Sewing and Quilting Resources

Hi Quilters,

I received a comment by Cindy of Sew Happy Designs and Nettie and I had to share my reply with you because of how excited I am about it all.

You know that I have just fallen head over heals in love with video (yes, I am a terrible show off!) and being stuck in the sticks of Alaska is part of the reason why. I just don’t get to teach enough; I don’t get out much, hehehehe 🙂

So, Cindy and Nettie asked about teaching sewing and video resources. Well, recently I have found myself collecting old sewing machines. I put them on the kitchen table and say lovey-dovey things to them while cleaning them and imagining who owned them before and picturing the garments and projects these wonderful old machines have sewn.

Then one day I had a brainstorm! But first, a confession. This is not my only blog/website/posting place. I post stuff at Squidoo, Instructables, YouTube and on another couple of sites called Quilt News and Quilting Videos. Each of these places is *very* different from the other and each has it’s own “internet flavor”. I love them all!

So, the brainstorm was this: how can I get other people to love these old sewing machines like I do? And get them to understand how valuable they are for learning to sew? I thought about it a lot, and then started writing. I knew that a lot of quilters read my blog and many of us love these old machines, so I didn’t think what I had to say was really noteworthy to you, as a post on my blog. I wanted to post it where it was really useful information, not just “what I’m doing today” so I went with Instructables. With 14,940 hits in just two weeks I can say that I definitely caught some attention. YAY!!

While I was writing and researching my piece for Instructables, I found Pam Cortese and her videos on YouTube – which are the most valuable ones I’ve ever found! I just love them! They were in a jumble all over YouTube and so I put them in order and put each series she made on its own page: a series of 5 videos about how sewing machines work and what all the controls mean and another series about how to clean and maintain them. I also have a page there about tips I’ve learned about making videos.

I am sort of on the beginning of a quest. I’ve been working on a project all summer and I’ve been thinking so much about how we all help each other and how rewarding it feels to do that. I want to do more about teaching young people who have never had the chance to learn to sew – – teaching them how to use a machine and get started. If you have ideas to share, resources, anything at all that you think would help in that goal I would sure love to hear it.

Cindy also asked about CASA, the program that Sarah and I support with our quilting. We have our favorite charities, and charity:water gets my money (as does the United Way & Salvation Army) and CASA gets my quilts. Cindy works with CASA in her state!! I just love making a connection with a quilter because with each and every one there is a feeling of “this is meant to be”. I just love it! 🙂