Friday, January 28, 2022

10 Valentine's Day Project Ideas!



Looking for a lovely project to make this Valentine’s day? Here are 10 ideas to share with the ones you love! Give as a gift or create them together!


1. Flower Boxes Red and Blue Quilts by Ladeebug Designs starring the floral fantasy collection 

Pattern is available for purchase HERE

View full fabric collection HERE 


2. Float Away Quilt by Seams Like a Dream


    Free pattern is available HERE 

3. Heart Tea leaf tote bag by Kris Poor


Pattern is available for purchase HERE  

View full fabric collection HERE


4. A Rose by Any Other Name Quilt by Marinda Stewart 

Free pattern is available HERE 

View full Cotton Couture Collection HERE 


5. Fragrant Roses Scalloped tote bag and Scalloped Table Runner by Kris Poor
 

Scalloped Tote Pattern is available for purchase HERE 

Scalloped Table Runner is available for purchase HERE

View full Fragrant Roses collection HERE


6. Dreamscape Quilt by Heidi Pridemore 


Free pattern download is available HERE 

View the full Dreaming of Tuscany collection HERE 


7. Fragrant Roses Panel frames pattern by Swirly Girls Design

Pattern is available for purchase HERE

View full Fragrant Roses collection HERE


8. Stamp Collection Quit by Natalie Crabtree featuring Love Letters collection by Diane Kappa: 


Free pattern download is available HERE 

View full Collection HERE 


9. Floral Fantasy Quilt by Stephanie Sheridan 

Free download is available HERE 

View full Floral fantasy collection HERE


10. Romantic pathways quilt by Wendy Sheppard


Free pattern download is HERE 

View Mon Ami collection HERE


Here are a few more Valentine’s day inspired video tutorials to check out! 


Click HERE to watch the With love Applique tutorial featuring basics:


Click HERE to watch the video tutorial!  
Free pattern for this quilt is available HERE 



To place a whole sale order, please contact your sales rep or visit us as www.michaelmillerfabrics.com  


Happy Valentine’s Day & Happy Sewing!

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Thursday, January 27, 2022

Brand Ambassador Intro - Tamara Kielstra

Our final 2022 Brand Ambassador is the incredibly talented Tamara Kielstra from Canada. Her love of fabric and crafting is infectious and we're so excited to have her as part of the Michael Miller Family! The totes, pillows, and quilts that she creates are innovative and beautiful. Read all about her and her sewing journey below. 


Hello! I am Tamara Kielstra from www.tamarasjoy.com and I love all things Fabric, Quilts and Sewing! I am Canadian and have been married to my husband Mark for 17 years already. And in that time, we have been blessed with two wonderful boys, Mateo & Roman. For as long as I can remember I have always been creating something with my hands. From scrapbooking to woodworking and everything in between, I love to make something from nothing. 

But my favorite way to create is with my sewing machine. As a child I learned how to sew on my mother’s machine and experimented trying to sew garments. But I didn't really fall in love with sewing until after I got married. My mother gifted me my first sewing machine as a wedding gift, and I realized how useful it could be to create simple things like pillows for my home or fun animal rag quilts as gifts for my nieces and nephews.

Since then, I have fallen in love with sewing anything that is NOT a garment (although I recently attempted a quilt coat as they are pretty popular these days!). I love to sew pillows, rag quilts, table runners, bags and the list goes on. 


 

As a mother of two boys, they like to ask me to make them things that I would never come up with on my own. Last Christmas they had me make them Pokémon playmats! And it brings me so much joy seeing them happy with what I create.

  

That joy is where my Blog and YouTube channel came from. They are a place where I can share my creations as well as teach others how to learn to sew simple projects. And you better believe you will be seeing lots of fun Michael Miller Fabrics showing up in these creations as well!


Please feel free to follow my sewing tutorials on YouTube or come say Hi on Instagram, and of course let me know that you found me through Michael Miller Fabrics! I Look forward to being one of their ambassadors this year and can't wait to get sewing with their gorgeous fabrics!

Happy Sewing!

You can find Tamara here:

YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/tamarasjoydiy

Instagram: www.instagram.com/tamarasjoy

Website: www.tamarasjoy.com

Shop: www.shoptamarasjoy.com 

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Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Brand Ambassador Intro - Yulia Reshetnikova

Our next 2022 Brand Ambassador is our fabulous international Ambassador, Yulia Reshetnikova. Her designs will make you want to get out your machine and sew! From pillows to quilts, her fresh take on mixing fabrics is inspiring. We are very excited to have her as part of the Michael Miller family! Read all about her and her sewing journey below.

