Connie St. Clair Wearables at Black Swamp Quilt Guild and IHAN Life

Chapter 1

Do you remember my recent post about Abbey Lane Quilts? (by the way, they still have their giveaway going on :) I had to post this photo of me wearing my Blooming Possibilities pin.  See, I'm not much of a frills type gal, but this pin really was fun to wear....proof I'm hip too :)

I know tattoos are in style but I'm not a tattoo type girl either.  But while doing a demo of the Sizzix and Westminster Fabric Cutter I cut this applique shape and decided it would be a fun "just for today" tattoo.  I'm thinking some Roxanne's Basting Glue would be just the ticket to hold this in place just for the day.

Chapter 2

This is my doctor and his name is Dr. Domini.  He has attempted to retire but I just won't let him rest.  Dr. Domini is the only doctor that I will see for general purposes.  I actually left a message on his home phone while he was away and last Sunday evening he returned my call.  I told him my issue and he said to stop by the office the next day.  How often does that happen?  See, now you know why I love my doctor.  Besides, check out how happy he is....no matter how busy the office is, he has always taken the time to address my concerns with a smile and interest. 

Dr. Domini rides his bike through the neighborhood and one day he actually yelled my test results from his bike....and they say you can't get good care these days....well you could if you were a patient of Dr. Dominis :)

Chapter 3

Rosemary and I have been promising ourselves we would get together and pull out our Paintstiks and have some fun.  On Wednesday morning we did just that and here is our mess to prove it.  We sure did have a good time and I can't wait for our creations to dry so we can heat set them.

This is just a close up of some leaves we did....cool ay?

Chapter 4

Connie St. Clair came to speak at the Black Swamp Quilt Guild meeting last week.  Connie is one amazing woman.  She makes clothes and enters them into the Hoffman Challenge.  She has won several prizes and after looking at some of these wearables, you will know why.

This jacket was my favorite....I'm sure you can guess why....these are my colors.  Do you know what the embellishment is made of?

You'll probably never guess so I'm going to tell you....she put a heat gun to felt that she had embellished with a bit of paint.  Then she pulled it apart and stitched it to a jacket she had made.  Incredibly cool indeed!

This jacket was fun because she hand embroidered the entire thing.

I would have to have a house full of dummies wearing all these pieces of art if I had made them.  Did I just say a house full of dummies?  Nah....can't be....cuz I don't hang out with dummies.

This one was neat because she outlined each applique with beads that she hand stitched around the design.

Yes, the zippers actually work.

Connie said instead of buying fabric with a design on it....she created her own design.  These were cut from other fabric and then appliqued to the top of the jacket.  It is hard to see the little shiny embellishments...so here is a close-up:

Yes those are washers with a bit of yarn tied to them.  How cool is that?

 

This was certainly a labor of love.  I don't even want to know how many hours it took to make this jacket and the back is just as impressive.

I could not help but love the keys on this vest.  There were keys on the back too.  Connie said she routinely shops at the hardware store for interesting things to embellish her clothes.  I think this vest is way cool.  I know if a kindergarten teacher wore that to class all the kids would just love it too.

This was an interesting jacket/cover-up that Connie made out of tulle.  I really liked the female figure that was sewn into the garment.

Back to the hardware store for this outfit.  Those rings are key rings....amazing isn't it?

I really enjoyed Connie's presentation.  There was so much to look at that I only took a few photos because I think you really need to see the garments to truly appreciate the incredible works of art that they are. 

That wraps up what is going on around here....how about you....what have you been up to lately?

Smiles,

Kelly

Winner of the Double Diamond Ruler and Patterns

And the winner of the Double Diamond Ruler and Patterns is lucky # 40

AnnieO said... 40 Annie please send me your address and I will put your ruler in the mail to you.  Thank you to everyone who left a comment.  Of course there are lots more giveaways coming....what else am I going to do with all these incredible things from Quilt Market?  Share them with my blog readers of course :)
 
Smiles,
Kelly


I'd love to win this because I love new tools and especially those that are timesavers, seeing as I have two jobs! Thanks for the chance for the ruler.

July 14, 2010 10:07 PM

Sizzix and Westminster Fabrics introduced Quilting By Design at Spring Quilt Market 2010

I had heard about the Sizzix and Westminster Fabrics Quilting By Design prior to going to Spring Quilt Market.  I had them on my list of must see New Notions. 

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I wanted to see first hand how this new Big Shot Pro worked.  This is Denzel Quick and he was demonstrating the  Big Shot Pro when I walked up.  This die cutting machine reportedly will cut through paper, card-stock,  fabric, balsam wood, and tin.  I was told it would cut through most anything of this sort because it has a beveled edge on the blades.  I've seen it cut through paper, card-stock and fabric but not the others.  I didn't have a tin can handy...LOL.

Denzel folded the fabric over the long dies and then ran them through the Big Shot Pro.  This machine requires a pair of plastic resin cutting pads, one on top and one beneath the die.  Essentially the die is sandwiched between the two cutting pads with the fabric on top of the die.

Below you can see the "sandwich."

