What’s Sewing On . . .December 2023

Featured ~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ 6 Comments

Hello Sewers! It has been a whirlwind year here at A Notion to Sew. In a nutshell: my hubby retired in April, we traveled back east to look at possibly moving across country, our daughter offered to buy our house in Utah after her house sold, her house sold very quickly and we kicked into high gear to vacate our house, we were in our new home in the eastern U.S. by early July, and the rest of this year has been spent updating, upgrading, and changing parts of our new home to make it our own. After 23 years in one place, I thought our roots were in Utah, but I was wrong. 🙂

I closed my Etsy shop in mid June. I still have some inventory from the shop, so if you are in the market for bag making hardware, patterns, or Riley Blake fabric, send me a message and I will rummage through the boxes to see what I have in stock (all items are new and in unopened original packaging). You will receive a discounted price on your purchase as well.

Needless to say, I have not accomplished much sewing this year. But I do have a few life photos to share with you:

October was a gorgeous month to spend apple picking and pumpkin patch visiting in lovely Harford County Maryland. Above photo – our granddaughter is the navigator as her grandpa provides her wagon transportation to the pumpkin patch.

One of my most favorite sights is the barn quilts in this area of the country.

We live in a small town, but we are blessed with a great Bernina dealer nearby. I did manage to take a rope bowl class and I sewed up this beauty for a gift. Of course, after I filled it, wrapped it, and shipped it, I realized I forgot to snap a photo of the entire bowl! This is a close up of the exterior and the upper braided rim.

Here is a shot looking down inside the rope bowl. . .

I also managed to embroider the table runner from the Kimberbell October ME Time kit.

There are several quilting/sewing machine/fabric stores within an hour of our location. This is a quilt store between Gettysburg, PA and Chambersburg, PA. Why would you not want to stop at a store with that huge, colorful barn quilt on the side of the building!

Here are a couple photos of President and Mrs. Eisenhower’s home at Gettysburg:

Thank you for hanging with me in my social media absence. I appreciate all of you.

What’s Sewing On . . .July 2022

Featured ~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ 5 Comments

Hello Sewers! I set aside my personal sewing plans this month so I could focus on stitching up some inventory for my handmade shop. I’ve been busy sewing these oh so useful snack bags.

The outside of each bag features a lovely cotton print fabric and a beautiful solid vinyl. These sweet bags are lined with food safe PUL fabric so they are easy to clean. You can feel comfortable using them for veggies, fruit, chips, or yes, candy. LOL Simply pull the lining out through the top of the bag and wipe it down with a dish cloth and dish soap. Dry with a dish towel and then also allow to air dry overnight. Your bag will be all clean and dry and ready to re pack in the morning.

While snack bags are something we think about using with children or grandchildren, they are not the only ones who benefit from a handy snack. These snack bags are terrific to take to quilting or sewing classes, to accompany you on a road trip, or to toss in your beach bag or in with your ski gear if you are heading into the great outdoors for the day. They are also perfect to fill with treats for Fido.

The handmade shop will be restocked with these and other goodies in September. What would you stash in your snack bag?

Thank you for sharing some of your time with me today.

What’s Sewing On . . .June 2022

Featured ~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ 2 Comments

Happy Summer, Sewing Friends!

Do you find you create more in the summer than in the winter? Or, do you create less in the summer than in the winter? I find my create time slows down in the summer because I spend a lot of time in the yard and the garden during the summer months. That said, I do still have a bit of progress on several items that I would like to share with you. So come on in and look around for a bit. You are welcome here.

First up is this machine embroidery quilt that I finally started – I’ve had the kit for about two years! This is the Vintage Boardwalk quilt by Kimberbell. I am not even half done with all the cute blocks that go into this quilt, but I’ll keep plugging along and by golly I will complete it in the future (hopefully this year).

Before I do any embroidery for the applique blocks, I back the fabric with fusible SF101. I like to use my heat press to adhere the SF101 to the fabric. By using my heat press, I can fuse several pieces of fabric at one time. I find that interfacing applied this way does not peel up at the corners like it does when I use my household iron. It’s also a great time saver.

I’m also embroidering the background quilting before embroidering the applique. This way it becomes a quilt as you go project. The background quilting designs are from Kimberbell and they are sized to fit their various applique block sizes. Yet another time saver! I love that.

Second, I actually completed a cross stitch design. Now all I have to do is mount it to foam board and frame it. I should have the completed project to show you in my July update. The pattern is Stitchy Stars by Lori Holt.

Third, I completed all the little tiny blocks for a small wall hanging. The pattern is Heritage by Betsy Chutchian. I just need to arrange the blocks in a way that is to my liking, then I will quilt it, bind it, and hang it on the wall.

My fourth, and final sewing update this month is a pair of pants from this new Simplicity pattern.

Here is a peek at what my test muslin looks like. I will discuss my thoughts about this pattern in my next blog post. Suffice it to say, I really like the pattern. I will tweak it just a bit before I sew up another pair. Stay tuned for my review.

That’s it for my June edition of What’s Sewing On . . . I must head back to my sewing machine as I am busy sewing up some items to add to my summer wardrobe. Do you sew for the seasons?

Until next time – thank you so much for visiting today.