The Sewing Garrett - A Day at Daytona Beach with Gracye Beaman

Gracye Beaman is the store owner for The Sewing Garrett, a Babylock, Brother and Janome dealer in Daytona Beach, FL. Gracye saw an article about me in the Fab Shop Network news and gave me a call and the rest, as they say, is history! We got together in Houston Market this year and had a great time getting to know each other. Gracye is a saavy businesswoman and I really enjoyed getting to know her. She saw all my various products and designs at Market, chose her selection of Lollipops Designer Bindings and scheduled me for a class! By December, I made the short trip down to Daytona from Jacksonville and we got going on a great day!
I had the priviledge of working on the new Ellegante while at Gracye's, whose store is massive with tall, spacious ceilings and lots of floor space! Perfect for a class setting, the girls would gather around when it was time for a demonstration and boty did they learn about their machines in my class!

We were working on the Bias Baseball Pillow Project, which utilizes my bias binding to piece together the curves of a modified Drunkard's Path. We jumped right into the project and I PROMISED them everyone would finish it all in one day and have a take home to show off to their hubbies! (uh...they did NOT believe me, btw)
The list of learning is large in this project - after piecing the basic block, the girls then had to STIPPLE - free motion quilt...well did I ever create a fervor with that choice! Many, many women fear stippling because you have to quilt free motion - you have to 'color outside the lines' so to speak - but with the use of some great quilting gloves and a short lesson, they were absolute champions! Well, save one...who became the Teacher's Pet as you can see here - I am doing it for her!

Teachers Note: You could also embroider the center of the circle rather than stipple.



I am telling you, they were tired at the end of the day with all this concentration! but look at this beautiful result!

Thanks so much ladies, and hope to see you again real soon!

























You can see the entire web album at

http://picasaweb.google.com/PopsBindings/TheSewingGarrett#

Meowy Christmas!

HOLLY JOLLY...MEOWY CHRISTMAS!

Who else but Loralie Designs(tm) brings us such delightful characters like her newest Christmas machine embroidery collection....Kitty Christmas? Using her coordinating holiday fabrics made into our Lollipops(R) Designer Bindings, we created fun ornaments that you can use to decorate your tree, your sewing room, your office, your mantel, your Kitty's Stocking! Just about anywhere your whimsy might take you...and if you love Kitties, well, this is just that extra touch to remind you of your love for your favorite feline...Click on the Meowy Christmas link at the top of this post to take you to the free pattern OR visit our website at http://www.popsbindings.com/ and download the free pattern to make these cute ornaments and pick up a kit to make them up quick while you are there!

My Greatest Gift this Thanksgiving

Nothing makes me prouder than to know I have raised great kids...now I really cannot take all that much credit for it, because there is another half to the parenting equation besides myself BUT knowing that SOMETHING I did may have rubbed off on them just makes me smile...

My oldest son, Sgt. W. Eric Rodman, is once again in Iraq. In fact, he left on his brothers birthday, November 14th. No doubt the men & women he will share his next year there with were all pretty bummed about having to leave just before the holidays. You would expect that he, too, was sad to be away from his cute little wifey, Antoinette, over Thanksgiving - and he was.

But despite that, as he sat down with his Unit on Thankgiving Day to eat, he noticed that all the guys just started chowing down and it hit him that, even though he was thousands of miles away from home in a hostile land, he still needed to remember and honor our family tradition of thinking about what we were thankful for as we sat down for our family dinner. He asked all of the soldiers with him that day to stop for minute... and reminded them that despite where they were and how tough it is to be away from home, that they still all had something they could say they were thankful for...so each soldier at the table took a turn to say something they were grateful for this Thanksgiving

...and I think Sgt. Rodman maybe felt a little better, sharing his family tradition with the men and women he is serving with, since it might have brought just a little piece of home to him. And I imagine, they all felt a little better too, just thinking about something positive despite their circumstance. A tradition was passed along.

I am so proud we raised a son who exhibits leadership even when he himself is down...I am so proud and thankful for him.

I hope of you had a chance to cherish and share words of thanks this Thanksgiving with your loved ones and even though I had to wait till Saturday to hear his voice, I am so very thankful I got to talk with my son.

I hope you think of our soldiers serving overseas during the holidays and send them a package or two...they are all our sons and daughters!

We have a blog!

I am so excited to have a new way of sharing fun ideas and tips with you that is alot less intrusive than an email newsletter and lets you rummage through the cobweb postings at your leisure! Many use these blogs to share places they visit (I will link you up with Martha Stewart's latest blog about the Viking convention, for example), new things they have learned, new products they have found, blah blah blah....

Well there are no original ideas! So I will do the same and hope you get something from it each time I leave you a note.

In June, we added some new projects on our website - one is a freebie for you that is a REAL Stash Blaster - the Yo-Yo Posies Quilt - OMGosh this is so fun! I made it from a cute beachy summer fabric and ruched flower centers instead of making YoYo's but whatever your pleasure, girls! this is a great scrappy quilt project...oh okay it DOES require a purchase to get the free download but come on now! It is really cute...

I am learning that in June and July things get really quiet - the big Spring shows are over, every one goes on vacation, the beach is calling...I use this time to sew & create new projects from the new products I found at places like Paducah and at the Spring Market...Aprons were all the rage at Spring Market so we are busy making up some fun ones from the Apron Lady patterns which will appear on the web this month...our idea was to make them from fun funky fabrics, pretty florals and some of the cutest Christmas fabric I have ever seen from Henry Glass fabrics...her patterns use LOTS of bias binding...so it was just the perfect match...

We've added Moda fabrics to our Lollipops line and have some GREAT new choices coming in soon so look for them - the Mary Engebreit and Me and My Sisters Christmas fabrics are HEAVENLY and both include FREE patterns to go with their new lines (which will be up on our site soon)! I attended a retreat with the 'sisters' Barb and Mary (Me and My Sister Designs) and those two are such a hoot! We laughed with them for three days and I came away with a real appreciation for their designs and their fabrics - so creative and and what could be better than working with your sissie?

Sandy Martin continues to have a blast teaching at the Viking Sewing Centers inside JoAnn Fabrics in Florida & Texas - we post where she will be each month on our website so if you want to learn how to use our bias in quilt block construction, than join her for a class on the Floral Bias Pillow - see the pix in our web album!

Lots more to share, but for now, hope this finds you well and sewing fun things for your family and friends and thank a soldier!

Laurie@popsbindings.com