Bernina Store & Sew Much More -- Boardman OH

8:30 on a cloudy morning -- loved the style of the exterior, especially the clock that was just a few minutes early.....


The sign to the right of the door lets a visitor know that there is a lot going on here!



As you walk into the store, the fabrics and small quilt display on the left are the first thing you see; then, when you look to the right across the store, you see the machines, books, notions and other things to explore.

This pretty red and white basket quilt hanging up on the wall really caught my eye. The piecing is relatively uncomplicated, but the quilting makes it stunning!

There's the red and white one hanging with other quilts over one of the sewing machine displays.

An announcement about an upcoming class....love the curved piecing.....

The GO cutter was prominently displayed along with a lot of dies for it. I also saw some flyers that were announcing some new dies that are coming out. Way fast way to do a lot of cutting that would otherwise be pretty tedious. I like that they are always coming out with dies to give us a quicker alternative to our rotary cutters.

More quilts and many fabrics, arranged temptingly by color group.....I love stripes and polka dots so just zeroed in on these red ones!

This picture was taken aiming the lens into a cozy little nook decorated with quilts, kits, patterns and fabrics...

And the quilt rack where upcoming class quilts are displayed was very pretty, too.

The Bernina Store & Sew Much More is located at 7081 West Boulevard in Boardman, Ohio; phone, 330-726-9396. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.....

Fluff & Stuff -- Bernina Store & Sew Much More, Boardman OH

Isn't this a great classroom? Not only were there pretty quilts on the walls to look at, the individual sewing tables were pretty impressive. They had large wells so that the machines, with their extension trays attached, were level with the rest of the table. That makes quilting so much easier, especially if you bring an adjustable chair from home to get your sewing height just right.

I thought this machine embroidered pink elephant quilt was adorable!

In my Fluff & Stuff class, everybody brings their own pieced, layered and pinned quilt to class to work on.

Everybody's fluffing and stuffing their big quilts through their machines....

Joyce owns the Bernina Store & Sew Much More. She got interrupted to help out in the store periodically, but she did actually get to take the class. You've got to have pretty good staff to be able to do that!

One thing that I really appreciated is that Joyce is also a Bernina tech and she was willing to take the time to explain some of the mechanics of the new 830 machine to me. Knowing these things will enable me to help people when they are sewing on these machines and get themselves in trouble. I'm pretty familiar with the other models, but this one is completely different (and wonderful!) so it is a new learning process for me. As I go from shop to shop, I pick up more facts, so I'll understand my machine even better when I get home.

Of course, I LOVED the pink quilt to the left!

Lots of variety in the quilts that were brought to class -- eye candy....

A mother and daughter team here -- the daughter sewed while Mom observed and supervised. They own an industrial machine embroidery business, so this type of sewing is quite different for them.

The first day of Fluff & Stuff is sewing on their own big quilts to get the feel for moving them through the machine -- second day will be free motion. Lots to learn, lots of sewing to do!

Positive/Negative at Shiisa Quilts

After class Thursday night, Jan and I joined a group for dinner at Pat and Bill Verhagen's house. Pat made some awesome salmon in her backyard smoker as well as salad, Brussel sprouts and big dishes of ice cream for dessert -- espresso chip!

We're obviously having a pretty good time. At left: Pat, Marion, Richard, Bill and Janet. Below, Pat shows off her newly folded and shelved fabric!

Then on Friday morning, another workshop at Shiisa Quilts:



Snuck this picture when Elspeth wandered off to look at threads....

Alice with her black and white; she changed up her sashings and borders to give a different look to the project.

We had some great fabric combos in class -- here are some purples...

Some nice oranges and reds.......

Pinks -- don't you love that funky border of Karen's?

And another red/orange color scheme, this time with poppies -- Susan said these fabrics were way out of the ordinary for her, but she loved them! We got to know each other a bit better as she was kind enough to drop me back to the Indianapolis airport on her way home. Part of the fun of travelling is getting to meet and know other quilters and learn about how they found their way to the fabrics and fun that we enjoy so much.

Two quick hops from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh takes me to my next stop: the Bernina Store & Sew Much More in Boardman OH where I'll be teaching my two day Fluff & Stuff class. Joyce and Tom will be getting to sleep late after picking me up in Pittsburgh at 10:30 pm, but it's just another day in the lives of shop owners for them.....busy!

Free Motion Boot Camp at Shiisa Quilts

Eleven quilters joined us today for free motion bootcamp. This is a pretty intense class designed for people who have already done some free motion quilting and want some tips and tricks, as well as machine time, to help them perfect their stitching.



Everybody is really hard at work -- we spent the morning on stencils and the afternoon doing unmarked, or "freehand", quilting.



