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

Cute little girl skirt and dress by one of our customers, Betty H:

And Kim’s silk scarf that she painted on National Quilting Day:

~Joyce

News, but no pictures.

I bought a lot of fabric today that will be showing up in the next few months. All you quilters, please read carefully – QA WILL NOT BE REDUCING IT’S QUILTING INVENTORY. Garment sewers – this is for you! Although some of the silks I’ve ordered will be great for quilting, too. But we’re hearing from more of our customers that they want fabric for sewing garments, so we’re EXPANDING our inventory to try to fill that need.

So in the next few months, you can look for:

- cotton knits in solids and prints
- silk dupioni
- more silk noil (we already have some)
- silk noil jacquard
- silk charmeuse prints
- silk chiffon prints
- rayon/linen blends (these are designer fabrics but I’m darned if I can remember who)
- Nicole Miller prints
- knit prints by Maggy London
- Calvin Klein solids
- amazing new rayon batiks including crinkle, and this new rayon/linen blend that is great for jackets
- jersey prints
- oilcloth

Oh, heck – I don’t remember what all I ordered – my head is spinning with it all! While I was fabric shopping, DH explored Vegas. Tonight he’s taking me to some incredible amazing mall (yes, mall), and tomorrow we’re going to do what I’d really hoped I’d get to do on this trip – go to Red Rock Canyon in the Mojave Desert. Vegas really isn’t my kind of town, but the desert – NOW you’re talking!

~Joyce

Where can you see palm trees….

… snow capped mountains in the distance …

… the Chrysler building, a pyramid, Greek sculpture…

… the Eiffel Tower …

… the Statue of Liberty, Donny and Marie’s faces way bigger than life size on the side of a twenty story building and lots of flowers in bloom, including snapdragons, roses, primrose, pansies, lantana, marigolds, and much more ….?

Yup, we’re in Vegas.  BUSINESS trip.  FABRIC shopping. 

Since we got up at 3AM Richmond time and spent seven hours on planes, we’re a bit tired.  So we’re going to go win a million dollars in the casino (which is WAY too smoky for me!) and then turn in for the night.  I’ll try to post tomorrow about my fabric shopping escapades.

Oh, and I’m hoping I got a little sunburn today. 

~Joyce

On to even more great show and tell..

This adorable little girl was in a couple of weeks ago with her mom, Laticia, who made her this really, really, cute dress.  It’s from the Claire dress pattern and the Ruffle Pants pattern, both by Sandi Henderson.

Amy who works here started on this really cute wrap skirt in one of Monica’s SWAP classes.  She finally wore it to work one of the warm days a couple of weeks ago….

This is another one of Janet B.’s cute bags.  She always brings in the most awesome bags to show off.  I absolutely love the fabrics!

Here is Emily with her first bag (I think).  She saw the one that my mom made out of the cute swimming monkey fabric, and decided she needed one too!  Didn’t she do an awesome job?

~Phoebe

I’ve got pictures *everywhere* that need to be uploaded for customer show and tell, and I’m really hoping Phoebe will catch up on it for me while I’m out of town (Phoebe, are you reading this?).  But here’s one show and tell – Betty made this adorable pillowcase using the panel from our new Bunny’s Day Out group from Wilmington Prints.  They also have some great projects on their website!  Click here to go directly to the PDF project sheet.

I’ll be flying out in the morning and will post from my mystery destination! 

~Joyce

Pattie wrote us from London:

“My trip is going well, weather has been great, seen some cool stuff.  I have actually taken a few pictures!

“The first is of Tower Bridge, taken from London Bridge.  I haven’t actually been on Tower Bridge yet.  The second is the Gerkin Building, which I thought looked really cool. Next is me and Big Ben and then a picture of Westminster Abbey. Finally, a ‘shop interest’  picture, some softies for sale at Greenwich Market, not far from Amanda’s flat.  The market had a lot of independent crafters set up.  I talked to two different ladies selling bags, one of whom has given me the directions to a fabric shop not too far from here called Rolls and Remnants that she says has tons of stuff.

“Hope all is well with you!”

Pattie will be back to work on Friday and is working Saturday.  I expect she won’t know whether it’s daytime or nighttime, so I think you should all come ask her about her trip! 

