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

Some of you have already noticed our new shelf FULL of shop samples for sale in the classroom.  There’s all sorts of things on there, from an unfinished Aunt Millie’s Garden block:

And these quilts:

And LOTS more – purses, bags, pillowcases, wall quilts – come check it all out!

~Joyce

Better late than never, right? 

Here are some long overdue and mostly unattributed photos of class projects from the Teri Austin classes in early May.  Most of the photos are from the Sheers class (and I took all the photos and didn’t write down who a single project belonged to, so PLEASE feel free to leave comments and claim yours!).  Three are from the Rock Wood and Water class, two are identified and one is not.  But regardless, I think they’re *all* awesome!

This one is Margaret G’s (who kindly share the three photos from this class):

This one is Patsy D’s:

And here are all the unidentified ones:

If you missed the Teri Austin classes but wish you hadn’t, it’s not too late to get in on the Patti Culea classes next month! Creative Cloth Explorations is a jam-packed day of mixed media techniques, and Aerin of the Hurin Elves is a two-day doll class that is also much more than just your run-of-the mill doll!

~Joyce

Here are the last of the Market pictures.  I realize that most of them are not fabric related, but there’s still some fun stuff in here.  First is a picture of Patty Young’s booth decorated with her new line, Mezzanine, for Michael Miller Fabrics.  Also, check out Lantern Bloom by Laura Gunn and Summer Soiree by Paula Prass for Michael Miller.  We order parts of both groups..

This is a cool mural we saw one day while we were going out to lunch.

And here is one of our friend’s lunch.  I know, you’re thinking, why do I want to see this, but it’s one of the weird Pittsburgh things: steak and fries on their salads.  Next time you’re at Quilter’s Corner, make sure and ask Susan or Christine about their weird sandwich.

Here is a random, but cool sign.  It reminded me of the Sauer’s sign that is down on Broad St in Richmond.

This is the top of the convention center.  It’s got blue lights that make it look like it’s getting ready to take off or something.

These pictures are for my dad.  He called me on Friday and told me I HAD TO see the PPG building in Pittsburgh.  He said he’d always wanted to see it.  We drove past it on our way out of town, so I took bunches of pictures for him.  So, here you go dad!

There are lots of cool fat quarters and patterns in the shop now.  All the cool fabric should be arriving starting in August!

~Phoebe

Those of you who have been QA customers for a while will remember the incredible $10,000 quilt from two years ago, a quilt that QA staff and supporters made for the American Cancer Society’s Cure By Design event and  was auctioned off for $10K.    Click here to read all about it, and here’s a photo of the quilt:

Here’s the blurb from ACS about this year’s event, scheduled for August 14 at the Westin on Broad Street:

“Cure by Design is an event in which the local fashion, design, and retail
communities join forces with the corporate community to benefit the
American Cancer Society. The focus of this special evening is a fashion
show that spotlights designer fashions and, more importantly, the cancer
survivors who model them. Each model who walks the runway – young and
young-at-heart, male and female – is a survivor of cancer. These survivor
models are living proof of the strides we are making in the fight against
cancer, and their vibrant smiles portray a message of hope for the cure.

“The money raised at Cure by Design enables the American Cancer Society to
fund cutting-edge cancer research, early detection and prevention
education, advocacy efforts, and life-affirming patient services. By
supporting Cure by Design, you are partnering with the American Cancer
Society to help cancer patients in your community. Please join us for a
fabulous fashion show, elegant reception, and exciting live and silent
auctions, as we celebrate survivorship and fashion!”

We at QA are thrilled to announce that we are again participating in Cure By Design as volunteers on two facets of the event.  We will be creating fabric panels for the runway, and we’ll also be dressing a few of the models!  We hope that some of *you* – because we know that many of our customers are indeed cancer SURVIVORS – will considering applying to model for Cure By Design.  You might even be lucky enough to be selected to have some custom made fashions for you from QA!  Here is a link to the model application in pdf format; if you can’t get it to work, please click here to email us and we’ll send you a copy.  When you submit your application, please note on it that we sent you!

~Joyce

We’ve got all kinds of goodies on sale this weekend!  I’m not going to tell you about them all here – because I’m just like that!  – but here’s just a few:

- Clover Yo-Yo Makers 20% off
- Snap Sack Quilt Kits 25% off
- Tutti – the most WONDERFUL 50 wt variegated thread – 20% off
- Stencils – 20% off
- Smocking Plates – 25% off
- Clearance fabric – anything that’s not already 50% or more off, is now 50% off (1 yard minimum cut)
- Pattern weights, scissors, Soak, and more!

All sale items are limited to current stock and sale prices are good through Monday, May 25 (we’re open normal hours – 10-6).

Hope to see you this weekend!

~Joyce

Of course all those late May shipments decided to show up at the same time that we’re trying to get all the goodies from Quilt Market out on the floor. 

Paper dolls:

Rayon batiks including gauze!

Since there won’t be a new Amy Butler group for a few more months, we ordered the other colorway of Daisy Chain:

And this happy group of owls, flowers, and dots from Michael Miller:

The new goodies from Market should be out on the floor starting tonight – just gotta figure out where we’re going to put them!

~Joyce

First up is this really cool and random picture.  This is actually under the convention center.  It’s a fountain on either side, but the pathway leads down to the riverfront where there’s a nice walkway (kind of like the canal walk in Richmond).  I just thought it was pretty cool looking.

Next up is some of the awesome things that our teachers and employees have done for this show.  First up are some quilts that Laura Blanchard did for the Red Rooster booth.

