Celine Perkins - Perkins Dry Goods

For six years, Celine Perkins has been designing and selling her quilting patterns to shops across the country. But Celine's quilting story didn't begin there. Her real story began in 1983 when she took her first hand piecing class at a store in Minneapolis. Shortly after that class, Celine discovered the quick techniques of rotary cutting. That's when she became totally hooked on her new hobby!

An occupational therapist by trade, Celine was able to take the skills she had from her job and turn them into a successful teaching career. Her experiences helped her as she encountered many different learning styles when she began to teach quilting. In 2000, she began a successful teaching career, teaching at stores in the Minneapolis-St Paul area, presenting programs to quilt guilds and teaching at retreats.

Perkins Dry Goods specializes in traditional designs geared toward beginners. Her directions are written in the same way she'd teach a class. Nothing is overlooked to make sure the quilter using her patterns ends up with a project that looks as good as the photo on the cover. At the 2008 Minnesota State Fair, a beginner won an award for her first pieced quilt using Celine's Grandpa's Best pattern! With twenty-five patterns and a book in her catalog, Celine has been working hard at her design business.

In her efforts to make successful quilters, Celine has developed the Perfect Piecing Seam Guide, a nifty little tool that lets everyone obtain that elusive perfect 1/4". Before you begin to sew, you use the tool to calibrate your scant 1/4" seam allowance. After you remove it, you can be confident that your seams will all be the right size throughout your project. A must have for your supply box!

Perkins Dry Goods was chosen as one of seven featured designers during the 2008 Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop. For the event, Celine designed a pattern that was broken down into steps. The stores in a specific section of Minnesota gave them out during the shop hop. Village Crossings, is now available for purchase, in case you weren't able to attend the shop hop.

When she's not teaching or designing, you can find Celine at home with her family in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Use Celine's tried-and-true tricks to make your quilting easier!

Limit yourself to only few thread colors to piece with - taupe, white, cream and (rarely) black. Wind a bazillion bobbins of each one so you don't have to stop in the middle of things.
Always cut binding strips when you cut the borders of your quilt. Keep the binding rolled up in a box and when the quilt is ready to bind, you'll have the correct fabric all ready to go.
Put together a traveling sewing box with duplicates of all of your favorite tools, thread, bobbins, or anything else you have to have. Just grab it when you need to go to a quilter's night out, a class or retreat. Even have duplicates of the most important sewing machine feet available so you're never without what you need.

OLFA has the perfect gifts for holiday giving! Don't forget that sometimes the best gifts are made from the heart. Find the OLFA tools you need to make your holiday creations, and remember those new ones you want to add to your sewing kit. Make sure to put OLFA® products at the top of your wish list!

OLFA® Chenille Cutter (CHN-1)

Add distinction to your holiday creations, and add the warmth of chenille using the revolutionary OLFA Chenille Cutter. Use the OLFA Chenille Cutter to make the easiest chenille fabric ever, it's as easy as stitch, zip, fluff...no scissors! Some great gift ideas using the Chenille Cutter for holiday are:

1. Chenille Bath Mitt - For those who need some additional pampering!
2. Chenille Baby Quilt - Celebrate baby's first holiday with a
handmade quilt!

Designed for both right and left-handed use, the Chenille Cutter cuts multiple layers of fabric. The four-channel guide sizes for narrow to wide widths, and 24 new exposed blade edges, all with one click. The ultra-sharp, double honed edge blade does not rotate when cutting, and is never exposed for extra safety.

6" x 24" Non-Slip, Frosted Advantage™ Acrylic Ruler: "The Essential" (QR 6 x 24)

This essential ruler is our most popular size and a must have! With its non-slip surface and thin, black markings, it'll see you through late hours of holiday quilting! Use its 45° marking to help you easily cut binding when you finish your project. Give as a gift to your quilting buddy or use it to make one of these projects from the OLFA web site as a gift.

Reversible Tablecloth - Make one side for the holidays, then pick Valentine's Day fabric for the other side to stretch your gift through the winter!
Fleece Scarf and Mitten set - You can never be warm enough when it's cold outside. Extra mittens are always appreciated.

Exclusives™ 45mm Gerber Daisies Rotary Cutter (RTY-2/GP3) & Purple 12"x18" Self-Healing Rotary Mat (RM-CG/PR)

A perfect holiday gift for either yourself, or your fellow quilting enthusiasts! This limited edition OLFA® Exclusives™ 45mm Rotary Cutter is designed with a beautiful Gerber Daisies printed handle in purple, orange and white, and is offered in a rare gift box, promising to become a collector's item for every loved one you choose. And don't forget to pair it up with a Purple 12"x18" Self-Healing Rotary Mat, both designed to inspire and delight! Buy them now at your local fabric or quilt shop.

Remember OLFA® products when hunting for stocking stuffers!

