Sewing as Meditation

Finally! After three months away from my sewing machine due to life events, health challenges (chronic back pain) and my looming book deadline (read more about that in my next post), I've been sewing again!  And, after a very long hiatus, I've returned to meditating. That the two "events" coincide is a joy to contemplate, and in doing so, I've found how related they are. Serendipity? Perhaps!

In the process, I've quietly re-discovered that sewing can have the same qualities as a quiet meditation. In meditation, you try to turn your attention to your breath—breathing in and breathing out—returning to that rhythmic rotation when your mind wanders.

When you sew by machine, the needle goes up and down, up and down, just as the breath goes in and out, in and out. The calmer you are when you sew, the slower you go, ensuring seams that are true and stitches that are straight. With hand sewing, which I find even more meditative, it's the hand moving the needle into and then out of the fabric in a soothing, rhythmic pattern that creates the "meditation."

If you are at all like me, it's not uncommon to find yourself "multi-tasking" while you meditate or while you sew. The mind wanders while you meditate, while you continue to see where it goes and then lovingly bring it back to the breath. And while sewing, whether by hand or machine, it's easy to lose focus on the in-and-out or the up-and-down of the needle as you the needle or the fabric with your hands. What's for dinner:, what will I make next; how fast can I get this thing finished; why can't I get this right? And so many more distracting questions and observations. Your focus gets fractured and the results of your stitching just don't measure up to your expectations. Worst of all, frustration sets in because you must rip out and redo seams.

When I was teaching sewing seminars all over the country in the early 1980s, one of things I talked about was learning "how to sew fast," so the sponsoring stores could sell more fabric and the sew-ers could make more clothes. (Note: I use sew-ers instead of sewers, for obvious reasons of pronunciation; I just don't like the new word "sewist" that everyone seems to be adopting. I'm a traditionalist, through and through.)

Now I realize that more wasn't really better and I wasn't really enjoying the process—because inevitably, I spent lots of time ripping out bad stitching. Now I know that slowing down and breathing in and out along with the up-and-down or in-and-out of the needle as I go, may mean I get less done, but I'm happier with the results because I've eliminated the frustration of sewing do-overs! And, ultimately, slowing down means less unstitching.

I used to advise students to turn on upbeat music to help speed up their work. Now, instead, I choose chants and classical music to help calm my mind and subtly influence the sewing experience.

Ah, just stitch and breathe, stitch and breathe, stitch and breathe, and enjoy the journey!

When I take the time to slow down, breathe and allow myself to "live" the process, I enjoy it more and I am happier with the results—plus sewing do-overs are fewer and I don't have to spend the time for them!

Ah, just stitch and breathe, stitch and breathe, stitch and breathe--and enjoy the journey! I think I'll just go and do that right now!

Until next time!

Keep smiling and sewing,

Barbara

It's Sew Rewarding

I love hearing from quilters and sewers who have finished a project using one of my patterns. Today, I received an e-mail from the Southwest Florida Quilter's Guild in Ft. Myers, Florida. The Guild was founded in 1993 and has about 200 members. Here's what Lyn Bruner, Chair, Community Service Committe had to say:

"On Saturday, Aug. 17 (2013) from 10 am - 3 pm, the Southwest Florida Quilter's Guild held its monthly Fun Day where members and guests are invited to participate in a planned activity and/or use the time to work on their own projects. It's a wonderful time to socialize with other quilters, find solutions to quilting challenges, or use the meeting room to lay out projects since many of our members' retirement homes don't have that kind of space.

 

The Community Service Committee organized the Aug. 17 activity using your Building Blocks pattern. 

Strips were pre-cut using an AccuQuilt Studio fabric cutter. Twenty-plus attendees (including two teenagers) received minimal instruction, selected their strips and proceeded to assemble one row at a time. Another member cut the rows into blocks while a third assisted participants with selecting from the variety of blocks to assemble each row in keeping with the pattern's suggested layout.  We completed 5 tops that day!

Other members volunteered to take the tops home to finish. Completed quilts will be included in our annual donations to the local Lee County Public Schools Head Start program in September. 

Thank you for allowing us to use your Building Blocks pattern. We had a great time."

Lyn also shared a few photos from their Fun Day.

The Building Blocks pattern is available as a FREE download at my pattern store on Craftsy. There you will find all of my other patterns for quilts, table settings, and tote bags. Here's the link: http://www.craftsy.com/user/153303/pattern-store

You can read more about this pattern in a previous blog entry for 2010--"Quilts for Han Thomas and Hunter." Look in the 2010 blog archives.

If you are looking for an easy design for charity quilts, "Building Blocks" is the perfect pattern--easy enough for beginners, great for anyone to piece! Please feel free to download and reproduce it as needed for your guild or group.

