Sunday, November 30, 2014

Pattern Correction

If you purchased our kit, Winter Wonderland, please check the pattern. The instructions should say to use Size J on the Flying Geese ruler when making the Flying Geese units. If not using the FG ruler, the correct cutting for the Flying Geese units is 4" red squares and 7 1/4" white squares. Sorry :( 

Friday, November 28, 2014

Today!

Shop in Adel this weekend for our first Holiday Open House - - - The tree is lit, the fudge is made, the gifts are ready and - - - - all holiday panels are on sale for 50% off (during holiday open house only). 

Customer Show and Share

Abbie finished up her Strip Club quilt and then added this border.

This fellow showed me the quilt he made for his young grandson. Without prior experience quilting, he did a fine job of figuring it out on his own. This is intended to be a floor quilt to play on, including a track around the outside edge for his cars.

 Richard brought in these three quilts he is working on. The first two are two-colored bargellos using ombre fabrics for one of the colors.

And he is still adding rows to his Patchwork of the Crosses quilt. Lovely, isn't it?

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Time to Give Thanks

When we pause and reflect over this past year, we are reminded how thankful we are for our customers and friends. Happy Thanksgiving to all. 

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

November Quilt Circle of Friends Meeting

 These are the heart Comfort Quilt blocks we collected for Lonnie upon the passing of her mother. Lonnie likes the Northwoods prints so, that was the theme.
Every other month, we exchange snowball blocks. The color is based on the crayon selected by each member,combined with cream corners.

And of course, the show and tell - - - - 
Bonnie shared this table runner. This is her Archive Get Er Done project. It matches a quilt in a very bright and pretty bedroom.

Bonnie also shared this quilt she made for her new sewing room. She plans to use this room to host retreats for friends.

Joyce did a happy dance for us and then showed the huge pineapple quilt below - - - - done!
 

Joyce has been productive- Here's another she finished up.

Jackie shared this quilt, made for her ADM Alumni comfort quilt group. This is a Double Sliced Layer Cake.

This is one of Nancy's Archive Get Er Done quilts. She is making 3 of these from her grandmother's stash of Dresden Plate blocks, one each for herself and 2 sisters.

Nancy shared this quilt completed from our exchange of half square units in blacks and the color of the month.

And, While Nancy was on a roll, she also finished up this dimensional pinwheel quilt.

Deb thought she would get the jump on this latest exchange and just start stitching her Snowball blocks together. Now she isn't so sure - - - - -

 Deb also shared some organization she has been working on, bundling comfort quilt blocks into project size rolls.
And this is a large quilt Deb is working on. It's been a rough start with a bit of "unstitching" but, she is in the groove now!

Theresa finished this Walk About quilt for her baby quilt stash. Aren't the pinks and browns pretty?

And her signature backing - Theresa likes to piece left overs for the quilt back and always creates really cool backs.

This is Janet's Archive Get Er Done Quilt. There's a lot more piecing than this picture shows but Janet is very happy to have it done.

It gives her more time to work on big quilts like this one above and this one below.


Abbie shared this quilt she finished. The setting blocks are nursery rhyme blocks done on her embroidery machine.

We have been collecting pink and white nine-patches for a future Comfort Quilt. Sue brought a stack to donate.

Jan has been playing with her embroidery machine, creating holiday wreaths on hand towels.

This is a block of the month Jan just finished.

And another block of the month she just finished. I believe this one is her Archive Get Er Done quilt.

Following show and share, I offered a block exchange for our January Holiday Party. Each member will make 3 of these easy heart blocks for exchange and go home with 3 made by other members - Just in time to make a Valentine runner. Note - No Quilt Circle of Friends meeting in December.


To end our evening, we snacked on Pumpkin Bars.
























Turkey Time!



Tomorrow we feast and Friday, Saturday we host our first Holiday Open House. See you all then!

This is a new selection from Moda called Because of the Brave. To honor our troops, Moda is also sponsoring a challenge with these pieces. Get all the details here.


