Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 8:49PM As we prep for a new release of the Sew & Quilt with Sue website, we have made all of the current projects available in a DropBox folder. You’ll find all the latest project sheets here:
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 1:57PM Winter Greetings!!
Fall is in the Air Cruise!– We were with owner Carol and our friends at the Sew-Ciey Quilt Shop in Denver for a cruise party and have almost sold out for this fabulous cruise next October 3-11, 2013. We have several great projects planned for the days at sea including a new pattern I’m working on with QuiltSmart!
Thanks to the magic of Skype and Gerald’s tech help, we were able to have the two cruise coordinators “live” to fill us in on all the port stops: Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine, St John, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, shore excursions and all the details!
Go to www.quiltingretreatatsea.com/fall-is-in-the-air/ or call Michelle at 210-858-6399 for more info and to sign up! Hurry!! We have a limited number spots for Quilters as the sewing room space is limited. Bring a friend! Non-quilters welcome!
January flew by as we enjoyed the end of our Christmas celebration with family and began a busy teaching schedule! We had a wonderful time with each of our families over the Christmas including fun days in Columbus celebrating the engagement of grandson Nathan and Meredith and to enjoy grandson Micah’s school concert and jazz concert.
On to Simi Valley where daughter in law Tamara had the best idea for keeping towels straight when you have lots of overnight company or a pool. We embroidered numbers on the towels, hand towels and wash cloths. Each guest gets a number and knows which towel is theirs! The grandgirls loved the idea and each took the towel set with their age on it. Fun! Watch for a “Project Sheet” with all the specifics!
While with our San Jose family, grandkids Bret and Lyndi baked pieces for a giant Gingerbread House! Because it was so large, it did not want to stay together with frosting or glue. Solution—Duck Tape!
We stopped to see our oldest grandchild, Britta, in LA, and to “catch up on her news”. She and her beau Kristian have just gotten engaged! It looks like a year for weddings!
Our daughter Nadya visited from Minneapolis the first part of January. We had a wonderful time sightseeing! Her first request was to have dinner at Wisdom’s. This was my folks favorite restaurant for all the years they were in Green Valley. We held their 50th anniversary party here. This wonderful family owned restaurant on the East frontage road of Route 19 between Tubac and Tumacacori, AZ, began in 1942 and is known for great food including Fruit Burros!
We enjoyed visiting a number of sites including the Arizona Historical Museum to see the 100 Years—100 Quilts Arizona Centennial Quilt Project Exhibit. The quilts were fabulous. There were so many different styles, techniques, textures and more.
We went to Tubac, the Farmer’s Market, Colossal Caves, the Botanical Gardens and Butterfly House and more. There is much to do in this beautiful and warm Southern Arizona!
Nadya and I had a great time finishing the Mariner’s Compass wall hanging quilt we started in Minneapolis quite a while ago.
The rest of the month was busy with teaching and working. I enjoyed being in the Cathey’s Sewing and Vacuum booth during the Fiesta Quilt Show in Tucson. This is a fabulous show with incredible quilts and loads of great booths to shop. Unfortunately the very cold weather (for Arizona) had the attendance down from last year but it was great to meet so many happy quilters! One lady came to find me to thank me for selling her a sewing/quilting machine at this show last year. She said she I had really “talked her into it” but she is certainly glad I did and she is really enjoying her new machine. I love to hear that! We had call from our neighbors on Sunday afternoon when a pipe burst at our home due to the cold weather. It was outside thankfully!
