adventures: a roll of OESD AquaTear biodegradable embroidery stabilizer (so new it's not even posted on their website); the book Simply Sublime Bags by Jodi Kahn; two patterns - "Be Green Market Bag" by Cheryl Kuczek and "Retro 'Groovy' Bag" by Lila Tueller Designs; a BERNINA view-tainer, a BERNINA seam ripper, and 10 fat quarters of "Piggy Pirouette" by Benartex.

If you haven't yet entered the contest, you can post your entry/comment by clicking HERE. Good luck!

The folks at NationalSewingMonth.org are having a contest, too - theirs is a Reuse, Remake, Restyle Challenge. If you have a something you've made using a recycled garment or other item, here's a chance for you to win a prize! The NationalSewingMonth.org contest runs through Sept 30. Good luck!

For the new bag I used some scrumptious Benartex Batiks that I bought at Bernina University in June - "Rainforest Triple-Dyed Balis" - so new that I can't find them on the Benartex website yet. I should have photographed them for you - they were all rolled up together in a cute package - but here are the fabrics that were included:

I made the bag following the included instructions - except: Instead of quilting the main fabrics I used free-motion bobbin work to hold the layers together.

First I hand-wound several bobbins with YLI Multis in a tan/olive colorway, and threaded the needle with regular cotton thread.

I used the Black Latch Bobbincase with my artista 630 - this is a special bobbin case on which I can easily loosen the tension without messing with my regular bobbin case.

I got out my Machingers for the free-motion work - these are rubber-covered fabric gloves that create a great "grip" on the fabric while still letting your hands "breathe."

I used Teardrop Embroidery Foot #26 for my stitching, but could also have used the BERNINA Stitch Regulator.

Here's what the fabric looked like when I was finished stitching. It's subtle, but pretty.

Another change I made was to use purchased handles, which I attached with Lazy Girl's Handy Tabs - little lengths of ribbon that are the perfect size for attaching handles. They'd also make great little labels.

I also used Lazy Girl's Bag-E-Bottom size D to stabilizer the bottom of the bag - it keeps everything nice and sturdy.

Here's the basic process for attaching the handles. Slip the Handy Tab through the loop at the end of the handle, then stitch it in place - upside down - where you want the handle to be. There's no need to finish the raw ends. Careful - keeping the handle out of the way can be a little tricky.

Turn the handle up, then topstitch the Handy Tab in place. Again, it can be a bit tricky keeping the handle out of the way - you might want to enlist the help of an assistant for these steps.

Just like on my previous Miranda bag, I couched some cord (more YLI Multis) around the flap/tab instead of topstitching it.

And here's the finished bag! It should get to the birthday girl sometime this week - can't wait to hear how she likes it!

Next: I just got some fabric to make the new Lazy Girl "Claire" pattern - but haven't decided yet what sort of embellishments I'm going to use. When I figure it out, watch for another Lazy Girl blog!

I don't remember what fabric I used for the strips - they were a fat quarter pack from my local quilt shop - but I made the handles with similar fabrics from the Benartex "City Blooms" collection.

If you'd like to make some foundation-pieced fabric of your own, here's what I did: First I cut fat quarters into long strips - I purposely cut them crooked so each one would have a fat and a skinny end. I placed the first strip right side up at one end of my muslin rectangle, and placed the second strip right sides together with the first. Then I used Patchwork Foot #37 to stitch them together along the side with a 1/4" seam allowance. I flipped the second piece out, pressed it, then added a third strip in the same way. I repeated the same steps until the entire foundation was covered. The muslin backing gave the stripped fabric strength - with a batik lining, the bag is sturdy enough to carry lots of books!

"Shakespeare in the Park" is made from the same fabric line; you'll find the instructions for this project HERE, on the BERNINA of America website. It's a great project to stitch on our new, limited edition artista 630LE, which is not only embellished with a lovely quilting design printed on the front of the machine, but comes with the BERNINA Stitch Regulator as a free gift, along with a beautiful quilt kit!

Don't miss the chance to win a BERNINA 820 and a quilting party with 10 of your friends - WITH ALEX ANDERSON!!! - to be given away during BERNINA of America's Quilting with the Stars promotion, June 1-15. Plus, each store will be giving away three signed copies of Machine Quilting with Alex Anderson!

