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

You know how you often look at photos of quilts – both online and in books – and it’s just kind of ho-hum, and then you see the quilt in person and are blown away?  Well, I honestly don’t mean to say that the quilts in the book _Bold and Beautiful_ are ho-hum – far from it! – but when you see these in person,  I promise you’ll be blown away!  I’m including a couple of photos of them here (and these are NOT great photos), but trust me – you need to come see these in person.  They are just lovely.

They’re hanging in the classroom, on the design wall, and will be there for a few more weeks.  Come have a closer look!

Just a reminder – it’s cool at QA. 
~Joyce

Here’s a preview of some of the great projects we’ll be demo-ing on Saturday during our Anniversary Celebration:

Rapid Fire Hunter Star Ruler – demo at 11:15:

Double Diamond Ruler – demo at 10:15:

3D Bow Ties – demo at 12 noon:

Fused Quilts – demo at 10:45:

PLUS – there will be door prizes all day, a little gift at the door, refreshments, special displays, and so much more!  We hope you’re planning to join the party this Saturday, June 26, starting at 10AM!

~Joyce

It’s been a little while since we did a post of just the new stuff, so I thought I’d write one today to show off some of the fun new fabrics (and books!) that we’ve gotten.

First up are some home dec fabrics.  We had the white owls before, but we re-ordered it and now have another bolt in.  We also got it on brown this time around!

These are the newest Flower Fairies from Michael Miller.  There are also two panels with this print:

Nutmeg is a cute fall line…

Castle Peeps!  This is by Lizzy House for Andover, and we’ve been waiting for it for a couple of months.  I took some home on Monday night and started these pants from the new Anna Maria Horner book Handmade Beginnings at 9:30 (yes, PM).  About three hours later, they were done!  They’re fully reversible, and totally cute!

Here’s the back…

These were the 6-9 month size, but if I remember correctly, they go all the way up to 18 months!  (I just checked, it’s actually 24 months)

Some more owls, this time with a slightly more Halloween-y twist.

Holiday Flourish 2 from Robert Kaufman.  Many of you remember this from last year.  It is so beautiful and elegant, the colors just sing!  We have some new prints, as well as one or two favorites from last year.

This is another one from Robert Kaufman, called Sparkle All The Way.  Everyone who works here wants to make samples out of this because it’s SO CUTE!  I called first dibs on it though, because I needed some samples for the window display (which will change next week, the day before the anniversary celebration).

And here’s something Mary Terry made for that window out of these fabrics…

If you look in the background, you can see a stack of fat quarters that are from one of our Christmas lines that ships next month.  It’s done by Mimi Dietrich in the style of Baltimore Album fabrics.

In the spirit of Christmas stuff, I had Amy bring her embroidered Advent Calendar back in.  We have this pattern in the shop, and I love seeing it year after year.  Here’s a closeup of two of the pockets.

While I was writing this blog entry, we got a shipment of new books.  I haven’t even checked them in yet, but I thought I’d show you a picture..

Last, but not least, I have some reminders and sneak peaks.  First up is a sneak peak of one of our new clubs starting in September.  This is a teensy piece of the quilt I made for the first month.  We’ll officially debut the club next week at the anniversary celebration, along with (hopefully) another quilt, too.

We’re also planning some other block-of-the-months, as well.  We’ll have another one starting in September, and we’re planning an embroidery one which will start in January.

Don’t forget about our 5th Anniversary Contest.  The deadline is this weekend, so you still have a chance to get yours in!  They are just mini-quilt size, so you could whip one out today!  The 1st prize is a $50 gift card.  If you need some inspiration check out our two new books on mini-quilts, Whip Up Mini Quilts or Pretty Little Mini Quilts.

I would say have a wonderful day, but it’s pretty nasty outside, so why not make the best of it and SEW! 

~Phoebe

Please join us on Saturday for our National Quilting Day celebration.  We’ll have in-store specials, door prizes, and refreshments.  Our teachers will be taking turns doing show and tell in the classroom, ready to answer questions about their upcoming classes and talk with you about what classes you’d like them to offer.  And I’ll be doing demos in the classroom all day (except for a lunch break) – follow this link to see the list of what I’ll be showing (and yes, some of the products I demo will be on sale, too).  And be sure to check out the great quilts on loan from Quilt Poetry.

So please plan to spend some time with us on Saturday – we know you’ll have a good time! 

~Joyce

We got new fabric in today, Georgia by Pat Sloan, from P & B:

We also got lots of new embroidery supplies in this week.  The new 36 colors of Presencia floss, more tea towels (including pretty ones with stripes), and some new embroidery transfer patterns, too.  We have a couple of new embroidery samples on display, too, both from books by Rosalie Quinlan.  They’re all part of my ongoing “I Hate Embroidery” self discovery journey. 

Come check it all out!

~Joyce

Happy New Year!  We wanted to share some pictures from our New Year’s Day Grand Reopening.  We had a great turn-out – thank you to everyone that came that day!

