Birch Fabrics Shop

During the drive to Long Beach, one of our stops was in Paso Robles, which has 3 (!!!!) quilt shops. We tried to find the shop and initially failed. We were starving so we went to lunch  and then tried again to find Birch Fabrics, which has the online store name of FabricWorm. Due to the success of the business, the owner, Cynthia, has had to move three times in the past few months. We were about to give up finding her brick and mortar shop and move on. I spotted the address on a building, but not the ‘unit’ number. TFQ was ready to give up, so I said I would just walk around the corner and see if I could see it when I saw the sign. The experience was totally worth the hunt.

Birch Fabrics

Cynthia Mann is the owner of Fabric Worm/Birch Fabrics and she is the nicest, most welcoming person I have met in a long time. She spent tons of time with us, showed us everything, talked to us about our trip and her fabrics and upcoming fabrics and more topics than I can remember.

I never thought about seriously reviewing shops and creating categories within the review on which I could rate shops, but if I did, for Birch Fabrics, they would be:

Scale: (worst) 1-5 (best)

Staff Friendliness: 5

Space: 5

Fabric Selection: 5

Customer Service: 10

This wasn’t just a walk in and select some bolts, cut and leave kind of shop. We spent about an hour talking with Cynthia and her staff. She not only has the brick and mortar shop and the online store, but also has a line of organic fabrics which she is distributing. I like the way she has built her business and grown it organically.

I mentioned, here, a fabric pack in which I was interested about a month or so ago. I actually was able to see it at the shop and swap out certain fabrics I knew I already had. One of the issues with customer service, generally, I have is that people aren’t flexible. Birch Fabrics has priced their fabrics in such a way that customers can swap out fabrics from their fabric packs if one or two don’t suit their needs. Cynthia wants happy customers. We are happy customers.

Birch Fabrics Display Window

This turquoise sewing machine and bolt of fabric (defective, so they refused to sell me any, which I thought showed good ethics!) are in the front window inviting people into the shop.

Birch Fabrics Back Towards the Storeroom

They have a couple of interesting displays in the front of the shop, but the rest is fabric storage. Cynthia has the same kind of encyclopedic knowledge of fabric lines and designers that TFQ does, so they talked nonstop the whole time. I was looking at everything, entranced by the visuals.

Birch Fabrics Back + Storeroom

The space is awesome! If I could have any kind of space I wanted, Birch Fabrics space would be transported to a spot near my house and the shop would be my workspace. The space is light and airy, bright and clean. There is plenty of horizontal space for laying out and gathering fabrics. They don’t have a lot of display quilts and projects, which keeps the visual clutter to a minimum.

Cynthia showed us her storeroom on one visit and I saw a lot of packages destined for international locations. We had a big discussion about fabric choices and offerings. TFQ thinks that many shops are missing a whole population segment by not offering more bright and modern fabrics. Cynthia has a lock on that market right now. (BTW, I tried to get TFQ to write a guest post about this and many other topics, but she politely declined)All of their fabric are modern and bright. They put interesting packs together and move the fabric through their shop.

Birch Fabrics Back Towards Railroad Ave

Upstairs, the staff have the space for classes and are starting to have sewing classes for the local population. If the shop were near my house, I would be sewing there frequently.

Birch Fabrics Front Towards Railroad Ave

There are plenty of cutting tables and one of Cynthia’s staff, Arlene, cut fabrics for us and for orders the whole time we were there. She is obviously integral to both the physical and online businesses. Another thing I liked is that Birch staff are fast and accurate fabric cutters.

Cherry Red/Pink Fabric Group

Like the group I found tempting a month ago, the above group was also tempting. One thing I liked is that Birch staff puts together groups of fabrics by different designers that go really well together and will make interesting projects. In the group above, the scale and designs of the fabric are different enough to distinguish the fabrics from each other while maintaining interest in the potential project. I was filled with inspiration being in the shop.

Fabricworm/Birch Fabrics
1244 Pine Street, Ste. D
Paso Robles, Ca 93446
corner of 13th and Railroad
805-239-8888
fax: 805-239-8807
fabricworm@gmail.com

If you are anywhere near this excellent shop, I would recommend a detour to stop by.

It was hard to get to the Great American Quilt Factory. It is in Denver, but pretty far away from downtown. Unlike my last trip, I didn’t have a car or a navigator. Thus, I didn’t think I would make it out there on this trip.

On a whim, I asked a librarian who used to live in Denver about transportation. He and his wife had driven to Denver. We mapped out a plan for getting there on public transportation and I was set to go, but not convinced that I could make it out and back in time for my flight. Later that day I received an email from my librarian friend’s wife and she wanted to go to GAQF! Score! Wednesday, before I left, we drove out there and had a blast.

GAQF Visit #2 Fabric

Above are the dots I bought! I can’t really say fabrics, because they are almost all dots! The food fabrics are for my mom‘s quilt. The black and white large dots are for a bag and everything else is on spec. The dots in the upper left hand corner are really nice Ellen Medlock dots. I didn’t think I had ever heard of her before, but when I looked at her site I think that Kathy from Finishing Lines mentioned Medlock’s bag patterns to me.