This is Ellen -- if you notice that her hair is a color that suspiciously resembles the color of her blouse, you're right! She also decided to make a sartorial statement with her tunic made of sackcloth that she just happened to whip out that morning....

On the left, Alice is showing off her dahlia; below, a close-up of her work. Alice lives in Oklahoma and drove to Bloomington for the class -- a true quilting addict!

More of Alice's musings on muslin -- I took a picture of this and then sketched it out to get a feel for the flow of the heart shaped feathers. I also grabbed some muslin and stitched it out; it'll take some practice, but I think it could become a favorite freehand design.

I demonstrated a design spiralling out from the center with aurora-like "flames" coming off of it; at left is Alice's version. Below is a variation that she stitched out that combined the dahlia design with the spiral.

Tomorrow's class is "Positive/Negative" -- check back so you can see what fabric choices people have made for this.....

Free Motion & Trapunto -- Bloomington Quilters' Guild

After a full day of practicing free motion and learning the trapunto by machine technique, we got almost everybody corralled for a group picture. The workshop was held in the classroom of Shiisa Quilts -- just perfect for when someone wants to take a break and go fondle fabric!

Jan and Mary are playing with the Bernina 830 machine -- Jan is the owner of Shiisa Quilts. Mary is the proud owner of this machine; there was another 830 in the classroom that I used for my demonstrations -- hooray!

Elspeth starting the afternoon trapunto project....

Pat and Mary hard at work -- look at all that concentration!

Today's class is also at Shiisa Quilts; Free Motion Boot Camp is pretty intense. They'll be working hard and having fun!

Shiisa Quilts -- Bloomington IN

It's always fun, as well as a great compliment, to be invited back to a shop where I've taught before. I taught at Shiisa Quilts in August 2008, just a few months after Jan opened the shop. Jan lived in Japan for 7 years; she has also lived in Guam and Korea. Her love of Asia is reflected in the decor of the shop and the fabrics that she buys.

The furniture in the shop was purchased in Japan, but are antiques from China. The opium bed above is 140 years old. Jan had originally planned to purchase a wedding bed, but then saw this one and had to have it because of the shiisa feet.

This is a longevity chest that would typically be made for a relative, such as a mother or grandmother. The carvings all represent long life. On top of the chest are shiisa pottery pieces that Jan made herself in a class she took in Okinawa.

The altar table makes a great display for books and fat quarter packs. Jan was telling me that she can tell from the way the feet are worn down that the furniture sat on a dirt floor for a long time.

Tonight I am doing a lecture at the local guild and then I will do three workshops this week in the classroom here at Shiisa Quilts, so I'll be sharing lots more pictures of the fabrics and quilts in the shop.

Finished With the Quilting!

Once the diagonal grid was completed, the border design was next. The border is also appliqued, so whatever design I chose, it would have to be stitched around and between all of the appliqued pieces. Again, I had to consider the limitation that Alex does not want to wash this quilt, so marking and stitching all four sides at a whack to "race" the longevity (or not) of the air soluble marker was key.

The above design meets all of my criteria -- it doesn't have to be stitched continuously and it will look really pretty accenting the applique. It is #SCO-183-6.5 from The Stencil Company.

This is a fairly wide border for a small (49" square) quilt, so the length adjustment would not work; a mirror image in the center took care of that problem.

The design is stitched with the off white Sulky rayon #1071 that was used for the feather designs in the center of the quilt.

The appliqued leaves on the quilt were too big to leave plain, so veins were stitched in freehand; Sulky 40 wt. rayon #2115, variegated pine greens was the thread used.

Last step is to make and attach the binding and into the FedEx truck with it!

Diagonal Grid Done!

Next time I decide to do a slightly under 3/4" grid, will somebody please make me lie down until the urge passes? 6-1/4 hours of madness -- but it looks beautiful!

Now on to the border.....

Continuing with Alex's Quilt

After stitching the center, the next step was to go around each and every appliqued piece in the blocks of the quilt. This took about 3 hours! I used YLI's Wonder invisible monofilament thread in clear so that the applique stitches would show, not the quilting. The quilting is there to give texture to the appliques.



Then I marked all of the corner and side motifs with the air soluble marker.....

....and stitched them using the Sulky rayon thread that was used for the center. Each of the motifs was marked using portions of the same stencil as the center motif.

Next step is to mark the grid and stitch it. The grid is 3/4" as I wanted to approximate the size of the appliqued circles so that everything would be quilted to the same density.

Now to install the walking foot, put a cotton thread in the machine (Mettler Silk Finish 100% cotton in #887, a soft white), and stitch that grid. Alex promised that she would visit me in the nut house when I'm done!