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

Here’s the newest pictures from the new store!  This first one is the before picture:

And here are the after pictures!

In these two I was having some fun on the ladder…

Can you spot the boss?

~Phoebe

Today I got the keys to our new store at Willow Lawn.    We have a lot of work to do between now and December, but here’s a preview:

This is just inside the front door.  The grey wall on the left and the entire blue room on the right are disappearing, along with the ugly carpet.

This is taken from the classroom area looking towards the front.  Yes, we’ll be using lots of paint, too. 

And this is from about the middle of the store looking towards the back, where the classrooms will be.  You can see that the ceiling changes height several times from the front to the back, and there’s several areas that will serve very well for hanging larger quilts!

So, that’s a small preview of what’s to come – trust me, it will look NOTHING like this when I get done with it! 

~Joyce

Please enter our Fabric Postcard contest. Here are the rules:
1. You must use at least one thing you bought in our store in the postcard. It can be fabric, thread, timtex, whatever. Obviously, we are simply going to have to use the honor system for this rule.
2. Your postcard should be close to 4” x 6”. Oh, say, within 20% either way.
3. Please don’t put your name on the front of the postcard. But don’t forget to put it on the back, so we know it’s yours!
4. Your postcard must be mailed to the shop by October 15 (Quilting Adventures, 7121 Staples Mill Road, Richmond, VA 23228). It can’t be mailed in anything (like an envelope); it should be hand cancelled.
5. Postcards will be on display in the shop until November 15.
6. As each postcard arrives, it will be assigned a number. Between Oct 15 and Nov 15, each $5 purchase will earn one ballot to vote for your favorite postcard.
7. The swap part – when you come to pick up a postcard, you’ll just pick a number out of a bowl, and that’s the postcard you get to take home.
8. The maker of the postcard with the most votes will win a $25 gift certificate to Quilting Adventures!

Here are a couple of links for inspiration:
art2mail
Postmark’d Art

I had a lot of help from a lot of my friends getting the shop ready for opening day. Some of them sewed samples. Some of them worked opening weekend. Some cut and folded zillions of fat quarters. They all encouraged me and believed in me.

I know I could have just given them some nice fat quarter packets as a way of saying thanks, but that just didn’t seem like enough. So I sent them all some fabric postcards:

These are so much fun to make and to receive! So we’re going to have a contest and swap here at the shop. I’ll be posting the rules shortly.

Oh, sorry – some of these are upsidedown or sideways. I scanned them in a hurry the other day before I ran to the post office!

The shop is closed today, because it’s a holiday and because it’s Monday (and I’m closed on Mondays for the rest of the summer), but my DH is working. So no boating today – which judging by the sky is a good thing. That means I have time to catch up on some stuff today – like cleaning (things must be bad for me to want to clean!), sewing bindings on shop samples, maybe working on some fabric postcards….

And updating the shop blog and website.

A very sweet couple came in yesterday and told me that they just couldn’t wait to see the shop after the enticing photos of an empty white space on our blog. *smile* I think (hope!) they were pleased with what they did see, so for those of you who haven’t made it yet or live too far away, here’s a quick tour:

This is the view of the shop from the parking lot. I love my sign! We had the windows treated with film to help prevent fading, and so now they’re a bit darker and too reflective depending on the time of day. So we’re going to get ourselves a light-up open sign (or something!) to let people know we’re really in there.

Here are pictures of our two window displays, including a couple of samples very generously sewn for us by family and friends:

We’re planning to have an 18″ doll and quilt “club” for girls and their moms/grandmothers/friends/whatever. We’ve got some wonderful books with patterns for 18″ dolls and plan to do a monthly doll quilt kit series, too. If, by any chance, anyone reading this would like to help me coordinate and plan this, please call or email me!

The doll in the window is PopTop from Magic Threads. That’s the pattern I’ll be teaching in my Beginner’s Dollmaking class this fall.

Here’s a quick walking tour of the shop:

Here’s the Geometrix quilt I made from the free pattern by Blank Textiles to go with this fabric collection by Karen Combs. I’ve sold out of the kits for it (because I’m out of black fabric!) but should have more kits ready by the end of the week.

And as much as I hate pictures of myself, my friend Becky took this one of me in front of my quilt so that the star points give me this Statue of Liberty thing going on – perfect for today:

I started working on the class schedule yesterday and it’s looking good, even though it’s only a start! So far I have penciled in dates for From Square One (beginning piecing), Beginning Hand Quilting, Reminiscence Table Runner (machine applique), Free Motion Thread Play, Landscape Quilting, Yellow Brick Road. And those aren’t any of the classes I’ll be teaching, like dyeing and dollmaking and ATCs. Not to mention Bonnie McCaffery’s classes in October, one of which is already half full!

Now that the shop is open, I plan to get into more of a routine of updating the blog as new fabrics and other goodies come in, so please keep checking back!

My helpers took lots of pictures yesterday, but the camera’s still at the shop and I’m at home, so pictures will have to wait. But our opening day went very well. There were times when there were people everywhere and fabric was just flying off the bolts; and then other times when it was calmer (I actually got to eat lunch sitting down!). I was thrilled to see that many of the fabrics that I’d ordered for my imaginary customers seem to be exactly what they wanted!

