Quilting Adventures ~ The Friendly Store for Everyone Who Creates With Fabric!

I wanted to show off some of the pretty new fabric that has come in in the past week.  We’ve been so busy with the anniversary that I hadn’t gotten the chance to take pictures or write a blog entry yet.  There’s some great stuff, including a bunch of new favorites for me!

This is the new Michael Miller Christmas group.  It includes some old favorites from last year, but some new great prints as well.  One of my favorites is this one with the deer on it.

This is Hippie Chicks from Marcus Brothers Textiles.  It’s designed by Michele D’Amore who also designed Al Fresco, Metro Blue, and Natural Effects, which were all gorgeous.  I have to say, this one is my favorite.  I’ve already bought two of the prints to make some skirts out of!

And these awesome little stars!  I love, love, love stars, and these are absolutely wonderful because they’ll go with almost anything.  I was very happy to notice at Quilt Market last month that stars seem to be the new trend!

~Phoebe

I’ve been VERY neglectful of the blog lately – we’ve all just been so busy getting ready for the Anniversary Celebration on Saturday!  As a part of that, we contacted a lot of our vendors to ask for donations of door prizes.  Not only do we have over 40 door prizes, but we also had lots of smaller gifts so we’ve put together 42 “goodie bags” to be given to the first 42 people in the door on Saturday.

Here’s a photo of the pile of door prizes:

And here’s a list of companies that donated door prizes to us.  I’m sorry I’m not taking the time to turn these into links, but if you want to check out anyone’s website, I’m sure google will get you there! 

Checker Distributors
Timeless Treasures
Cedar Canyon Textiles
Andover Fabrics
Hoffman Fabrics
In the Beginning Fabrics
Red Rooster Fabrics
Quilters Dream Batting
Bold Over Batiks
P & B Textiles
Michael Miller Fabrics
Delaware Dry Goods
Moda
Kwik Sew
Clothworks
Dill Buttons
Woolylady
Northcott Fabrics
Rupert Gibbon & Spider
Kona Bay Fabrics

Back to work on putting stuff on clearance, hanging up trunk shows, getting ready for Saturday….  Hope to see you then!

~Joyce

We’re very busy getting ready for our big party next Saturday!  Here’s some of what we’ll have going on:

We have amazing door prizes to give away, many donated by our suppliers.  We’ll have cake and other refreshments and special sales.  AND we have some special displays to share with you, including trunk shows from:

Bareroots (embroidery and wool stichery)
Batik Butuk (garments)
Details by Diane (quilted wall hangings)
JWD Publishing (quilts)

We’ll also have a display of items made by our staff in a special staff challenge.  Each of us chose a book and are making something from that book.  The staff member whose display sells the most books on June 27 will win a QA gift card!  The books that are featured will be on sale for 10% off!

We’ll be doing “demos on demand” in the classroom between 10:15-12:30 and 1:15-4:30.  Please stop by and ask to see a demo on any (or all!) of the following – all demo’ed items will also be on sale for 10% off!

• Prairie Pointer
• Locker Hooking
• Thangles/Scrap Mania
• Gypsy Gripper
• Freestyle Scissors
• Paintstiks & Stencils
• Embroidery Transfers

There will also be tables of mid-year clearance items in the classroom and special sales throughout the store – and anniversary cake, too!

Now, a special bonus for all you loyal blog readers – we’ll be starting to set up the clearance area in the classroom on Friday, and we’ll be moving fabric to the clearance area starting on Tuesday.  So if you want to get a jump on the goodies, you might want to come in earlier in the week and grab up a few bargains!  Then you’ll have more time to watch the demos and eat cake on Saturday. 

~Joyce

Most of these pictures have been sitting in the inbox for a little while.  So, I finally got my act together to show off all the awesome things our customers have been working on!

First up is this cute little quilt by Angie B. that she made for her godson.  Her friend Jennifer M. helped her by designing it in EQ6, and Angie made it using a mix of minky and regular quilting fabric.  The animals are cut out from a valance that matched one in the nursery.  The quilt is called “Evan’s Wild Dreams” and was quilted by Rebekah Richardson.

