Yellow Strip Progress

Yellow Strip donation top progress
Yellow Strip donation top progress

Since I was zipping along with Scrap Dash, I was also zipping along with the Yellow Strip donation top. Leaders and enders really works.

I decided to use some text prints as the sashing. I had some scraps that were about the right size, so I used as many as I could find in the white drawer and then cut some from fabrics I have bought recently. The quilt is really coming together and I am pleased with how sunshiney it looks.

Admin re: Blog Posts By Email Again

Google will be removing FeedBurner from its suite of products. I don’t know when. They sent me an email some time ago and I thought I would deal with it later. Well, it is later, unfortunately.

Yes, you saw this same post a few days ago.

This means that if you get an email from this blog every morning, you will need to make some changes. I now have a list of subscribers and will work on subscribing all of you, so you don’t have to do anything. If you get an email saying you have subscribed to this blog, then click on the link and continue reading. If you do not get an email, follow the directions below.

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Cottage Quilting

Cottage Quilting
Cottage Quilting

On our way home we stopped in Medford at Cottage Quilting. This shop is not too far from Ashland, so it was the last shop on our way home.

The weather was awful. It was over 100 degrees when we stopped. I tried to find some shade for the car, but just ended up making us walk across the hot parking lot in the blazing sun.

You know what the non-quilting interesting thing was near Cottage Quilting? A grocery store sized Harry & David’s store! I have seen the catalog, but not a shop.

Cottage Quilting - June 2021
Cottage Quilting – June 2021

Fortunately, most of the world has air conditioning and the shop was nice and cool. What a huge shop! They took up two storefronts in a modern, one story mall. We were also fortunate to arrive when we did as they were closing the shop for a week starting the next day.

The first thing that happened was that the owner scared the living daylights out of me. He just popped up and welcomed us, which was nice, but unexpected. It was completely my fault, because I wasn’t expecting it. I have to say I was hot and tired from driving, so I wasn’t at my best.

Cottage Quilting - June 2021
Cottage Quilting – June 2021

The shop has TONS of various types of machines. After thinking about it, I think most of the shop is machines, though they have a fair amount of fabric, including the best selection of toweling (tea towel fabric) I have seen. They have a number of different colors. I bought some white for my SIL so she can embroider on it. I seem to do that whenever I go somewhere and find tea towel fabric.

Cottage Quilting notions - June 2021
Cottage Quilting notions – June 2021

I also liked the selection of notions, thread and rulers. Another excellent selection of both. I truly saw items I had never seen before including a small pair of Duckbill scissors.

The shop had more thread brands and colors than I have seen. I could definitely spend some money there if the shop were closer to my house.

Cottage Quilting - June 2021
Cottage Quilting – June 2021

The owner came up to us again and wanted to chat a few minutes after we had started to look around. This did annoy me. My mom can always be counted on to chat up new people, so I left her to it and continued to look at fabric and notions.

I would visit this shop again, especially with a list of notions and rulers I needed.

Cottage Quilts * Sew Creative Studio
1310 Center Drive
Unit A
Medford, Oregon 97501
Tel: 541-500-8071
Email: info@cottage-quilts.com
Hours:

Tuesday – Saturday
10 am to 5 pm

Finished: Scrap Dash

Scrap Dash Finished Top - June 2021
Scrap Dash Finished Top – June 2021

After years of hunting & gathering and months of piecing, Scrap Dash is ready for quilting. I have a date soon with Colleen to hand it over.

I really like the way this quilt came out. If I am diligent, I can see making a baby quilt, or small child quilt, using a smaller version of the pattern. It is really easy to modify the size.

Finished: Scrap Dash Back - June 2021
Finished: Scrap Dash Back – June 2021

I tried to go with a sea/water/ocean theme. I bought the fish fabric for some idea I had. Now I don’t remember the idea and I, clearly, never executed it.

I decided that, although I really like this quilt, I will give it away. My house is overflowing with quilts and I have to give more of them away. You’ll have to wait to see who receives it.

Admin re: Email Subscriptions

Google will be removing FeedBurner from its suite of products. I don’t know when. They sent me an email some time ago and I thought I would deal with it later. Well, it is later, unfortunately.

