The 2008 Idol Punching contest theme was "The Magical Forest of Good & Evil", and the surprise items we all had to use in the pillow was pantyhose!! We had to cover the entire surface with pantyhose and could be used elsewhere. We had only 3 days to complete these pillows. Juggling family,work and pillow making was a real trip.
I feel very honored that I won Third Place, when I saw Georges and Trudys pillows I was in such awe, their's are GREAT, be sure to visit their blogs and look at their fantastic pillows.
When I heard the theme, I had no idea what to do, and just kept repeating the "Magical Forest of Good & Evil" to myself. All I could think about was a huge tree and Harry Potter movies. We could use any of Christopher techniques from his programs or book, we could use silk ribbon embroidery, painting, punching ribbons,and all kinds of embellishments. There was so much we could include and so little time, only 3 days. But,I had such a great time doing this pillow.
I want to thank all the wonderful judges who took time out of their busy schedule to participate,looking at all the pictures of our pillows and voting. To all the other ladies that like me had to make a pillow in 3 days, my hats off to you, your finished pillows are wonderful. We have such a talented group of ladies in the Master Group. I am very proud to be one of them. This contest has bonded our group together even more!

Spending time with Christopher

Christopher Nejman recently came to St Louis, for a seminar at Jackman's Fabrics. I got to spend the day watching the master at work. Christopher made sure I was front and center, sitting next to him and getting a birdseye view of all his techniques.
Reading Christophers book and watching his tv shows, is nothing compared to watching his techniques up close. He had the ladies dancing in th aisles! There were a lot of sewing machines,fabric,books & designs disk sold that day.
Christopher will be back in August for another seminar! If you are in the St.Louis area sign up for this seminar you will not be disapointed, but inspired.

Welcome

I had heard about felting thru the internet and bought hand equipment and every color of roving imaginable and joined several Yahoo groups on felting, before I knew about Christopher Nejman or his pillow book or Yahoo group. I liked doing this hand technique and made several small things, but knew that I would never fool with this much longer,too slow.

One day last year at work, a co-worker asked if I had been to Christopher Nejman's web site or joined his group. I had never heard about Christopher so I went home and logged onto the internet and was blown away by what I saw on Christopher's web site.
I knew that I had to join his Yahoop group and could not wait to call the next day to order Christopher Nejams Designer Sewing Techniques Pillow Book and CD. Once I saw Christophers tecniques, I knew this was my cup of tea, and it would speak to my inner being.

I love fabrics,yarns,threads, and have always collected these, but now I knew that I needed more stuff. I began collecting and did a very small piece trying out the techniques while I waited for Christopher's Book and was instantly hooked. I never realized what a simple machine with barbed needles and no threads was capable of until I began the projects in Christopher's book.
Christopher's techniques completely take me outside of the box I created around my comfort zone. The complete enjoyment that I get when I am punching down fabric with my embellisher is indescribable.

You have to try it, you'll like it, trust me!!

Being on Christophers group has taught me that Christopher has the patience of a saint, and that making samples is the smartest thing you could do, than making these samples again and again. Making these pillows consist of practicing his techniques until they are right and learning how to critique your own samples. He makes you open your eyes and really see your samples and figure out for yourself where you need to better yourself.

It all began when

My mother said if I wanted to have shorts one summer, here was the faric and pattern and to get started. My seam ripper became my best friend, I was almost discouraged but I persevered and have a love for sewing that continues to this day.

I have been sewing since, making everything you could imagine for my husband and 3 children. Eventually starting a dressmaking business while my children were small, loving it enough to continue for many years. Finally after many years out of the retail market I took my love of sewing and began working at a local fabric/sewing machine dealer. Thru this dealership I was afforded the opportunity to enter machine sponsored fashion contests at the International dealer convention, winning multiple times. I have been teaching for over 17 years sewing and serger machine owners classes, computerized embroidery and other speciality classes. My love of sewing is still strong, now focusing on machine embroidery and my Embellisher machine

Check out my Slide Show!