We already ordered this line:

Mary Terry made this awesome jacket out of one of their new oriental lines.  We haven’t gotten to see the whole line yet, but I’m hoping that we’ll order it!

Next up are Betty’s awesome chair covers.  Next time you’re in the shop, ask her how much time she spends on each cover. 

Up next are some pictures of some of the awesome new goodies we picked up today.  These are some of the new Art Gallery fabrics.

Here are some pictures of the Bareroots embroidery patterns we grabbed.  There’s a really cool block of the month type thing that you can see a little bit better in the second picture.  We also ordered two Christmas patterns, the advent calendar and a new one, this camping one (that was for you too Amy!), two different tea towel patterns, a tote bag, and stitchery basket.

This is a new one from Terry Atkinson.  It’s a book of fonts that you can use in your quilts.  Included is a CD with all the fonts and directions on how to applique the letters.

This is a really cool tool we saw demoed in Portland last year at Spring Market, and she finally has them in stock this year!  They are prairie point makers.  She did another demo for us again today, and they are so easy!  You all know what we are like, if it’s not easy and cool, we won’t do it, but I might actually be enticed to do prairie points with this.  She also has a book that makes mitering corners seriously easy, so we grabbed a couple of those too.

This is just the cutest pattern ever!  It’s hard to see from the picture, but it’s got a bunch of appliqued trees.  And they change depending on the month, so there’s twelve different ones.  We also grabbed an assortment of their other patterns.

We also picked up the new pattern from Cindy Taylor Oates – Baby Cakes.  An assortment of the new Pieced Tree patterns.  Those are the ones that retail for about three bucks and use a lot of charms and strips.  The new ones are pretty cool…. From Perkins Dry Goods we grabbed some of her new smaller patterns as well as this really awesome tote with stars on it.  They’re kind of hard to explain.  From A Very Special Collection we bought some more paper piecing patterns, as well as an assortment of her new ones.  Small patterns seem to be in this year, so we also grabbed some from Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co.  From Maple Island Quilts we got the Wallet and Grommet bag pattern – it uses these GINORMOUS grommets that are becoming popular.  They’re about two inches across.  We also got an assortment of patterns at From my Heart to Your Hands, including this one (ignore the colors), WHICH I LOVE.  I know, you may faint with surprise now. 

That is just a quick overview of what we bought today.  We still have two more days to go!  We have a bunch of appointments tomorrow and Sunday, so we will actually be doing some fabric buying.  However, we did buy the new line by MoMo from Moda, which ships in September.  They are the ones who did the line Wonderland, which everyone LOVED (my purse is even made out of it).  Check in the shop sometime late next week to get a first-hand look at all this really cool stuff (although there might be less patterns by then because I might buy a bunch!).

~Phoebe

Yesterday we attended Schoolhouse, which is a series of “infomercials” about the latest and greatest patterns, fabrics, tools, tricks, etc in the industry.  So much to take in!  And when we changed rooms between sessions, we often got to walk across a “bridge” overlooking the show floor.  So here’s a preview of what we’re headed for today.  You can see some of the massive crates that a lot of the stuff gets shipped in.  There’s also some cool structural elements to the convention center.  I think that they’re mostly relying on natural light, which makes us very, very happy.  

Recognize the quilt in this one?  It’s a version of my Northern Lights quilt, pattern by Roxanne Carter, that is apparently in one of the special exhibits:

Last night was Sample Spree.  Basically is it a MADHOUSE shopping FRENZY, but it is an opportunity to pick up fat quarters of fabric before the bolts ever ship, or get bundles of one pattern each from designers, etc.  Usually we have to be somewhat restrained because everything has to come home on an airplane with us, but not this time!  We got over 300 fat quarters (plus one of the vendors is hold two big bags in his booth for us), and over 100 NEW patterns, books, hand dyed wool, Amy Butler Softwares, and the list goes on!  Here’s some of the take last night (yes, that’s a queen size bed):

We’ll be having a special post-Market sale next weekend, which is *your* chance to grab up some of the new goodies!  We’ll post more details later.

~Joyce  *edited and added to by Phoebe

You knew it was coming – Joyce and Phoebe are out of town therefore Pattie gets to have a sale!

Some of you may know that I started all this sewing business from a garment perspective. I love that QA is adding more such fabrics all the time. I am also glad that Monica has been teaching classes on garments and I know that we have another teacher lined up to do classes on other techniques (coming soon!). So, to tempt some of you quilters to venture into garments or to prepare for class, I propose a sale on garment fabrics! Since most of these are wider than our standard 44″ quilting cottons (which make good garments too!), I will officially call it the Tall Bolt Sale (thanks to Betty for the tag line :>). 20% off any fabric wider than 50″, minimum 1 yard cut. As a side bonus, this also includes minkee, wool, home dec, and wide backings! This sale will run through Sunday. I hope to see you soon!

Thanks to all of your for your generous dontations of linens for the YWCA Women and Children’s Shelter last weekend!   And congrats to Anne D for winning our $50+ goodie bag of prizes. 

Here is the final count of linens:

pillows: 19 (QA is making and donating pillowcases for each of these)
sheets –
- Queen flat: 8
- Full flat: 3
- full fitted – 1
- Twin Xlong: 1 flat, 1 fitted, 1 pillowcase
- Twin: 2 flat, 2 fitted, 2 pillowcases
Blankets:  2
Towels –
- Bath: 20
- Hand: 8
- Wash Cloths: 27

~ Joyce (from our Pittsburgh hotel!)