This means that if you get an email from this blog every morning, you will need to make some changes. Right now I don’t know of a way to transfer your subscription, but I am looking. If you get an email saying you have subscribed to this blog, then you know I found one.

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Sew Day – June 2021

For the first time in over a year, we had an in person Sew Day! It was GREAT. We took special precautions to keep everyone safe and followed the guidelines laid out by the church where we meet.

SIL#2 and I drove down together. We drove my little car and it was filled pretty well. We had a lot of stuff to bring for projects as well as items to hand in or exchange.

I mostly cut out projects. I cut out napkins for the YM, a pillowcase for the YMG (YM’s girlfriend), starting cutting out 3 more Sew Together Bags, which will be gifts, the Westchester Dolman shirt and a few other projects.

BAM Sew Day - June 20211
BAM Sew Day – June 2021

There was a lot of standing around and chatting. Even though most of us have been in touch over the course of the pandemic, most of us have not seen each other in person for months. Also, there are things people don’t really want to talk about in email. There was a lot of catching up to do.

Amy commandeered a table and everyone at the table worked on a quilt with Amy. She has been making slow progress on the piece for months (or maybe years), which is a gift for another guild member.

BAM Sew Day - June 2021 - Design Walls1
BAM Sew Day – June 2021 – Design Walls

The design walls were put to good use. These large office dividers make great designs walls because of their size even if  one does need some pins.

Joy-Lily came a bit late and worked on an improv block piece. I think she was using some of her hand dyed fabrics. A number of people worked on their Put a Ring on It pieces from the class with Latifah Saafir. The one in the photo above is Gerre’s.

BAM Sew Day - June 20211
BAM Sew Day – June 2021

I believe this was Christine’s first Sew Day. She worked on a quilt using the Quilt-As-You-Go method. The large design walls enabled people to work together to lay out blocks or see problems through fresh eyes.

Technically, it was a Community Sew Day. I didn’t work on donation quilts as I have Tim’s Improv piece and the Yellow Strip donation top in progress. SIL #2 finished a charity quilt from the last Community Sew Day. I really like the way it came out.

Peggy's Community Quilt - June 2021
Peggy’s Community Quilt – June 2021

Sue S created a new pattern for the Sew Day and Peggy made one quilt top using the pattern. This is a variation on one design that I have made with the 16 patches before. Just goes to show that nothing is new in quiltmaking. This design is made with all half square triangles rather than including Flying Geese, like mine does.

I might have made a couple of the 16 Patches in Peggy’s quilt. I love the joint effort!

During the pandemic, people have still been working on donation quilts. 12 were handed in at Sew Day, including several of my tops that had been quilted.

 

 

Various & Sundry 2021 #7

Other Artists

The Gee’s Bend Quilters are raising money to improve the lives and working conditions of their quilting community. Make a donation now.

Media

I recently took another class from Maker’s Mercantile. This was a color class. Though I am confident in color theory and choosing colors, taking a class is a good way to learn new things. During the class, they instructor used a site called Unsplash to find photos he could use in his presentation. The site describes itself as “… the Internet’s source of freely usable images.” I, of course, tried looking for ‘quilt’ – just doing a simple search in the search box. The photos that came up were beautiful, but there is a lot of scope for more beautiful quilt photos. I also searched for ‘Austria’ and found photos of places I know. In searching for ‘red-violet’, I came up with a variety of subjects which all included that color. I am impressed with the search engine.

Adobe Color site
Adobe Color site

The other site I learned about was the Adobe Color site. First, choose a ‘rule’ on the left, then move the arms on the wheel to your desired color. Under the color wheel, you will see the colors based on your choices. The colors are listed as RGB, but you can switch to CMYK, HSB and LAB, if you prefer. Use your fabric color chart to match the colors listed to fabric.

My guild was filmed back in 2016 and the video has just his YouTube. I am not in the video, but many current guild members are pictured. Many quilts are shown as well. If you want to see what our guild is about, take a look.