I had the opportunity to do a little consulting for a very interesting company, Vecco. They have created a new colorant for creating your own unique and personalized rugs with stencils. This is a very creative and easy to use product. You can even make a mistake and vacuum it up. Once it is sealed it is permanent. Check it out at www.veccostudio.com
Herb and I flew to Denver to do some taping for Sulky on QNN TV, an Internet “tv program”. I taped three episodes titled The Evolution of Embroidery, The Evolution of Quilting and The Evolution of Embellishment which will be on QNN TV later in the Spring. We also visited a second cousin I had not seen in 18 years. We enjoyed an evening of going through our Great-Grandfather’s Journal that he began writing on the ship from Sweden in 1869 and continued to write throughout his life. Then we put together a Family Tree for the Youngberg Family thanks to the journal, the family Bible, and my grandmother’s Birthday Book. This visit was inspired by a picture in her Christmas Card of our families when I was about 14. My Dad and his three cousins and families plus my Grandma and Grandpa all at our home in front of the most “70’s” drapes you have ever seen. Orange, brown, gold, lime green and more abstract shapes on a bark cloth type fabric. My Dad made them and hung them on special traverse rods he layered so when they were open the entire picture window was exposed. I told my cousin the amazing thing is that I remade these drapes for our first house because we couldn’t afford fabric to make new.
We presented a program for the Valley Quilters Guild in Green Valley, AZ, on Vintage and Antique Quilts and how they inspire us today. We loved meeting people who love to quilt and to share some of my quilt and baby quilt collection and their history and to get their input on many areas of quilting. The second day was a “hands on” workshop on Machine Quilting Techniques. We had a full house with 16 people at their machines and they stitched the techniques and then created a project and went home with kits for a couple more projects. I am familiar with many different types of machines but it was wonderful to see the students help each other. Two gals especially helped others with the same brand as they have and all the fellowship really made the day a success. I was tired after two days on my feet. Could it be I’m getting older?
Last week Herb and I had our favorite “job”! We were in California caring for our three youngest grandchildren ages 10, 7, and 4 while their Mommy and Daddy were in Hawaii on a business trip. We “sew” enjoyed being with them and it was fun to keep up with all their activities. While they were in school we had the opportunity to go to the Ronald Reagan Museum which is near their home to see the Disney Archive Exhibit and really enjoyed it.!
We are looking forward to seeing many of our sewing and quilting friends at the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA at the end of the month. My hands on classes are already sold out but I’m also presenting two of my favorite lecture demo classes; Fast, Faster, Fastest Quilting and More Quick Gifts to Make.
Check out the projects on this website. I’ve been promising to post my “how to make” and “how to use” instructions for Potato/Corn/Sweet Potato/Tortilla Shell/Bakery goods Bags. The on/off switch on my lap top computer broke last week so I’m working on an old laptop and trying to recoup more projects for you.
Until next time……
Happy Sewing!!
Monday, December 17, 2012 at 8:54AM Dear friends,
I am way behind on updating this blog! We have been busier than ever and loving life! We are so thankful for good health and the opportunities to enjoy life!! November had us in Seattle teaching for two days at a huge event hosted by Quality Sewing in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Over 150 attendees “stitched up a storm” in a huge room at the Puyallup Fair Grounds! This was an Embroidery Weekend and the focus was on learning new techniques and how to embroider on all types of fabrics. I brought loads of sample garments and projects and taught 4 specific classes on embroidering on leather, stretch fabrics, ready-to-wear, and quilt piecing with your embroidery machine. This was the first introduction of the Sulky Spoolie designs and everyone loved them! Our next trip to the Pacific Northwest will be February 27-March 3, 2013 for the Sewing and Stitchery Expo at the Puyallup Fair Grounds. I’ll be teaching loads of classes at this event! Would love to see you!
Simon Haskins was the other teacher at the event and brought amazing embroidered quilts and taught the fabulous techniques he and his mum, Jenny are known for. We “sew” enjoyed working with him and all the great people from Quality Sewing! They sure know how to “throw a great embroidery party”!
We headed to California for Thanksgiving and enjoyed wonderful visits with our two California sons and their families. Herb and I got to help make the turkey, one of our favorite things to do! One of our San Jose granddaughters is spending a semester in London so she was at the Thanksgiving table via Skype. A laptop was in her place and we and her two brothers and older sister and mom and dad were able to visit throughout the Thanksgiving meal. Isn’t technology fabulous!
It was a joy to celebrate granddaughter Amanda’s 10th birthday and to attend the International Day at the school she and her two younger sisters attend. What fun to see the costumes and hear the music as all these little people told about the Central America country their class had chosen. This week we couldn’t help but think of our three young granddaughters and how thankful we are for them as we are so saddened by the horrific acts in Conn and continue to keep those families in our prayers.