I saw two books that spurred my imagination and my recent scary Christmas mania. One was Christmas with Possibilities. I liked some of the motifs. One was especially appealing: a star with a spiral inside. The other book was called More Joy to the World, which had a really nice Noel pillow pattern. I didn’t buy either as they were mostly pattern books and I would rather get them out of the library or used. Sadly, they are not available at the library and used the books are about $13. We’ll see.

GAQF: Patterns and Notions

Flesh colored Aurifil had been on my mind since TFQ mentioned it to me after she used it for one of her projects. I also found that I needed some white thread. I saw them at the shop, so I picked them up.

The Lazy Girl pattern was an impulse buy. It might make a good gift for my Grama. Being really poor at reading patterns, I didn’t look at the materials list. I always assume that, since I mostly make quilts, I have everything on hand. That isn’t the case with this pattern. I need a bottom and some fusible batting. When I saw that it scared me because of the Amy Butler experience from last November. I put the additional supplies on the list to buy.

One of the best parts was that Beth (yes, another Beth in my life!), who does embroidery and is interested in quilting, but hasn’t taken a class or ever made a quilt, left with three patterns! One was for a flannel quilt using a panel. The two others were for Christmas decorations. One was for wool ornaments and one was for an arty wool Christmas tree.

New Beth and I plan to get together so I can look at 60 year old quilt that has some damage.

Sidewalk Joy

On Tuesday July 20, I set off from home for the airport to pick up TFQ before heading south for a quilt adventure along the coast. We were headed to Long Beach for the big quilt festival there put on by Quilts Inc.

We were both excited. Fresh off the blogs from Spring Quilt Market, I was ready to see new things, especially some of the new fabrics coming out in the summer and different patterns and tools. With Quilts Inc being the organizer of Quilt Market, I was sure there would be a lot of new products! I was also ready for some inspiration and new quilt shops.

Our first stop was Hart’s Fabrics in Santa Cruz. I have been there at least twice since the beginning of the year and not much had changed since then. Still I was able to see through the normal things that get my attention such as dots, aqua and cherry red for fabrics that hadn’t seen before.

Hart's Fabrics

One theme throughout the trip was how I need to spend some time buying work clothes and how much I dislike shopping. I saw some great purple fabric at Hart’s (above – top right-ish/middle) that would make a great skirt. Anna Maria Horner’s Multi-tasker tote pattern was so well written that I thought, perhaps, her Study Hall skirt pattern would be as well and I could make that out of the purple fabric. This is such a huge leap for me. Keep your fingers crossed on that! I also bought some fabric to make gifts, but you’ll have to wait for the gift posts for more details.

I really wanted to see the Bella Bag pattern from Fig Tree Quilts. I saw a glimpse of it in the most recent Quilt Sampler magazine. I wanted to see the bag made up so I could touch it and look at the pockets. I never saw any Fig Tree quilts patterns at the show and only a few of their patterns at one of the quilt shops. I guess it was a good thing I bought the Heather Bailey bag pattern in order to hedge my bets.

Next stop: Back Porch Quilts. I have written a lot about that shop as I visit at least once a year. I recently visited during my trip to the Monterey Quilt Show. The shop, as I am sure I have said is light and airy. They always have new fabric.

I decided that I was being an idiot about the price of the Little Wallet by Valori Wells. Both Terri and Maureen have recommended it highly and I respect their work, so I decided to get it. I think it will make great gifts.

Back Porch Quilts

The blue fireworks fabric will be a bag. I will use the fuschias together in…something. The coffee fabric may end up as pillowcases and the red is one of those embossed fabrics that have a great hand. The store was in a bit of disarray and didn’t look like they had as much fabric as usual. They also did not have the Little Wallet pattern. We had dinner at a Thai place and spent the night in Monterey surfing the Internet and watching TV.

Will Use in One Quilt

Reds and Turquoise will be Used Together

The kitchen appliance fabrics will be napkins.

Variety of Oddballs

The next day as a long drive to Santa Barbara through the Central Coast. We stopped in Paso Robles at Birch Fabrics. That was a great experience and I will write about it later in the week, because the service, space and friendliness deserves it’s own post. I bought great fabrics there (above).

I have started not to sleep well in hotels and kept waking up with a backache during this trip. I was very glad to get back to my Pilates class this past week.

We stayed overnight in Santa Barbara. We ate at a great restaurant called Bay Roadhouse (or something). The food was good and the waiter was cute and helpful. S.B. started our hotel problems. The hotel in Santa Barbara did not have a room for us and had to ‘upgrade’ us. Sadly the upgrade did not include two beds and the room was really loud. Even with earplugs, I woke up several times during the night. The hotel in Long Beach overbooked (for the second year in a row) and also didn’t have the a room with two beds. In my opinion, overbooking a certain kind of room one year is bad, but doing it a second year exhibits corporate greed, pure and simple.

The show was in a large space. The quilts were really well displayed. We could see them really well, but the lighting made it hard to photograph some of them.

