Ultimate Embroidery!

This Tuesday, December 8, Bernina In Stitches will host our first Ultimate Embroidery featuring Bernina educator Bunny Gates. The greatest difference between Ultimate Embroidery and TNT that was held in November is that Ultimate Embroidery is a lecture/demo presentation. All you have to do is sit and enjoy (and take notes, if you are like me!) Ultimate Embroidery also focuses more on the tools of perfect machine embroidery, not quite so much on the embroidery system. The trunk show arrived on Friday, and we can't wait to dig in tomorrow morning as we set up our classroom and see all the beautiful samples!

There's still room if you haven't registered yet! Ultimate Embroidery is open to all our customers, no embroidery machine ownership required! Just give us a call tomorrow and reserve your seat.

Tuesday, December 8, 10:00am or 6:00pm
Cost is $25.00

What a Fun Morning!

Our Friday morning holiday pajama party was fun, fun, fun! We had most of our visitors between 4am and 8am, most of them in their pajamas! Holiday music was playing on the big screen and breakfast treats, coffee and cider were indulged upon by everyone.

We plan to make this a holiday tradition and hope to see more of you next year!

Come to Our Holiday Pajama Party!!

This Friday, November 27, we will be having our first After Thanksgiving sale. We wanted it to be special, we wanted to not take our customers away from all the mall shopping they may have planned for Black Friday, so we decided to get up BEFORE the chickens, put on our jackets, and come to Bernina In Stitches in our pajamas and make breakfast for our early birds!

Our sale will be incredible.........everything is discounted deeply.......and the earlier you arrive the MORE you will save! PLUS, if you come in your pajamas you get an extra 5%!!

We thought this would be an excellent time to sell our current floor model Bernina's as well, so we are offering them with full warranties at amazing prices. Give the store a call for more details, especially if you have had your eye on a certain Bernina!

We hope to see you this Friday! We will be open from 4:00am til 12:00pm. Don't miss out on the fun (and the food!).

TNT!

Our 'TNT' event on November 3rd was 'sew' much fun!

Bernina Educator Belinda Gibson taught some great Tips N Techniques for machine embroidery. Check out the photos...

Several people requested the recipe for our Hot Spiced Cider so here it is:

6 cups apple cider

1/4 cup real maple syrup

2 cinnamon sticks

6 whole cloves

6 whole allspice berries

Bundle cinnamon sticks, cloves and allspice in cheesecloth. Put cider, maple syrup and spice bundle in crockpot.

Serve when warm with cinnamon sticks.

Check our calendar for more events and fun classes!!!

Quilting With the Brits!

This weekend, Serena and I attended the Kaffe Fassett Quilting Weekend at Tennessee Quilts in Jonesborough. First of all, Tennessee Quilts is the premiere quilting store in the area, and we are so fortunate to have such an incredible quilting resource store so close to Bernina In Stitches. Thanks to the ladies for creating the most perfect weekend for this novice quilter.

Our weekend began with Kaffe's Diagonal Madness quilt. Quite a daunting task for my first quilt, but this was a perfect opportunity to learn from the masters, Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mabley. They were so helpful, and my eye for color has become my most keen sense due to their patience and honesty.

There is a sign at Tennessee Quilts that warns you that Quilter's Pox is contagious and incurable...........no truer words were ever spoken!

Gratitude for Wonderful Guest Instructors!

I have to tell you that Bernina In Stitches is very blessed with the most talented and wonderful teachers that contribute regularly to our calendar. Take a look at our website and our Google calendar and register early for your next class. And our guest instructors are, well, amazing. The classes you will see coming up for the next two months are worth every second you invest in them. Let me tell you about them.

First up is a group that will be meeting quarterly at the store called 'Hugs and Stitches'. Formerly called 'BerNimble Sewlutions', this group had quite a following at the Nimble Thimble, due to the talents of the three main contributors: Flora Joy, Linda Bradshaw and Sherry Jones. These ladies are three of the most talented fiber artists I have had the opportunity to meet, and they give back to all of us by sharing their knowledge of sewing, quilting, and embroidery with us through this meeting. 'Hugs and Stitches' will meet Tuesday, Sept 8, from 1:00 til 3:00.

On Tuesday, September 22, Bernina Master Instructor Nancy Bednar (that's her photo above!) will be at Bernina In Stitches for a day long, hands-on seminar called 'Focus on Feet'. 'Focus on Feet' is part of Bernina's traveling educator series called 'Stitch This', and we are so honored to host Nancy at our store. Participants will be treated to a day of creation, as Nancy demonstrates new techniques with 10+ of Bernina's most fascinating accessory feet. Lunch will be served by your In Stitches staff between the three hour sessions, and participants of the seminar will be entitled to incredible savings on their purchases that day that will not be available to everyone. Seating is limited for 'Focus on Feet' and we anticipate a waiting list, so please reserve your seat as soon as possible!

Also on the agenda for this fall and winter are Brewer's '90 Days of Savings' which will give the customer special discounts on featured items from week to week. We also will be hosting OESD's program 'TNT' Tips and Tricks for machine embroidery, and Ultimate Embroidery. These two events will be meeting about six weeks apart, and both offer a different approach to the world of machine embroidery. Make your reservations early!!

We hope to see you soon at Bernina In Stitches. Come take a class with us soon!

Time for Purse Class!!

Are you signed up for purse class this week? I'm so nervous to teach it, I've been studying the pattern all weekend. I am making another one to polish up my skills a bit, so I hope to not disappoint, I know what you have come to expect from this class by watching Myra and Serena in the past.