We have spent some time in Arizona and are really enjoying the beautiful weather. It is amazing. Cool at night but 70-80 degrees during the day and the sun is almost always shining. We are loving it there. I have been doing some sewing for Christmas gift giving and organizing our schedule for 2013 but we will travel most of December on our “Progressive Christmas”. It is sort of like a progressive dinner. Someone asked me a few years ago when I was still working full time and traveling every week, “How can you travel over the holidays when you travel all year”? My response was easy, “We want to be with family for Christmas and to bring in the New Year so the choice is simple! We go where they are and love it”! Once all the kids had moved away they came back to the family homested for a few years but as their families grew, they were busy with church programs and Christmas events and more importantly wanted to establish their own Christmas traditions in their homes and communities. Herb and I were home alone for one Thanksgiving and as we sat across the table from each other we agreed “this is crazy”! As long as our health and our finances allow, we will travel to be with family for holidays and every other time possible (that they will have us!).
We are in Columbus, OH now and have enjoyed a wonderful visit with our oldest son, Herb, Jr., his wife Janet, and their son Micah, 15. Their son Nate lives nearby and just got engaged to a beautiful young woman. Micah plays the Bass and we loved his school orchestra, band and choral concert last week. We miss all the band and choral concerts since our children have grown up! I loved the music choices including the ending with the Hallelujah Chorus!
Sunday was a huge day with a very meaningful church service. Their Pastor, Keith Miner, at Grace Church is preaching an excellent series on “How to Survive the Holidays”. The first week focused on: See People! (selfless compassion for those around us). We were here for the second week: Grow Your Margin (not filling every day with so much—“wise people understand small margins create messes”) and yesterday, Be Grateful! “This season was created to be a joyful season. Joy gets stolen when we lose perspective. Dare to dwell on Jesus and see what happens to your level of gratefulness”. You can view his messages at gracepickerington.org
After church, Janet and I met the bride to be, Meredith, and her mom, aunt and maid of honor at a Bridal Shop. Meredith tried on quite a few dresses and chose the most beautiful elegant dress! I can’t post pictures until after the wedding but it is fabulous. The salesperson had pulled a number of dresses for her to try on but I looked around a little and found this dress on the sale rack. As she tried dresses on we all tried not to influence her and when she chose this one it was so exciting as it was the most beautiful of all. It needs a little alteration but we will do that closer to the wedding time. What a fun outing this was!!
From the Bridal Shop Janet, Meredith and I headed to Micah’s jazz concert where Herb, Herb Jr., and Nate were saving us seats. Wow! We so enjoyed the concert. Micah is the only Bass in his group and did a great job! The music was awesome. Back home to celebrate an early Christmas as we leave here to go on this week. (I don’t remember how many times Janet and I looked at each other yesterday and said “what was that about growing your margins”?) We made dinner and opened gifts by their beautiful tree. It was a full but wonderful day!
We fly back to Arizona for a day then drive to California. First stop will be to visit Britta, our oldest granddaughter (Herb Jr.’s oldest) living in Irvine. We are eager to see her and I took lots of pictures at the Bridal Shop to show her as she will be one of the bridesmaids. On from Britta’s to our youngest son Bruce, his wife Tamara and three darling girls (I’m a little prejudice but they are!) Amanda, Sage, and Brooke. We will celebrate Christmas with them just before the real day then on to son Bob, wife Lori and Lyndi, Lexi, Bret and Brit in San Jose for Christmas. We will drive back to Arizona the week after Christmas.
Our daughter, Nadya, comes to visit us in Sahuarita on January 2. We are “sew” looking forward to her visit. She lives in Minneapolis so the choice was simple: Minneapolis or Arizona in Dec/Jan? We will do some sightseeing, sewing, and just spending time together.
Last week the Pastor asked “what do you want for Christmas”? My immediate response was “to spend time with family”. So I am certainly getting everything I have asked for and more this Christmas.