Now, a confession – I vowed a long time ago that if/when I had my own shop, I would *never* run out of black fabric. Well, there’s a reason everyone always says “never say never.” I’m a black fabric junkie – I’ve bought black kona by the bolt for years – but Kathy from Michael Miller suggested I try their black. I ordered one bolt, and I’m totally converted; it’s awesome stuff! Yesterday morning, opening day, there was one yard left, and it sold. Most of the rest of that was used by me and/or my helpers on shop samples. I’d ordered three more bolts earlier in the week, but they didn’t arrive. And the three bolts of black kona have been on backorder for two weeks now.

I – *me* – little miss gotta have black fabric – ran out of black on opening day.

But at least I haven’t run out of black thread!

We’ve been so terribly neglectful with our blog. It seemed like such a great idea, but, well, somehow keeping up with it always gets kicked off the to do lists. So, no pictures now, but I did slip the camera into the bag and will try to take pictures at the shop later. And then maybe even post them!.

Last Friday evening we had a sample sewing party. It was great fun – pizza and chocolate and good friends – and the camera sat in its case on one of the worktables all night. But we can take pictures of some of the samples to post. We got some awesome stuff finished or part way finished or at least started!

We now have over 600 bolts of fabric in and entered into the system and on the shelves, with more arriving daily. I’ve already accepted that it won’t be here for opening day, but that just means that people have reasons to keep coming back! We’ve got a decent selection of tools and notions (with some on backorder), and lots of books and patterns, too. Oh, and thread! I’m opening up with a selection of my personal favorite “basic” thread – Mettler cotton finish (50wt), Mettler fine embroidery (*awesome* for hand piecing), and Mettler hand quilting. I’ll be adding more thread as time goes on and am very open to suggestions, but for now, we’ve got the basics covered nicely.

More later (I hope)……..

Okay, so let’s be honest here – do quilters care about carpeting and shelves in a quilt shop, or do they care about fabric more? Hmmmmm… lemme think about that…..

Well, I’m still hoping Phoebe will do an update with her carpeting and shelving pictures. She had some kind of artistic concept going with her photography, very inspired. But as I was folding all these freshly washed pieces of fabric that we cut yesterday, I just thought I had to share:

Friday night I’m having several friends come help me for a sample sewing party. They have to bring their own machines, but I provide everything else (including chocolate!). We’ll have several projects all cut out and ready to sew, and hopefully by the end of the evening we’ll have several of them finished and/or ready to quilt.

The group on the upper right of the pictures is “The Fire Within” group by Sherrill Kahn for Robert Kaufman. We’re going to use those in a leaves wall hanging/table runner, all fused.

The fish fabrics are from the “Secrets of the Reef” collection by Luana Rubin, also for Robert Kaufman. Those are going to be used in a small quilt with fussy cut fish and flying geese.

The black/white and multi geometric fabrics in the middle left are the “Geometrix” collection by Karen Combs for Blank Textiles. We’re going to use those to make the Geometrix quilt that’s been featured in several recent magazine.

Right middle are two pieces from Kaufman’s “Florentine” collection. The fabric on top may well be my favorite fabric of all so far (we’ve unpacked and entered into our POS system ~500 bolts). We’re going to use those to pieces to make a fabric box from the new book by Linda Johansen, “Fast, Fun & Easy Fabric Boxes.”

The two pieces on the bottom left are going be made into a “Petal Pouch” from the new pattern by Valori Wells.

And the group on the left on the bottom are going to be a purse; most of the fabrics are by Michael Miller. Phoebe picked them out, and the pattern is from a book of purses that I simply can’t remember the name of (and it’s at the shop, and I’m not).

Already picked out at the shop, but not yet cut, are a group of fabrics to make a winding ways quilt using Marti Michell’s templates and a selection to make a dress for Phoebe from CNT’s Xceptional Patchwork pattern.

I am absolutely thrilled to know that Bonnie will be coming to the shop and teaching two classes (and doing a book signing) this fall. I first “met” Bonnie through the Tarot Art Quilt Project, although when our quilts were in Chicago together we didn’t actually get to meet FTF. I finally met Bonnie at the Bernina Fashion Show in Houston last fall; she sat down next to me and I noticed her name tag. We chatted a bit before the show, and she’s as much of a delight in person as she is on line. Phoebe took a “schoolhouse” with her at Market in April, and then we both bought a few copies of Bonnie’s newest book (that she signed for us – one dedicated to us personally, the other two just autographed – and they will be for sale in the shop!). So it wasn’t a huge leap to write and ask her if she could fit us in her schedule somewhere this fall!

I’m very excited about having Bonnie come teach for us. Her portrait quilts are amazing, but not only that, so are her *student’s* portrait quilts. I’ve posted information on how to sign up on the Quilting Adventures website, and as always, you can email me for more info, too.

Phoebe and I are leaving this morning for PA to go see my mom, so we will both be offline for a few days. While we’re gone, the carpet and vinyl will be laid at the shop!

Rick has been painting on his hours before and after he gets home from work. He had quite a bit left to finish, but my boyfriend Brendan and I helped him out and finished it all up. We still have to paint the trim, and the bathroom, but for the most part, it is done. Here are some pictures of the shop:

This one is from the back (the classroom) all the way to the front of the store.

This one is of part of the classroom. You can see me playing with paint, and out our back door.

Here you can see the rest of the classroom. There is a nice space on the right for all of our tables. Behind the wall on the left is a nice space for our deep sink, and the restroom. It has nice space on top too.

The carpet goes in this Thursday, and after that we can start moving fabric in!

~Phoebe