Hi! My name is Yuliya and I was born and grew up in Russia. However, since 2012 I have been living in Italy. During my secondary school years in Russia we had sewing lessons. That’s how I learned to use the sewing machine and make clothes. In 2011 I felt in love with Tilda dolls and made a few. In 2012 I moved to live in Italy in Crotone and continued sewing Tilda. Then I found a pattern on-line for a mini quilt and tried to make my first one. 
 

Here in Italy I met a quilter and she taught me how to make machine appliqué, to do quilting and to finish a quilt. I bought a lot of magazines and online courses to study further how to make different patchwork blocks, free motion, walking foot, hand quilting and so on.



In 2015 I started to make improv quilts. In 2016 I participated in a quilt competition in Russia and in the Netherlands. In 2019 my quilt was displayed in Festival Verona Tessile (Italy), in 2021 three of my quilts took part in The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham (UK) and now 5 quilts were accepted for Quiltcon 2022 (USA). In 2018 I finished my Dear Jane which I made in one sew along for Russian-speaking quilters. In 2021 my Dear Jane was at the International Quilt Festival in Houston as a part of exhibit «Across the Sea’s Timeless Quilts».


Recently I have been teaching quilting courses online for Russian-speaking quilters. My students and I already took part in three exhibitions in Moscow showcasing our improv quilts, we sew on an ecological theme that is so actual now.
Last year I've started to make quilt patterns In English and Russian, I love it a lot. It’s such a miracle when I see that quilters from other countries make a quilt using my pattern.



My cushions and a quilt were published in magazine Love Patchwork & Quilting.
I love modern quilts, curved piecing, improvisational sewing. As I live in Italy I prefer to use bright colorful fabrics. I love to experiment with quilting, mix hand quilting with walking foot, free motion or quilting with rulers. I love to sew in groups that’s why sometimes I often participate in sewalongs or challenges.

Be sure to follow Yuliya with the links below to see all the Michael Miller fun she'll be sharing!

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Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Brand Ambassador Intro - Stephanie Carton

Our next 2022 Brand Ambassador is the fantastic Stephanie Carton. She specializes in girls apparel and has an incredible eye for design. Her patterns and photography are inspiring and we are very excited to have her as part of the Michael Miller family! Read all about her and her sewing journey below.


Steph began sewing as a small child. The first sewing project that she can remember was a witch dress and hat for her Cabbage Patch Doll.  Working out the cone shape for the hat seemed to be a possible mission for her 7yo brain so she tackled it head on.  She did well except that she didn’t know that seam allowances were a thing so the project came out a bit small.  There was a period of time when she was banned from using her mother’s sewing machine because she’d somehow turn the bobbin case into a giant ball of thread so she switched to making tiny crazy quilts by hand (stuffed with cotton balls stolen from the bathroom vanity).  Then came the early 2000’s college application portfolio.  It included some feathers.  It was not a good time in both fashion history and Steph’s personal sewing history.  


As an adult, she combined that knowledge of sewing with her enthusiasm for exciting topics like human factors and anthropometry to create sewing patterns that are both beautiful and well-fitting.  She began sewing cloth diapers when her oldest was born and started selling the finished products.  The business grew and she couldn’t keep up with demand even though she had a few assistants helping her sew. Around the same time, her husband’s job was allowing the family to travel a lot more for extended periods of time and she needed something that would work while they were on the road. She decided to digitize some of the paper patterns she had developed for her own kids. This combined her love for sewing and making, with her obsession with anthropometry (the study of measurements and proportion of the human body). Steph was also excited about making NEW things instead of just doing the same design over and over again as she was when she was making diapers.  She loves the process of sketching something and then engineering some flat pieces of fabric into a 3D object. That problem-solving is the best part for her.


Steph lives in sunny Southwest Colorado (for now, at least) with a view of Mesa Verde National Park out her front window with her husband and 2 children.  A kitten wandered in one day and decided she liked living indoors and has taken to following Steph from room to room, positioning herself about 2 feet away while completely ignoring her and pretending that she’s NOT following Steph around the house. 


When she’s not sewing, you’ll probably find Steph halfway up a mountain or on some slick rock somewhere hiking and behind the camera taking photographs (there’s many photos of her kids on the trail but hardly any of herself).  Even though she ended up not majoring in fashion design in college, she thinks her degree in Cinema and Photography helps in her day-to-day business tasks.  Time spent at home is renovating their 85yo log cabin or creating the perfect goth garden filled with black flowers.



Steph is also an educator and creative mentor, helping other creative small businesses and non-profits grow and thrive.  She finds pain points for other creatives and works with her clients to find solutions.  Sometimes she’s an ear to bounce ideas off of.  Just as problem solving is her favorite part about designing, the logistical, problem solving part of running a creative business is her favorite part of mentoring!


Be sure to follow Stephanie (AKA The Eli Monster) with the links below to see all the Michael Miller fun she'll be sharing!





 

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