All About Ellen
Ellen March started sewing at age 8.
Growing up, sewing was always a big part of her life. Her grandmother
was a seamstress by trade and her mother made all of her Halloween
costumes, formal dresses and endless hair scrunchies throughout her
school years. Since her mother and grandmother were such accomplished
sewists, Ellen was always intimidated by having to make everything
perfect. She began teaching herself to sew instead of following their
guidance and found methods that made it easier, faster and more fun.
At
age 16, Ellen appeared in the educational film "Picking Your Patterns,
Fabric & Notions," still available and used by home-ec teachers
nationwide. She loved combining her love of sewing with her love of the
stage and theater, never thinking that she would end up doing just that
for her career.
After college, Ellen dabbled in theater
costume design, winning an honorable mention in Los Angeles' Backstage
West Garland Awards in 2001 for costuming A Midsummer Night's Dream. She also traveled the U.S. selling original fashions—tops, dresses, skirts and bags—at music festivals and craft fairs.
Luckily,
Ellen discovered a job opening at Sew News magazine in 2004. They were
looking for a graphic designer, which Ellen is not! So she wrote a
letter to the editor-in-chief, pleading for any kind of job with the
magazine. It took 4 months, but Ellen was finally hired as the editorial
assistant in 2005. Four years later she became the editor-in-chief and
manager of all three sewing titles (Sew News, Creative Machine
Embroidery (CME) and Sew it All) and is the host of the PBS series Sew
it All. (Contact pbs.org to find air dates and showtimes.)
Ellen & Sew Red
Ellen
was thrilled to be asked to be a part of Sew Red. A vegetarian since
age 13, Ellen tries to live a healthy lifestyle and is passing that onto
her son (who is also a vegetarian, for now). Learning that sewing can
help lower blood pressure was an eye-opener for Ellen, and she passes
that info on to the readers, viewers and fans of Sew News, CME and Sew
it All as added benefits for beginning and continuing the hobby. She
contributed the Panel Maxi Skirt, which is a favorite design of hers
because it can be sized up or down easily, showcases coordinating cotton
fabrics and looks great on kids and adults alike.
Ellen & the Sew-Along
Ellen
wanted to feature machine embroidery in her block as an homage to
Creative Machine Embroidery magazine. Of course, she still kept it simple
and affordable by using easy piecing techniques and fabric scraps from
her stash.
We absolutely love the design and can't wait to get started! Follow the link to the SewNews blog to get started on this month's block!
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ReplyDeleteWent to the other blog for the instructions, but there aren't any! Do we just make it up as we go?
ReplyDeleteAs someone that's new to quilting it would be nice to have some more details on how to make this block. :)
Hi Jaq! I am so sorry about that. We are looking into where the instructions are on the Sew News site. There must have been a miscommunication of some kind. I will let you know as soon as they are up. If you'd like to e-mail me your contact info directly, my e-mail address is kristen (at) jimmybeanswool (dot) com
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your patience!
Kristen
No problem, I'll just keep checking back and... make it up as I go if I'm unable to find them.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
It looks like machine embroidery is required for this block. For those of us who don't have embroidery machines will you include instructions for hand embroidery. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThe machine embroidery pattern has to be paid for. I also know nothing about machine embroidery.
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ReplyDelete