500th Customer

It's hard to believe that from December 1st, 2008 to December 12th, 2009, we have sold 500 sewing machines/vacuums! Our 500th customer was 9 year old Vada O. Her mom bought her a Janome 3128 and she is having fun with it! When she's not sewing, Vada likes to draw, dance, and mush! Here's a photo of her with her goodie bag we gave her to celebrate #500!

Christmas Stocking Class

These pictures are the stocking from Judy T's class today! I'm going to ask her to do it again so please call the shop if you're interested!

November Class Photos

Here is a picture of 2 projects from upcoming classes. The 2 table runners are made on a serger, and the Christmas stocking is made on a sewing machine.

Perkiomen Valley

I'm so excited that my quilt that I have hanging in the shop is published in a third book! The title is Crazy About Scraps by Sally Schneider.

SASHIKO

Here's the new Sashiko machine from Baby Lock. The little quilt is our monthly Snap Sack, a small quilt kit, that we get every month. The quilt was blah until it was quilted!

October Class Pictures

Here are some pictures of the upcoming classes. Judy's class, pictured below is on Wednesday, October 14th.  It's a good way to learn how to piece a quilt top.

The photos on the right are the Tapestry Bag. (open and closed). This is fun and quick. We're having this class on Saturday, October 24th.

Please call the shop for more details. (474-4739)

Fall is in the air!

With the leaves changing and sprinkles of the white stuff, we are getting more interest in sewing! This happens every year! We have the cutest witch towel hanging on our clothesline. The pattern is free and is available on the Baby Lock website.

Our classes have been a big hit! Ckeck out some of our latest projects! The pink quilt on the left was done by Kathy A. The technique was taught by Judy T and the technique was Quilt as You go.

Becky A used many or her vibrant blue fabrics to make a BQ, again taught by Judy T.

And of course, the fabric covered clothesline bowls are always popular! Whenever the class schedule is published, this class fills up the very same day!

Baby Lock Tech, PART FOUR, the sergers

As I was going through our photos, I couldn't find any pictures of the new sergers. So instead, here's a picture of some neat jackets we saw at the vendor mall.

Baby Lock introduced 2 brand new sergers. The Evolution is the new 8 thread serger. It is actually 2 sergers in one... a cover hem machine and an overlock machine! This revolutionary serger features the latest in threading technology, ExtraordinAir™ Threading. With just one push of a button, ExtraordinAir takes your thread through all the loopers at once, instantly, with a gust of air. The cover is snow white and you cannot sew with the door open. The LCD lights bring new clarity to serged stitches, which gives it pure lighting. Sara and I took a workshop using the Evolution and I could not believe the beautiful pintucks it made. Come by the shop and see the heirloom pillow case in progress!


The Baby Lock Enlighten is amazing, too! It has all the overlock and wave stitch features of the Evolution as well as the snow white cover, LCD lighting, and ExtraordinAir™ Threading.


For more information on the Baby Lock Evolution, check out the Baby Lock website.

It's coming soon to Blue Ribbon!

Baby Lock Tech PART three, Quilt Motion

At work yesterday, Sara said, "I wish I had taken more pictures!" When we walked into the room, there were about 10 Baby Lock Jewels set up. It was a sight to see! And sorry, we don't have a photo!

The Baby Lock Quilt Motion is so easy to use!

There are 300 built in quilt patterns. 100 of them are exclusive Baby Lock designs. You can easily make your own patterns or take any of the designs and combine them, mirror image them, and more! Simply quilt a block and then switch to do free motion stippling! Going in-between free hand and computer quilting is automatic. No belts or gears to loosen or disengage.

How frustrating is it when you make a quilt and the border may not be quite straight! No problem with the Quilt Motion. You simply mark the coordinates of the start and the beginning, and the pantograph design is placed exactly in the border!

Blocks not quite the same size?  The software adapts to block size and shape for error-proof placement, even inside asymmetrical blocks.

Coming soon to Blue Ribbon!

 

Next time... The New Baby Lock sergers!

Baby Lock Tech Part Two....SASHIKO

OK, imagine walking into a room filled with around 50 sewing machines! Here are the boxes!

This is the new Baby Lock Sashiko machine. It's the first household machine of its kind.

Here's what Baby Lock has to say...
For over 200 years, sewers have created gorgeous patterns by hand-stitching using a technique known as Sashiko. Sashiko (or "little stabs") began in northern Japan as a way to add bulk to fabrics in the winter. Soon, the technique evolved into creative patterns, designs and even artwork.

It will be coming soon to Blue Ribbon!

Baby Lock Tech Part One

This is just a quick overview of the great weekend we had at Baby Lock Tech in St. Louis. We were on the go every day from 8:00am to after 9:00pm! Pictures will be posted later this week.

The event started on Saturday night with refreshments and appetizers, and then we were admitted into the darkened ball room. Lights were flashing, music was booming, and hundreds of balloons were all over the floor and streaming from the ceiling. Sara and I just looked at each other in amazement. She spotted several beach balls, an oversized one in particular, and said, "Let's toss it in the air!" So, we tossed it up and then everyone who had a ball nearby did the same. It was chaos. After about 15 minutes, we all settled down and the new products were introduced.

We were up early the next morning for a 7:00am breakfast. Neither of us are morning people but we managed. We attended several workshops over the course of the next couple of days. We got to see Nancy Zieman and she showed us her Bag of the Month program using the new templates from Clover. We also went to her lecture on the top notions. I was thrilled because one of her favorites is also one of Blue Ribbon's favorites! It's the Stack 'n' Store Bobbin Tower.

If you're interested, you can follow Blue Ribbon on Twitter.

New classes available!

We are happy to announce that we are now offering classes! Last month's classes were a big hit and we are always looking for suggestions for what types of classes you would like to have.

On Wednesday, June 17th, we are having a class on how to make coiled fabric bowls using fabric strips and clothesline. This is a fun and easy project and the bowls make great gifts.

The bowls we are making will be smaller than Rex's new cat bed, but the possibilities of what you make are endless!



On Thursday, June 18th we are offering a Big Quilt class to make a large quilt top. This is a perfect class for beginners! The class will be from 1:00 - 4:00 PM



For more information, or to sign up for a class, please stop by today or call us at 907-474-4739