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

These pillows were made by one of our customers, Susanna C., for her granddaughter Nikki.  She used hand dyed fabric from our Experimenting with Dyeing class, and it didn’t take much work to transform the fabric into some awesome pillows:

Great job, Susanna!

~ Joyce

Last fall we offered a couple of smocking classes and they filled right up!  And we’ve been having more and more people enquire about smocking and embroidery, so we’re offering classes in both!
Beginning English Smocking will be offered in both morning and evening classes on Thursday, January 3.  Our teacher, Susan Scheer, has put together a kit for you so that all you need to bring are thread snips!  You will learn the basics of smocking, so that you can continue from there to learn Embellished Smocking and Picture Smocking!

Our first Hand Embroidery class will be offered on Saturday, January 12, and you will learn the basic embroidery stitches while stitching a cake to embellish an apron or scarf or whatever you like!

We have just started carrying the Presencia embroidery floss in all the available colors, and it’s just delicious.  Even if you don’t embroider, be sure to come in and look at the wonderful case full of colors!

~ Joyce

Effective now through Sunday, December 30, in the big classroom in the back:
Patterns 40% off
Books 40% off
Pillowcase kits 30% off
Kits 40% off
Stencils 40% off
Thread 40% off

no matter what the sticker says!  Please note, this applies ONLY to items that are already marked down as clearance.

Also, 40% off rayon batiks!

Hours through the holidays:

Monday, Christmas Eve, 10-3
Tuesday, Christmas, Closed
Wednesday-Friday 10-8
Saturday 10-6
Sunday 12-5
Monday, NY Eve 10-3
Tuesday, New Year’s Day, our BIG PARTY!  10-6
~Joyce

At Quilt Market last fall, Phoebe and I picked up some samples of some threads from Wonderfil and have eagerly been awaiting our order ever since.  Box 1 arrived today!  We ordered 20 assortment sets – 2 each of 10 different colorways.  Each assortment has been chosen with a travel destination as the color theme and includes 15 different spools of thread, ranging from 100 wt. polyester to 8 wt. metallic with rayon and everything in between!  I’ve been playing with my samples from Market and LOVE the InvisaFil (100 wt polyester) and the Silco (40 wt lint free cotton), but really, I love them all so far, and so does my machine.

We also got the book Stitch Journeys by Debbie Bates and Liz Kettle, which includes instructions on how to use the thread assortment to make a “stitch journeys passport.”  It’s a nice little thread and technique sample book that guides you through experiments to see what these threads can do.

The reason I bought these sample packs and books was in hopes that YOU, my loyal customers, would give them a try and then give me HONEST feedback on the thread.   I want to offer threads that you like and can use, and this seems like a great way to try them all out without investing in a huge thread rack that turns out to be the wrong choice.  So please come buy the thread and maybe the book, try them out, and let me know what you think!  But please note – we only got six sampler sets in today; hopefully the rest will arrive tomorrow.
~ Joyce

Today I finished the stocking the Phoebe and I have been making for my granddaughter.  I sewed the stocking body, Phoebe did the embroidery, and today I made the cord to hang it by with the Diva Cord Maker.  The pattern is from the book New Noel by Linda Lum DeBono – we still have a few copies in stock.

~ Joyce

I made some more pillows last night and today:

The one on top is made with Joel Dewberry’s Chestnut Hill collection (this link doesn’t show the collection well – we have the aqua/turquoise/white group). It took me less than FIVE MINUTES to cut out and less than TWO HOURS to sew start to finish! I cut out all the Drunkard’s Path pieces with one pass through the die cutter – cutting the back and borders took the longest! I sewed all 16 DP blocks together using the Curve Master presser foot and NO pins! Trust me, if I can do this, so can you! We’re doing demos on the Curve Master on New Year’s Day at 4PM – come see what all the excitement is about!
The bottom left pillow is made from the Play Date collection from P & B Textiles, using the free patterns that is made just for the fabric. Contrary to popular belief, I LOVE 30s fabrics, and this is a very sweet group.

Bottom right is made with Surf and Sand from Marcus Fabrics. Normally not my colors, but I admit that there’s something very calming about this look.

Pillows are a great way to play with fabric, finish something quickly, and you end up with something useful. You can experiment with fabrics you don’t normally work with without having to make a huge committment. I’m having a great time making them; we just need more space for me to show them off!
~ Joyce

We’re all having way too much fun with our Rumpled Quilt Skins elephant!  He’s still nameless, but we’re sure he’s a he.  This morning Phoebe and I were sewing in the shop, and he was keeping her company.  She was having a bit of trouble with her project, but Elephant made her happy again (and here’s her haircut, too!):

We got NINE boxes of goodies in today – more on the rest of it later – but four of the boxes were our new display cases full of Presencia Finca 6-strand floss!  It is made of the finest 100% mercerized Egyptian cotton.  We have 252 solids, 33 variegated, and 3 metalic.  Here’s an awkward picture of the cabinets – you must come in to see these!  If you’ve been using DMC floss, you be thrilled at how much nicer this is.  AND we have a conversion chart, so you can use all your patterns that call for specific DMC colors with our new Presencia!

I’ve been having a great time playing with printing photos on fabric lately. That is, in part, due to the fact that I have such a FUN subject to work with (my grandbaby!), but it’s also because it is so EASY to get GREAT results!

We sell several different fabric sheets that are all prepared and ready to go through your ink jet printer, and it really truly is as easy as printing photos – you just need to know which way to put the “paper” in the printer. We also have several great books on the subject with lots of ideas – Photo Fun, More Photo Fun, and Posterize It! We also have some new books on using photos in more creative ways, like Altered Photo Artistry and Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts.

The inspiration for my Alyssa quilt came from P.S. I Love You Four:

We’re going to offer a class for beginners that is a photo pillow – even if you’re not a beginning quilter, you can sign up for the class to do photo transfers hands on:

This piece is still a quilt wanna-be.  Inspired by the book Posterize It!, I printed this picture of our baby girl onto six sheets of transfer fabric and sewed them all together:

My latest project is that I’ve used Kaleidoscope Kreator and some photos of flowers to create my own 60 degree diamonds to piece some 6-pointed Kaleidoscope stars.  Check back later to see pictures of that project in process…..

~Joyce

My new buddy is sitting under my arm as I type this – here’s some pictures of him:

He’s made from a Rumpled Quilt Skins pattern.  I took this opportunity to experiment with the new corn and bamboo stuffings we having in the shop (I experimented with the new battings, too, but that’s another blog entry).

As a dollmaker, my favorite stuffing is Airtex polyester.  It’s fine and smooth and a little slipper, and it works well when you need those fine wisps to fill out a finger or a face.  Stuffing a toy is different.

The corn stuffing is much like the polyester.  It handles much the same way, although I suspect that for dollmaking, Airtex would still come out on top.  The bamboo is very different.  It’s denser, and while it’s silky, it’s a different kind of silky, not as plastic-y feeling as the poly or corn.  One very important thing to mention is that if you’re stuffing a  toy for a child (especially a baby), bamboo has natural antibacterial properties.  For that reason, and for the way it handles, bamboo would probably be my choice for a baby toy.

One other thing about bamboo – it’s clingy.  It will glom itself to the outside of whatever you’re making, and you need to use a lint brush when you’re done.  But it’s worth the trouble – it makes a nice toy.

Come see my elephant – if you can pry it away from whichever staff member is currently loving on it!

~Joyce