I mentioned Alex Anderson’s Stash building classes a few weeks ago. These are free classes on YouTube. She styles herself as a Luddite and that gets old since she is clearly successful in her profession and not an old geezer. I watched two and half of them the other night. They are seriously dumbed down color classes, but not without their usefulness. The first ‘class’ is about Value, Character and Color Family. This class was interesting, especially when she showed examples of different kinds of fabric and show she puts them together successfully. She uses a lot of tone on tones/blenders in these examples and doesn’t show many ‘modern’ fabrics. I think you could translate what she is showing to your own fabric collection. She also uses solids a bit throughout the series. The second is about how to use the color wheel for different results. The third is about how Alex buys fabric: quantities, etc. I like the terminology she uses for the different fabrics and she goes into that a bit more in the third class. I didn’t plan on watching the third class, but they lost Internet at the end of the second class so she finished up her talk about the color wheel at the beginning of the third class. The classes are free, but you have to watch the bits of The Quilt Show marketing she throws in. I did skip some of that, which was possible since I wasn’t watching it live and didn’t have much interest. Also, she shows pictures of her grandchildren and talks about her family quite a bit. In a way, these classes are part of the conversation Alex and Ricky are creating in the Quilt Show. They want their viewers to think they are part of the family. I respect that.

Books, Fabrics, Notions & Supplies

Those tempters ad temptresses at Maker’s Mercantile send me a newsletter every week. It is often easy for me to resist the fabulous yarn temptations, but this most recent newsletter showed that they have mulberry silk embroidery thread. It comes in a bout 33 colors, some of which are variegated. I’d love to try it. There is no shortage of embroidery floss at my house so I am resisting for the moment.

Ends n.8 Donation Quilt Finished

Ends n.8 Finished
Ends n.8 Finished

Another one of  my creations that was handed in at Sew Day was Ends n.8. I only have a bad photo, so it was hard to figure out that this gorgeous quilt was actually the one I made.

Tim, again, did the quilting and Mary C added the binding. I like using up the edges of quilts and this one turned out great. As mentioned in the previous post, the ends that make up this quilt came from the Stepping Stones n.2 quilt, I think. I also added more Bonnie and Camille fabric.

Ends n.8 Finished - detail
Ends n.8 Finished – detail

As usual, Tim did a great job quilting it. the swirls are a little different, but organic looking and interesting.

Purple Strip Donation Quilt Finished

Purple Strip Donation Quilt Finished
Purple Strip Donation Quilt Finished

We had Sew Day on Saturday, which I will write about soon. One thing that happened is that people brought a bunch of donation quilts that had been in process.

One of them was the Purple Strip Donation Quilt. Tim quilted it and Mary C bound it. I finished it in March of 2019 and gave it to Tim shortly thereafter.

I really like the angularity of the quilting designs Tim chose. The fact that he added in a couple of circles to the quilting really adds to the overall piece. One thing I always wonder about is what people think when they receive one of these quilts? Sometimes I wish I were a fly on the wall and I could know.

It looks really great and I am so pleased it is done.

Pacific NW Fiberarts Museum pt.2

Suspension Bridge Variation
Suspension Bridge Variation

This post follows the first post on the museum and focuses on a few quilts from the museum’s permanent collection.

I really like this Suspension Bridge Variation. The effect of the blocks is gorgeous. The colors are fantastic and the curved border is wonderful. The colors are really great. I love the slightly dull turquoise as a background.

I wonder about making this quilt? I’ll have to add it to the list to think about.

Suspension Bridge Variation- detail
Suspension Bridge Variation- detail

There is a lot of piecing in this quilt. I also notice that the blocks are not really square. Normally, I would expect the spikes to be in separate blocks and make the circle up by setting them together. In the photo, right, you can see that the blue pieces on the outside of the circle are not square. This makes me think that the circles were pieced, then set together with the blue pieces and white pieces between the blocks. LOTS of piecing. I would guess this was hand pieced, but I don’t remember if I looked closely.

It is another quilt by ‘maker unknown’. 🙁 Label your quilts.

Circle Applique' - PNWQFM
Circle Applique’ – PNWQFM

Another interesting quilt I saw was a Circle Applique’ quilt. According to the information, it was made in about 1900, but they think the applique’ may have been done earlier. I really dream about doing applique’, including something like this or a Baltimore Album quilt or one of the fun Piece O’ Cake** designs. As you know, I have done a bit of machine applique’, but it isn’t really something I enjoy on a grand scale. I do love the borders and circles on this. Something about the density of the circles making up the circle applique’ and the borders is really appealing.

