Wednesday, September 23, 2009

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!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

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!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

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!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

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!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

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.