Blog Book Tour: "Sewing A to Z" by Nancy Zieman

Welcome to Nancy Zieman's "Sewing A to Z" blog tour!  The tour has been going on for a little while now, but today is my day to host and I'm so thrilled to do so.  Nancy Zieman (of the show "Sewing with Nancy") has recently come out with this fabulous new sewing reference book called "Sewing A to Z".  And it is just that, Nancy addresses just about every sewing technique there possibly is.......from A to Z.

When I received my copy of the book from the publisher, I sat down that very night to check it out.  I immediately looked over at my husband and said......."This is a great book!"  Now my husband probably doesn't care too much about sewing books, but I just had to tell someone right then and there.  Not only is "Sewing A to Z" a great book for a beginner sewer, but it is a great reference for sewers of many different levels.  I love to see what techniques and tricks other fellow sewers use to complete different tasks such as piping, quilting, ect......

Nancy has a very friendly writing style, so you don't feel overwhelmed by all the wonderful information.  Not only does she give great instructions on different techniques, she provides wonderful tips on different sewing notions and ways to make your sewing life a little bit easier.

As you can see in the picture above, this book is loaded!  Nancy covers everything from applique technique, basting, edge stitching, piping, serging, and the list goes on and on.

As most of you know, I love piping so I really enjoyed reading all about Nancy's piping technique.  I've never used a piping foot before, but I found it very intriguing and may have to look into getting one in the future.  She covers how to make your own piping and inserting it as well.

Quilting is a whole other story.  I would definitely say I am a beginner when it comes to quilting, so I gained a wealth of knowledge through her information about different types of quilting, quilting feet for your sewing machine, as well as the different notions that can be used.

And finally, thread.  The thread section of a sewing store can be extremely overwhelming for someone who is just starting out sewing.  What to use?  Polyester, cotton, embroidery?  Well, no need to be overwhelmed, Nancy goes through them all so that you can feel confident the next time you make your thread selection!

You've got to head over to Nancy's blog and check out her "Sewing A to Z" post.  She is having a HUGE grand prize giveaway (worth over $450) that I'm sure you are going to want to enter.  She will be choosing one random winner that comments on her blog post throughout the tour.  Here's a peak at the prize package, which includes this book as well.......

If you would like to check out some other reviews about "Sewing A to Z" from other blogger's hosting the tour, click on any of the links below.

Sewing A to Z blog tour:
15-Aug Nancy Zieman’s blog
16-Aug Whipstitch
17-Aug Sew Mama Sew
18-Aug Diary of a Quilter
20-Aug Amy’s Creative Side
22-Aug Quiltville
23-Aug Crap I’ve Made
24-Aug Eileen Roche’s blog
25-Aug I’m Just a Guy Who Quilts
26-Aug The Free Motion Quilting Project
27-Aug Sew Serendipity
29-Aug Lazy Girls Designs
30-Aug Pat Sloan Blog
31-Aug Tallgrass Prairie Studio
1-Sep True Up
2-Sep Sew News
6-Sep Off the Cuff Sewing Style
7-Sep V and Co.
8-Sep The Cottage Home
9-Sep Colette Patterns 

If you are new to sewing, I highly recommend this book.  I am pretty much a self-taught sewer and this book would have saved me a lot of time and headache during my first years of sewing! 

Click HERE to purchase "Sewing A to Z" by Nancy Zieman.

Thanks for joining me on this tour and I hope you enjoyed learning about this great new book!

French cuisine - at school

Do you remember what your school lunches used to be like?

  I do,  .....  you don't want the details!

As children in France return to school this week, there is inevitably much talk about the quality of school meals:  how well balanced they are; the portion size, the choice of dishes  - excuse me! .... the choice? !!! 

Yup, children at French primary schools take for granted their bright friendly canteens, the well balanced menus with choices for first course , main course, cheese and dessert!

Schools regularly have 'tasting' weeks or theme days, where children are encouraged to try small portions of new flavours; to tell the difference between regional cheeses or to understand why wholemeal bread doesn't look the same as white baguette.

They also find it normal that every French child in primary education takes a napkin to  school, generally in a hand-sewn napkin bag.  Clean one into school on Monday morning, home to be laundered on  Friday afternoon.  Child's name on the napkin and on the napkin bag.  Motherly pride can get slightly out of hand on this one, and some of the personalised napkin holders would make Martha Stewart look like an amateur.

The school are also meant to display the menus for the coming week,  and you often see parents pausing to study the chart as they drop their offspring at school for the day. 

 

What  happy days the primary school age brings, when the most they have

to worry about is what they get for lunch!

Doing a reno for resale, but also for enjoyment

Although I'm bummed we can't afford a kitchen reno right now, I'm taking great delight in planning what our kitchen "could" be. Why I am focusing on this kitchen reno idea? Taking out the emotion of loving the house, it boils down to resale. Although we're not moving any time soon, we will likely move one day.

You see, we've improved the entire rest of the house with the exception of our Master Bathroom. Not doing the kitchen will be a glaring "to-do" for buyers and in my mind, devalue the rest of our investment. [We brought in a local real estate agent who confirmed that thought].