Joyce and I did demos all day – see the following pictures.  I’m making some silly faces…

This following picture shows the Endangered Species Quilts that we have on display by Rob Appell.  We also have many Four Patch Kaleidoscope Quilts from Quilt Moments by Marilyn Foreman on display in our classroom too.

Now that we have settled into our new location at Willow Lawn we are going to start doing weekly free demos again!  Our demos will be Saturdays at 11 am & 2 pm and Sundays at 2 pm.  The demos start this weekend, beginning with the Four Patch Kaleidoscope quilts!  See this link for more information.

We hope you’re enjoying 2010 and hope to see you soon!

Happy sewing

~ Kristal

Hello everyone! Have you made it to our new store in Willow Lawn yet?  Well, if you haven’t here is some eye candy that might entice you to come over!

Phoebe’s been working hard on some great displays up front.  All the softies are cuddled together in this cabinet with their patterns near by.  Come see our front window displays too!

Joyce has the ‘daylight’ lighting again.  The lighting plus these new custom-built shelves make it so easy to see the true color of our fabrics!  The shelves are also a great way to show off our samples and class displays.

Above was part of our batiks.  The picture below shows part of our ‘blenders’.  We have the whole rainbow for you!

And of course we still have our trims, tools, notions, and etc.  I think we’ve all mostly learned the new locations of everything so don’t be afraid to ask!

We hope you’ll come by and visit us.  And don’t forget about our New Year’s Day Event!

~Kristal

I hardly ever sew anymore unless it’s for a shop sample.  And I miss it.  So I decided that I NEEDED a couple more shop samples of table runners.  And I HAD to sew them. 

The first one I did is the Bejeweled table runner pattern.  I love 60 degree triangles done from scraps, and this pattern calls for leftover 2 1/2″ strips.  I happened to have a box of fabric samples that I’d cut into strips, so I put a color story together, picked a focus fabric, and had a great time!  To make it easier for you, we’ve put together some bags of batiks strips – assorted color stories – that are more than enough to do this table runner for $6.99.  Pick a focus fabric to match and you’re on your way!  I used this as an opportunity to try out a new specialty ruler that’s designed to cut 60 degree trianges from 2 1/2″ strips, and I’m sorry to say that I didn’t like it – it felt dangerous to me.  Then I remember that there’s a triangle template in the Marti Michell Strippers and that was the *perfect* solution!  So, here’s a photo of my table runner:

Then I decided that I needed to make the Pearl District Table Runner.  I knew I’d probably do a hack job on all those circles, so I ironed WonderUnder to the back of half of my charm squares and then ran them through the die cutter to cut my perfect circles.  After fusing them on, I did a blanket stitch edging with Tutti thread – it’s one of my all time favorite threads, especially for this kind of stitching!  And so here’s my finishing Pearl District Table Runner, in one of my favorite fabric combinations – 30s and batiks together:

~Joyce

Hi there!

We have a very exciting weekend (including today) all set up!  The classrooms are FULL of goodies!

First of all, we have a lot of beautiful items from Amy Butler showcasing the patterns in her software CD.

We also have a big display with TONS of ideas for gifts you can make for the holidays or any gift-giving event!  The staff have made lots of samples.  Mary Terry has even written up a bunch of FREE patterns!  Here’s a little sneak peek of the display.

AND, last but not least, the other classroom is full of sale items! We have a great sale on Olfa rulers, rotary cutters and blades – 25% off! Come get them before they’re all gone.

We hope to see you today through Sunday.  I’m sure you’ll find something that will inspire you to start working on gifts!

~Kristal

Thanks to all of you who are leaving encouraging comments about our new location!  Some of you who visit us only on occassion from out of town are asking about the ease of reaching the new store.  I promise you I will be posting detailed directions and maps and emailing and snailmailing you ALL kinds of updates between now and December, but I will tell you this much – for those of you who reach us by exiting I-64 at either Staples Mill or Glenside, the distance to the new shop is very close to the same as to the current shop, and it’s not hard to get there.  And the new location has SO much more to offer – you can spend an entire day hitting all the shops and eaterys within walking distance.

It was pointed out to me today by more than one person that they were unaware of our upcoming Holiday Gift Idea Fair next weekend.  It’s been in the newsletter, but I’m thinking that the news of the move just kind of made everything else fall into the background!  Those of you who visited QA last year during the Tour de Quilt will remember that we had an entire classroom filled with samples of gifts that we’d made from various books and patterns (and some free handouts!).  Since we’re not doing the Tour this year, we’re doing the gift idea fair a little earlier so you have plenty of time to sew your holiday gifts.  The staff has been hard at work on an assortment of cool gift ideas.  AND we have a very special addition – a trunk show of items on loan from Electric Quilt, projects made from the Amy Butler Softwares – three big boxes full!  The gift fair will be next weekend, Friday through Sunday, September 18-20, our normal hours (Friday 10-8; Saturday 10-6; Sunday 12-5).

Hope to see you soon!
~Joyce