Circle Applique' - detail
Circle Applique’ – detail

I will say that the blue wedges in the corners (see above) are strange. The museum says that “unusual and unexplained wedge shapes of blue chambray fabric inserted int he corners of the borders add to this quilt’s interest.”I wonder if a lesser skilled needleperson wanted to add their mark to an amazing quilt they couldn’t hope to make?

The density of the circle of circles makes the blocks look lush and complete. There is no wispiness here. The maker (again unknown – did I say to label your quilts??) really wanted you to see that circle – or she had a lot of little circles and was proud of her skills.

Baskets & Flowers by F. Rieke, 1930
Baskets & Flowers by F. Rieke, 1930

Another quilt that is part of the permanent collection was called Baskets and Flowers by Frances Rieke. It was made in 1930.

The interesting thing about this quilt is that the alternate blocks have a quilted design that mimics the appliqued design. It is like a ghost version of the appliqued blocks.

I also think the quilting in the border is amazing. I love feathered border designs and this one includes a beautiful version. The fabric used was 1930s prints and the information says that each flower head uses a different print. Feedsacks?? No idea.

Baskets & Flowers by F. Rieke, 1930 - detail
Baskets & Flowers by F. Rieke, 1930 – detail

The flowers also include a yo-yo. I am not a huge yo-yo fan, but think they are used to good effect in this quilt. Mostly, I think yo-yo quilts are too delicate, which is why I don’t like them. As embellishments, however, they can be very useful.

I didn’t notice if the fabric in the main part of the flower was different in each block, but they are different in this detail section.

The diamond quilted grid in the background helps the flowers stand out, especially the alternate/quilted only blocks.

Improved 9 Patch, PNWQFM ~1935
Improved 9 Patch, PNWQFM ~1935

There was an improved 9 patch in the museum’s library. I really like that design.

While different, the construction is like my MetroScape quilt. I think this quilt could be made using the same Sew Kind of Wonderful ruler, the Quick Curve Ruler**. The company may even have a pattern, but it will probably be named something different.

In this quilt, the yellow background pieces really make the 9 patches stand out. Also the circles show up really well.

Rosebud Applique' by EE Bryant-Lindeman
Rosebud Applique’ by EE Bryant-Lindeman

Finally, I saw a quilt that appeared to be machine appliqued. Rosebud Applique’ was made by Elise Eleanor Bryant-Lindeman. The quilt was hanging in the main hallway and was one of the first I saw.

The information on the card said that the quilt was probably made from a kit. It was also described as hand appliqued with a blanket stitch. I don’t agree. The density of the stitching looks like a zigzag stitch to me. Also, the blue strips appear to be machine appliqued on to the top of the quilt with a straight stitch. This makes it possible that Elise was proud of her machine and decided to use it. Of course, I am not a museum curator so I could be wrong.

It is interesting to see that most of these fine quilts have been washed. In this quilt, I found the quilting designs to be quite beautiful. In the third picture above, the curved and woven grid design is very appealing. It is echoed in various related designs in the border, first photo, above, which are also quite beautiful. I am thinking about whether these could be done in machine quilting/ longarming.

Unfortunately, the museum had some perfume or some kind of cleaner that was starting to give me a rash, so we rushed through the last exhibit of contemporary quilts and left. All in all, however, I enjoyed the various quilts and looking at different designs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

 

 

 

Scrap Dash Coming Together

Scrap Dash - early June 2021
Scrap Dash – early June 2021

I spent quite a bit of time on Scrap Dash over the weekend. I want to get it done and I need to get the left border on the wall where I can 1) see and 2) piece it.

I focused on sewing the vertical seams between sections on the top two rows. I needed to take up the seam allowances to make space for the last column. I also needed to be careful not to force myself into having to put the quilt together in rows. I think I have walked the line successfully, but we will see.

Cotton Cure Portland

Cotton Cure Sign
Cotton Cure Sign

My friend Amanda took me to several shops when we stopped in Portland on our way home. One was called Cotton Cure. It was a GREAT shop. It didn’t have the most fabric, but it has a really good variety and the presentation was excellent.