Thanks again, Lyn for using the pattern and sharing the experience. It makes my heart sing to know that Building Blocks quilts will go to a good home!

To learn more about the guild, go to: www.swfqg.com

Until next time, 

Keep sewing and smiling!

Barbara

Introducing the Strip Happy Fat Quarter Tote Bag

I love making tote bags and selling the patterns at http://www.craftsy.com/user/153303/pattern-store . I just uploaded my newest one there and I've already sold a few. Yippee! Sometimes it takes awhile to see the first sale. Perhaps it came so quickly because it was
designed specifically for fat quarters*, those lovely little of bundles of fabric that quilters just can't resist. * A fat quarter is 1/4 of yard of fabric, but cut the "fat way" so it measures 18" x 22". This cut has the same number of square inches as a quarter yard cut from fabric yardage (9" x 44"). I've been wanting to design a tote pattern using fat quarters and now I've done it!

When I'm designing and creating a new tote, it usually takes longer to complete it than I think it will. I always seem to forget that sometimes what I visualize as the best way to put it together, it turns out to be the most difficult. 

This tote is especially easy to make, but I did it the hard way first and did a lot of stitch-ripping, re-design, and stitching again. But I am happy I did because now it's easier and faster to make and it's a better design, overall. I'm really pleased with results and the little bow that connects to straps, which turned out to be a nice little afterthought! I saw the strap-and-ring treatment on another shopper's tote at a fabric store on a totally different bag style. It caught my eye and so I decided to try it on this new design. I'm happy I did!

Got Fat Quarters?
If you are an avid quilter, I'm guessing you already have a few fat-quarter bundles in your stash--or you need an excuse to go buy some new ones! Either way, this lined tote, sized for a not-too-big and not-too-little handbag, requires one each of 5 different-print fat quarters for the piecing and inside pockets, 2 fat quarters of another print for the straps, bows, and binding. You'll need two more of an other print for the lining-- that's seven different prints and nine fat quarters in all.

The tote is pieced directly onto a cotton canvas foundation, for added body. Divided pockets on the outside are formed as you stitch the finished pocket panel in place. There are two hanging pockets inside the tote--one zipped for security and a second that is open. It's the perfect place to tuck your cell phone or other small items you need at your fingertips. For a different twist, perky little bows connect to the strap rings.

I hope you'll try this pattern and share your results with me by sending a jpg to barbara.weiland@yahoo.com along with permission to use your photo along with your name or initials and where you live. I would love to see your tote and to feature it in this blog and my marketing efforts as I have several others in previous blog posts. Here's your opportunity to show off your work!

Design Inspiration is Everywhere!
Coming up with new designs can be a challenge, but since I've become a Pinterest fan, I have loads of inspiration and ideas to draw on for my own designs as well as for crafting projects, recipes to try, gardening information, and so much more. I pin every day and I've begun actually trying many of the ideas from my pin boards. Since I think others would benefit from what I've learned, I've started a new blog--Thumbs Up for Pinterest. You can find it at www.thumbsupforpinterest.com and I hope you'll visit soon. Today or tomorrow I'll be uploading a tutorial with step-by-step directions for a wonderful 4th of July wreath, inspired by several pins on one of my boards. Here's sneak peak of a portion of it. There's still a little time to make it and if not now, you can try it next year! It's really a fun idea an so easy and you can make it in a few hours and hang it on your door!

Until next time,
Keep sewing and smiling, and pinning and crafting, too!
Barbara

On the Leader Board at Craftsy

Hearts Entwined

I've been selling my patterns at www.craftsy.com for over a year now, and it thrills me no end when I go to their site and find one of my patterns on their Top Twenty Leader Board. When my pattern store on the Craftsy site first opened, two of my patterns appeared on the Leader Board day after day after day for months. The exposure to my patterns has been fabulous. The first to make it there was my Hearts Entwined Quilt Pattern and it still pops up on the board with some frequency. It combines traditional piecing with paper piecing for perfect diamond points. Several who have purchased the pattern said they made it as a wedding gift.

                                                                                   

 

Best-Seller

In quick succession, my best-selling tote pattern, The Quilted Carryall climbed to the top of the board. A year later, it still shows up on the board almost every week and has held the #1 spot many times. This week was no exception! I've been hearing from sewers and quilters who have made the Quilted Carryall, and have received photos of their completed bags, too. In a previous post, I shared photos of the totes Joan Wium of South Africa made from the pattern for a contest sponsored by Hatched in Africa. Her embroidered tote took the prize in her category and deserves sharing again. Mary Mc of Whidbey Island also shared photos of her Quilted Carryall. Kudos to both of them for making such beautiful bags. Their workmanship is impeccable, too!                                                                

Winning Totes by Joan Wium of South Africa

Quilted Carryall by Mary Mc of Whidbey Island

If you have used any of my tote (or quilt) patterns, please send jpgs so I can share them with readers. It's always fun to see your fabric choices and embellishments! Your comments and questions about my patterns are always welcome, too.

