Holiday Treats Class and Displays!

Ornament Class

Don't miss out on a chance to relax and stitch with us...we've got a couple of dates for some play time with wool felt.  The class fee includes the pattern for 5 ornaments and wool felt to create two.  Bring a friend and enjoy some social time or make one for a gift and you'll be ahead on your list!  We have two dates set right now - Sunday December 6th from 10-noon OR Thursday evening December 10th from 6:30-8:00pm for $25.00.  Stop by or give us a call to register!

Ornament bulbs

We have some other wool and wool felt holiday patterns just in from our local designer Suz - these lightbulb ornaments are pretty easy to whip up and feature in your holiday decor or gift-giving plans.  

Reindeer wool & stitch

And in case you're looking for  items to put on your wishlist - we've got some great new prints multiplying on the shelves so stop by soon and grab your favorites!

Australian Fabrics

Canyon from Kate Spain for Moda

Loominous by Anna Maria Horner

Classics from Kaffe and Philip Jacobs

Happy Stitching - 'tis the season!

Palampore Tree of Life Quilt

Have you seen the finished quilt?  We and by that I mean Suz, finished her quilt and we have it hanging on display along with the pattern she created for us!  The pattern has some mix and match options where you can combine different border sizes and switch up blocks if you want.  It is all centered around the fabulous panel designed by Mary Koval for Windham Fabrics.  The panel has so many color choices you can emphasize what you prefer and the gorgeous toile border comes in three colors sure to meet your design preferences!  If you mention this blog post and want to purchase both the panel and pattern, we're offering it at 10% off this week!  

As with most projects - seeing them is always better in person, the colors and textures come to life and you get a better feel for the details.  The Palampore quilt is certainly one of those projects - as are these great wool pieces below.  We are setting things up for another wool and stitch class beginning in January - the perfect opportunity to practice some embellishing stitches on a wool applique project of your choosing. You can sign up and see more of the details here.  These two photos are for exclusive patterns Suz designed for us - they would be great on a project bag, pillow or framed on the wall.  So if you don't have a project in the works - we can set you up!

Wool N' Stitch Class

Join Cathy Callan for a six month Wool N' Stitch class beginning in January

And of course we have some great new fabrics to wedge onto the shelves - so you'll want to gather up a new idea or two so you can jumpstart your quilting year with something fresh and fun!  

Carolina Blues by Paula Barnes

Collections Nurture by Howard Marcus

 Little House on the Prairie by Andover

Little House on the Prairie by Andover

We still have a few calendars and special books and fun things to get your holiday shopping underway, so stop by and take a look at some new samples and displays! 

Keeping it Bright and Crazy

Almond Country Quilt Top

This bright new york beauty variation has been in the works for a bit, and the top is finally complete!  I have it in the queue for some quilting time, but that won't happen any time soon...but I wonder if one of these crazy digital prints (see photo below) will end up on the back of this quilt?  We do have a couple of kits left for the project if you have been thinking about it - it is a great foundation paper pieced project, perfect spikey points everytime!  

Skyline prints from Hoffman

Who knew that there were Alice fans out there....we have heard about collectors and fans and people that named their kids Alice!  We sold alot of our fabrics to a collector in Indiana that had a personal shopping fairy drop by the shop one day - but we have secured a couple of replacements bolts which should be showing up soon.  We don't want ANY excuses why you can't finish your challenge project!  

It's not too late to join, or to finish up a little something - so get those ideas transferred to execution, projects are due December 1st!

We are just starting to get crafty around here, looking for fun projects to make for yourself friends and family and we have these two fun items completed - the big white tag on the project bag, is so you can write your label with a frixion pen, then change it up when you want to change out the contents.  Pretty brilliant eh?  We've linked to the tutorial and pdf pattern here so you can't go wrong.  We've even got some fun colored zippers in stock so you can mix and match your project bags and favorite colors!

Project bag

May Chappell Project Bag Tutorial

Dilly Bag 

Judy Newman's Dilly Bag Pattern sourced through gnome angel

And of course - if you're thinking of fun projects or need to play with some new fabric - we have some great new pieces.  We've added to our Derse collection and now that several of you have had a chance to meet her and see her studio you will enjoy these fabrics even more.  

Bookends by Marcia Derse

Neco by Moda

 Elizas Indigo by Betsy Chutchian

This last collection coordinates with the Moda Frivols project #3 so if you want to acquire a little goody in a special tin this is the one for you!

PS we were here on Sunday, switching things up so stop by and let us know what you think!  

Market and Moda

Although I worked while I was in Houston at Quilt Market, the lines do get a bit blurred between work and play....I can't say that about my prior work travels at all, but this was my 9th trip to Houston and it was a fun treat to attend the dinner party for Moda, celebrating their 40th year.

The president, Mark Dunn had some great words to share with everyone attending, employees and customers alike.  Several Moda designers were in attendance and it was a festive event.  By complete luck of timing, we were seated at a table that included 4 ladies who held a unique place of honor at the event and here is a snapshot of their story....

There are 4 sisters and one next generation niece/daughter that collaborated to make a special gift quilt for Mr. Dunn.  They combined a crazy number of hours of labor (2700+), cross-country coordination (Florida to Arizona), secret access to the Moda fabric vault (who wouldn't want that opportunity) and much goal setting and task keeping went into the creation of this quilt.  The quilt was presented the day before market opened and represents an amazing snippet of fabric history for Moda.

The hand-applique includes a small swatch of fabric from ALL the fabric collections...ALL!  The stashes were combined and that's where the Moda vault was also accessed to fill in the gaps - a 2.5 inch square of each fabric was contributed.  I don't recall the specifics, but these ladies did own an impressive amount of the Moda vault amongst them!



Apparently 2 sisters have identical stitchery skills and they had the task of stitching all the Moda designers names around the perimeter borders.  Another sister took on the challenge to stitch the names of the fabric lines - onto the BACK of the quilt.  Here are some photos - look for more online if you want to see more of this project and it's story.

The quilt back

Thanks so much for sharing dinner and your story ladies!!
Andee Andriole, Candee Ferris, Cheryl Ann Edholm and Mary Andra Holmes