Now we are turning the tables again, and the tote bag is here to stay. Even the grocery stores are offering them for sale. This is a great place to start for a craft business.

If your passion, is painting, sewing, quilting, appliqué, embroidery, or even stamping, then you can create the most gorgeous tote bags, for yourself, for unique one of a kind gifts, or to sell at craft shows or online. They are lightweight, and strong, and they really are an open canvas.

With all the latest and greatest craft supplies out there now, you can get printable fabric that you can put in your computer printer. You can print a photograph from your computer, right onto this fabric, which you could then appliqué to the tote, it is washable. This could be a great craft business idea. This works well with pet photos. Everyone loves their pets, and would love to show off their pets picture done up nice on a tote bag.

Make one for yourself and make sure to use it everyday, and you will get people asking about your tote. This is great free advertising.

Stamping also works well on blank totes. The ideas are endless, but make sure and take a picture of your original totes and keep in an album for potential customers to see. Tote bags are a great form of usable art, and pretty soon you will see your artwork on display everyday as tote bags. What a great feeling that would be.

If you love this idea, then why not get your tote bags in bulk?.. Some craft store sell them, but I find them to be most affordable online. You can purchase all different styles depending on what artwork you will put on it. Go ahead, and make some useable art and help keep the planet green.blank tote bags online now

By mixing the colors to make the dye, all of a sudden the resulting colors make more sense, and now, many yards of dyed fabric later, it is easier for me to pick out colors for a quilt.

By actually seeing what color results from mixing 1/4 yellow and 3/4 red versus 1/2 yellow and 1/2 red, it all makes more sense.

What is interesting is that when I took the class, the teacher provided the dye to make the colors you see in the fabric samples below. I did notice that the red was a magenta color, instead of what I normally view as red. (The teacher called it fuscia.)

And the blue was more of a turquoise rather than a traditional blue. But, since it was all new to me anyway, I didn’t really question the differences.

It was just today, as I was once again pondering color that I ran across somewhat of an explanation for the difference. Not that this is a complete explanation, but it does offer some insight.

It turns out that this guy named Dr. Herbert Ives led AT&T’s television research during the 1920s and 1930s. Herbert’s interest in color began at an early age since his father invented techniques for color photography and the half-tone process. Those techniques made printing pictures in newspapers and magazines possible.

And Herbert created a color wheel made up of three “pure” colors. The true significance of all of this is that fabric dyes use the Ives Color Wheel, as was made apparent when I took the fabric dyeing class.

The three pure colors are: magenta, turquoise and yellow. The vibrance of these colors individually is notable, and when they are mixed with each other in specific formulas, they create the most powerful and beautiful colors around.

The Ives Color Wheel features the pure colors magenta, turquoise and yellow.

Quilts made primarily with these pure colors immediately attract attention, whether they are displayed in a quilt show or your home.

Quilting daughter, Stephanie, and I made a pure color quilt together years ago. We chose the colors just because they were fun and bright. Little did we know that these are examples of the pure colors on the Ives Color Wheel and the colors created by mixing pure colors together.

What is interesting about these colors, and possibly the quilt, is that colors this intense are difficult to look at for any length of time. Maybe that is why, after about 6 years, it’s still not completely quilted….On the other hand, there is probably something else going on.

As you choose colors for a quilt, you may want to keep in mind that these intense colors can affect the mood of people looking at them. If you are making a quilt for a child that already has a high level of activity, you may not want to make it using these colors because they would stimulate the child even more.

However, if you have a dull and boring room, like the all-around brown I had in my living room many years ago, adding pure colors will brighten up the room. In my case, it probably would have taken a truckload of pure colors to overpower the brown.

These pure colors, and their variations, are found in nature, and it is interesting to note that whether the colors are tints or shades depends on the season. I know, that probably doesn’t make a lot of sense.

But, it works this way. A tint includes all of the colors between white and the actual pure color. Pastels are good examples of tints, and pastels are the colors of Spring – robin’s egg blue, peach, apricot, mint green, etc.

When you add black to a pure color, you get a shade of the color. As you can imagine, shades are the colors of autumn. When you add black to red, you get a rust color – shades of autumn leaves getting ready to fall from trees.

A tone is what you get when you add grey (not black) to a pure color. These are the colors of winter, and are generally calming colors. These colors are great for bedrooms and quilts for small children.

The real question in my mind is “who created the more ‘traditional’ color wheel? And why?”

Embroidery is a traditional way to add special decorative touches to quilts. Whether by hand or machine, a quilter may accent his or her creation with embroidered flowers or other accents. But today’s machine embroidery – for those willing to try it – can make quilting quite different.

For instance, a quilter may use a simple embroidery design to let the machine “quilt” the project. Simple designs that can be stitched in one color work best, especially for the beginning machine embroidery quilter.

If you want to give this a try, look for an embroidery design that’s simple – one that you can visualize stitched into a quilt. Some redwork inspired designs work well. Other simple designs like flowers, circles, sun/moon, houses, hearts – there are all sorts of designs to choose from – can work well as quilting stitches.

Be sure to keep your quilt top’s theme in mind. We all know and love the traditional beauty of the double wedding ring quilt. While the quilt top is beautiful with its color variety, the quilt back is just as pretty with its simple stitching that follows the design on the top.

What if you used an embroidery machine to quilt hearts into the quilt design? That one unexpected touch would truly make your quilt unique.