But then there is the enjoyment factor. I'd like to do the reno so we can actually enjoy the kitchen, instead of doing it for someone else. I hate thinking resale because it makes you think it's not your home. But it is our home and I'd love to enjoy the "new" kitchen as well as know it was a solid investment.

Aub and I have no idea how much it would cost us. You see numbers floating around of costs but until we actually hunker down and do spread sheets of expenses we're not sure what we're in for.  So Aubrey and I are on board to start researching and planning. Therefore, we're educated and prepared and know a good deal when we see one. Right now the kitchen table is filled with papers of measurements and magazines as we casually look over designs and talk about our wish list. It's kind of nice not having the money to do it right now because there is no pressure. So here is what we're doing...

1. Looking for inspiration. The kitchen in Style at Homes March 2008 by Margot Austin is one I've always had in mind, as it is a small (like ours). Done primarily in IKEA it's something that would be awesome to do.

2. Researching Appliances for a small space. Something I hadn't been prepared for is figuring out appliances as they dictate cabinetry. Did I mention our dishwasher is leaking? So not only is our fridge on the brink of blowing up, our dishwasher is about to join it.

3. Measuring the space. It's good to have the dimensions so we can start researching cabinet sizes, counters, sinks. Oh, well, everything. So Aubrey went through and measured the whole kitchen and I'm translating that into a nicely drawn drawing on the computer.

I know. Pretty boring but all in all kind of fun. Like I said, no pressure because we know we can't do it right now but it means that we can take our time researching and in the end, be prepared. If you did a kitchen reno how long did it take you to plan? Did it cost more than you thought? Any advice to bestow upon us?

Girls Appliqued Shirts: GO! Baby Fabric Cutter

This past week the girls and I decided it would be fun to make some appliqued shirts using my new toy the GO! Baby Fabric Cutter.  I recently got this great new machine and I think I might be in love.  I've done my fair share of applique, but the idea of cutting all the shapes out always seemed to un-motivate me to do very much.

The GO! Baby Fabric Cutter is a machine that can be used for quilting or applique and is made by AccuQuilt.  Basically, you purchase dies of all different shapes, run them through the machine and it cuts them out perfectly every time.  I have three dies to go with my machine right now, but there are tons to choose from - I have the little critters, birds, and flowers.

My girls and I picked out some scraps of fabric from my stash that we thought would be fun on some little t-shirts that I picked up at Walmart.  I added a light-weight fusible interfacing to the back of each fabric scrap and away we went.

The machine is not operated by anything but a hand crank on the side.  I would lay the fabric on top of the different dies and the girls would turn the crank to cut the fabric through the machine.  They thought this was so fun to actually get to help mommy with a sewing project.  Mind you, my girls are only 2 years old and 3 and a half and they had absolutely no probably turning the hand crank.  You definitely wouldn't want to leave little ones alone with the machine, but it was great with grown up supervision.  I asked each of them what shapes they wanted on their shirts and we cut everything out accordingly.

Once all the shapes were cut, I removed the paper backing from the interfacing from each of the different shapes.  Then we laid out the different pieces on each shirt.  The next part was all up to me, but by then the girls had lost interest, so it work out just right that way.  I ironed the appliques onto each shirt and then did a combination of machine stitching and hand embroidery on each on of the shapes.

I love how these shirts turned out and I think the girls love them even more!  It's not very often that I get to work on sewing projects with my little ladies, since they are so young, so this was pure joy for me (and them, I hope)!

The GO! Baby Fabric Cutter is the smaller of the two machines offered by AccuQuilt.  They sell a larger version that can accommodate bigger dies, but for my purposes, the GO! Baby is just right. 

Right now AccuQuilt is offering 22 FREE patterns when you sign up for their email newsletter!  All you have to do is submit your email.  Click HERE to sign up and download your free patterns!!

hydrangea season

How I love the gentle tones of hydrangeas at this time of year.  They seem to
blend together to an ideal palette that inspires me in so many ways.

For fun I shot these small flower heads in my favourite individual glasses in the
company of an antique brass statue that makes me think of
Toile de Jouy fabric and a hand embroidered cushion.

Just for fun ...

A Little Dose of Happy

LOVE this room! The shelves, the table and chair combo, the light, the wall color, all of it. Every last thing.It is also excites me because the pink cushions for my office chair are in and I can't wait to paint the chairs and show you the finished product.

Via Elements of Style

No Sew Tent

I have had an obsession with teepee's and I really wanted to get one for Oscar. Buying one turned out to be  expensive , and the DIY method seemed difficult [I don't own a sewing machine]. So I was kind of bummed we wouldn't have one. A few weeks ago, I happened across this post on the blog "Cakies" where Rubyellen made an A-Frame tent. Although her version was 99% perfect, her version still required sewing. So I modified her idea to be a no sew alternative to a teepee and her A-Frame idea. And this is what I made....

I LOVE it. So it's REALLY easy to do. (And so does Oscar as you can see above.) Before I get into my instructions, if you do decide to tackle this project you should see Rubyellens step by step as it is awesome. So my version of the project is broken in to 3 Parts [1] The Frame [2] The Cover and [3] Bunting Flag.

Read more after the jump

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