An Inspired Advent: Day 12

By Nanette Webb on  •  0 Comments

Find inspiration EVERYWHERE! Even in a child’s Christmas book! The idea for this blog came to me while reading my 10-year-old son a Christmas book. Yes, he still indulges me that simple pleasure and I love it! Here are just a few of our favorites… We were reading Christmas with the Mousekins by Maggie Smith […]

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An Inspired Advent: Day 11

By Nanette Webb on  •  0 Comments

This is the time of year when lights and garland are draped over mantles and railings, ornaments are hung on trees, decorations placed wherever room is found, cookies and breads are constantly baking, gifts are bought and wrapped, houses are cleaned top to bottom… That’s a lot to do! The holidays always seem incredibly stressful; […]

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An Inspired Advent: Day 10

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Transforming The Dress Shirt Pattern pattern for holiday-wear! Dressing for the holidays doesn’t have to be extreme glitz and glamour…although I DO want to make something with that matte sequins that Debbie used on her infinity scarf on Day 6. Wait! Where was I? Chic comfort…right. My husband and I are going to a Christmas […]
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An Inspired Advent: Day 9

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Baked goods abound this time of year (though they may not always be welcome). Thought and care are poured into handmade gifts, and that is especially true of home cooking. Preparing delicious food is a wonderful way to show and to share love. That’s why eating is such a big part of the holidays! Food […]
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Inspired Advent: Day 8

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Everyone loves bean bags! Especially ones made from fine linen and Liberty fabric! Bean bags make quick and easy gifts, they are also a great way to use those small but special fabric scraps you can’t throw away – like your Liberty and linen. There are two types of bean bags we like to make at Bolt […]
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An Inspired Advent: Day 7

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Aside from selecting just the right gift for each person on your list, wrapping those gifts seems to be the most stressful. Studio Carta is the Boston studio and storefront of Angela Liguori, a bookmaker from Italy. All of her products are American- or Italian-made and of exceptional quality. Her ribbons, excellent for bookmaking, are […]
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An Inspired Advent : Day 6

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My sister is one of my favorite people to make gifts for. She’s always so happy to receive something handmade, and she can appreciate the time and effort that went in to its creation. And if she doesn’t like it, she at least pretends to. Sometimes, just the fact that I made something for her […]
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An Inspired Advent: Day 5

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Over the years, one of my favorite things at Christmas has been making special gift tags to top the packages I give to my family. I dump my big box of scrapbooking supplies (that I, incidentally, never used for scrapbooking) on the dining room table and set to work. There is glitter, stampers and pads, […]
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An Inspired Advent: Day 4

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Throwback Thursday to Infinity! Throwback Thursday affords us the liberty of re-issuing an older post…especially since it gets everyone ready for our Infinity Scarf Class this coming Wednesday, December 10th at 6pm! We should call this the superlative scarf – everything is the best-est about it! Nothing could be easier, quicker, more stylish, warmer, softer…you […]
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An Inspiring Advent: Day 3

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Gift your love of sewing! “Making makes us happy and we want to share that joy with others” says the creator of these sweet sewing kits! We couldn’t agree more!     These felt animals kits by Threadfollower make the perfect gift for someone as young as 8 to make by themselves or younger with […]
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An Inspiring Advent: Day 2

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Day 2: Ready the guest room! If your ironing board is happily situated in the middle of your guest room AND you have company coming for the holidays…what do you do? You either need to move it or dress it up a bit. Even if your ironing board isn’t in your guest room, do you […]
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An Inspiring Advent: Day 1

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Despite the fact that Debbie and I write brilliant blogs…ahem…we don’t do them as often as we probably “should.” We, of course, would rather be making something than writing about it. Nonetheless, to be true to our little tagline that clearly states that we proffer fabric, patterns, ribbon and INSPIRATION, we need to ramp it […]
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Our 4th Birthday + Thanksgiving =

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…our year of thanks! Those gratitude challenges that graced Facebook at the end of summer are so “last-month,” but that’s when I started to contemplate this blog post. I, for one, really enjoyed reading them. It was just a nice pause from the usual FB posts. It made you realize and appreciate things about your family and […]
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Victory Chloe

By Debbie Christensen on  •  1 Comment
Here it is, the Victory Chloe Dress! If you shop in our store, you may have seen this on display for quite a while. It took me probably as long to blog about this dress as it did to make it, which is  a long time! This dress was finished about three weeks ago, in […]
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Welcome to Cleveland, Merchant & Mills!

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“In the time of swords and periwigs and full-skirted coats with flowered lappets – when gentlemen wore ruffles, and gold-laced waistcoats of paduasoy and taffeta – there lived a tailor in Gloucester. He sat in the window of a little shop in Westgate Street, cross-legged on a table, from morning till dark. All day long […]
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Floral and Flannel Wrap Scarf for Fall

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Ah, fall. I hope you all are enjoying your various fall activities. Last weekend I canned tomatoes and went apple picking. Actually, I picked up a bag of pre-picked apples, because both orchards we tried were picked out. Can’t win ‘em all. And I have started wearing scarves. Look at this one I just made! […]
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Tutorial : How to Add Ribbon to Both Sides of a Project

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Last year we were asked by a local company to embellish some of their sweatshirts with ribbon. The main reason was to finish the edges of the zipper tape. So we pondered over just how we could do this. Just adding ribbon to the inside to cover the edge of the zipper tape would look […]
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“Indigo” Anna

By Debbie Christensen on  •  0 Comments
First, this dress is supposed to be indigo. That only kind of worked and I’m a little salty about it. I wanted to make myself a birthday dress, and after much waffling and Google-imaging, I decided on the By Hand London Anna Dress. Every dress I’ve seen made-up is absolutely gorgeous, but I wasn’t sure […]
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Schnazzy Belt!

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I love little splashes of unexpected bling. I took inspiration for this quick and easy beaded belt project from from Max Mara’s spring 2014 as well as their autumn 2014 collections. Max Mara is known for its beautifully clean  – almost stark – lines, and that’s why it was so fun to discover that several […]
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Our new monthly e-mail!

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We are super excited for you to get our e-mail tomorrow! Starting tomorrow, look for Bolt & Spool’s e-mail to arrive the first Thursday of every month. We have so much going on, that I haven’t made the time to always tell you about it! And, that’s going to change. Not only will you receive […]
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