You can see all of my tote and quilt patterns in my pattern store on Craftsy:
http://www.craftsy.com/user/153303/pattern-store

Seeing my patterns on the Leader Board at Craftsy is always exciting, but even more wonderful are the quilters and sewers from all over the world who have honored me by purchasing them. It's a great vote of confidence! Thank you to every one!

Until next time...

Keep on sewing and smiling,

Barbara

Be Kind to Your Sewing Hands...

...and your feet, too! I don't know about you, but when I do a lot of sewing, my hands suffer. Fabrics dry them out and my nails, which aren't very strong to begin with, also take a beating.

Since my feet also suffer, especially in summer when I don't wear shoes unless I must, I decided to try one of the recipes I found for homemade lotions--and to treat my hands and feet with it. And it worked.

(I've been pinning onto Pinterest boards for over a year now and have collected lots of ideas for health and beauty along with lots of inspiration for sewing, quilting, gardening, cooking and decorating. Try it you'll like it!)

Basically, you beat baby lotion (love the scent), Vaseline, and Vitamin E cream together with your hand mixer. Or you can use solid-form coconut oil in place of the Vaseline.

Here are links to the two blog entries I found about making your own lotion; my recipe, below, is a variation on them, and works very well.

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/12/16/fantastic-hand-cream/

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/make-your-own-simple-moisturizing.html

Here's What I Did

To keep the costs down, I opted for the Vaseline instead of coconut oil. I purchased a 3.53-ounce jar (coconut-scented) at the Dollar Tree for $1.00, along with their largest bottle of baby lotion for $1.00. I used two 4-ounce jars of Vitamin E cream from Wal-Mart (2 in a pack for about $3.70). Then as the directions in both posts direct, I mixed them in a bowl to creamy pink froth with my hand mixer and scooped them into the empty containers and a plastic tub. For under $6.00, I have a healthy supply of lotion. The other recipes call for more Vaseline or Coconut oil, but the small jar of Vaseline  was enough--I think more would make it greasier than I would like.

Note: What a great, inexpensive Christmas gift this would make for your gal pals, sewers or otherwise!

And oh, do I LOVE it! It's rich and creamy and as I said before, I love the scent. It's silky and not greasy and sinks into the skin pretty quickly. I love the way my hands feel and the dryness is gone. Be sure to work it into your cuticles, too. I usually put it on my heels and the soles of my feet, put on a pair of socks, and my walking shoes and head out the door. There's usually enough left on my hands to work it in and sometimes up my arms. While I'm walking the fluff sinks into and nourishes my feet and hands, which were badly cracked and calloused when I started this regime. WHAT a DIFFERENCE. The dryness is gone, the cracks have disappeared, my callouses are shrinking, and my feet and hands are baby soft! This will part of my daily health and beauty routine for the rest of my life! I've never been one for using lots of lotions as I don't like the "slimy" feel they usually leave behind. Now I have the answer. When I'm sewing a lot, I use the lotion on my hands often during the day.

Biotin--It Works!

The other Pinterest-generated beauty tip that has worked for me is to take Biotin for your nails (and hair and skin). Although, my nails are still not as hard as I would like after taking it for a year, they are stronger and the peeling and cracking has all but stopped, unless I abuse my hands by not wearing gardening gloves--I just love to get my hands in the dirt! I take two 1,000 mcg tablets every day with my other vitamins (Biotin is one of the B vitamins). I think it also makes my hair more manageble and shinier (nhot sure if it has made much difference in my skin).

So here's two thumbs up to Pinterest, for providing a way to collect, categorize, and use information from the WEB! Some things I've tried haven't given the desired results, but these two are winners, for sure.

Until next time, keep smiling and sewing!

Barbara

Why I Love Craftsy!

I love Craftsy for so many reasons--and especially that I am selling patterns for my designs all over the world. I wish I had kept a list of all the places they've gone--South Africa, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico, Great Britain, Canada, and Ireland are some that I can remember, but there are quilters and sewers in many other countries who are using my patterns. It's really very gratifying to know that your designs are appreciated worldwide--and that simply would not have happened without the venue created by Craftsy for independent designers like me to show and sell their patterns. They also have wonderful online classes to take!

I often send thank yous to my Craftsy customers and am sometimes rewarded with a lovely response, like the one from Joan Wium in South Africa. She purchased my Quilted Carryall tote bag pattern to embroider it for her entry in a competition offered by Hatched In Africa (they have lovely machine embroidery designs for download to use on your embroidery machine). Click on the photo and it will take you to my pattern store at Craftsy. 


