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

We have two new great class series starting up this fall (yes, tomorrow really is September 1!).

Kirsten Schuler (when you open the link, scroll down to see her bio) is very well qualified to teach our New Mama series, as she’s got two little ones in her house.  These classes would be great for the grandma who wants to make things for her grandbabies, or for anyone to make as shower gifts, etc!  There are several in the series, you can take one or all.  The first one is Thursday evening, Sept 10 – Car Seat Arm Pad:

Next after that is the Ring Sling on Thursday, September 24:

To see a list of the rest of the New Mama classes, follow this link.

Ornaments – we’re doing a 12 Weeks of Christmas Ornament series, starting Thursday evening, September 24.  Each class will be offered twice – once on a weekday evening, and again on a Saturday afternoon.  You’ll learn lots of cool new techniques, too, from folded fabric tricks to needle felting and foiling!  The classes are $12 each AND include ALL your supplies.  AND if you sign up for all 12 classes, you get them all for $120 (a savings of $24!).  Below are a few photos of the ornaments (you can see them all on the class page, the link above) – but photos really don’t do them justice – come check them out in person!

Please stop by to check out the samples and sign up soon!
~Joyce

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

Tomorrow is August 26, which means the next day is the 27th and the day after that is the 28th.  This may not seem like big news to you folks who aren’t calendar/date challenged like yours truly, but the point of all this is that our Finish the Bolt days are coming up, Thursday and Friday, the 27th and 28th, every month.  Finish any bolt – regular cotton, home dec, silk, whatever! – and get 25% off the entire piece.  Even if the bolt was 15 yards.    This is the BEST time to buy a quilt back!

Hope to see you in the next few days!

~Joyce

Last Saturday, I taught a wonderful group of ladies in my Dream Landscape class.  They did some AMAZING work – I’ll post photos of their WIPs (Works In Progress) in another post.  Catherine Etter was in my class; she brought along some show and tell of her wonderful projects, like she always does.  She’s a wonderfully talented lady.  And we got to talking….  ME:  “Why don’t you teach classes for me?”  HER:  “Because you never asked me!”  Okay, so there was a little more to the conversation than that, but I’m very happy to say that she joyfully accepted my offer and we’ll be plugging her into the fall schedule ASAP.    Watch for new classes on locker hooking, silk ribbon embroidery, and SO much more.  Here are some photos that Catherine sent of assorted projects, and below that is her bio.  We are very honored to have her as the latest addition to our teaching staff! 

Catherine Etter, mixed media artist, writer and designer has a passion for all things artful. She is renowned for her distinctive and intricate jewelry designs but is just as happy delving into stacks of fabric and fiber or mountains of paper and rubber stamps. Her work can be seen in hundreds of publications and can be found in private collections in Japan, Australia, Canada and across the United States. She has been presented with Master awards in Australia and innumerable recognitions here in the US. Her greatest joy can be found in her teaching, sharing and inspiring others in whatever medium makes their heart sing. She is forever evolving, ever vigil in her quest for knowledge and creativity. She is above all else – The Mindful Spirit.

~Joyce

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

Sarah’s mother was kind enough to send us more photos from Cure by Design.  Here’s a link to our previous post about Cure by Design.  The outfit Sarah is wearing – skirt, top, and jacket – were made by Betty, and the bag was made by MaryT.

~Joyce

I’ve been VERY bad about posting customer show and tell – it’s just been piling up in my inbox.  Some of these pre-date the dead memory card, when I lost lots of show and tell.    Anyway, in no particular order:

This one is from just last weekend – a customer brought this awesome New York Beauty to share:

Cathy E. made this lovely locker hooked journal cover:

Estelle P. shared this awesome project that was the result of her sheers class with Teri Austin at QA in May:

A happy student from Cheryl’s Four Patch Lightning class:

More happy students, this time from Cheryl’s Lucky Stars class:

Margaret G.’s Kaleidoscope Star, also a class project – Michele has a shorter version of this class coming up soon, Kaleido-Ruler Techniques:

And last by certainly not least, Mary Terry in her clown costume for QA’s 4th Anniversary Celebration:

I just posted more anniversary pictures on the home page, too.

Okay, I think I’m all caught up for a little while.  So please, send me more!    Thanks to you all for sharing!

~Joyce

Did you ever wonder what really goes on at the Young People’s Sewing Group?  It’s basically a sit & stitch for the under-40 crowd.  There’s lots of sitting, some stitching, and TONS of laughter!  Thanks to Amy for the inside look at this group, which next meets on Tuesday evening, August 18, at 6PM.  Come join the fun, always the third Tuesday of the month:

~Joyce

We’ve got some great classes coming up in the next couple of weeks – one or two are late additions to the schedule that might have slipped past your notice.

Next Saturday (August 22) I’ll be teaching the Dream Landscapes technique by Rose Huges, for her book by the same name. We have a few of Rose’s quilts on loan, hanging in the shop, so be sure to check those out, too.

Also on Saturday, Jonathan is going to be teaching a class on working with knits – you’ll be making a knit top, like this one:

Our Paper Piecing class is on Sunday, August 23 – you make this Mariner’s Compass which is SO easy with paper piecing!

Also on Sunday the 23rd, the Cuban Mystery Party. The international mystery classes are always fun!

One of our late additions to the schedule is Laura’s ever-popular Strips and Curves class. The first session is Tuesday evening, August 25:

Please call or stop by to sign up today!

Oh, and the giveaway – leave a comment on this post before Tuesday morning (August 18) 8 AM, and I’ll use random.org to pick the lucky winner for a free Dream Landscapes class with me on Saturday!

~Joyce

Last night was the American Cancer Society’s Cure by Design event.  Some of you may remember the $10,000 quilt we made for the event in 2007.  This year, we dressed two of the models and sunprinted table runners for the silent auction tables.  We also donated our quilt from the 2007 Tour de Quilt to be auctioned off as part of the silent auction.

Our two models were Sarah, a ten-year-old leukemia survivor, and Cindy, a breast cancer survivor and one of our customers!  Betty and MaryT dressed Sarah – she had a pink linen top, pink print skirt (she’s a totally pink girl!), an adorable black and pink jacket, and a black/white/kiwi bag made from one of the patterns in the new Melly &  Me book.  Her mom promised to send us pictures of her in the whole ensemble – we tried taking photos on the runway and only got one of her back, and then after the event she’d already changed, altho we did get this photo of her in her jacket:

Here’s a photo of Cindy in the dress that Monica made from one of our rayon batiks, wearing jewelry that Monica’s friend Julia made for Cindy, especially for the event:

And here are the sunprinted table runners:

This is a photo of the Tour de Quilt quilt from 2007 that we donated – the photo shows it unfinished, but it did indeed have a binding on it. 

We at QA enjoy being a part of community events like this, helping to raise funds for cancer research and support.  We have a big event of our own in the planning stages for next year’s National Quilting Day – stay tuned for more details!

~Joyce