~Joyce

We got some great new notions in this week!

First, here’s the Mundial Freestyle Scissors (sorry the picture is so small) – this is the 7 1/2″ size but we also have them in 5″ and 8 1/2″:

In addition to being funny looking, they cut great, they are ambidexterous, have antimicrobal handles, and, well, they’re just fun.  AND a lifetime guarantee.  AND they’re on sale, 10% off, until the end of the month.    Regular price on these is $14, $17, and $19.

Another new product (and small image, sorry) is the Clover size 12 steel crochet hook.  Yes, I know, why are we selling crochet hooks?  Because this hook is so fine that you can go through your fabric and use it to hook and pull loose threads to the back (or hide your tails on machine quilting), etc., and it doesn’t leave any holes.  And the handle isn’t so tiny that it’s going to give your hand cramps.  I guarantee you we’ll be using it in my hand quilting class!:

The hook retails for $6.75.

Last but not least – bias tape makers.  Pattie was our tester for these and she loves hers, so on her recommendation, we got more.  For now we have two sizes, 1/2″ and 1″.  They are $6.75 and $7.50.  Here’s a tiny picture of one of them:

Speaking of Pattie, she’s in London, but we still love her anyway.    She did send some photos yesterday, but due to our internet connection issues I can’t post them now (I can’t connect to my shop computer, and I’m at home now).  But I’ll try to post them in the next day or two, so stay tuned!

Hope to see you soon!
~Joyce

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, I’m sure you’ve heard me sigh over the Birdwatcher Messenger bag from The New Handmade book by Cassie Barden.  I first ran into her at Quilt Market last fall, and fell in love with the book.  Not only is there this cool messenger bag in here (it’s on the cover), there’s also some other projects that have been calling my name.  I really love the two different sketchbook covers, the cuff, and the laptop sleeve.  There’s also some really great projects for beginners, as well as great gifts.

So, the deal that I made with my mom is that she would buy the fabric for me, as long as the bag is a shop sample.  However, I kinda need a new purse, and I really, really want this one.  She told me that I have to sell X number of copies before I can have it back.  Not only is it an awesome book, but everytime you buy one, you are leading me closer and closer to my purse!

I made my sample from the Wonderland fabric from Moda that just came in.  The outside of the bag is done with one of the twill weight prints we got.  The other three prints are just quilting weight.  I made a few adaptations – I added more pockets in the lining, I used fusible fleece instead of a stabilizer (which adds a lot of bulk to the seam, just a warning.  I ended up cutting it out of the seam allowances), I set the straps into the top seam of the bag instead of attaching them to the outside, and I didn’t do a closure.  Here’s some pictures of the completed bag:

Stop by and check it out in person!  At least until I sell those X number of copies. 

~Phoebe

Here are some pictures of all the stuff that came in last week.  Okay, not all – cause there was a TON! – but some.

Lizzy Dish – just in the middle of the photo.  Other new stuff to its left and right, from Free Spirit:

Neptune, the latest from Tula Pink:

Also from Moda, Wonderland – this collection has three prints that we got in twill weight.  Phoebe made a purse with some of them already and will be posting about it soon:

This next picture is a little weird.  The collection is Joyful Days by Julia Cairns for Quilting Treasures and it has this great panel with it (actually, two different panels, one on each side of the fold).  I wanted to include that in the photo, but it came off the bolt upsidedown.  So I just turned the photo upside down.    Follow this link to a project sheet on the QT website.

New Phillip Jacobs (left) and Lonni Rossi (right):

More good deals on Free Spirit fabrics that we’re passing along to you.  Selections from Urban Garden, Girlfriends, and Flirt at just $8.29/yard!

Is anyone as sick of this grey rainy junk as I am?  Remember that QA is a bright colorful way to escape from the rotten weather!    Hope to see you soon!
~Joyce

Remember forever ago when we had an apron contest?  And I promised to post photos?  Well, better late than never, rigth?

Here’s one by Emily G:

Here’s Cathy E’s:

This one is by Maggi T:

Peg R’s apron:

And last, but certainly not least, Sylvia K’s: