Bari J.

 

This sure has become the land of give-aways lately. It's madness. But I promise you, you are going to want to stick around for this one.

It's time to give away a one of my Paris Apartment design cards for Slice Fabrique!

Of course, you do know that they're available from Strawberry Patches if per chance you don't win. I hear they are really popular at her store. Speaking of which, Susanne, we are passing through in July and I intend to halt the Ackerman-Mobile for a stop there. Hub and the kids will be *thrilled*, I'm sure. But Pam Kitty Morning tells me that it is a must do. And I always listen to Pam. Right, Pam? I always listen.

Wow... I digressed. Where was I?

How about a Slice Fabrique Machine to go with that card? You don't want a card without a machine, do you? That doesn't make much of a giveaway. Luckily, Making Memories has generously offered a machine as well. (No, Mom, Ilisa and Lara, you can not enter this giveaway.)

This little mint green sweetie makes the cutting fast and easy, and of course it is super accurate. As a bonus, I love the sound it makes as it's cutting. It's this low "I'm working and doing my thang" sound. I don't know. It just makes me happy. I also like to look under that clear plastic window and see the mechanism moving. (crazy town? I don't think so. I betcha' you'll do the same thing.)

 

Below are some projects I have already made. I think my next endeavor will be the dress form. I have a slight penchant for them. I should show you my little dress form collection one day.

You'll probably note that though I've machine appliqued each project I can't help myself but add little embroidered details. I think you should too. It seems only right that when machines are doing most of the other work that you should pitch in a teeny little bit.

This pillow was made for my booth at quilt market. I love that it fills up an entire 16" pillow.

Heather from House of A La Mode likes it a lot. I was watching her like a hawk 'cause I thought it might, you know, walk away. Heather loves pillows.

This is another version I did for the card's packaging. As a side note, Making Memories took this photo. I've been wondering whose bed this is because I think it needs a pretty quilt. I'm just saying. It's a nice photo and all, but I'd like to see some Paris Apartment fabric on that bed.

This tea towel comes as free project with full instructions with the card. Indeed, I have been wondering who's kitchen it is in. I'm liking the granite a lot. And I totally want to know what the cups say on the inside. I'll have to ask them about these things, huh?

I'm planning on incorporating this piece into a quilt possibly. You can embroider any message onto the banner that you'd like. This just says, "Paris". Apparently this little birdie has never been and would like to go. (That's a hint, Super Husband... read: I am the little birdie. I want to go to Paris.)

So, have I convinced you yet that this is a little device you simply can't live without? The bottom line is, the thing is too fun to pass up. The possibilities are endless. 

To enter to win... 

Leave a comment saying which applique you'll do first and what you'll put it on.

A winner will be picked on Friday the 24th using random.org.

Please visit the Slice Fabrique Blog

and the Slice Fabrique Facebook page for more information about the products.

 

And the winner is... #166, SoCalGal!

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED, A WINNER HAS BEEN PICKED. Thank you too all who participated for your wonderful comments!!!

 

More art for your kitchen... My fourth Spring pattern release is a sweet little apron. It has two rounded pockets and features a double skirt with a collaged border plus a heart shaped waistband. Instructions for free motion quilting and fabric collage are included.

 

My mommy is in town for a visit. And she found the unfinished version of this pillow which I made in July for a class sample. It's a project in Inspired to Sew and this one is an UFO I'd entirely forgotten about. Mom wanted it and that was just the excuse I needed to divert my attention from what I was doing and make it into a pillow for her. Glad it's finished and has a new owner.

I did manage to finished up two of the Slice Fabrique projects and sent them off to Utah for photographs before I got distracted. Of course I took a few of my own before they left.

And in other news, my studio appears in the newest edition of Studios magazine with the one an only Ty Pennington on the cover!

And look! We're BFF's in the table of contents... Yup. That's my studio pictured right beneath his. 

Ty Pennington. Bari J. Ackerman. BFFs. 

I'll be getting a few copies in stock soon if anyone wants one. 

 

 

This was going to be another zippy pouch. But then I spent an inordinate amount of time on the embroidery.

Cause I love hand stitchery.

The purple and red are all hand done and the stitching on the seams is by machine. Maybe now it wants to be a pillow?

Or add blocks and make a big quilt? Maybe a bigger handbag. What do you think?

BTW, it occurs to me... if you are interested in these stitches, I'll be teaching them in a free online class... You can check my sidebar for details. I promise it to be lots of fun. 

For those of you who are curious, the roses on the roofline are bullion stitch mixed with some french knots and lazy daisy stitches.

On the side of the house lavender is growing. Also made with bullion stitches. And on the ballerina's dress I added a little yellow rose made from bullion stitches.

And this is the piece prior to hand embroidery.

Any ideas? What should this be?

Long ago in a land far far away I started sewing handbags. My initial idea was to create one of a kind pieces. But before I knew it the business expanded into offering design your own handbags, and really what were production handbags. I was using a local seamstress and then a sewing contractor. What I loved, sewing, had gone off to someone else to do.

Over the years I came to realize that what I really connected with was sharing my love of sewing. By creating sewing patterns, focusing on writing a sewing book and doing surface/textile design I was back to my true passion. I couldn't be happier. 

I made the decision to make this the focus of my business a year ago, but I missed my little one-off projects that were so special you can't really make them into a pattern. And I hadn't really changed my website to reflect my change in focus either. So this past week I finally made the switch. 

 

I changed my "about" page to reflect the change, I fluffed up my home page, and I took down all the "old" finished products and replaced them with new one of kind pieces. I'll be offering my sewing patterns, my book, some fabric, and one of a kind handmade goodies made just by me. I simply listed three items yesterday. One sold within 20 minutes which made me realize that my instinct is probably the right one.

Today I've started making simple fun little items to continue to list on the website. The unfinished piece at the top of this post will be listed soon. It features my some of my favorite techniques: collage, patchwork and a little bit of embroidery. 

I hope you'll keep watching for more of these little bits of happiness. And of course new sewing patterns, fabric and more are on the way as well. 

Happy sewing!

I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning for Quilt Market, but I thought you might want to know what my next fun secret was. Here's the low down: Making Memories is launching a new product for fabric cutting at Quilt Market in Houston called Slice Fabrique. And I am creating Bari J. co-branded custom shapes for it! Slice Fabrique is a digital fabric cutter. i.e.: No more cutting by hand! And because the designs are stored on a special SD card, you’ll save loads of money (and space) versus the manual die cutters. My designs will be based on my fabric and sewing pattern designs! This is what the little portable machine looks like (I actually have a PINK one):

 

(photo courtesy of Making Memories)

If you'll be at market don't forget to visit Making Memories at booths 2236-2239.

And I will be in booth 1261! See you soon!

 

 

I. Am. So. Excited. About this quilt.

It has everything I love: embroidery, applique and collage... with instructions for all of it. You'll learn French knots, backstitch, stem stitch, free-motion quilting and freezer paper applique. And it features all the good things in life: petit fours, cake, flowers, cute shoes and presents... Really, what more could you ask for? 

 
 

 

 

 

The trim is the pre-made crochet that I love which will be available from Above All Fabric. 
      

 Pre-orders for retailers and distributors are available by emailing me at (Bari at BariJonline dot com.) TBD: Oct 20.

 

I find the process of creating endlessly fascinating. I never know where ideas will come from or where the smallest of ideas will take me. The only thing that is for sure is that I will wake up in the middle of the night thinking I've stumbled upon some sort of brilliance in my sleep. Often I wake in the morning to find that what I thought was brilliance at 3:14 am is nothing short of insanity. And then there's times that something just clicks. 

I had one of the clicking moments last weekend, and I haven't been able to get my mind off it since. 

I had been doodling Friday night and Saturday morning. Paper dolls. What I considered a complete waste of time, but oh, so enjoyable. 

Here's what I came up with:

   

And here's the WIP that I dreamt up at 3:14 am on Saturday morning...

 

I love it when that happens. And yes, I'm fool enough to fill in that whole ruffle on her dress with French knots... which will probably take me the better half of my life... but it will be worth every second!
 

 

 Way back when I first started sewing I am sorry to admit, I was afraid of the sewing machine. 

But with a penchant for fabric and thread, I did what any good color addict does, I started stitching by hand. I had picked up The Embroidery Stitch Bible at B&N, and away I went. It is truly what brought me to sewing.

I've gotten away from it for some time now... just busy with all the other stuff. 

Then prior to quilt market I got into it again with the idea of freely stitching embroidery and mixing it with collage and applique. The result of which was this pillow:  

The yellow border is turned under, hand stitched applique and then the center is collage using free motion quilting.

I then added bits of embroidery on top.
 

 

 

Over the past few months I've become more and more interested in this mix it up concept. Then in July I was introduced to the work of Judith Baker Montano... She was teaching at Sisters and I bought two of her books there... Floral Stitches and Elegant Stitches. You saw her crazy quilts in one of my posts below about Sisters. Seeing her work sort of brought me to a full circle of where I've been going in sewing for the past several years, and definitely reminded me how much I love to hand stitch.