Overview, SAQA Exhibit

The second quilt (turquoise with red, above) was a very powerful quilt by Judy Coates Perez. We stood and looked at it for a long time. I found an image of it and an article about it on her blog, so go and look at it. People were not allowed to take pictures of quilts in that exhibit. They had books available and I would have gladly bought one, but the photography in the books wasn’t that good. I got around the ban, because the above photo is an overview photo.

Overview of Antique Quilts

There was a wonderful exhibit of antique quilts. Quilts Inc. apparently has a wonderful collection of antique quilts. I was really glad they shared them with us. We really enjoyed the variety. One thing we noticed is that the variations (imperfections?) in the quilts made them more interesting. In that way they were very different from quilts of today that try to be perfect.

Antique Exhibit (Right)

The quilts were large, in many cases.

Silk Log Cabin

This was one of the most beautiful antique quilts I have ever seen. For a silk quilt, it was in the most amazing condition. It was called a Courthouse Steps quilt, which surprised me, because I always thought that a Courthouse Steps log cabin variation had three squares in the middle of the block. We saw a few other oddities in the documentation of the antique quilts.

See the stanchion? They were another problem with photographing the quilts.

We usually use the preview time to photograph the quilts since the preview night is usually much less crowded than other times during shows. We went through and photographed most of the quilts in about 1.5 hours. We were shocked! There were no quilts from individual quiltmakers, only special exhibits. The special exhibits were great, but I did miss the individual quilts.

Long Beach Show Purchases x2

The above photo shows all the stuff we bought at the show. We had lists and were prepared to purchase from vendors at the show. The amount of available merchandise was pathetic. PIQF has better vendors. I was really glad for the selection at Birch Fabrics, because I was very disappointed in the offerings at the show. It was really hard to spend money there. There was not enough fabric. Almost everything was in kits or fabric packs and the vendors refused to break up the packs/kits if we wanted a single piece of fabric. As you can see, I did not find the Bella Bag pattern. It seemed that the vendors brought all of the old stuff they wanted to get rid of, with a few exceptions. TFQ found a great selection of Aurifil at Jeff’s Custom Woodworking (great sewing, cutting and ironing tables and cabinets!). American Jane/Sandy Klopp was wonderful. Her patterns are intricate and engaging. We saw Lorraine Torrence, who had a large booth filled with her patterns, jackets and a variety of clothing suitable fabrics. We had a great conversation with her.

All in all, I was pretty disappointed in the Long Beach Show. I expected a lot more. Again, it seemed like a show of corporate greed. I wouldn’t go back and think that shows are starting to be a place where you pay to shop. I can easily shop online without a fee, so why should I go to a show if I am not going to take classes and don’t get to see a lot of quilts or new products?

If I were organizing a show I would vet the vendors carefully and make sure they brought their best merchandise. I realize that this would make vendors less likely to come, but poor quality merchandise also reflects badly on the organizer of the show so everyone has an interest in keeping show goers happy. I think that fabric manufacturers should be there to, at least, talk to customers, do make and takes or something.

Cotton & Chocolate Quilt Company

We decided to visit some shops on the way back. First up was Cotton & Chocolate Quilt Company in Thousand Oaks. They were at the quilt show. I don’t remember much about their booth except they had the ubiquitous kits and fabric packs. Their shop had a lot of great fabric that was new and fun.

Quilter's Studio

We also stopped at Quilter’s Studio. They had one of the best selections of dots I have ever seen. Their booth at the show was great. The people at the booth were enthusiastic and glad to see us. One of the husbands of the owner was manning the shop and it was fun to chat with him. My enthusiasm was waning a bit for fabric shopping at this point.

Cotton Ball, Morro Bay

The next day we went to the Cotton Ball in Morro Bay and went back to Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles. I thought it would be nice to go to a beach town and was interested in seeing a celebrity shop.  I thought the prices were high at the Cotton Ball (over $11/yard) and I didn’t buy much. I was glad to see Rob Appell’s wildlife patterns made up. They do not look photo realistic, which I appreciate.

I was glad to get back to Birch Fabrics. Birch was a much needed breath of fresh air. I needed to talk to some nice people and see some gorgeous fabric in a friendly space. We met Andrea, another of Cynthia’s staff and spent another pleasant hour chatting about fabric, looking at her new stuff and filling in the gaps on what we had purchased during our previous stop.

In Monterey, we went back to Back Porch and I was able to buy the Little Wallet pattern. They had some new fabrics,  too.

All in all it was a great trip. After the first day of looking at fabric, I really wanted to sew. I came home and started working on projects. There wasn’t enough time for me to accomplish all I wanted to and tomorrow it is back to the grind. I want to find the right pattern for some of the fabrics I bought and get started on those projects.

Recently BMWs have been riding my bumper, tailgating, cutting me off and generally behaving badly on the road near me. I don’t drive that much so my left brain is trying desperately to assure my right brain that it is not some BMW conspiracy and just some weird quirk of driving fate. My fondest dream were I to win the lottery is to employ a driver.