Joan finished her totes for the competition and won in her category--and I can clearly see why. Her workmanship is outstanding--truly beautiful sewing, plus wonderful embroidery! Kudos to her. She shared these photos so I could share them with my readers.

Joan wrote these kind words in our e-mail correspondence.
"Well I just thought to let you know that I made my tote and I won the contest in my category! I loved to create the tote from scratch (even doing the quilting as we do not have much fabric  that is ready –quilted ). We had to make two totes –Plain and Fancy. I could select some designs from Hatched in Africa as my prize. They often have these contests to promote their gorgeous designs. Your pattern was really easy to follow and I had no problem sewing the tote."

By reaching out to Joan, I also received a lovely invitation: "I’ll really look forward to meeting you should you come to South Africa. I live in the capital of Limpopo Province, Polokwane and about two and a half hours from the Phalaborwa gate to the Kruger National Park."

You can be sure we will try to meet up with Joan when our travels take us to South Africa in a few years.

Thanks to Joan for the photos to share and for the invitation! If you have made a project from any of my patterns, I would love to see photos and to share them with other readers.

Til next time, keep on smiling and stitching!
Barbara

Travel in Style

Summer vacation is just around the corner so it's a good time stitch up a new travel bag and travel accessories. I have several patterns for you to consider for your travel wardrobe.  

The Quilted Traveler's Tote

I think you'll love this pattern. Since the availability of quilted double-faced fabrics is very limited, you get to choose two fabrics you love—and then quilt your own double-faced fabric panels to make it. The quilting is really easy to do because you cut the bag pieces from the two fabrics and lightweight batting first, and then quilt the layers together. The pieces are cut oversize to allow for the natural "shrinkage" that occurs when you do the machine quilting. Of course, if you do find a quilted fabric you like, you can substitute it and eliminate the quilting steps. Cutting for already-quilted fabric is included in the directions.

Note: To keep bulk to a minimum, the bottom panel is interfaced only, and the pocket panels are quilted to a layer of cotton flannel, rather than to batting. When I first designed this bag, all the pieces were quilted, which made the side seams way too bulky. The re-engineered tote is easier to sew because some of the layers are thinner.

Yardage requirements are generous in this pattern, based on using a fabric that has 40" of usable width after preshrinking. You will cut the required pieces as if you are using a directional fabric. There will leftover fabric that you can use to stitch up coordinating small bags, like the Accessory Bag pattern you will find included in my Easy Breezy Padded Tote pattern.  

It's easy to make, using the quilt-as-you-go technique with stitch-and-flip construction. Use it for a cosmetic bag or for organizing small items inside your tote or suitcase.

Note: The Easy Breezy Padded Tote is sized to fit most laptops and has an interior pocket that will accommodate most e-readers. It's another great option for day-to-day or long-term travel. The coordinating accessory bag is perfect for the adaptor cord or for your small travel camera and cords.

You will love the Quilted Traveler's Tote because:

• It's sized to fit in the overhead compartments on airplanes.
• It has a zip-top closure so you can fill it to the max when traveling. Or, you can leave the zipper open if you want an open-top tote for carrying supplies to your favorite quilting class or when using it as a carryall for shopping or errands. 
• One of the outside pockets features a zipper, making it a great place to stash your travel documents for safekeeping.
• The outside pockets are divided into 3 pockets when you sew the straps in place. That gives you several places to tuck small items for easy access.
• There is a hanging pocket inside the tote—another easy-access place for safe storage of small items.
• The straps wrap all the way around the tote, making it very sturdy. I usually use 1"-wide cotton, polyester, or nylon webbing for my tote straps but the colors are limited. For this tote, webbing wasn't available in any color but white. When I got ready to stitch the white in place, it stood out like a sore thumb even though there is white in the print! Back to the fabric store I went, where I found the perfect 3/4"-wide green polyester grosgrain ribbon. I bought the same amount as the webbing and then stitched it in place on the white webbing. A bit of white shows at the edges and that's OK with me!

For the Perfect Companion Piece...
consider the Sew 'N' Go Sewer's Wallet. You can use it for travel documents, cash and change, your glasses, and other small items to keep close at hand when maneuvering the security lines at the airport. Wear it around your neck for easy access, and then tuck it into the pocket of your travel tote to keep it handy during the flight if needed. Multiple pockets on both sides make this pattern a real favorite with sewers and quilters traveling to quilt and sewing expos and to keep small tools handy during classes.

The Terrific Travel Tote

If you want a tote that is lighter in weight, try this pattern. It's very similar in style and features to the quilted version, but you can use any fabric--tapestry, leather, faux suede, outerwear fabrics, how dec prints--the possibilities are endless! This is the perfect tote to fold and pack in your suitcase for toting home your travel treasures. It will take less time to assemble, too, because you won't be quilting your own fabric pieces first!