These days I just can't get enough. I've started a new quilt pattern that I can't wait to get out to you. 
At the top of this post and below are a few bits and pieces of what I've been doing using Country Lane (which is now in stores, btw. Visit Fat Quarter Shop to get yourself some!)

 

  
 Anyways, lots of fun is being had here in my studio... and elsewhere as this is one portable sewing art! I am really looking forward to introducing this pattern... I think you all are just going to fall in love with embroidery as much as I have.

I thought the Gracie Girl Doll Shoe Pincushion seemed a little lonely all by itself. So I added a Gracie Girl Needle Book to bring a little bit more sewing joy to the package. ie., you'll be getting a two-fer with this one!  I loved making the prototypes for this project. The little French knots that fill the pinafore were my favorite part. It's a great project to work on sitting out in that lounge chair this summer, and they make great gifts for the sewers in your life. The instructions include how-to for the hand stitching so it's not something you have to be an expert at. This pattern-pair plus the Lill Street Messenger are due to arrive here for shipping at the end of this month. Keep your eyes peeled.

 

 

 

This is the Garden Tea Party Quilt shown in my sidebar. Before it gets shipped off to hither and to yon (apparently there is some taking turns going on), we decided to take some pics. 

This first photo was Emily's idea. She said, "Hey, let's take one of those Pottery Barn photos and I can be in it!". Sounded like a plan to me. Sweet thing called dibbies on this quilt upon the first stitch. That's a kid after my own heart.

Oh, you guys! Did I ever have fun. I Tweeted and photographed and socialized my way through quilt market. And I have so much to report back to you! It's going to take me days to report it all. Day one: just a few of the WONDERFUL sewing patterns that were at this market! You are going to loooove it! Links to all the websites are below.

LINKS:

Favorite Things

Sue Spargo

Indygo Junction

Did someone say "fabric-schmabric"? Wasn't me.

When it takes you all day to make one placemat, does that count as "getting stuff done"? Why, yes.

Because I did get some panels for a sample bag for quilt market done last night too... I'm counting last night as part of today. It's all running together anyways.

It is truly the best way I know to get things done. Have too much to do. When I am too busy I go into overdrive and zoom away until I can't zoom anymore. When there's a lull, I'm cranky.

 

When there's a lot to do, I write lists, I get organized, I get things done. I love to reign over the chaos. It's a "Look what I accomplished" kind of feeling. I spent an un-Godly amount of time cutting my scraps into smaller scraps for instance, because it was on the list (it's part of a project, but it was on the list).

I was behind schedule a bit because I added more than I needed to to the list, but tomorrow I am sending a package express mail to Amy over at Inspire Co. I even got motivated enough to take out something I hadn't looked at in a long time and decided to get it finished.

This is something like 30" x 24" it's all individual motifs that have been cut out from various fabrics and quilted together. It sat in a basket needing another round of quilting, some satin stitching and binding in order to be finished for probably a year or so. Today I finally finished it up (I had time to sit on the couch after I had a root canal today. I thought I was going to nap, but instead I found myself finishing the binding.. not kidding.) I'm tempted to keep it for myself really. But it's going to be up for grabs at Inspire Co instead. I don't know, I could change my mind by tomorrow. You never know.

None the less, it's done, because it made it's way onto the list. I won't go into what is on the list that did not get done. But since the numbing stuff is starting to wear out, I think I shall go take some Advil and march my tired tush back to the couch. Grey's Anatomy time quite soon...Doubtlessly Super Husband has hidden the needles and thread that I stashed in the vicinity so I'm thinkin' I may actually try very hard to sit still and ignore my aching jaw. 

G'night.

I'll try not to go into the gory details... As you all with kids know, as soon as they go back to school they come home with all sorts of disgusting boogers. Literally. I don't know about you, but I think my immune system must be compromised because while they are just out for a day or so, when their little boogers infect me, I am down for the count. ie: I spent Sunday through Tuesday and even part of Wednesday on the couch.

Every once in a while I'd wander in here and decide I could take it. But dizziness bowled me over and back to the couch I went. I decided it was probably not worth cutting a finger off with a rotary blade.

And this was how half of the week evaporated before my eyes.

Then yesterday, Ms. iMac decided (or it may have been iMail) that it was not necessary for recipients to be able to actually view the attachments I was sending them. Hence, I spent the day, writing back and forth to various clients, "Can you see it now?". By about five pm I realized it must be the mail app, and went directly online to my server to send the pieces... and wowee... it worked. Aargh. If I only thought of that at 9am.

