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

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 again!  We still have a lot of classes going on this month that I wanted to tell you about.  But first I also wanted to tell you about this week’s demo – Clearly Perfect Angles!  This is a great tool that’s super easy to use to make perfect 45 degree pieces with NO marking!  Come learn about it tonight (Thursday) at 5:30 or Saturday at 11 and 2!

We have lots of fun classes coming up.  On Saturday Joyce is teaching two classes – Chubby Chicks Hand Applique (10-12) and Hand Quilting for Beginners (2-5).  The Hand Applique class doesn’t require very many materials and we have a kit for the Hand Quilting class to make it stress free for you!  There are only a couple spots left so give us a call if you’re interested!  The picture below is the “chubby chick” – so cute!

Also on Saturday (10-5) Kathleen is teaching her Wrapped Doll class – there’s only ONE spot left!

On Sunday, Monica is teaching how to make a great Messenger Bag.  You can put lots of pockets in this one and would make a great holiday gift for a student!  This one also only has a couple of spots so check it out…

Tuesday the 17th is “Young Peoples Sewing Group“.  Come Sit-n-Stitch with 20-35ish (we’re flexible!) folks from 6-8.

Also, on Tuesdays and Fridays (10 am til about 2 pm) we have “Mom’s Time Out” which is also a great Sit-n-Stitch.

And don’t forget about our “Twelve Weeks of Christmas Ornament Series“.  We have lots of sessions of this to fit your schedule.  It’s only $12 and everything is included!  It won’t be long before we all need ornaments to decorate our Christmas trees!

We hope to see you soon!

~Kristal

Hello All!

So here we are in November – I can’t believe it!  November, to me, means that the holidays are just around the corner!  Luckily, we have a lot of classes that could help you get going on presents.

Tomorrow night (6-8 pm) Joyce is teaching Bosa Nova bags.  They are such a fun way to dress up your presents!

On Thursday night, Cathy is teaching a beginner’s class on locker hooking - you’ll be hooked before you know it!  You could even bring a simple line drawing if you’d rather make a wintery candle mat.  No matter what you make I guarantee it’ll be fun!

On Friday (10-5) Kathleen is teaching her beginner’s dollmaking class where you’ll make a “Pop-Top” Doll.  It’s amazing to see how each one takes on a character of their own!

On Friday night (6-8) we have two great classes.  First, Laura is teaching Binding Basics.  Do you have quilt tops that you want to finish?  Laura will teach you all the ins-and-outs of making a perfect binding!

Also on Friday night (6-8) Kirsten is teaching a class on making a minky blanket.  These make such great presents for families with young babies!  And each one is different depending on the fabrics you pick out.

Saturday has a lot going on!  This weekend is our Panty Raid event – bring items for the YWCA Women & Children’s Center and get a free fat quarter and a chance to win a gift basket.

We also have Quilts for Richmond on Saturday (10-1) – get together and finish quilts for local charities.

On Saturday (2-4:30) Laura is teaching Invisible Machine Applique.  This is such a great technique for beautiful applique!

Lastly, I wanted to tell you about this week’s demo!  We’re going to let you try out all of our different marking pens and pencils.  There are sooo many different types and this is your chance to “try before you buy”!  Thursday @ 5:30 and Saturday @ 11 and 2!

We hope to see you soon!

~Kristal

It’s time to tell you about this week’s demo.  I love all of the Marti Michell templates but the 2 1/2″ strippers templates are my favorite!

They are designed to work perfectly with the pre-cut 2 1/2″ jelly roll strips!  With just three templates you can cut seven different shapes.  And from those shapes you can make a ton of different blocks!  One of the other benefits of these templates is that it will help you get perfect, non-bulky seams!

LeMoyne Stars…

Hexagons for using in things like “Grandmothers Garden”…

Shapes for different 3D blocks…

And sooo much more!  Come check out the demo Thursday at 5:30 pm or Saturday at 11 am or 2 pm (or whenever we’re not too busy to show you)!