I’ll be updating my 2013 calendar this week so hope to be coming to your community to meet you! If not, please consider joining us on the Fall is in the Air Quilting cruise October 3-11, 2013! I was “sew” excited to be asked to teach on this cruise because Herb and I have always wanted to see the beautiful autumn color in the East and what better way than to travel up the coast of Maine and Canada than on a beautiful cruise ship stopping at ports to visit sites and quilt shops! Check it out!
As this most special of seasons is in full swing, we hope you are able to celebrate with your families and friends and that you dare to dwell on Jesus, the Reason for the Season!
Christmas Blessings!
Sue and Herb
Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 11:07PM ;)
Great news! Many people have asked me to teach on a cruise so here we go! I’ll be teaching on the Quilting Retreat at Sea “Fall is in the Air” next year, October 3-11, 2013! This 8 night cruise will travel along the coast of Canada and New England and stop at 4 beautiful ports (and go to Quilt Shops too!). Think how beautiful the Autumn color will be! More info and sign up information at www.quiltingretreatatsea.com/fall-is-in-the-air/ The mother/daughter team running this cruise are a delight and I know you will have a great time. We will have three days at sea to create and you will make and finish the Mondo Bag and a couple of smaller projects! Fun!
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One of the reasons I’m “sew” excited about this cruise is the location as we had a fabulous time at the Quilting Around Chautauqua Retreat in late September. Our host Judy Fenton from Erie was just the best. We stayed in the historic Athenaeum Hotel build in the 1800’s and the show was held in buildings all over the retreat grounds. The view from our window was amazing as the sun came up over Lake Chautauqua. I greeted in a booth in the hotel lobby and taught in two great locations.
We also had the opportunity to visit our friend Margo at her Ariel’s Bed and Breakfast. Herb took a nap under the Halloween Quilt while Margo and I went to Quilt Shops.
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In my last post, I forgot to tell you about our stop in Muscatine, Iowa on our way driving to Arizona. We presented a Sew and Quilt with Sue program for Neal’s Vacuum and Sewing to help celebrate their 60 years in business. I “sew” enjoyed seeing Jerry, son of Neal, now owner of the store and his people and all the ladies at the program. We had a great day. See Herb on the ladder with camera projecting the program on the screen so all can see up close!
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If you get to Muscatine, Iowa, be sure to visit the Pearl Button museum. This was a fascinating place! Did you know Muscatine is the pearl button capital of the world?
We’ve kept busy in October! I taught at the Husqvarna Viking Convention which was held in Tucson, AZ, just about an hour north of our home. It was so good to see so many of our friends from the industry. My class was about quilting with your home sewing machine and I had a special workbook and tips and techniques for the stores.
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I spent a couple of weeks sewing and quilting to get ready to tape three tv shows for the Sew-It-All television series produced for Public Television. The host Ellen March is fabulous! I did a program on Sulky Spoolie embroidery people and how to make a stabilizer organizer, one on embellishing ready-to-wear garments and one for Pfaff sewing machines that included lots of tips for sewing without glitches and how to make an Ipad case with easy applique. Watch for these to air in 2013.
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Carol, owner of Sew-ciety in Castle Rock, Colorado, just south of Denver picked me up from the studio for a special event at her store that evening. I “sew” enjoyed meeting all her store people and her customers and bringing a couple of hours of ideas, tips, techniques and inspiration I hope to the 50 ladies she squeezed in to her classroom! When we came out from the program, there was snow on the ground. Pretty!
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I spent the night at her home and this quilt was on my bed. Beautiful. I had to take a picture of my “luggage” (the plastic bag) because she gave me such a hard time about it. My suitcases were filled with samples for the store program so I just stuffed my personal clothes and all into a bag. The roads were clear for the airport drive next morning but I enjoyed the snow on the trees and ground.
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Last week I flew to Texas to visit my sister Gini in Medina which is pretty far from everything! She drove us to Houston and we went to the Quilt Festival. This picture was taken the first night, Halloween so I’m wearing my Halloween vest! This is the first time in 28 years that I have had the opportunity to attend and walk the show, not work it. What fun we had. I got a big blister on one foot but we kept going. ;)
The quilts were magnificent! It was great to see so many good friends and to get lots of new ideas and buy fabric and patterns. Here I am with my friend Kathy Purdy, inventor of the Steady Betty, one of my favorite sewing tools.