Another day... gone. Not sure where they go.

None the less, there was still one day left, I was sure I could get the entire list done today. There was hope yet.

Not so fast, Missy!

Today was a "Teacher Work Day". Excuse me, but how many of these do they need anyways?

Kids at home, a mattress delivery, a long back up of laundry, several other various and sundry people through the house, rush a slew of cuts up to a seamstress, and Blammo! Day gone.

What's the deal with that?

The deal is that certain people were forced to eat their choice of grilled cheese sandwiches or a corn dog for dinner or starve because I couldn't take it anymore. Suck it up, folks. I made some broccoli to go with it. What more do you want?

"Am I done whining yet?" Yes, fine. I did manage to get a little tiny bit up on the website (there are about 20 belts, a bijillion keyfobs and several more bags waiting their turn)...

Here are the two lovelies I managed to extract from their background and make shiny and pretty enough for all to see...

It's amazing how long this all takes. Is it ok to pay a 12 year old to take pictures, and spend hours upon hours photoshopping them? No? Hmmm...

Maybe I can teach Super Husband. I wonder if he'll go for that. I better wait until he's over the boogers. He seems to have just caught it. If you think I was whining, just wait. You'll probably be able to hear it from there. He's already asked for homemade chicken soup and announced he's going to bed at 8:30. Ugh. It's going to be a long night.

Weekend synopsis:

When there wasn't some of this...

Or some of this...

or this...

There was some of this...

And I loved this...

And I know I promised you some of this...

I'm not sure what it is with me and the tea lately, but I'm currently obsessed with tea cups, tea pots and definitely afternoon tea... and morning tea... and evening tea.

That would explain to my dentist why I keep coming back for more whitening stuff.

This is the start of a patchwork apron I've been making out of the 12 tons of scraps I am the owner of. I may need to make several to get to the bottom of the scrap pile.

Super Tuesday:

I feel obliged to say get your rears out there and vote if you are in a Super Tuesday state of the U.S.! I did my civic duty right after kid duty (morning drop off). I left with a big smile on my face, and am wearing my, "I Voted" sticker proudly. For some reason, this election seems really exciting to me... more than in the past.

The Biggest Mess Ever:

That done, I got myself right to work and made this mess... with-in about 30 minutes.

There is another picture of what is on the floor that I was too embarrassed to show you. So, I'll let you imagine.

A Must-Have Tool:

As I was sewing up the creation that was made in this hurricane, I was delighted to use my new Purple Thang (yes, that's really what it's called). I lost the other one so I bought a new one. And when I bought it I said, "I just know I'm going to find that Purple Thang when I get home.". And guess what? I did. Now I have two Purple Thangs which makes me happy because there is one ready and available for backup when I drop the first one behind the desk again.

As a good citizen, I also feel obliged to tell you that Purple Thang is the most wonderful tool ever. It has prevented me from sewing straight through my finger on many occasions. Purple is a most perfect tool for these collage type sewing projects where I have a million little scrappies sticking up all over the place and the free-motion quilting foot does not make a good barrier. Trust me, I know... thank goodness it was only the plastic that came down on my finger becaue that sucker hurt!

You can get a Purple Thang here... I have no affiliation with this website... just sharing. It seems to be a good resource for all sorts of goodies.

Still scrappin'...

I'm 'a havin' fun in the studio tonight. The husband is at a poker game, so there's no one to answer to and somehow or another I have quiet kids. It's a good thing too, because I actually have a lot of work... fun work, but work none-the-less. This is part of a handbag I was messing with tonight. I hope you can see the layering in the photo. It actually has a lot of depth in person. I started with a floral print & began cutting flowers out of another print and layering one on top of the other. There is also a lot of bunged up thread bits... I'm thinking of throwing in a word or two (maybe from a selvage?) somewhere secretly to see if anyone notices. There are also two vintage brooches hanging out in this little garden. I hope to have a lot of pieces similar to this one for a show I am doing in September. Stockpiling now for Fall and Winter. Loads of fun, but my husband has started to call my studio "The Cave". And he asks when the "bear" (ha ha, never heard that one before) is coming out.

I'm thinking that the "applique" I do isn't really applique. I'm going to just call it scraplique. Having fun playing with it tonight. I asked my daughter what she thought, and she said, "Is that a ladybug?". I see a doll dress, she sees a ladybug. Hmmmmmmm.

I think I might be happiest when I am working...

Chirp.