Tutorials – Amanda’s blog (2024)

You might have noticed my Good Measure Quilting Rulers popping up in shops! There are 8 different sets, and all feature a non-skid backing and two colors of markings. Here are some videos to show you more…

You can ask your local shop to order these rulers from Brewer Sewing. I always support local shops because they are the lifeline of our industry. If you don’t have a local shop I have a limited number in my store, but if you have a local shop, you can save on shipping.

Later in the week I’ll show you a preview of my holiday collection for next year – can’t wait! There is a sampler that is similar in feel to Sewing Room Sampler that is such fun to sew – I hope you’ll love it!

And speaking of holidays – hope yours are merry and bright!

Amanda

Hi guys! A few things:

1. I wanted to let you know that recently I designed a free pattern for BERNINA for a Zippered Rulerwork Bag at is now live, so hop on over to BERNINA and get the PDF directions and see the videos!
   
2. Also, below is a sneak peek of my new collection debuting for Spring Market, Folk Art Fantasy for Contempo Studios of Benartex. Yes, it coordinates with Sewing Room and I hope you love it! I am having so much fun sewing patterns with these fabrics right now – I can’t wait to show you! For a sneak peek of my FAVORITE print in the entire collection please join my Facebook Group!
   
   
3. I’m excited to announce that I’ll be teaching a five day class again at Empty Spools Seminars in Asilomar, CA in 2018 and I can’t wait! This is a beautiful retreat that is really unique – 5 days of intense study in small groups – amazing! I’ve designed a new modern sampler especially for this event incorporating a bunch of different techniques. More information can be found on the Empty Spools website so, if you are free March 18th-23rd of 2018, please join us!
   

4. While at QuiltCon I had a chance to sit down with Stephanie of Sit & Sew Radio, so if you are interested, hop on over to her site to listen!
5. Finally, Nordic Holiday fabric and patterns are now shipping to shops! If you don’t have a local shop, you can find the patterns here.
   
   

I hope you have a lovely weekend – happy quilting!

Amanda

Hi everyone,

I hope you have been having a lovely Labor Day weekend. I’ve been trying to catch up on things over the past couple of days and one of the things I’ve been wanting to do is write up a tutorial for how to make these simple, fabric-trimmed files featuring my Sewing Room collection for Benartex and my coordinating embroiderycollection for OESD. Of course, these instructions will work for any collection/fabric combination, but these are near and dear to my heart, of course!

These make great fits for your sewing friends and are really simple to make. Ready to get started? (There is a PDF link at the bottom of this post for your convenience.)

You’ll need:

• Dish Towel – I like ones with a smooth texture so that the embroidery pops! I got mine from a great store in Brentwood, TN called BERNINA Sewing Machine Station.
• Fabric Trim – 1 fat quarter or even less (see instructions below)
• Stabilizer – Cut-away for a lightweight towel or tear-away for a heavier weight towel
• Cotton Thread 50 wt. to match fabric
• Edgestitching Foot – Optional but highly recommended
• Embroidery Thread and Temporary Spray Adhesive.

Preparing the Fabric Trim

Wash and dry your towel as you would for every day use. Press well. Measure your towel. (After washing mine was about 17-1/2’’ x 25-1/2’’.)

Decide how wide you would like the band of fabric trim to be. (In these examples mine were 3’’ wide.) Multiply this width times 2 and add in 1/2’’ for seam allowance. This measurement will be the height of the fabric rectangle. Add 1’’ to the width of the towel width. This measurement will be the width of the fabric rectangle. Cut the fabric rectangle using the measurements above.. (My fabric rectangles were 18-1/2’’ s 6-1/2’’.) If you have a directional fabric, make sure to orient it when cutting in the manner you like best. Join the long edges of the fabric rectangle right sides together using a 1/4’’ seam allowance and back-stitching at each end. Press the seam open. Turn the tube right side out and press again so that the seam is centered somewhere on the back of the strip and the motifs you like best are in the front.

Embroidery

Next, prepare your towel for embroidery by marking the embroidery’s center point. In this example, I placed three of the Sewing Room dress embroideries side by side on my BERNINA 780, spacing them evenly. Converting the mm size given to inches I found that my embroideries would measure approximately 6-1/2’’ in width x 3-1/2’’ in height. To find the vertical center of the embroideries on the towel, divide their height in half and add in the height of your fabric band (shown by the white dashed line below) and 1-1/2’’ of buffer space (shown by the green dashed line below). Use your quilting ruler to mark that measurement from the towels bottom edge (shown by the teal line below). You really don’t need to make the green or white lines – they are just shown for your information. Make the vertical center of the towel.

Hoop your stabilizer. Spray the back of your towel with a bit of temporary spray adhesive and use the grid that came with your hoop to align the cross hairs you’ve drawn on the towel with the center of the hoop.

Attach the hoop onto the machine and make any necessary placement adjustments to make sure the cross hairs are right in the center of your design. Direct the machine to run a basting stitch around the design area and embroider a the Sewing Room design onto the towel.

Unhoop and cut or tear away the stabilizer. If you used a water-soluble marking pen to mark the center be sure to remove the marks before ironing the towel!!! (Ask me how I know!)

Fabric Trim Application

Turn edges of the fabric trim tube in so that the tube exactly fits with width of the towel. Press. Pin onto the towel. Use anedge stitching or piping foot and matching thread to top-stitch the fabric trim to the bottom of the towel.

That’s it!You can find a link to a PDF version of this tutorial right here or on my downloads page.

Have a lovely Labor Day!

Amanda