This wood “tape measure” star is one of the ideas from Quilt Festival. I’m sorry for not writing down the name of the booth because it was loaded with darling things, patterns and more. ;)
The star was not for sale, they had Christmas ornaments hanging from it and gave me permission to take the picture. I have my dad’s ruler and want to make it into a star. He was a star!
This week we are preparing to leave for Seattle for the big event with Quality Sewing next weekend. I’m excited to be teaching four great classes with loads of tips and techniques.
Until next time…
Happy Sewing!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012 at 11:42AM Greetings!
We have been enjoying the Arizona weather although it is warm here during the day! It cools off at night and the mountains are beautiful as the sun sets in the West and shines on the mountains to the East turning them pink as we sit on our patio. Herb has encouraged me to stop everyday about 4:30pm and sit with him to enjoy the sunset.
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Our Virtual Sewing Guild meeting with Margaret Moorehead and her group was really fun. I shared tips for making Tote Bags and Purses and what to put in them to give them shape covering everything from Sulky Easy Knit on the back of “fabric” for the purse that I knit from a pretty yarn so the soft hand of the knitting was retained to Sulky Fuse ‘N Stitch for the sturdy stiff bags, Warm Battings and the new Fusible 2 batting and Soft and Stable for a soft yet sturdy bag. Hope you had the opportunity to view it!
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I’ve been busy sewing and embroidering keeping two machines going at a time! Embroidered over Sulky Puffy Foam which I had not done in a long time for some great t-shirt embroidery with new Husqvarna Viking designs especially digitized for Puffy Foam. Here’s the Tips and Techniques Sheet for using Puffy Foam. I’ll be teaching several of the Sulky Zen trainings next year and am excited about all the techniques! The Puffy Foam really gave great dimension to the embroideries. I had forgotten how this little addition can really add “sew” much!
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Also embroidered a sweater set and several shirts with special designs plus a see-thru red blouse and a few more projects. Can you tell I love to embroider? I think the leather belt was the most fun. I used the endless hoop and the leather I had cut off a leather skirt to shorten it. Fused the leather to Sulky Fuse ‘N Stitch and put a batik in the thread colors on the underside then trimmed the belt with my Havel’s Pinking Shears.The southwestern embroideries really made a terrific leather belt.
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We are now in New York and “sew” enjoyed our trip to Niagara Falls yesterday! Herb had never been there and I was there with my folks when I was nine. What a spectacular site shared by America and Canada. We never got to the Canadian side this trip. (Couldn’t drive over because we had a car full of sample suitcases and I was concerned about getting through customs.) So we decided to leave Canadian side for the next trip. The Niagara Falls State Park was the first state park in America and it is beautiful. We were more than a little disoriented when we got out of the car in the state park lot so decided to take a tour. Worked out great as the tour took us to Whirlpool Park and then on to several other sites. ;)
Highlights were walking on the wood walkways at the base of the American Falls where you can actually put your hands in the water—however no need because your feet are already wet from being in it and the Maid of the Mist boat trip which takes you right into the Horseshoe Falls and stays there. We were really wet in spite of our lovely ponchos and special shoes provided as a part of the tours. ;)
We were in awe of the beautiful scenes, water, rainbows and so much more including this little bird eating a peanut near the door of our tour bus. We were also really tired!
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Drove to our friend Margo’s Bed and Breakfast in Chatauqua, New York for two nights before the big Quilting Around Chatauqua Quilt Show where I will teach the Mondo Bag “hands on” and Fast, Faster, Fastest Quilting! Looking forward to it. I’ll have pictures to share!
Hope you are enjoying the weather wherever you are. Autumn is my favorite season, especially in the Midwest but have to say the trees do change in Arizona too. Life is what we make it every day. May your days be blessed with joy and peace and sewing!
Happy Sewing,
Sue and Herb
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