Sylvie
My dear friend Kathy (http://www.kathinon.blogspot.com/) thinks I am obsessed with sewing machines. She is wrong. I am not obsessed, I am totally crazy about sewing machines. :-)

Shelley http://shelleysgardenblog.blogspot.com/ has asked I do a blog on this. Where do I start?

I learned sewing with my mother. She had an old Singer. I enjoyed sewing a lot. I remember a specific day, when I came back from School, Sears delivered a brand new sewing machine in its brand new own sewing cabinet. Wow! It was at the end of the 1970s and I was a young teenager.

I looked at it and it seemed so MODERN! It had cams, lots of stitches, pretty colors on the buttons... and an instruction book. My parent went for a nap right after dinner and I dared sit in front of this sophisticated new comer and tried it. It sounded so good, almost like music. I used a pale blue fabric with a bright color thread and went on and on trying all the stitches, all the cams, reading, trying, reading more, trying more... This was happiness. To this date, my 85 years old mother still has this machine and still has that blue fabric with all the stitches. Good memories.

Years later, I went to University and stopped sewing and was about to get married. Then one good summer (1987), when I was working in Montréal, I went shopping at Eaton and they had tables full of used sewing machines. I saw a sewing machine that was almost like my mom's. I instantly fell in love. Same brand, same year, more stitches and more cams... but to me it was the same and it instantly brought good memories. The shopping for fabric and patterns with my mom, her teachine me... Here is a picture of my first own sewing machine. Don't you think it is nice!


A few years later (1993) I bought my first serger. A used 4-thread Janome serger. Weeks later, my older sister, who is also passionate about sewing machine called me. She had an opportunity to buy a 5-thread Singer serger at a very very good price ($500). I knew that Janome was a better brand that Singer at the time but still decided to go for the 5-thread serger. I sold my 4-thread Janome (for the same price I had paid) the following day and that was it.

I enjoyed sewing and playing with the machines. I used every feet I had, I bought many more. I made my first quilt. I just love sewing! Years went by. I became a mother of two. Sewed for the children, for the home, got divorced. When my children got older (7-9 years old), I did a few more quilts, then met my boyfriend who has two children. We were six in the house. This is quite an accomplishment! I will tell you more about it in another blog.

Being such a large family, I needed to take care of myself, do something I liked. And this is how I got into quilting some more. Every year I receive a bonus ($) from work. I have made a decision to always use this money for something that pleases me. What pleases me is sewing.

I went to a quilt show and saw a beautiful janome 6500p. Why not! I could not find a stippling foot for my Kenmore and found my beloved sewing machine was limiting me in my quilting. The Janome had a longer arm than what I was used to, a stippling and a walking foot. OK I bought it. I at the time owned 2 machine and 1 serger.

My daughter and my step son wanted to learn to sew. I bought them each a used sewing machine. Simple machine but it did what it was suppose to do! We had 4 machines and 1 serger.

... a lot more to come! Suite la prochaine fois!
Sylvie
Having said that there was no sewing in Sicily and southern Italy I have discovered something exceptionnal.

We drove to Tiriolo. This is a village high up in the montain. Actually it is the only place in Italy where you can see the seas on both side of Italy. Very very high. The road to get up there is quite something. SSSSS non stop.

There was a lady I visited that did research on traditionnal Italian costumes. She reproduced them using the traditionnal fabric and the traditionnal manner.












One of the piece is called a vancali. This is like a shawl. She was doing some when I visited and I bought what she was doing. I am always cold at the office and I may bring it there.











What has impressed me the most is the machine embroidery she does.Could you believe this was done using a 100 years old Singer (treadle). She continued one that was started to show me and she is so quick (about 100 miles per hour). I have a video of it and should post it soon.

I am very happy to have met this fabulous lady and will keep good memories of Mirella and the work she does.

Sylvie
Sylvie
I just came back from Italy. Very nice trip although I was sick most of the time (bronchitis).

I had planned to buy some fabric as a 'souvenir' but believe it or not, I could not find a single fabric store. On www.Patternreview.com I had found a few addresses but I could not go because they were too far up north. I did not worry at the time thinking that in southern Italy or Sicily there would be at lease one and Eric (my significant other) had agreed to do the driving no mather were it was (in Calabria or sicily).

Nothing nothing nothing. :-(

I finally found a store that was called a Mercery and had the word thread written in BIG LETTERS on the front of the store. Happy happy happy! I got in there with a large smile thinking I would find sewing notion, thread, fabric... No way, there was thread and nothing else beside socks, bras, bed cover, tooth paste...

I found a sewing machine store. I went in there and of course there was no fabric but I was happy to see a sale person. I asked for fabric. The man looked at me like if I came from another planet. He asked me why I wanted fabric. 'To sew of course'. To sew what he asked: 'Clothes' of course. He was surprise. But he sells sewing machine!!! I finally understood that they did not have fabric stores, they mainly sew cushions. I found the stores where they sell fabric for sewing and indeed it was fabric for decoration only and only about 10 different fabrics.

So much about my dream of bringing back fabric from Italy.

I will tell you more about my trip later as I have found a marvelous place and a great sewer... to follow...
Sylvie
A sewing weekend ahead! My DREAM!

It is Friday. I stopped to my mailbox and what could make me more happy than two sewing magazine. I got my first Burda World of Fashion (but I just subscribed this week). I also have received my first Sew News. I can't wait to to read them. The night will be short.

Tomorrow is a big day! My friend Kathy and I are buying a ton of sewing videos... yes you have read right... a TON. Actually the exact number is closer to 200. A great package, a great deal. I just can't wait to see what the package will include.

Considering the fact that 200 videos take a lot of space, I have to find a mean to copy this to DVDs.

And to finish the weekend, Sunday morning I will be going to my Husqvarna Embroidery club and Sunday afternoon, it is my Serger Class.

This is what I call a Dream Weekend.

À suivre...
Sylvie
I am Sylvie. I have recently started to consult a few blogs and I think I am getting addicted. I finally decided to make my own. I keep consulting my friend Kathy's blog The Kath Look waiting for the new message to be published. She has been encouraging me to create my own but did not take the time to do it. Today is the day!



My Story

I am a busy, happy woman, in love, and mother and step-mother of 4 teenagers. I love my job. I must confess that I live a totally inbalanced life. I do not have time to do what I would like and have decided to get some balance back in my life. My first step was to not bring work at home. I am doing good. My second was to leave the office at a decent hour. I have succeeded. My third will be to reintroduced one hobby in my life. My choice was easy to make: SEWING.



I learned to sew with my mother when I was a young teenager. I sewed a lot back then. After came University, marriage, two children and life... no more sewing. Now that the children are older, despite the fact that my family has doubled in size, I am happy to go back to my love: Sewing (my boyfriend is jealous that I did not put his name here. I will do it next time Honey). I would love to share this with you.



Please join me into my sewing journey...