Purse of the Month will meet this Wednesday August 12 at 10:00, or Friday August 14 at 6:00. We will work til you all get tired of me, so bring a snack and I'll bring the tea!!

Fabric! Lots and lots of Fabric!!

Been by the store lately? If you haven't then you are missing out on the (almost) daily deluge of new fabric! I can't remember ordering it all at the same time, but maybe we did!!

Some notables include Nancy Halvorsen's 'I Believe in Santa' collection, some beautiful home decor fabric from Anna Maria Horner's second collection called 'Drawing Room', four bolts of wool blanketing for coats and blankets, and a ton of Fossil Ferns!! Coming soon: a shelf full of laminated fabric that you can use for raincoats and lunch bags, a gorgeous collection from Laura Dunn called 'Lantern Bloom'. I also secretly ordered a collection of fabrics called 'Tattoo Parlour'! The rest of the ladies at the shop may kill me, but I couldn't resist! The colors are amazing!

Also coming soon: Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons and a beautiful collection of his newest fabric designs. We'll let you know when they arrive. Since Mr. Fassett will be visiting our area this fall we felt it fitting to spotlight his beautiful work at our store as well.

Hope to see you soon!

Merry Christmas in July!!

Next week, Bernina in Stitches will be celebrating Christmas in July with the reveal of our Christmas fabrics! This will afford our wondeful customers the opportunity to get a jump on their Christmas sewing projects. We are so excited for everyone to see our choices from Nancy Halvorsen's 'I Believe in Santa' collection, including a beautiful wall-hanging that Charlotte Ryan put together for our display.

We will also be offering several make and take classes next week featuring machine embroidered ornaments and gift tags. Stop by and enjoy a little holiday fun in the midst of the summer heat. The punch will be chilled, we promise!

The picture above is Linda, me, Cyndi, and Carol, freezing in San Francisco last month at the doors of Britex fabrics.

Stitchin Fool!

You know you love to sew when you (1) see a fashion item and think 'I could make that'
(2) browse pattern websites (3) keep 3-4 projects going at the same time (4) have emough of a fabric stash you could insulate your abode with it or (5) work in a fabric/sewing store and never have enough fabric! Or in my case, all of the above!

July block of the month is tomorrow and after that there are 3 more blocks left and the year will be over! But my mind is light years ahead (well, maybe a few months ahead) planning on the next year long excursion for block of the month! Just a little something to look forward to is a sit and sew to be added to block of the month. For those who want to jump in and get their block finished, maybe even start constructing the quilt top throughout the year!

My favorite thing to do is go on sewing retreats. I get so much work done away from home and all the distractions there. Would be interesting to hear from any of you out there if you might be interested in putting together a weekend long sewing retreat! Let us hear from you!

Serena

My First Purse

I finally took the plunge and constructed my first purse from some of the beautiful fabrics at Bernina In Stitches. My pattern choice came about due to the need for a 'Purse of the Month' for August. Since this will be my first purse class, I needed something that I could easily teach in 2 hours or so. I had some ideas for patterns, but Carol reeled me in and suggested Anna Maria Horner's Multi-Task Bag. She told me that several customers had asked if we would teach this purse as a class, and from looking at the pattern she thought it would be a good 'first purse' for me to try.

I chose some of Anna Maria's fabrics that we have, brought the new 450 Fashionista sewing machine home for a sleepover, and had this purse completely constructed in about 3 hours (not counting the layout and cutting!). I have to tell you, I have been bitten by the purse bug!

I think I will be able to teach this purse class. Now all I need are some willing participants!

Back from BU!

Linda, Carol, Cyndi and I, along with our male Stitchin' buddies Steve and Scott, just returned from a week of Bernina fun in San Francisco, California at Bernina University! We arrived Wednesday, registered early Thursday morning, and spent the next five days in Bernina heaven, learning about new products and programs that will be released this fall.

A highlight for us all was hearing about the Version 6 Designer Plus software that will be released in September. Linda spent much of her California time learning about this upgrade and all it has to offer the embroidery enthusiast. Another wonderful product to be released very soon is the Cutwork Tool and software. With this little gadget and your embroidery system, you can cut intricate designs into fabric (and paper!) with ease.

We enjoyed our week, learned alot, and are ready to begin the second half of 2009 with a new energy. Visit us soon, we will tell you all about it!

Grand Opening Two Weeks Away!

Grand Opening Two Weeks Away!! I can't believe that our grand opening is less than two weeks from now! Time flies when you are opening a business.........and having fun at the same time! The store looks great, albeit a bit emptier than we prefer. But there is so much fabric still on the way, and we are taking suggestions from our customers to assure we have what everyone is looking for.Our latest and greatest additions: the gigantic DMC display along with all the Sublime Stitching hand embroidery patterns and books.................and the Bernina 820 sewing machine. Bernina made sure that we got the first of the most recent arrivals from Switzerland just in time for our Grand Opening!I brought the 820 home for a sleepover this weekend, and I LOVE it! Sews like a dream, the free arm area gives me tons of space for bulky projects, and I love the push button contol! No need for the foot pedal guys (although one is included, no worries!), this baby sews with the press of a button!Linda and I are looking forward to mailing the invitations this week (most invites are green, but some will arrive by regular mail), and finalizing the plans for our make and take projects so that everyone can have the opportunity to fall in love with a Bernina.
Labels: 820, embroidery, opening