Sunday, I returned from a short weekend away in Monterey. I stayed with friends, spent Saturday at the quilt show, bought fabric, drank wine, was not required to cater to anyone’s whims or needs and slept long and soundly.

Apparently, I needed this and didn’t even know it.

Show Floor

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the show. They can vary widely. I wasn’t sure if I had ever been to the Monterey Peninsula show before.  I have some vague recollection of visiting, but very vague and no photos.

The show as wonderful! The space was bright and airy. The quilts used bright colors and exuded cheerfulness. the quiltmakers were accomplished.They had plenty of white glove ladies, an acceptable vendor hall and food right there. I could see the ocean from outside the hall and people were friendly.

I bought a very special and hard to find gift for my mother at the guild’s booth, which she will have to wait until October to receive. Her birthday is in October – unless I can’t wait to give it to her. I am not sure I can.

I was really pleased that went. I saw Jean, Maureen, Terri and Robin, which is always a pleasure. Jean had a circle quilt that made me less disheartened about the circle quilt I have been contemplating. In general, I was inspired to go home and sew.

Bag Rack

This is a great idea. I love it that they had a special exhibit of bags made from the Circle Bag pattern by Square Rose. I have been looking at the wonderful bags I have been making and wishing that quilt shows would have a sewn accessories or tote bag category. I realize that quilt shows are QUILT shows, but so many people are sewing other things, too.

Who Needs an Aquarium?

I am always hard pressed to choose my favorite quilt, but I think the above it is. The fish look happy. There is plenty of turquoise and a lot to look at. It is by Mary Ellen Parsons, who I believe came to the Pamela Allen class at CQFA.

This mini retreat helped me over another hump of the illness and gave me my creativity back. I needed some extra sleep in a big comfy bed and didn’t realize it. I sleep well and for a reasonable length of time most nights. On the weekends, however, when I don’t have to wake up to the alarm, I often wake to the sound of the Wii beeping. I like to get up early, but often stay up late to find some quiet time and then don’t get up early. I went to bed early and got up early both days, read a lot of magazines and still got to chat with my friends and get where I needed to go in a timely manner.

Seeing so much color, fondling fabric and reading about fabulous fiber reset my creativity button. Not sewing for 11 days (mostly) when I was sick turned off the creativity button for some reason.  I knew that this week would be busy, so I decided that my goal would make some straps for a bag and haul out the pattern I bought at Hart’s in January.

I saw a dirt heap shaped like Jabba the Hut.

I saw sparkling water in the bay, in a slough and in an estuary.

I saw a spider about the size of a 50 cent piece.

BMWs were redeemed when I was invited to ride in a BMW 300 series hard top convertible. It was an awesome car and I can understand why their drivers might be frustrated to be behind my modest, imported 10 year old car.

We spent the weekend on the North Coast. I wasn’t excited about going, but, for various reasons, agreed and was glad I did. The North Coast is beautiful and I found as the car left the City behind and my eyes took in more green than concrete and metal, I felt calmer and more relaxed than I had in awhile.

To prepare for the trip, I looked up quilt shops in the area and came up with four. On the way up, we also saw a shop in Laytonville called Fat Quail Quilts that got good reviews from the other shop owners, but I wasn’t able to stop.

Fabrics from North Coast Weekend

We did stop at Kim’s Fortuna Fabric and Crafts, Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop in Ferndale, Scottie Dog Quilts and Ocean Wave Quilts, both in Eureka. The first shop I visited was Kim’s Fortuna Fabric and Crafts. It is in a strip mall (a nice one) off of Rohnerville Road and Main Street right as Main Street turns into Fortuna Blvd. I am telling you this because I had to call since I couldn’t find it by driving up and down Main Street.

It is a nice store with a good selection of fabrics at about $8.99 a yard. the woman behind the counter was helpful and friendly. They also have yarn and other craft supplies. there was a Tumbling Block class going on while I was there and the teacher has quite a selection of classes going on during the next few months. I bought 3 flannels I like to use to make some receiving blankets (top 3 fabrics, above).

Food Fabrics for Mom

I bought some food  fabrics for my mom for one of her quilts and a couple of dots for myself. I saw a pink and white flower print that went with a black and white and a stripe. The three of them would have made a fabulous Anna Maria Multi-tasker tote, but I resisted. I have a full box of tote bag fabrics and need to make a few tote bags before I buy more fabric.

Ferndale Victorian

Ferndale Victorian

Ferndale Victorian

Ferndale Victorian

Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop

Famous last words, however, after I stopped in at Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop in Ferndale. Ferndale is a cute little town off the beaten path with gorgeous buildings on its Victorian Main Street. Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop had a very chatty man sitting behind the counter when I walked in. He turned out to be the owner’s husband. They had fabulous fabrics and I succumbed, including two tote bag fabrics.

Kaffe Fassett tote fabric

Kaffe Fassett tote fabric + inside dots

The store was really bright and cheerful and I think that was part of the attraction. I think it was my favorite quilt of the four I visited. The 2 tote bag fabrics are Kaffe Fassett prints. I also bought some dots, of course. The one above will go on the inside or the pocket panels. Not sure what I will use for the inside, perhaps a black & white print? I have plenty already.