These are embroidered with designs from one of my favorite collections, Secret Santa, available at www.embroideryonline.com. There's also a coordinating fabric collection from Benartex.

I added tasseled trim to the hem of the green towel - I bought yards and yards of it last January after the holidays. I like the way the green and red pick up the colors of the ornaments on the tree.

I love the little snowman on skates - he can sit in the guest room all winter long!

A pillow cover is just two squares of fabric, right? Well, not quite. Have you ever noticed how pointy the corners of some pillows are? That's because there's extra fabric at the corners that forms a "dog ear." To see why, measure a pillow from corner to corner. Then measure from side to side, over the center of the pillow. My little pillow measures 10" from corner to corner, but 11" from side to side. To counteract this, I cut a bit off each corner as shown in the illustration. The amount depends on the size and fullness of the pillow, but I usually start with 1/2" at the corner, tapering to nothing about 3" toward the center. You can see in the photos that my corners are pretty close to square rather than pointy.

Next time: Piped edges!

Looking for a cute, quick baby shower or birthday gift? Designed by Belinda Gibson, these sweet little bibs are simple to make using Binder Attachment #84 with Foot #94. For instructions, click HERE. The bibs are shown here in fabrics from the Baby Geniuses and Love Is collections by Benartex.

• Have a sewing machine already set up with neutral color thread (we used a Bernette 80e), and a bin of fabrics to choose from (I used my stash of Benartex BOBs).
• Have kids cut strips of fabric to make wonky log cabin blocks. I started the younger ones with a large center square; the older ones with a small square. It doesn't matter if the finished blocks aren't really square; you'll be trimming them and adding sashing.
• Kids trace their hands on Steam-a-Seam 2, adhere to fabric, cut along lines. I let the older kids fuse them to fabric squares; I pressed for the youngest ones. (See the green block with the dog and hamster foot prints? And the two light blue handprints? I watched the twins - at opposite ends of the table - pick out exactly the same fabric at the same time!)
• Let the kids play with fabric scraps and make up their own designs when the quilt blocks are done. We ended up with several little patchwork pillows - one of the boys even "discovered" the four-patch block :)
• I took the blocks home with me and added black-background sashing strips and bright cornerstones, stitched the handprints in place with a large blanket stitch, and tied the layers together with colorful buttons and YLI Jeans Stitch at the corners of each square. Then I bound the outer edge and added several labels to the back of the quilt (each child made their own).

This is a great project for grandkids, school groups, neighborhood children,... set up additional machines and bring in a few extra grown-ups to help if you're planning to have more than just a few kids working at the same time. It's also a perfect shower or going-away gift for a group of adults to make :)

These are two of my favorite Amy Butler patterns, the Swing Bag and the Drawstring Purse from the In Town Bags.

This is the Drawstring purse, and was made from four coordinating fat quarters of Benartex Woodstock fabrics plus a scrap of repurposed ribbon for trim. You can actually get enough fabric for TWO of these bags if you add another fat quarter for the lining of the second project! Super cute, and very suitable for summer.

I just love this project, the Swing Bag. I used different coordinating Benartex City Girl fat quarters for each side of the exterior, the interior, and the ouside and lining of the handles for a total of 6 fat quarters. This is actually a fun way to construct the bag, because you can make two coordinating but different sides to the bag, and just flip it over for a different look.

The Swing Bag is the perfect size for holding all your goodies at the farmer's market, the craft store, a day trip to the beach, or any other summer outing that requires a few extra props.

I hope this gives you a few ideas of other quick and easy things to do with those fat quarters. I have a few other fav's for using up those stocks of fat quarters that I'll post about soon!

I've decided on a color scheme - remember all those lucsious fat quarters I got in February? The Woodstock collection from Benartex has the perfect shades of blue and green for the bathroom, plus the red/pink/orange I've already started in the bedroom. No, really, it's not garish, just cheerful and sunny. I picked up a few things at IKEA and the Crate & Barrel outlet (Naperville, IL) and the Springs/Wamsutta outlet that used to be here in Asheville. The cool colors tone down the hot ones, and the warm ones perk up the cool ones.

I just finished rotary cutting my strips and I'm ready to go! Time to get out my trusty machine and Patchwork Foot #37... More on my patchwork adventures and changes I'm making to the applique instructions in future posts. Gotta check my stash of Steam-a-Seam 2 and make sure I have enough for all those circles!