Monday, November 24, 2014

Sunday Sewday

Today started in the kitchen, baking pumpkin pie for Thursday and making 3 batches of fudge for our Holiday Open Houses, but, it ended in the sewing room

I had several blocks made for this quilt as a demo of the Double Layer Sliced Cake pattern. Today I set them all together. This pattern uses 10" squares and is a really fun and quick quilt.
Then I moved on to this project, also using 10" squares, this time flannels. 

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Mosaics by Chelsey

Check this Facebook Page. Chelsey will be in the shop during the Adel Holiday Open House, Friday, Dec. 5, 5 to 7 pm with a whole display of her hand made jewelry. Very reasonably priced, these are great holiday gifts.



Also in the shop that evening will be author, Phyllis Kaldenberg, for a book singing of her new book, The Quilt that gave a Hug.






Thursday, November 20, 2014

A time for giving - - -

It looked like Santa delivered to the shop but, it was JoAnne Schnebley dropping off these 7 baby quilts for the local shelter and 2 bags of pillowcases for the Conkerr Cancer program.

She said this is the year to use up her stash of gingham! Thank you, JoAnne for this very generous donation!

Deb from Iowa Comfort Quilts tells me there is always a big demand for baby quilts at the local shelter.

And this is, Deb Niehof, recently retired as Executive Director for NAMI  CI (National Association of Mental Illness, Central Iowa). Clients personalized these blocks and presented the quilt to her at the retirement party last week. 

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

New Fabric!

New from Moda - patriotic prints. With snow on the ground, time to start planning summer projects! This is really a nice collection.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

My Sunday Sewday

This has been a busy Fall as was evident by a look around my sewing room. I spent a big chunk of the day putting things away and cleaning. I also lined up projects that need finished up.
Here is the first thing I finished. This was a piece of burlap that Willow sent home with me about a year ago, after hand printing her three little ones.

My task was to trim and finish the sides. Timing is right as she has plans to place the kids hand prints on this runner each year at Thanksgiving as a reminder of what she is most thankful for.


I also played with this simple heart block which will be used for a block exchange before Valentines Day. Make one with 4 - 3 1/2" squares for the center and 2 - 2" x 6 1/2" and 2 - 2" x 9 1/2" rectangles for the block borders.

To get the heart shape, the top center square needs to be the same fabric as the block borders.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Quilt Circle Tonight!

Quilt Circle of Friends meets in the shop this evening, 6 to 7:30 pm. Bring your show and share and join us as we sit in a circle and share our quilts, stories, demos, door prize drawing and refreshments.  I just took a big pan of pumpkin bars out of the oven. Fee $5.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Sisters of the Cloth meeting


Today was the last meeting in our 2014 Sisters of the Cloth class series.
This month, we featured the Tumbling Block pattern. As members worked on their blocks, we went around the room for show and share. LaRue showed these sewing treasures found in a vintage basket that has been passed down through generations.

We invited members to bring vintage toys. Margaret brought her childhood doll which will be 82 years old this year!

Chris shared these favorite story books from her childhood.

Mary shared this vintage alphabet toy. The flip side has numbers.

Carol shared this quilt - found and finished.

Janet brought several cloth bags that have been saved and handed down from her relatives.

This is not an old quilt but still fun to see. Sue brought her Mystery Quilt top to show us.

Michael Zahs, from Humanities Iowa Speakers Bureau, entertained with a program about cloth sacks and quilts made from feed sacks. Very interesting!


In keeping with the Tumbling Block theme, we did demos of this Tumbling Block Hot Pad during our refreshment break. Ask for a demo when you are in. Cute gift plus can also show you how to make a stack of coasters to match.


This quilt features the three blocks we made in class this year, using English Paper Piecing.


Another fun thing this group has done this year is an exchange of nine-patch blocks. At each of the three classes, members brought 4 nine-patch blocks to exchange. Today, we provided this pattern, "My Sisters House" to use for their 12 blocks. As you can see, this is simply a flying geese unit attached to the top of the block.