\

Next up is this cute little bag from the bow tucks tote pattern by Nancy P.  It’s hard to see, but one of the little monkeys is wearing a red bow tie, so for her closure she did a black button with a little red tie through it!

One of our employees, Mary Terry, has decided that she needs to redo her entire house.  So far she has done the bathroom and the kitchen.  She made these really awesome curtains to go in her kitchen.  And check out that adorable little planter!

I know that I’ve posted at least one picture of Janet B’s stuff before.  She made a great bag from the Metro Blue line that was absolutely incredible.  Here are some of her newest projects:

Here are three great quilts that Sally S. recently finished.  At least two of them are challenges for one of her sewing groups.  I believe that she said that they get two years to finish each challenge.  Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?

We had some awesome quilts in the last couple of weeks!  Thank heaven Mary Terry brought her camera to work every day while the boss was on vacation. 

~Phoebe

Monica’s offering a great class on this dress next Saturday, June 20 – it’s the Prairie Girl Dress by Favorite Things.  If you’ve tried sewing clothes in the past and maybe been less than successful, I STRONGLY recommend you come take this class with Monica – she is SO good with garment construction!  Here’s the dress you’ll be making:

Plus, ANY c lass with Monica is guaranteed to be FUN! 

Call or stop by to sign up today!

~Joyce

As promised, pictures of new stuff – a picture is worth a thousand words, right? 

~Joyce

Here are a few pictures of some of the finished $5 sampler quilts!

Ollie M’s:

Lynn M’s:

Dale A’:

Cheryl B’s:

Some of the best feedback we got on the $5 Sampler is that it made people actually *sew* the blocks because if you didn’t you had to pay! We also heard from a lot of you that just didn’t do it because you knew you’d have to miss too many meetings. So we’ve taken all your feedback into consideration to come up with our next Block of the Month – Kaleidoscope of Kolor! The samples are in the works but will be hanging in the shop soon!

~Joyce

Courtesy of random.org, the winning number was 6, which means Gail P. won the free class.  We’ll be calling you this morning to confirm. 

Congratulations!
~Joyce

Hi all -

I’m back from vacation now and feeling very generous. 

My Log Cabin Class starts this Wednesday evening, June 10.  It’s a great beginner class – well, sort of beginner.  You need to know how to sew a 1/4 seam, but you can do this quilt even if you don’t know how to use a rotary cutter!  And if you’re not a beginner, it’s still a great class because it’s a different way of doing log cabin blocks that is so FAST!  It uses pre-cut strip rolls, which makes cutting a breeze.  For my sample quilt, I think it took me longer to put the borders on than to sew all the blocks!  Here’s the sample:

So, I know it’s short notice, but leave a comment below before 8 AM Tuesday morning and I’ll use my random number generator to pick a lucky winner for enrollment in the class.  We’ll call you first thing tomorrow if you’re the lucky winner!

~Joyce

I’ve got show and tell piling up in my inbox and on the camera again. 

Here’s Jennifer M’s quilt that she made for her Nana, in our Check Out the Stars class.  She had it quilted by Rebekah Richardson, one of the longarm quilters that drops off and picks up here at the shop.

Here are two happy customers at the end of Monica’s Great Fit Gored Skirt class.  EVERYONE loved the skirts they made!  First is Kim, then Veronica:

Sharon P. started this quilt in Laura’s Kinetic Energy class, but she made it REALLY big! The photo doesn’t show the whole quilt, but it’s still awesome.  She took advantage of our design walls to lay it out.

At our $5 Sampler Reunion (that’s another blog post), Ollie (the first one, the Birdie Sling) and Dale shared the cool purses they’d made:

Here’s Angela I’s Chubby Chicks quilt (which I’m offering as a class, either by machine or hand):

And here’s Lynda T’s quilt from the Teri Austin Rock, Wood, and Water class:

~Joyce