The quilt shop was in an urban shopping mall type building.  Shopping mall is not quite the right term. It was an older (looking?) building. You had to go into the main door and down a hallway to find the shop. The shop was three rooms, two of which were full of fabric and supplies. LOTS of bag making hardware and supplies.

Cotton Cure: entrance and True Kisses
Cotton Cure: entrance and True Kisses

The first thing I saw was the new Heather Bailey fabric, True Kisses by Figo. It made me think of my grandmother’s living room curtains. The shop had a variety of different cuts – full yards, half yards, and fat quarters. I think they had wide backs as well. I didn’t take very good notice, so I am not sure. I really wanted all of this line and thought of the variety of pre-cuts, but I restrained myself. I can’t stop thinking about the line, however, so I may have to buy the whole line. I am slightly horrified at how much pandemic fabric buying I have done, so we’ll see.

Cotton Cure: bag hardware cabinet
Cotton Cure: bag hardware cabinet

That big green cabinet was full of bag hardware. I almost swooned! It is a really cool looking cabinet, though.

It wasn’t super convenient as the drawers were hard to pull out and push in, but each drawer had a different type or size of hardware. I would really love to have a shop with a such a wide variety that I could see. I feel the need to stockpile when I see hardware and I never seem to have what I need when I need it. Clearly stockpiling doesn’t work. Is there a shop owner out there who would listen to me and my crazy ideas?

Cotton Cure: hearts & floss
Cotton Cure: hearts & floss
Cotton Cure: floss detail
Cotton Cure: floss detail

That heart quilt is on their website as a PDF download called Tainted Hearts. It’s fairly appealing, though I am working hard not to buy more patterns until I make a few of those on my list.

While small, the shop had a great selection of floss. The rolls in the center are Eleganza – the brand that makes Sue Spargo’s floss/embroidery thread. As you can see the thread is not on spools. The shop also had a lot of the Dropcloth Samplers, which I had never seen before in person.

On the far right of the cabinets, the shop had other embroidery designs and another brand of embroidery thread. I neglected to see what the brand was. It is interesting that a number of quilting shops are branching out into embroidery.

Cotton Cure: thread, cows & wool
Cotton Cure: thread, cows & wool

They had a lot of thread as well, but some of it was across from the embroidery thread.

The other item was a large selection of wool felt. I bought a few scraps at Pioneer Quilts for my egg project. I talked about the eggs a little in my post called Handwork Week. Wool felt can get pricey, but Cotton Cure and Pioneer Quilts both have fantastic colors – not just the primitive folk design colors: brown, tan and taupe. Those are not my colors.

Cotton Cure: wool felt & thread
Cotton Cure: wool felt & thread

You can see the wool felt better in the picture, left. They really had a nice selection of colors. Not great for turquoise, but look at those pinks and purples! The yellows and oranges are pretty nice, too.

This photo shows more regular thread, too.

The waxed canvas is in rolls in the basket attached to the black & white plaid wall.

The second room had more bag making stuff and a ton of notions. The shop had a good selection of mesh as well as a variety of different substrates. I saw waxed canvas for the first time in person. I almost bought some, but it was on the pricey side. Since I didn’t have a project in mind, I passed (for once!).

They also had the Clammy rulers, which, again, I haven’t seen in person. I didn’t take a close look at the patterns, but the tool makes me think they had some of Latifah’s patterns as well.

Most of the shops I visited had Tula Pink’s Curiouser and Curiouser fabrics. I bought a little at Calico Creations, but didn’t keep collecting.

The two tier rack in the first picture above is their sale fabric. This may not have been all of it. I don’t know; this is what I saw. Regardless, it was good fabric. Not icky novelty fabrics or anything.

Cotton Cure: workroom
Cotton Cure: workroom

The shop also had a workroom. It was a well used room. I suppose it might be a classroom in non-pandemic times. At the moment they seem to be using it for prep and a place to just toss stuff. We all have those spaces, right? 🙂

They have a longarm, but I didn’t see any information about whether they longarm customer quilts or rent time on the machine. I noticed that their Juki sewing machine was set up so the operator could stand at it. I have always wanted to try that.