The wall of Dies were great eye candy for sure!!   Sorry about the flash, but at least you get an idea right?

They were embossing fabric and making rubber stamps using the Big Shot and the Big Shot Pro too.

This is the embossed fabric sample that I saw being made and below you can see the back side where the card-stock was attached.  You would not be able to remove the paper because the fabric would not hold the shape.....it is the paper backing that allows the embossing to hold.  I think this would be great for art projects where they would never be washed. 

Above is a rubber stamp made with adhesive backed rubber.  I think that is really neat that you can make rubber stamps too.

The wreath above and the garland below were made by folding the fabric accordion style prior to running it through the Big Shot Machine.  Oh did that give me some ideas....how about you? 

 

While at Market I noticed that when the fabric was removed from the dies there were small strands of fabric still attached.  I thought it was because the dies they were using had been used so much that perhaps they were dull.  However, I found the same thing to be true when I was using the Big Shot Machine while I was recently at Checker Distributors.  I sent an e-mail to the gal who I met from Sizzix and inquired.  She told me that using a piece of paper on top of the fabric will help eliminate that problem.  So I went back to Checker Distributors with more fabric and three different weights of paper to do an IHAN test.

Here you can see what I humorously call a hanging chad.  I guess a hanging chad is better than a dangling participle ay?  LOL

You can see the paper cut through each time.  No problems there.

 

However, even with the paper I still had hexagons with strings attached to one another.  The threads can be snipped of course but I was assuming I would get a clean cut every time.  That did not happen.

I also had the fabric get stuck in the hexagon die like you see here.   I'm not sure if this was operator error and I used paper that was too heavy. 

When I saw this pretty applique die I just had to try it out.  The folks at Checker Distributors are so kind and they let me open it to give it a test drive.  Since I had gotten a hanging chad with the hexagon die I thought perhaps I would with this die as well.

 

But as you see, I did not have any problems at all.  The fabric cut clean the first time through.  I have to say IHAN tests are not scientific as I'm no "expert" unless you consider the fact that I do travel around to try all the latest and greatest Notions so I will have a clue as to how to use them and how they work.  Other than the hanging threads I was very pleased with how the Big Shot performed.

The only other die I saw used was the 2 1/2 inch strip die that cut the "jelly roll" strips.  I would love to try all the dies but I don't have access to all of them without purchasing them.  One thing for sure, if I find anyone doing demos that has all the dies, I'll be there.  I love playing  "Consumer Reports" in the Notions department...LOL. 

When I learn more about the Sizzix Big Shot and Big Shot Pro and Dies I'll be sure to post again.

Smiles from the little shot here at IHAN,

Kelly

Double Diamond Ruler Demo at Spring Quilt Market 2010

This is a photo of Kim Templin the designer of the Double Diamond Ruler and the CEO of IHAN .  Don't we look spanky in our Double Diamonds?  : )

 

I had some amends to make to Kim for a oversight during the IHAN Anniversary Celebration.  Kim was so kind to send me a Double Diamond Ruler and all three of her patterns to giveaway during the 32 Days of Giveaways.  Can you believe I missed giving them away?  When I saw them I was mortified beyond words.  Thankfully Kim was busy traveling during that time and did not have time to notice....phew!!  I e-mailed her and told her what happened and she said no worries.  Thank you Kim for your understanding.  still can't believe I did that. 

When I caught up with Kim at Quilt Market in Minneapolis she smiled when she saw my camera strap.  I was proud as punch that I used her Double Diamond Ruler (one I bought not the donated one...lol) to make my camera strap. 

I thought I would share some photos of Kim demonstrating how to use the Double Diamond Ruler.

You need a background fabric, contrast fabric and a main fabric.

You fuse the contrast and the main fabric together.  I used Mistyfuse on my camera strap.  You can see she folded it in half and used the Double Diamond Ruler to cut the fabric (pictured on the left).

If you are a visual person and prefer a video , just click here and you can see Kim's video demonstration.

This is Kim's Diamond Wine Wall Hanging/ Table Topper pattern,

Veggie Table Runner pattern,

 

and her Desert Diamonds Wall Hanging/ Table Topper pattern.

The Double Diamond Ruler comes with two rulers.  One is 1.5" and the other is 3.5".  It also includes a free pattern for making an eye glass case.  Kim has other free patterns on her website, Bright-Quilting-Notions dot com.  One very lucky IHAN blog reader will win the Double Diamond Ruler (autographed of course) and all three of Kim's patterns.

If you would like the opportunity to win all of these incredible gifts, please leave a comment on this post answering any one of the following :

Why would you like to win?

Share something cute a child has said or done lately

Share a great joke

Share a quilting tip

Or anything you find interesting recently

How is that for a change up?  The comments will close Thursday July 15th at the end of the day. 

Thank you Kim for giving me this great set to share with my blog readers!!

Smiles,

Kelly

Abbey Lane Giveaway is NOW Posted

Oh yeah baby.....they got their post up last night and they are having a doozy of a giveaway going on.  Click here for your opportunity to win Blooming Possibilities and lots more fun stuff.

Smiles,
Kelly