After Ferndale we went up to Eureka to see Scottie Dog and Ocean Waves. Scottie Dog Quilts was a nice shop as well. I am amazed at what quilt shop owners can cram into a small space. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t feel crowded in Scottie Dog, but it wasn’t Best Buy either. I bought more dots and a conversational on turquoise with coffee cups that I want to use on the back of the Tarts (see above on the left, 4th from the top).

Scottie Dog Quilts had 2 diamond quilts hanging on their wall. I asked if they had the ruler or template they used to make it and the shopkeeper said that they used the Accucut. I never considered that machine as an option for me, but that offhand comment opened up a whole new world for me. Cutting diamonds for the FOTY 2010 would be absolutely no problem, however. Hhmm. I wouldn’t buy that machine just to make one quilt, but I will look around and see if a shop has it and I could try it. I have a lot of questions:

• do they have the sized diamonds I have started to cut?
• can you put one layer of fabric and have it cut?
• how large of a piece of fabric can you put in, e.g. can I cut a 2×6″ piece of fabric and cut the diamond from that or does the piece have to be larger?

Finally, we went to the Ocean Waves Quilt Shop. It is housed in an old Victorian house, which made it adorable, but also a bit dark. I bought a pack of charm squares and another food FQ for mom. I think I was tired of fabric shopping by then.

I find it quite hilarious to listen to what the quilt ladies talk about while I am shopping. In my travels this weekend, I heard about the tribulations of the world including prescription drug addiction, surgery, a sister determined to have 4-6 children though she doesn’t have the money to raise them and a multitude of Valentine’s Day anecdotes.

If you spend any time up on the North Coast, you won’t have to worry about a shortage of  fabric.

I have a lot of talented colleagues who also attended the quilt retreat. I realized, after I got home, that the pictures I thought I took only were taken in my head. Sigh.

Dolores 2010 #1

Dolores, for whom I made the pencil roll, is really making progress in her work. She takes classes deliberately from well respected quiltmakers and works through the techniques and makes it her own. For the past several years, she has worked in neutrals. This year she decided that she was going to add color back into the equation. This piece is from a photograph (right) and some techniques she learned in a class with Caryl Bryer Fallert. Dolores reworked the photo on her computer and then blew up the pattern, transferred it to freezer paper and used Fallert’s method of piecing to create the top.

Sonja, a new CQFAer was working with FabMo fabrics and just playing. She did a fabulous wave piece that I was really sorry not to have taken a picture of.

Sue and I are kindred spirits in that we both like to make quick projects in between our larger quilt projects. She worked on totes, scarves AND basted two quilts!

FabMo also has wallpaper -high end wallpaper – and Jan has been experimenting with folded boxes and bags using pieces of the free wallpaper. They are fabulous. She is also working on a piece based on the view of Nebraska from a plane. She worked on embellishing the circles she was making. Jan was sitting next to me and we talked about color, because she is finding her piece too dull. We discussed colors that would fit with her nature theme.

Julie's Hearts

Julie bought a pack of Moda turnovers and is making a fun and sweet Valentine’s Day quilt. She is trying to limit her need to cut and this was a great way to do it.

Julie's Hearts #1

Here is Julie’s quilt before she started on the appliquéd hearts.

Julie's Heart Art

Above shows her machine applique’ pieces waiting for their turn under the needle as well as the tools that are required for excellent quilting (glasses, rulers and coffee!).

Illuminated Manuscript Heart

I thought that the above block looked like one of the illustrations in an illuminated manuscript.

Good Color Combo Heart

This is a nice color combination. I am not sure the computer intermediation shows the subtlety, but it s great.

Skull Heart

We talked a lot about this block, because of the skull. It is the block that shows that relationships can be icky and rocky sometimes. Fun fabric, though.

Maureen tried the pencil roll pattern and came up with a nice piece using some of her hand dyes and some FabMo fabric.

Terri worked on getting some tops put together. One was an exchange top that included some really nice batiks.

Debbie was trying to finish her daughter’s college quilt. She was using some very jewel-y turquoise, purples and other blues. It was very rich looking.

Kathy is a member’s daughter. We haven’t seen any of her work before this weekend. It turns out that she does wonderful handwork. She is working on this Piece O’Cake design, do it mostly by hand. I like the color choices she made. They are a bit muted, but not murky.

Kathy's Piece O'Cake

She didn’t like the scallop border that came with the pattern, so she designed this leaf border on her own.

Kathy's Leaf Border

FOTY Top Complete

This past weekend was our annual CQFA retreat by the beach. I spent the weekend working on the FOTY 2009. I also relaxed a little even though I spent a lot of time hard at hard sewing. My body is rebelling a bit from sitting so much and standing so much.

Last few FOTY blocks

First, I found the last few FOTY blocks on my design wall before I left and I wanted to post a picture of them. I didn’t think I would use the one with the earthy brown (middle row, middle block) on the front, but I ended up using it.

