Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Happy 10th Birthday To Us!

To all of our loyal customers,
Thank you for your support and business over the last 10 years! Come join us on June 2nd for our 10 year Birthday Celebration! We will have cupcakes (from local business "Simply Cupcakes") as well as a super duper coupon that allows you to choose your favorite item to get a discount on! Below is the coupon for that discount. You can bring in a print off of the coupon or show us the coupon via your phone when you check out. There is a limit of one coupon per customer and the coupon is only good for June 2nd!
Hope to see you in the store!

Monday, May 21, 2012

My Favs - Angelyn

Okay SLH Fans.. this week our featured Team Member is Angelyn! Here is what she has to say about her "Favs": 

1. What is your favorite sewing/quilting book?

OH GEEZ. My favorite? Well for all around fun quilts, my favorite book is probably "Dare to be Square" by Boo Davis. But right now i'm also sucked into the Colette Sewing Handbook and Carol Doaks Mariners Compass Stars paperpiecing book! But as my sister and Sara would tell you, I own just about every "Art to Heart" book that was ever made. I think i maybe have made one or two projects from the 15 or so books i have, but I LOVE THEM, and i just tend to collect them.  One day I will get to all the fun projects those books hold!  TOO MANY BOOKS TO LOVE!!

2.What is your favorite sewing notion?

Umm...beside my seam ripper. :) Well lets see, Honestly my one notion I couldn't live without is a 4" pair of Omnigrid needlecraft scissors. I  use them for everything from snipping threads to pulling off paperpiecing paper. And they are still sharp despite being dropped repeatedly into my floor ( which they stick straight up out of)

3. What is your favorite sewing foot?
OH man... well 90% of the time I use my (AMAZING) 1/4" patchwork foot for piecing, but I also love my #10 edgestitch foot(which is great for topstitching and closing seams when you turn things) But the one foot that I think is the all time coolest is the #18 button sew on foot (thank you Bernina) It makes it possible to sew buttons onto anything using your machine!!

4. What is your favorite hand/machine sewing thread?
So, I have to a agree with my sister and say Prececia and Aurifil are by far the best piecing threads. I may be bias but you will not find a better thread for piecing than either of those. BUT...my mom just decided to bring in King Tut by Superior Threads...and all I could say when it came in was...aww crap. :)

5.What is your favorite sewing blog?

Seriously? Favorite as in singular favorite...hahaha! ok. 1. "Oh, Fransson" by Elizabeth Hartman, 2."Make it and Love it", 3. "Artisania"- by Sonja Callaghan ( ok, if you like paper piecing, you will LOVE her blog, she is amazing. Her patterns are amazing) and there are many more but my list would go on and on and on and on...well you get the point.

And don't forget..leave a comment here before next Monday and you could win a $25 giftcard to the store! Have fun and we look forward to seeing what your "Favs" are!

Monday, May 14, 2012

MyFavorites - Enjoli


Welcome to our "MyFavorites" blog series. Here you will get a chance to know our staff members better. We will have a good time and assuming that our distributor can keep up with us we will have stock in store of all the products you hear about here! 
Enjoli is up first, so here it goes...

Q: What is your favorite sewing/quilting book?
A: My current favorite book is “Practical Guide to Patchwork” by Elizabeth Hartman. I want to make every quilt in this book, AND in June Elizabeth is releasing her second book that promises to be just as great as her first.  It’s called “Modern Patchwork”. I’ve also picked up a few new releases that are fantastic, called “Modern Minimal” by Alissa Haight-Carlton, and “Quilting Modern” by Jacquie Gering. 
(NOTE: "Modern Patchwork", "Modern Minimal" and "Quilting Modern" are all new release books and have not made it into our store yet. Keep an eye out for them soon!)

Q: What is your favorite sewing notion?
A: This is a hard question, I have so many favorites, its hard to choose just one. I love my “machine needle pack”, it holds all of my packaged and loose needles and has labels so I don’t have to guess which ones are which.
I also can’t go to any class or sit and sew without knowing where my “Bohin sewing gauge” is. It is awesome and has survived my 2 year old using it!
And last but certainly not least, my “Rainbow Easy Kut” snips are my favorite for clipping threads on chain piecing or paper piecing projects. They are easy to use and stay sharp forever!  

Q: What is your favorite sewing foot?
A: Right now my favorite sewing foot is my Jeans foot! Despite the name you can actually use it for sewing knit as well. And since I have been altering jeans into maternity jeans and sewing up knit maternity tshirts it has come in super handy. And even though its not a sewing foot, it helps to use a straight stitch plate when using the jeans foot because the opening in the stitch plate is a single hole instead of an oval opening. The jeans foot (for my Bernina it is foot #8) has a single keyhole opening as well and the sole of the foot is hinged so that you can go over the thickness of denim. Check out the video on Bernina’s website to see how cool this foot it!  (http://www.berninausa.com/product_detail-n25-i51-sUS.html)

Q: What is your favorite hand/machine sewing thread?
A: I am partial to sewing with Prescenia or Auriful thread for piecing and quilting. The Prescenia thread is so thin that you keep a true ¼” seam when piecing. You still get super strong thread but you don’t have the bulk of some other types of thread. As for Aurifil, well…I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It is just a great all around thread, also very thin. I use it for everything, piecing, quilting and even embroidery. It is not a shiny thread like you’d find with Isacord (which I also love for embroidery) but embroiders out beautifully and runs through my machine like butter without leaving a lot of fuzz!

Q: What is your favorite sewing blog(s)?
A: Oh my..I currently have 60 websites/blogs bookmarked on my web browser! :P I have to say that my top 5 are:
1)    “OhFransson” by Elizabeth Hartman
2)    “Handmade by Alissa” by Alissa Haight-Carlton
3)    “Tallgrass Prairie Studio” by Jacquie Gering
4)    “Fresh Lemons Quilts” by Faith
5)    “Stitched in Color” by Rachel Hauser
I visit these sites constantly and find myself adding projects from each of them to my “To-Do’ list! Each are so inspiring and have fun tutorials and projects, as well as beautiful pictures to just lift your spirits!

Leave a comment here telling us what your favorite sewing books or notions are and next Monday (the 21st) you could just be the winner of a $25 gift card to SLH! 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

New Blog Series - My Favorites

Okay here it goes... Today is the official (actually un-official because I'm behind) launch of our new blog series called "My Favorites". You will get to hear from each staff member on their favorite crafty blogs, book and tools! We are going to have a great time and all of the items (books, notions, etc.) will be in our store for you to come check out in person and/or purchase for your own!

And, of course since I manage the blog I get to go first! So in the interest of making sure you all can collect some of my favorite items for your own, my list of "My Favorites" will post next week on May 14th. So be sure to check back here on that day so find out what books, notions and other crafty items I hoard in my studio!

Looking forward to sharing and chatting with you all!