 The last days of December, 2018
Happy New Year Friends and Sewists All! As we enter this new year, our thoughts naturally turn to resolutions. I'm skipping the usual "Eat less; exercise more" resolution and am focusing on one thing: Use more of that wonderful stash I have accumulated over the years! I have a box tucked away that is marked "The Really Good Fabric." Wonder what I put in that box years ago. Why didn't I use it back when I labeled the box? Is it as good as what is on my shelf now? Well, I'll get into it soon and no matter what I think of it now, I'm going to start using my "really good fabric," whether it comes out of that box or not!
Just a reminder: I will be out of the office from December 17, 2018, through January 3, 2019, and no one will be there to ship any orders placed during that time. You may order items but will have to wait until the first week of January for me to ship them.
My Patterns of the Month will stay the same through the end of January. Enjoy a 25% discount on Talk of the Town, Long and Short of It and Sunspots through January! Make sure you visit my website, click on each pattern and below the picture of the pattern cover you will see images of samples made up differently to inspire you!
All my best wishes to all of you throughout the coming year!
Lorraine
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Best of Show Award Winner!
I was honored and thrilled to receive the Kavanaugh Award for Best of Show in the October Uncommon Threads Fashion Show for A Fine Line Creative Arts Center in St. Charles, IL! I was lucky enough to have the coat purchased by one of my Madison friends and a student in my Creative Clothing Class, Julie Fagan. As a result, I was able to get some fabulous professional photographs taken of the coat, worn by Julie. Would you believe ...??... the photographer was Tara Gimmer, recently a resident of Seattle, and my water aerobics instructor at the YMCA there, who now lives in Madison. We connected at SeaTac airport when we both got on the same plane from Wisconsin to Seattle recently! Look at the wonderful photographs she took of my (oops, Julie's) coat.
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Until the end of January, try out three different patterns at a 25% discount!
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Lorraine Torrence Designs pattern, Talk of the Town is a versatile jacket/blouse pattern that uses 5 different fabrics and offers two lengths and two sleeve lengths.
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Grainline Gear's Long and Short of It, designed by Gina Bronow, is a reversible jacket that can be pieced on one side and plain on the other, machine quilted, and comes in two lengths with an easy shawl collar. If you find a reversible decorator fabric, a single layer will make up quickly with bound edges and seams. The longer length features a patch pocket on one side and a welt pocket on the other side and uses the same pocket bag!
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Sunspots, designed by Amalia Magaret and included in Lorraine Torrence Designs Quilt Pattern Series, has easy pieced curves of overlapping arcs, has clever illusions overlapping circles and can be made in three sizes!
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New Classes in the New Year!
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@ Mill House Quilts
101 Baker St, Waunakee, WI
2 day class: January 23 and 30, 2019
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 Most traditional quilts are made with a repetitive block. You will use the Multi view multiplying lens to find grid and block patterns in the environment around you. Then make an innovative quilt using a repetitive block that shifts every time you repeat it. Start by making nine 15” blocks from which you cut 12” blocks but in a different place each time. Best of all, don’t waste the parts you cut off. Use them for the borders! Learn to throw templates out the window by cutting with tape references on your ruler or stick with templates if it is more comfortable for you.
Please call the store at (608) 849-6473 or register online here.
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Notan: The Light/Dark Relationship
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@ Blue Bar Quilts
6333 University Ave, Middleton, WI
1 day class: January 26, 2019
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 The Japanese study of Notan, meaning light/dark balance, involves learning the relationship of dark and light, positive and negative and how important this is in your quilts. We'll work with paper cut exercises, including a traditional black and white Notan paper cut, and move on to some other paper exercises. This class will strengthen your use of backgrounds in your quilts and make the darks and lights work together in a mutually supportive way.
Please call the store at (608) 284-9299 or register online here.
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Studies in Value and Balance
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@ Blue Bar Quilts
6333 University Ave, Middleton, WI
1 day class: February 19, 2019
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 Explore the importance of value in your quilts and how it is essential for "reading" a composition. Changes in the darkness or lightness of a color can help you see the design, make it more dramatic or more restful, and even change the mood it is trying to express. We'll do some paper and glue stick exercises to learn more about how value works, look at some slides, and compare some colors to determine their values. Balance is another Design Principle that is very important to the success or failure of a quilt - or any work in any other medium. We'll look at different kinds of balance and their use in satisfying our own and others' views of our quilts. We will see some slides and do some paper and glue stick exercises in the different kinds of balance and some practice in the most difficult kind of balance to achieve: asymmetrical.
Please call the store at (608) 284-9299 or register online here.
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@ Blue Bar Quilts
6333 University Ave, Middleton, WI
3 hour class: March 3, 2019
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 Do you avoid garments with buttonholes? It's so freeing to overcome that fear! Bring your machines and learn to use the buttonhole function on your machine, make an in-seam buttonhole, and make perfect bound buttonholes, as well as other unusual buttonholes.
But what's a buttonhole without a fabulous button? We'll look at lots of examples of great buttons, how to stack them, make cuff link buttons for reversible garments, combine different sizes, use all those mismatched buttons from your mother's button box and make some fabulous covered buttons. This will be a fun-filled 3 hours and you will go home eager to make your next buttonhole!
Please call the store at (608) 284-9299 or register online here.
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