FOTY 2009 in progress

I really worked hard on the piece. As with last year’s piece, there is a lot of sewing and pressing. The process, after I figured out the size and laid the blocks out was to sew two Zanzibar blocks together, press, put back on the design wall, sew two Zanzibar blocks together, press, put back on the design wall and then repeat that process 133 times. Once I sewed sets of blocks together, then I sewed two sets of two blocks together to make a set of four. I did that approximately 67 times. Since I wasn’t in my own workroom I had to walk around my table, past another table and into the corner to get to the iron. The distance was inconvenient, but also good, because it forced me to stretch my body. Putting the top together was a lot of rote sewing, but it was the perfect project for the retreat.

I did a few things differently this year. One was to count up the blocks and try to make a plan as to how I would lay them out before I arrived at the retreat location and was standing in front of my design wall.  I knew I had 225 blocks, so I thought I would lay them out in a 15×15 format. What I didn’t take into the consideration was the size of the portable design wall. If I placed 15 blocks down, 3 of them were on the floor. I didn’t want to work with blocks on the floor even though I could have. It is hard to photograph the in progress piece. It is easy to forget some of the blocks, etc. I reconfigured the layout and ended up with, I believe, 12 down and 19 across. I prefer a rectangular layout anyway so it worked out. I needed another block, however, so the earthy brown one ended up on the front. In the grand scheme, it doesn’t scream brown out of the quilt.

Color Sorting

I also sorted the blocks. Last year, I think I just put them up in general areas on the design wall and then I had to move them around a lot. This time I sorted the fabrics on the table, put them in Roy G. Biv + white and black order and then put them up on the design wall. This strategy was a lot easier. I didn’t have move such large groups of blocks over and over. I had to move some groups, but the whole process was much easier. Below is a progression of how the piece evolved as I worked on the color:

#1 Blocks on the design wall

#2 Blocks on the design wall

#3 Blocks on the design wall

#4 Blocks on the design wall

Another thing I did differently this year was ask some of the other retreaters if any blocks stood out to them in an “I am out of place in this quilt” kind of way. Many of the CQFAers are really skilled designers, others are skilled colorists. All of them have something wonderful to offer if I remember to ask and listen.

I was looking at FOTY 2008 last week and found that there were some rectangles I really should have moved. It is by no means a horrible quilt, but I should have played with the layout a bit more. Asking for help was a great strategy, because people mostly liked the color work I did and I got lots of kudos, but some of the blocks jumped out at them. Funnily enough the blocks they noticed, for the most part, did not jump out at me. Almost exclusively, these were blocks that were hard to place – multi-color fabrics, conversationals, light backgrounds almost completely covered by various colors, etc. The CQFA group is great, because they helped me place the problematic blocks to their best advantage. In this way, I also learned.

FOTY 2009 Upper left corner

FOTY 2009 Lower left corner

FOTY 2009 Upper right corner

FOTY 2009 Lower right corner

I spent a good portion of the retreat sewing the quilt top together. Open house at school was today, so I had to leave the retreat early and only got some straps for my next Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote done. I really wanted to stay, but am glad I was able to have a chat with various teachers at school as well. There is always so much to do!

I meant to write about this sooner, but it just didn’t happen. I saw this Flowering Snowball quilt when I went to Back Porch in October.

Back Porch Flowering Snowball

I have to admit that I was shocked, because I thought that nobody was making that pattern except for me and here was a semi-local quilt shop teaching a class. I have to admit that I was disappointed, because I thought I was doing something unique. Call Back Porch if you want to sign up for the class.

When I went to the Kaffe Fassett lecture, we also went to the shop, where we bought a few things.

Back Porch Fabrics

I wanted to restock up on the Lonni Rossi fabrics. The line was long and as we stood in line, I saw this quilt on the wall.

Back Porch Log Cabin

I know TFQ will like it, but I also like the cheerfulness of it. I think the background is dots.

I thought today, with people out of the house, would be a good day to catch you all up on what is going on. It isn’t going to happen completely. I am going to do a quick update and promise more later. Promises, promises, I know. I have missing my blog writing, though, so you are not the only ones who are suffering.

I have a lot of photos to post and they take time to process. I don’t just want to slap a bunch up there. I have some fantasies of someone from a card company looking at my blog and then hiring me to share my photos so they can make a line of cards out of them. We can all dream! I know I still have a lot to learn about image processing before my fantasy will become a reality, but I do know how to crop, so I am going to do it.

I also have the Creative Prompt drawing to post for March 27 as well as a bunch of inspiration photos. Yes, I finally got my annual photo of a cheery tree in bloom with some wonderful closeups.

FOTY Late March Blocks

I have been working on the Zanzibar blocks for FOTY 2009. I cut the pieces for these a week or so ago, but just sewed them this morning. Some of the pieces were too long as I sewed them together, so I have to check my cutting and make sure I am not getting sloppy. That project progresses.

Infinity Blocks

I decided to call the above blocks (from the project with SIL) Infinity blocks because they look a bit like an infinity symbol. I haven’t been able to find a name for them, but may when I go to Always Quilting tomorrow. I used the scraps from the most recent tote bag I made for one set of the blocks. I heard from SIL, too, after sending her a sample, that the block looked fine.