Have you ever needed to throw together a quick quilt? Many quilting pros laugh at the notion, but sometimes we need a quick gift to give and want to make it personal. Lap quilts and baby quilts are very easy to create on an embroidery machine.

Simply hoop your top fabric, batting and backing fabric into an embroidery hoop. Pick a design and get to work! Even if you are quilting solid color fabrics, you can complete a quick, beautiful quilt with the embroidery machine in no time!

Some ideas for a baby blanket for a boy would be to use outlines of footballs, airplanes, trucks, trains, etc., for your quilting pattern. The hardest part of your job will be re-hooping fabric and pushing the “start” button!

Ideas for a baby blanket for a girl include outlines of flowers, baskets, dolls, kittens, etc.

The method above uses machine embroidery on relatively small quilts. Larger quilts can be done the same way or may be quilted with machine embroidery by individual quilt blocks. Experiment to decide which method is easiest for you and remember that the machine embroidery quilting method may change with each unique project.

If you can’t find a pattern you like already on embroidery file, ask a digitizer to help you create one. A digitizer is someone who takes art images like line drawings, clip art and fonts and alters them to become a stitch pattern. So if you’d like for your family tree wall hanging to be quilted with a tree pattern, a digitizer can create one for you.

Be sure to let your digitizer know you plan to use the image for quilting. The digitizer will need to plan stitches accordingly.

Quilting is rich in tradition and therefore many true-blue quilters do not like the idea of using machine embroidery to quilt their projects. Isn’t it great to try new ideas and techniques? Remember, not to long ago quilters refused to consider machine quilting at all! Embroidery machines will never take the place of quilters, but it can be a fun and rewarding sewing technique to try from time to time.

This is where real customer reviews come into picture. If you have to buy a new sewing machine then reading real customer reviews is one of the best ways to educate yourself about the kind of features and price tags you are looking for.

Sewing machines reviews can be very helpful in many ways that can save your time and money. Here is a small list of things you can learn for reading real reviews.

1) Customer rating for various makes of sewing machines.2) Features of machines and their ease of use.3) Does the machine actually have all the features as advertised?4) Customer support from the manufacturer regarding various queries?5) After sales service from the manufacturer.6) Promptness in shipping schedule from the manufacturer?7) Care in handling of the sewing machine during transport.8) Respect for the guarantees or any other claims by the manufacturer.9) How was the performance of the machine even after using for several years10) Which sewing machine brand is the most reliable one and which one should be always avoided? (very important)11) Many more such queries answered

As you can see from the above list that this information is extremely vital for your satisfaction as a potential customer because you deserve to be educated in a special manner.

Once you have this information handy with you, it becomes almost easier to go for the best and the most reliable sewing machine brand easily. Truly speaking it’s a great idea to use the machine yourself before you buy it, but as mentioned previously it is not always possible to use a demonstration piece physically. That is why reading real sewing machines reviews is one of the best ways grab your hands on the finest sewing machine of your choice.

Copyright Samir Joshi

Quilting machines, in particular, are specifically designed to make the quilting experience easy and trouble-free, and also provide the quilter with a machine that can give a professional finish to any project.

A quilting machine has special features which include:Extended Bed Space

The bedspace is the working area located between the needle and the inside of the machine. An extended bed space offers an area of approximately 8-9” wide by 5-6” high, which is larger than a standard sewing machine and provides more than ample space for a quilter to maneuver bulky quilts or large pieces of fabricHigh Speed

Most top-of-the-line quilting machines offer high speed stitching which is usually around 1000 stitches per minute. The high speed rating is normally applied to the straight stitch only, with slightly reduced speed for decorative stitches. This feature offers the quilter the ability to quickly piece and quilt their project.Stitch Regulator

Some manufacturers offer an optional attachment for their machines called a stitch regulator. The purpose of the stitch regulator is to provide a consistent stitch length when doing free motion quilting, regardless of how slow or fast the fabric is being moved. Quilting Stitches

Specialty quilting stitches, such as buttonhole appliqué and faux hand-quilting stitches, offer a quick and simple alternative to these traditional hand-quilting techniques.Manual Tension Control

Some quilting machines are equipped with a manual tension control. This control offers the quilter the ability to regulate the top thread tension quickly and accurately. This offers an advantage over machines with automatic tension control. As quilters often use different weights of thread in the top and bobbin, proper tension control becomes critical. With a manual control a quilter can easily and incrementally fine tune their top tension as they are stitching. With an automatic control it is necessary to access the settings within the control panel of the machine which takes longer and can be less accurate.Manual Stitch Length/Width Control

As with the manual tension control, a manual stitch length/width control is also located on the front of the machine and similar benefits apply.Needle Up/Down

A needle up/down setting allows the user to stop sewing with the needle in the down position. This is an advantage when working with heavy quilts or when doing free motion quilting. When stopping with the needle down, there is less chance of the quilt slipping providing a continuous stitch line.Auto thread cutter

An automatic thread cutter is a very useful feature on a quilting machine. Cutting both the top thread and the bobbin thread in one simple action, it reduces both thread wastage and the time taken to manually trim thread tails.Feed Dogs Control

Dropping the feed dogs allows your quilt to move easily when doing free motion quilting.

When deciding if a quilting machine is right for you, shop around and visit your local sewing machine dealers. Try out two or three models and then decide which one is for you.