~Kristal

Hi everybody,

I’m writing in to let you know about our free demo this week.  We’re going to show you how to use Thangles -  the wonderful product that will help you make perfect half-square triangles!  I truly used to be scared of half-square triangles until I used these!

Also, when you come to the demo you’ll get a free tree skirt pattern.  I’ve never claimed to be a good photographer – it’s much prettier in person!

Lastly, Thangles are used in ‘Scrap Mania’.  And just so you know, all Scrap Mania kits are now 30% off!!!

We hope you come visit us for the demo either Thursday at 5:30 pm or Saturday at 11 & 2 (or whenver we’re not too busy to show you!)!

~Kristal

Hi Everyone!

I’m just writing in to tell you about this week’s demo (Thursday at 5:30 pm, Saturday at 11 am and 2 pm).  This week you can learn how to install BIG Grommets.

There are tons of fun ways to use these! Think curtains, purses, skirts even!

We also have LOTS of colors available.  So, come on by this Thursday or Saturday to see how to use these!

~Kristal

I finished the demo display this morning and can’t wait to show you this fun technique this week!

This is a bowtie technique from the pattern “Fit to be Tied” from KariePatch Designs, by local designer Karen DuMont.  You may have seen this beautiful quilt hanging in our classroom area…

Now you can see exactly how this is done!

Come on by Thursday “Happy Hour” at 5 pm or Saturday at 11 am and 2 pm.

See you then!

~Kristal

This week’s demo is Circular Patchwork!  Some of you may have seen the metal templates before and wondered what they were. Now you can find out!

I won’t give it all away… But I will say that it’s a great use of scraps…

We have multiple sizes of templates AND a pattern for different gift ideas!

Come check out this wonderful technique that has endless possibilities! It’s definitely the type of thing that makes perfect sense after SEEING it.

Demos are on Thursday “Happy Hour” at 5:30pm and Saturday at 11am or 2pm. Hope to see you then!

~Kristal

Texture magic is our demo for this week.  Here’s some step by step photos of the process, minus the commentary!  For a complete demo of how this stuff works, stop by the shop this Saturday at 11 or 2.

Isn’t that last picture intriguing?  This stuff is really super easy, so if you can’t make it to the demo, I promise you can figure out it on your own!  It has some great applications, including bags and art quilts.  I think I’m going to make a bag with my piece.

~Phoebe

Phoebe and I went to PA for the holiday to visit my mother (and watch our Phillies CRUSH the Mets!), and even though it’s less than an hour from Philly, we don’t have internet access there unless I drive about 30 minutes and set up office at Panera.  All this means is that blog entries are WAY behind and I have a list of things to catch up on! 

Our Summertime Mystery Club starts next Wednesday and goes for six weeks for just $20.  The Mystery uses Marti Michell template sets A and C (which are actually optional but highly recommended), and the quilt doesn’t require much fabric – in fact, you can pull from your stash!  Each week we’ll have the Mystery Meeting where I’ll go over the clue, and then you are welcome to stay for the optional sewing session to enjoy some uninterrupted sewing time to help keep you on track for the next week!  Sorry, no picture of this, because it’s a Mystery – but I know what it looks like, and trust me, it’s pretty!  And I’ll talk about fabric selection the first week, too, so you won’t be totally working in the dark. 

This week’s demo – Thursday at 5:30 and Saturday at 11 and 2 – is how to put in big grommets.  These are cool for purses or home dec projects, but many of you aren’t sure how hard they are to put in place.  I can honestly say that they’re WAY easier than little grommets!  But stop by for our free demo and see just how easy.

And last but certainly not least, we’ve added a session of the ever-popular Introduction to Machine Quilting class with Laura on two consecutive Thursday evenings, July 23 & 30, 5:30-8.  This class always fills up with a waiting list, and this will be the first time we’ve tried it on weeknights, so I’m thinking it’s going to fill up fast.  Please call or email to sign up today!

I promise, the next blog post will have more pictures.     Actually, I can’t bring myself to post this with NO pictures at all, so here’s one of my adorable grandson, just for fun. 

~Joyce