If you didn’t listen to This American Life this morning (or whenever the most recent show is aired in your area), go and listen to it. The show is all about the effects of the current economy and stress. I like this show, because they seem to talk with regular people. In order to get away from my stress briefly I went south last weekend to visit my sister. Ostensibly we were going to update our scrapbooks; really we hung out, went to scrapbook and quilt shops and visited the Granny. I was able to sort photos from a trip I took that I want to put in an album. I am ready to start putting them in an album. YAY! I am going back on the weekend of May 1 to start work on the project.

Treasure Hunt Fabric

One of our stops was at the The Treasure Hunt, a shop the size of a small suburban house (NOTE: not one of those monster houses, but the kind your grandma bought in the 1950s and you visited all the time when you were a kid). It is located in Carpinteria, California (Treasure Hunt Country Crafts – www.carpinteriaquilts.com 919 Maple St, Carpinteria -(805) 684-3360). It is truly a not to be missed shop. Not only does it have a satisfying selection of quilt fabric, tools and supplies, it also has a knitting section and two small craft supply rooms. They have cheerful fabric there. There wasn’t much, if any, Civil War-baby poop brown-depressing fabrics. The impression I got when I walked in was CHEERFUL. Fabrics are organized by line or by type. Want to see all the colorways of a fabric design? They are right next to each other. They also had a dots section and a stripes section. It would be hard if you were looking for blue of a certain shade, but I loved-loved-loved the look of the store. The people working there were very helpful. They didn’t have the turquoise/azure blue Windham Botanical Pop fabric I need, but I would definitely go back there again. I may post some photos later. The ladies were anxious about giving me permission to take photos, so they said they would ask their boss and get back to me. We’ll see.

Blue Island Quilts is also nearby, but I didn’t go there. Maybe next time.

When I got the above fabrics home, I laid them on the floor and think I will use all of those in the bottom row except for the black-on-whites in one project. Not sure what yet, but something. I love the way they look together. It is also a different color scheme than I normally work with. I’ll probably have to add more fabrics to it (a lavendar, maybe?), but it is a wonderful and inspiring start to a project.

As of yesterday, I am also no longer a small business owner. This means that I only have one job after 7 years of consulting alongside my regular job. I finally got a full night’s sleep last night (the stress was really doing me in), which is exciting in itself. I am excited to work on what comes next…writing?? quilt project designs??? I am wanting to get back to my career counseling to move the project along. That will have to wait, but I will do my exercises and make progress.  You can bet that whatever it is will involve more quiltmaking!!!

Color Me Quilts fabrics

After the sale, I stopped in at Color Me Quilts (Color Me Quilts & More, 37495 Niles Blvd, 792-6567), which was in a perfect location to relieve some stress yesterday morning. I bought the stripe to go with the fabrics from The Treasure Hunt for the pink and brown project. The dots are, well, dots and how can I pass them up? I think they will go well with the cherries for the blue and pink project I am also planning. the blue dot will work well in Patrick’s quilt and the Pineapple. Cheerful, cheerful fabrics.

It is never too early to be thinking about gift bags, so I found some Christmas fabrics on sale and bought some of those to make gift bags for the holidays.

Future Bags

I am not a huge fan of Laurel Burch, but I don’t dislike her fabrics, either. The colors are a bit nontraditional, which I like. I saw a lovely white Christmas fabric, but it was too see through to effectively hide gifts, so I passed on it.

For now, thought I have to go sew a bit and get ready for the rest of the afternoon. Thanks for reading and for your comments!

The second CQFA Retreat was the weekend of January 25, 2009 (read about the first retreat here). What a great weekend for sewing. You have already seen my completed top, FOTY 2008, but I thought I would share some of the highlights of the trip and other people’s projects with you. I highly recommend going on a weekend retreat once in a while, especially if you normally don’t get several hours of uninterrupted time to do your sewing.

On Saturday, I went out for a walk and to get some food and saw this flower, which I thought might make a nice sketch or a “Big Idea” for a quilt.

Terri, a talented writer whose books you should go out and buy right now, is also a talented quiltmaker. Above is her Kaleidoscope project. Since I had recently completed the Eye Spy top, I gave her some unsolicited advice on putting the top together. One of the things that I enjoy about the retreat is that I like seeing what people are making. Terri uses a very different color palette than I do, but it was great to see how she worked on the hexagons.

CQFA has a free fabric connection. Julie went and got some free fabric and made the above couch throw out of it. I love the cabbage rose feel that this top has, mostly because it is not too sickly sweet.

I didn’t crop the photo above, because I wanted you to see the set up. Julie and I were working at the table on the left side of the photo. You can see FOTY 2008 on my portable design wall in the background. Dolores was working on the right. We had nice big tables to work on.

Dolores, the organizer, had a goal of getting to know everyone better. Last year people did introductions and everyone talked about how they got into quiltmaking. This year she asked everyone to talk about what inspires them. Above is a picture of everyone gathering around one person’s work.