I definitely want to visit this shop again and I will add them to my list of online fabric shopping websites.

Cotton Cure
133 SE 2nd Avenue
Hillsboro, Oregon 97123
We use the same entrance as Balance Fitness, so look for their signage!

Hours:
Open M,W,Th,F,Sa 10am-4pm

Contact Us:
By Phone: 503-747-6115
By Email: thecottoncure@gmail.com

Pacific NW Quilt & Fiberarts Museum

Gaches Mansion
Gaches Mansion

On my travels, I went to the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum in LaConner. It is housed in the beautiful Gaches Mansion. We showed up right after 11 and nobody had come to open it, so we walked around LaConner a little and that was nice. We found a cafe which had gluten free pastries so we stopped for a late breakfast and a little rest.

When we went back later, we found the volunteers to be super enthusiastic. They have a lovely gift shop, which you can peruse without paying admission to the museum.

The first exhibit, right off the entrance, was  called What If by Debra Calkins. It ran through May 30, 2021. The pieces in the exhibit “imagine the possibilities for a better, more nurturing world… if only we have the courage to address the pressing social conditions around us today. ” There was an audience participation piece where we could write our own ‘what if’ statement.

I really enjoyed the Inspired Settings: The Art and Collection of Matt Macomber exhibit, which runs through July 4, 2021. I actually confused him with Mike McNamara who I have seen speak a few times at the SFQG. I thought Matt’s quilts were restrained when I thought he was Mike! He finishes, at least for this show, old blocks into new quilts. The quilts captured the sense of time carried by the old blocks, but freshens them up.

Matt Macomber: Plinko
Matt Macomber: Plinko

We are working on circles in the quiltmaking class I am teaching, so I was attracted by quilts with a variety of circular motifs. The quilt pictured right is based on a pattern published in the Kansas City Star called My Graduation Class Ring. He said that the setting is an exploration of the streak of lightning setting. I am not a fan of the salmon color, but like the quilt in general. I really like the block. It has been on my list to try for awhile. Also, I think the salmon and jade green go together very well especially considering the era of the blocks (1940s).

Matt Macomber Bow Tie quilt
Matt Macomber Bow Tie quilt
Matt Macomber Bow Tie quilt detail
Matt Macomber Bow Tie quilt detail

He put together Bow Ti blocks into a quilt, which has some great details. One details was the way the fabrics were placed. He received the blocks the way they show up in the quilt, so he didn’t place the fabrics. Despite the bold nature of the block fabrics, the block background really highlights the individual blocks.

The background around the blocks (not in the blocks) and the way he placed the blocks in the quilt were excellent choices. In this layout, Macomber is, again, studying the streak of Lightning setting. It is subtle, but the viewer can see it once s/he knows what to look for. I like the border print as well. I think it suits the blocks. All of the exploration makes me want to make a Bow Tie quilt. 

Rosy by Matt Macomber
Rosy by Matt Macomber

Somewhere Macomber found 8 rose applique’ blocks from the 1930s. He used them as an exploration of a setting using partial blocks. I am sort of interested to know how he kept parts from unraveling or fraying?

Rosy, detail by Matt Macomber
Rosy, detail by Matt Macomber

I really like the border. It reminds me of some older P&B fabrics. It wouldn’t be an obvious choice for the Rosy quilt, but it works very well.

I am not a huge fan of partial blocks, but this quilt makes me look at it over and over. I don’t think it is just the border, the traditional border. I think one element is the partial blocks. They form a sort of implied border around the four complete blocks. I also like the 8 patch blocks towards the center. They further highlight the full blocks.

 

Check back. I will write more about the quilts on display from the permanent collection in another post.

La Passacaglia Finally

You saw in the past couple of Various & Sundry posts that I was selling my La Passacaglia papers and acrylic templates. I bought them in 2016 from MassDrop and I really did want to make the quilt. I do want to make the quilt. The biggest problem was choosing fabric. I don’t know why this was such a problem, but it was a daunting wall that I couldn’t climb over. I also wanted to finish the Half Hexie quilt before starting on another EPP project.