When you need a little something extra for your Secret Santa or your girlfriend's gift, just head to your local quilt shop! One of the things every quilter needs is a new blade in her OLFA cutter. A sharp blade does so much to enhance the quilting experience. Or choose any one of the OLFA® Non-Slip, Frosted Advantage™ Acrylic Rulers. Smaller rulers easily tuck into a card or stocking and are often the ones quilters forget to buy for themselves. Can't find what you need locally? You can shop at the OLFA web site any time you want!

If you're into paper crafting or quilting and sewing, you need to have the OLFA® Rotary Circle Cutter (CMP-3) in your tool box! This easy gadget makes perfect circles every time. The ground-breaking patented ratchet mechanism of the rotary circle cutter easily and efficiently cuts clean, perfect circles from 1 7/8" to 8 1/2". Designed for both right and left-handed use, it reduces wrist fatigue when doing those longer projects. The Rotary Circle Cutter includes a built-in blade cover for safety, and a plastic guard to cover the pivot spike when not in use. Stock up on extra 18mm Rotary Blades (RB18-2) for your more involved projects. Step-by-step instructions are on the OLFA web site.

What's a great way to store pre-cut pieces of fabric, such as charm squares, jelly rolls, and fat quarters?

These popular cuts are easy to buy but sometimes hard to store! The jelly rolls by themselves are often quite cute they could sit stacked on a shelf or counter until you find the perfect use. Charm squares and fat quarters are a little more difficult. Because of their smaller size, they look messy if stashed on a shelf, often becoming dirty and bent. However, you want to have them accessible when creative opportunities strike! Here are a few suggestions for storing them.

Search for baskets that are longer and about six inches wide. This will let you line up the charm packs. For fat quarters, make sure you fold them all to the same size, then put them in the basket by color with the fold facing out for easy removal.
Clear plastic bins come in assorted sizes. Find those that allow you to put one or more rows of folded fabric in them. Avoid really large, deep bins as they are harder to sort through and can get heavy if overloaded.
Look in your office supply store for a rolling cabinet. Often, the drawers are the perfect size for these cuts, plus you can pull it over to your sewing area when you're selecting your fabrics.
Consider investing in a small chest of drawers. You can find them reasonably priced at flea markets or antique stores. Look for a dresser that has shallow drawers so you don't have to dig through layers of fabric to find what you want. Also, look for orphan drawers when you're shopping. You can stack your fabric in them and then stand them on a shelf or table.

The important thing about fabric storage is that it has to be easy to use or you'll go back to your old way of storing. Before you buy anything, take a good look at your storage needs and the way you create, then go out and search for the best solution for you!

Checkerboard Table Mat
Have you ever wanted to try a scalloped border on your quilt? Learn how with this quick and easy project designed by Perkins Dry Goods!

More and more quilters are trying their hand at machine quilting their quilts. Whether you use a home sewing machine, or invest in a long-arm quilting machine, you'll get better at it the more confident you become. Heidi Kaisand, National Sales Manager for American Professional Quilting Systems, offers these tips to get you off to a successful start.

To start and stop your stitching line, begin by taking a stitch and then pull the bobbin thread to the top of the quilt. Take several small stitches back and forth at the beginning and again at the end. Pull the bobbin thread to the top at the end of the line. Trim your threads when you're finished.
If your quilting circles begin to look 'square' the first thing you need to do is relax your shoulders, arms and hands. Find which stitching direction works best for you, either clockwise or counter clockwise. One will feel more natural than the other. Some quilters feel they get better curves by not following a drawn line.
It's better to stabilize an area before doing the smaller, tighter work like the backgrounds. Do the main design, then go back and fill-in stitch around it.
Practice...Practice...Practice!

You can discover other machine quilting tips at the APQS Forum online.

There's a movement afoot to make the holidays more personal by making and buying handmade. It began within the indie crafting movement several years ago and became more prominent in the 2007 holiday season. www.buyhandmade.org pushed the movement by offering a pledge button that crafters could put on their blogs and web sites. The site collected pledge signatures from over 10,000 individuals, pledging to buy handmade for the holidays.

Handmade is a solution for those who feel that gift giving is too commercialized. While it's easier to purchase cookie-cutter gifts, a handmade item says a lot about the relationship of the giver to the recipient. There's something intricately joyful about selecting the project to make, and then thinking of the person who'll receive it throughout the process of making it.

Environmental responsibility is also a key to the resurgence of handmade gifts. Using up supplies instead of buying more, re-used and recycled supplies, functional pieces that reduce the carbon footprint, are all part of the going green movement. By making something by hand, it reduces the amount of damage incurred through mass production.

So now that handmade is trendy, what should you make? First, examine your skills and find a project that fits your abilities. Think of the recipient and make something they would find useful. Perhaps it's an organizer for the new mom, shopping totes for the grocery store, a lap quilt for a shut-in, or maybe a small scrap book for relatives far away. Whatever you make, you can be sure that the person you give it to will appreciate the time, effort and thought that went into your gift. Find your next project on the project page online at www.olfa.com!