Seminole Sampler News

Summertime ...

... and the living is definitely a bit more relaxed, eh? :) Today we got an assortment of new prints from In The Beginning and Westminster Fabrics. Some are soft and some bright:

Remember our sale coming up this Friday, Saturday and Sunday:

July 1st, 2nd, 3rd

FAT QUARTER FRENZY

ALL FAT QUARTERS $1.95

Minimum purchase of 12 fat quarters for sale price;

No free fat quarters for bulk purchase during sale.

 

We'll be closed on Monday, July 4th - this is the date of Catonsville's Parade and Fireworks (and many of the access roads to the shop are closed off for the festivities:).

:) Linda

Happy Solstice!

Since today is the Summer Solstice (enjoy the sunshine!:), it seems fitting that we should have received the new collection from In The Beginning fabrics, designed by Jason Yenter, called Winter Solstice!

I think this set of designs is breath-taking - especially the wonderful border print. When we saw these prints (on paper), the borders drew my eye immediately. On the quilt, they lend a soft, almost appliqued, elegance to any patchwork! The go-with prints have an almost William Morris feel to them ... an organic, nature-based balance that I quite admire. :) I can't wait to sew something with these! I hope you agree with me. :)

:) Linda

Summer Excitement

What a lot of goodies we got into the shop in yesterday's deliveries! I missed it (never having gotten to the shop) and so was pretty pleased to see the pictures on my camera ready for downloading this morning. :)

New books, patterns and fabric - what a great way to start off our summer sewing! Here, in no particular order, is a wonderful array of inspiration for you - come see us this week and enjoy the splendor first hand for yourself! :)

Did you see the kitties go flashing past? Buried inside the cute elephant fabrics? :) Nothing like a little break in the stream to make you blink, eh? LOL

:) Linda

Fun Summer Sewing

I hope you are all enjoying our lovely June weather! I also hope you are saving some time every day to do a little bit of sewing. :) I thought I'd share some easy fun sewing I did recently to decorate our shop's front window.

I enjoy making, sending and receiving fabric postcards. YES, you can mail postcards made of fabric - as long as a first class stamp is fixed onto it, the Post Office will deliver a fabric postcard just like any other. They are great for brightening up someone's day, celebrating a birthday or graduation, or just sending a thank you. :)

I made these postcards in the easiest possible way. We have a great summer fabric in the shop with sailing vignettes printed on it:

The post office will mail under a single first class stamp anything up to 6 1/2" in length/width. The smallish squares in this print are perfect for making fabric postcards!

I cut out one of each picture just outside the printed double line. I cut one piece of heavy paper and one layer of light weight cotton batting (Quilter's Dream 100% cotton, Request) for each picture.

Layer one piece of paper, one layer of batting and one picture into a sandwich (no need to glue the layers together unless you want to) and sew along the double line/printed border with a long stitch (I used a '4' on my Bernina) all the way around. Tie off the threads together on the back of the card and cut away the ends above the knot.

Once each card has been sandwiched and sewn to a batting/backing, finish the edges by overcasting (I used a stitch meant for finishing knit edges but any stitch that does not perforate the paper too much is fine - do not use satin stitch!).

If you have a stamp for the 'Post Card' imprint, as we did, you can use that. Or just draw a line down the center of the paper and write on your paper backing just like any other post card. Put a stamp on it and mail it off to a friend!

There are lots of great potential postcard prints on today's quilting fabric marketplace - you can be as formal or free as you like! Send something happy out in your mail today!

:) Linda

New Holidays

We got a big stack (several boxes) of fabrics today - a dozen or so bolts of Stonehenge-type mottled solids and whole slew of winter holiday prints. Some of these latter are breath-takingly elegant, others whimsical and cute (including a train-themed Advent Calendar). Enjoy!

:) Linda

Summer Sewing?

If you live anywhere in the state of Maryland or its immediate surroundings, you are sweltering in unusual early-summer heat! I sure hope you can stay indoors - and even better if you can sew at least part of this time! :)

I thought you might enjoy seeing what we've been making here at the shop. The photo above shows our new spring-y floral Braid Runner and here is another pic of it:

We have a couple of kits left - good for the home decorating urges! :)

We also made up a sample of a Braid Runner for your 4th of July party/table. Alice put it in the front window with our other early summer goodies:

Again, there are only a couple of these kits left. :)

We also got out our coffee themed print collection and made some nice things for the summer home. The quilt (upper part of the table) is an easy one and I had enough fabric left over to make four nice sized placemats:

Summer sewing is a great opportunity to make those home items you've thought about!

:) Linda

Baby Genius Sample

Isn't this little quilt happy and bouncy? :) Alice Isenbart made this recently using the Baby Genius  soft book panel from Benartex and some of the go-with prints from the collection. I think it has just the right blend of bright, happy colors and bouncy graphics. :)

Here is a close-up of one corner for you to see the blocks:

You may not be able to read the words that frame each block - they are the sounds of each particular object. For example, the trumpet block in the upper right corner says, "the horn goes toot-toot!"

When Alice quilted the border of this quilt, she ruled off three parallel straight lines with a chalk pencil and free motion quilted the various sound phrases. I took a photo - I hope you can see the quilting here (it says 'tweet-tweet'):

You might think this was a bit harder than the usual to make but Alice told me it was easy to do! 

Do you have a baby or toddler to make something fun for? Do come in to take a look some time soon. 

:) Linda