Pink Door BOM
Pink Door BOM

I did sell them, which is great. A woman in New Zealand bought them and she received them in a week! I sent them Monday and she received them the following Monday! WOW!!

I didn’t give up on the project, however: I am making the quilt. I am making it along with the Pink Door BOM. Their project uses Tula fabrics and larger sized paper templates. It starts in April. They describe what I get as “Your first shipment will include a set of custom acrylic templates for the Pink-Door-Size La Passacaglia quilt with 3/8” seam allowance. Each month, you’ll receive an installment of Tula Pink fabric, paper pieces, the exclusive cutting assistant, 2-pack of Sewline glue pen refills, and an optional coordinating Aurifil thread-set add on that will be custom curated to the fabrics used that month. We will also be sending special super-secret surprise goodies throughout the sew along. Lastly, we have an exclusive Facebook group with custom video tutorials to get you started off on the right foot, as well as a community of your fellow block of the month participants.” I am not providing a link, because the subscriptions are closed.

I have never done this kind of project before. I always, as you know, do my own project. I want my own look to the quilt, so I plan to replace a few fabrics with my own. I have been saving fabrics I thought would be good. I got a few ideas as I was perusing the Millefiori Quilts group on Facebook. I might implement them. I’ll definitely wait until I get the jist of the whole project. We’ll have to see how it goes.

One good thing is that the acrylic templates have a 3/8″ seam allowance. I prefer the 3/8ths seam allowance for EPP projects. I know that they will recommend glue basting. I have a good system going with clips and will try to continue with that.

I went looking for information after seeing some posts from the East Dakota Quilter. I saw a post about making the quilt that I thought was really good. Karen Tripp, who owns the DIY Addict shop (no affiliation!-just a happy customer) wrote about the whole process of getting started. I have to explore more of the post, but I think it will help me get started even with the BOM instructions.

I also looked for other posts and will explore those.

The BOM starts in July.

Quilting Foxes, Sedro-Woolley, Wash

Isn’t Sedro-Woolley a funny name for a town? I looked up the history and I guess Sedro-Woolley is better than the original name of the town, which was Bug, because of all the mosquitos. Regardless of the name, we still visited Quilting Foxes. The name makes no difference to me when there is fabric involved. I suppose the shop is in the old downtown area, though I don’t really know. It seemed like an old downtown area.

Cascade Fabrics front
Cascade Fabrics front

When we arrived, I was surprised to see two fabric stores right next door to each other. Cascade Fabrics has, apparently, been in business for 40+ years. It is more of an old time sewing shop. It had clothes patterns, fabrics on rounders and all the notions for sewing clothes. My Mom said it reminded her of an old Woolworth’s store like she visited when she was a kid.

Quilting Foxes front
Quilting Foxes front

We went into Quilting Foxes first. I had a bit of a fabric hangover from the abundance at Calico Creations, but powered through. This shop was really different than Calico Creations. It had fewer bolts and all the fabric was on shelves. I saw a number of fabrics I liked.

They had a large number of bolts from the Dit Dot Evolution line and I thought for sure I could get the grey I have been wanting. Once I got the bolt up to the counter, the grey had a brown tinge to it, so I passed.

Quilting Foxes: front of store
Quilting Foxes: front of store

The shop had a lot of Japanese fabrics and supplies. There were tons of indigo fabrics, books from Japanese authors, and Sashiko supplies.

The shop also had a lot of other stitching and embroidery supplies. They had the full line (or close to it) of Sue Spargo’s Eleganza Perl cotton. I almost swooned! I need to find a project where I can use the thread I have. The BAMQG Improv quilt isn’t cutting it for me.

Quilting Foxes: book wall
Quilting Foxes: book wall

The books which tempted me were bag books by Japanese authors. One was by Akemi Shibata called Sew Beautiful Quilted Bags**. I can see where one of these bags would take months to make. The embroidery and applique are exquisite. I would never do that work. What I love about the bags is the shape. The same is true about the Yoko Saito book** I bought recently.

I liked this store and would have bought more if I didn’t have such a fabric hangover from Calico Creations.

Quilting Foxes Quilt Shop & Gallery
822 Metcalf St
Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284
360-399-0324
shop@quiltingfoxes.com

 

 

 

 

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