More Travel and a Special Project

Greetings,

It has been “sew” fun to read the posts from so many of you encouraging the “blog” to continue. This time you will learn a little more about our trip as we visited an American “Sewing Star” in Germany and then what’s happening next.

After visiting Herb’s family in the Black Forest area we drove to Zurich, Switzerland to see where my grandmother Marie was born. Lyndi and I both were “middle named” for her. Then on to Strasbourg, Austria where we arrived in the dark and became lost trying to find our hotel.

After seeing much of the town and countryside and asking directions at a gas station and from some men working on the streets, we finally arrived and found that we had the most desired location in Strasbourg. A huge bedroom with another room and bed for Lyndi, all right on the river with windows overlooking the view of the old city that is in all the tourist books.

Take a look at these curtains on the windows—trimmed in faux fur! And talk about “puddle”. Even the bedspread was faux fur. It was an interesting room but very clean and very nice and big bathroom. Of course no air conditioning in hotels and it was very hot the whole trip. We take so much for granted! The Sound of Music tour was wonderful! 4 hours of music and stops at the key locations where the movie was made. Our guide shared loads of details about the real family and the movie family. This is the beautiful villa they used for the back yard (there was a different villa for the front yard) and the lake where Maria and the children fell out of the boat. We learned that it was very cold the day they taped the “fall out of the boat scene” and little Gretel could not swim so the piece in the movie is quite short after they hit the water because one of the crew had to jump in and grab Gretel!
I’m sure you are tired of trip photos but I want to share our last stop. On our way back to Frankfort to fly home, we stopped to visit Kimberly Einmo and her family in a suburb of Stuttgart. Kimberly and her husband Kent have lived in Germany before while Kent was in the Air Force. Now retired he continues to work with the military and they are on assignment there. Kimberly has written a couple of quilting books for NQA, has developed licensed quilting notions and she travels back to the US often to present quilting programs all over the country. Her fabulous quilts hung in every room of their home make it really special. It was such a joy to spend time with her in her sewing studio and catching up. We “sew” appreciated their hospitality!

I will be out traveling again this fall and would love to see some of you! Next week will be Twin Falls, Idaho with Twin Falls Sewing Center but I know that America Sews on the Road Day is sold out. I’ll look forward to seeing friends at the Quilting Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, September 10-13. America Sews on the Road will be in Central, South Carolina at Heirlooms & Comforts on September 17 then at SewTown in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 20. Go to http://www.husqvarnaviking.com/ and click on Events for more information. You may wonder why I am going to these places and it is because we had a drawing at our SewFest Dealer Training Meetings last year and these stores “won” me to come to their store and do a program. I love every minute of it!

One of the best things about meeting so many of you as I travel is that you bring and share such great ideas. About 150 ladies came to my Quick, Quicker, Quickest program at Sew ‘N Sew in Summerville, SC last December and one of them was Pam Hudson carrying the cutest holiday purse I have ever seen! It was a darling bag created from a purchased Santa Hat and she had made many of them for gifts. Everyone wanted the pattern and Pat was kind enough to send not only the instructions but also she sent me a Santa Hat Purse! The instructions follow. Thank you Pam and store owner Diane Walker!


Santa Hat Purse
By Pam Hudson, Summerville, SC

Everyone you know will be delighted with one of these cute, seasonal Santa Hat Purses! Make a bunch to have on hand for last minute gift giving!

Sewing Supplies:
Purchased Santa Hat
3” x 24” Christmas Print for Handle
1/2 yard Christmas Print for Lining
Husqvarna Viking Dual Feed Foot
Clear Seam Guide Foot #413 03 48-45
1” x 24” Strip of Batting
Sewing Thread


Fold out the white trim strip on the hat. Measure 9” from the tip of the white ball. Cut as shown.





Tuck the white fur inside. Using the main hat piece as a pattern, cut a front and back lining piece from Christmas print 1/2” bigger all the way around than the hat piece.





Turn the hat inside out so it is right sides together. Enter Heavy Woven and Select Seam on your Sewing Advisor ®. Snap on your Clear Seam Guide Foot. Stitch across the bottom as shown using a 5/8” seam allowance.



Place the lining pieces right sides together. Refer to the hat piece to determine which edges to sew. Stitch the sides and bottom using a 5/8” seam allowance.

Press 1/2” to the wrong side around the open top of your lining.

Fold and press 1/2” to the wrong side along one long edge of the 3” x 24” handle strip. Place the 1” x 24” strip of batting next to the pressed portion. Fold the un-pressed edge over the batting as shown.



Then fold the pressed edge over and press.

Attach your Dual Feed Foot. Thread with sewing thread top and bobbin. Select a zig zag stitch 4 width and stitch down the center of the strap along the folded edge.


Assemble your Purse:
With the wrong side of the lining out, pin the top of the hat to one edge. Be sure not to pin the lining shut. Pin one end of the handle to the wrong side of the fabric, on each side seam. Baste in place.



Place the lining inside the outer purse. The fur should be up. Stitch using a zig zag stitch, through all the layers using your free arm. The handles and top of the hat will be caught in the stitching. Fold the fur down over the stitching and you are ready




I just had the opportunity to create a label and embroidery for a quilt in the incredible Husqvarna Viking 4D Embroidery Professional Software System. Every time I use this software I am amazed at how easy the Husqvarna Viking has become over the last few years. It really is developed and designed for you and me!
Have you upgraded yet from 3D to 4D Professional. The special upgrade offer is only good until the end of this year. Ask your Husqvarna Viking Dealer for more information about this. One of the things I absolutely love in the 4D is the “remove overlap” automatic function. Whenever you save a design your Husqvarna Viking 4D Embroidery Software looks at the design and/or lettering combination and removes any stitches from underneath where you have put part of one design on top of another. Until now, your embroidery would stitch the first design then stitch the next designs right over the build up of stitches sometimes with not the result we were aiming for.



The other feature I love is the 4D Design Aligner which is one of the eleven embroidery software programs in the 4D Professional System. If you have not seen this feature demonstrated you will not believe what it does. When you want to stitch a very large design—maybe four times the size of your largest hoop for a wall hanging---simply create set up the design size in your 4D Embroidery. Then go to 4D Design Aligner and enter the size of the hoop you plan to embroider in. The 4D Design Aligner program will intelligently split the design into the number of hoopings and you can touch print to print the templates for hooping! Amazing! What I mean by “intelligently split the design”? When the program divides your large design up it makes sure to “cut” between designs and elements so the finished creation does not have designs that have been “cut” through the middle. Watch this in the demonstration at your local Husqvarna Viking store and/or go to http://www.husqvarnaviking.com/ and click on 4D Software.
Many people ask what I do when I am home in Westlake. Here I am at my desk where I answer e-mail, write projects, proof read, answer questions, plan programs and tv shows write this blog and “sew much more”, What you don’t see is all the samples, books, reference materials, etc. around me. I’ll put the “other side of the office in a later blog!


Until next time,
Happy Sewing!
Sue