Debbie talked about taking a summer course at Cabrillo College with Richard Elliott. The class was called something like Frankenstein Fabric and they learned to manipulate fabric in new and interesting ways. The fabric above has been manipulated so that it has little puffs all over it.

The fabric has a high polyester content. Debbie does really interesting things with fiber and is very involved with SAQA.

All in all, the weekend was a big success. I certianly got a lot done and was pleased to be able to spend some extra time with Julie.

While driving around Virginia checking out quilt shops, I worked on some Flowering Snowball blocks in the car. I was amazed at how much I was able to get done. I know two blocks doesn’t seem like a lot, but since these are handpieced, this represents quite a bit of work.

I also began thinking about the border blocks. Nothing definite yet, but I think I am nearing the end of this project. Stay tuned.

I bought the fabric for this tote at Capital Quilts in Gaithersburg, MD. The flower fabric appealed to me even though chocolate is a major color in the fabric. In making this bag, I realized that using three fabrics makes the totes much more interesting than just using two fabrics (outside fabrics including straps, pockets and body, which is separate from the inside fabric).

This is a tote that I started, what seems like, months ago. I, finally, was able to finish it in Maryland. I love Love LOVE the turquoise bubble dot fabric. The problem is that the straps and the pocket, which are pictured in the photo above, are camoflaged. I definitely see another tote with this fabric in my future.
This is the inside and I think the turquoise bubble dot fabric looks so much better on the Basix dots.

Normally, I don’t buy Christmas fabric. I certainly don’t regularly buy Christmas fabric at full price. I loved these fabrics so much that I couldn’t wait to see if they went on sale after Christmas. The colors and motifs are really fun and cheerful. I wouldn’t exactly classify the toile as fun or cheerful, completely, which is not to say it is ugly or staid and boring. I do love the idea of repurposing the toile idea into something new. As soon as I got home, I sewed the fabrics into Christmas gift bags and am looking forward to using them during future holiday seasons.

I started a cupcake tote made from the fabric I purchased in May at Clementine’s Dry Goods, but have not gotten very far. Photos to follow.

I returned last night from three weeks away from the computer (mostly) and some serious sightseeing. Much of the sightseeing I did was a at quilt shops, which resulted in a few pieces of new fabric.

Artful Quilter, Centreville, VA

Jinny Beyer Studio, Great Falls, VA

145 Art & Design Studio, Culpeper, VA: I really liked this place. It was on a cute, old-fashioned, walkable and homey little main street. The store had a warm feeling (I think the paint was shades of reds and oranges) with gorgeous huge crown moldings. Lots of interesting fabrics that I hadn’t see before and a wide variety of art supplies including a full complement of Tsukineko inks. Well worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood.

Quilt & Sewing Center, Fredericksburg, VA

Quilting Adventures, Richmond, VA: I have not made a secret of the fact that I am a sucker for this shop. Joyce moved a few months after I was there last and the shop looks great. It is has a cool feeling (blues and greens). I found plenty of pink there, so I don’t think there is a preponderance of blues and greens, but the shop exudes that calm feeling. The fabrics, quilts on display and other things going on (videos playing, samples of boxes, art journals and home dec to view) were really exciting. Joyce had a wonderfully inspiring Christmas tree skirt on display made from the Piece O’Cake book, Welcome to the North Pole. I may just have to make one, especially after I saw the perfect shape (roundish, but not round) at the Renwick.

Capital Quilts, Gaithersburg, MD. (first trip there): the weird brown fabric with the turquoise flowers became a tote bag. Stay tuned for a picture.

Capital Quilts, Gaithersburg, MD. (second trip there)
Pins and Needles, Frederick, MD: only fat quarters, because someone was with me dogging my heels the whole time in the shop. Bleah! Nice shop (what I got to see of it), but unpleasant shopping experience.

Various CT quilt shops

G Street Fabrics, Rockville, MD: they were having a 30% off sale, but their stock was seriously depleted.

I spent a GREAT hour or so with my SIL at Quilting Adventures in Richmond, VA (www.quiltingadventures.com) on Sunday. Since I was there last time Joyce has moved the shop next door to a much bigger space and it is gorgeous. It has the feel of a cool, calm space.

One thing that is great about QA is that Joyce only sells products that she loves. One of them is a new batting made from soda bottles. It is a light green color from the bottles that are green (like Sprite). It feels soft with just a tiny bit of stiffness. The packaging tells the purchaser how many soda bottles were kept out of landfills per the size of the batting. I'll let you know the name and manufacturer soon.

I went to the New England Quilt Museum yesterday. There was an exhibit of antique quilts from the Gerald Roy/Paul Pilgrim collection. Many of the quilts were Amish style-solids in patterns such as Ninepatch, row quilts with elaborate quilting. The quilting was gorgeous. Lots of complicated feathers.

Sadly, there weren't very many quilts shown; 30-40 at the most. The lighting was really low. Too low, actually. We could barely see the quilts to be honest. Very sad. I hope this is a brief lapse.