AISH visitors

These gals traveled all the way from SE Iowa and Illinois to visit us for the All Iowa Shop Hop! They even brought Elmo along for photo ops to please an adorable granddaughter.

Our 2018 Row

The Row x Row theme this year is "Sew Musical". We always strive to come up with a row that does not include applique', based on frequent customer request. This is our row:

This year, instead of the 36" row requirement, there has been added the option to design a row in several different sizes. Our row finishes 12" x 27".

Another fun idea, we have also written a pattern to convert our 12" x 27" row into this bag.

Get all the details at the Row by Row website.

OOOOpen Sew!

Can you believe we are already midway through June !?! Open Sew is this week, Thursday and Friday, at the Adel Library, 10 am until the last stitch is made each day.

Mark your calendar for July. The library is not available on the 2nd week and I will be out of town on the first week so, I've decided to cancel Open Sew for July. So NO OPEN SEW IN JULY.

Here are the Open Sew Dates for the rest of 2018:

July - No Open Sew

August 23 and 24 (3rd week due to Sweet Corn Fest)

September 13 and 14

October 11 and 12

November 8 and 9

December 13 and 14

A Jr Shopper

The rain did not keep Wren from shopping Adel with her Granny, Sue D.  This is our future. Isn't it looking good?

Show and Share

Jenny O stopped by to show us her Grunge BOM quilt. Looks great!

Dalla Co Fair Quilt

Wow! Right? These are the challenge blocks made for this auction quilt. All proceeds will be donated to Dallas Co 4-H programs.

Outdoor Quilt Show

Do you have a big heart marked on your calendar for this Saturday, June 16, 10 am to 4 pm? That is our annual Little Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in Adel.

A special exhibit this year will be Barn Sign quilts made by Quilt Circle of Friends members. See a couple here. Members tested these blocks, each picking their own fabrics, and came up with their own setting idea so this should be of special interest to all of you currently doing this BOM.

Deb S.

Lonnie K.

This event also includes a large sale of quilted and hand made items, a fund raiser for our local library.

Shop Adel on June 16!

New fabrics!

These sweet fabrics are flannels! 

And here are two new Christmas fabrics. Barns and trucks in the snow, always a hit!

Fall is next!

Penny White made this cute shop sample for us. This is the technique we will feature at the fall Ladies of the Lake Quilt Retreat. This quilt uses the mini Quick Curve ruler. We will have several samples of quilts using this ruler to share and talk about.

Catch Up

It's been a couple days since the last posting. We must be busy! 

The Movie Star quilt FQ gathering has been a bigger hit than any of us expected. Shops were advised to order two bolts of Grunge for the FQ give away.  It was expected that supply would last most of the way through the month but when it's gone, it's gone. 

Well, guess what? Many shops were out after just 2 days. So, now what? Each shop has been left to do whatever they deem best.  Some are ordering more Grunge to give away. Some are giving away other fat quarters. Some are offering discounts. 

Many shops still have fat quarters to give away and want all to remember - even if you get 1 free FQ, you are still ahead.

In Adel, we have cut more fat quarters and have ordered more Grunge fabric so we plan to have Grunge fat quarters for the Movie Star quilt to give away for at least the next couple weeks.

Quilt Circle of Friends

Time for everyone's favorite monthly post! Quilt Circle of Friends.

Deb S showed us her version of the Barn Quilt Sign Blocks. Remember, this project started with Quilt Circle but they only received a block pattern each month. They chose their own fabrics and setting. We should have several of these on display at our Little Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show on June 16.

Deb is also part of an online group doing a panel challenge. This is the panel she was given to start with.

And here it is after she prettied it up!

Deb also shared this picture. Smitten by the Pinterest bug, she hopes to figure out this design on a future quilt.

Kathy H, never one to shy away from a challenge, is making this quilt - - - all set in seams. See how the blocks come together below. This will be a fun quilt to watch grow.

 

Nancy H showed us this little bag, made for her by a friend with an embroidery machine.

And this beautiful quilt top she recently finished!

Here is Jackie O's ugly panel conversion. This started as a panel of placemats and she made this great quilt from it.

Jackie also shared this adorable X's and O's quilt she made for a friend, complete with a wide rick rack trim.

 

Lonnie K shared her version of our Life on the Farm quilt. She added a 3rd row and then adorned the corners with flying geese units. Nice.

Another quilter never afraid of a challenge, Lonnie just finished Gypsy Wife. Very pretty.

And this is Lonnie's version of the Barn Quilt Sign quilt.

 Celia showed us another baby quilt she made for a new arrival coming to her church.

And this fun quilt, finished up recently on a trip to Missouri to stitch with her sister, and our friend, Rozetta. 

 

Kathy H is preparing for her first grandchild! She made this penguin wall quilt to hang over the baby bed. The theme of the nursery is penguins.

She also showed us this lovely teal and grey quilt, originally made to give away but she is so pleased with the way it turned out, it may just stay in her own home. Also, please notice the lovely name badge Kathy made. She whipped that up just moments before the meeting began!

Bonnie N. showed us this block made for the Perry Guild exchange. So bright and cheery!

Marty K made this quilt from 9-patch blocks donated to the shop. She trimmed the outside edge of each block off and then stitched  the trimmings to a different trimmed block. The blocks are set on point with a sashing and a little pink square for the corner stone. Isn't this cool? It will be for sale at our Little Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show library fund raiser.

Marti also converted these vintage knick knacks into pin cushions for our sale. Just adorable.

This is a quilt Marti bought for $1 when out rummaging. She is also donating it to our sale. Plan now to attend. We have several really nice quilted items for our annual library sale. 

This is a new shop sample made for us by Diana W called Cat Walk. Available in kit, of course.

We were very fortunate to have Karen Thompson visit us and do a program on temperature quilts and afghans. First she shared this bag she made from one of our panels.

---- featuring a key fob.

Temperature quilts start with assigning a range of temperatures to a color. Then chart the high of the day wherever you are and convert that to a quilt in cloth.  

 

Karen showed us this afghan she made. Each segment is a month and is reflective of her time spent in Iowa as well as traveling to India.

This is a temperature quilt Karen is working on using flying geese units. Each row represents one month.

Last month, we talked about temperature quilts in preparation
for our June speaker. Nancy took right up on it and made this quilt to share. Each 4-patch represents the high temperature of the day where she and each of her 3 daughters were for one month.

She organized her squares by sorting them into little baggies marked with the temperature range they represent.

So, are you intrigued now to make a temperature quilt?

As always, it was a lovely  evening spent with my Quilt Circle of Friends. Thank you to Jackie O, our volunteer photographer.

Our winner!!

Our winner from the Adel Chocolate Walk prize basket drawing, Dawn Svec from Earlham. Her basket included a nice assortment of our gift items. Plan to join us for this annual event next year, Mothers Day Weekend.

Visitors

This handsome group of friends visited last week from Minnesota and Wisconsin. Thanks for stopping by, ladies.

Family Fresh kits

This has been a popular kit, as you can imagine. It's an original pattern for our shop by Kathy Hamilton. We quickly ran out of the light colored panel, using for 4 squares on the front and 2 on the back. The panel in this color is no longer available to order from Moda. So we re-created the kits with the darker panel.

Back. - Another option is to follow Lonnie's tip and make a third row for the quilt front, using these two blocks.

Here is a look at the fabrics in the new kits. The barn board print is the border in this kit as it goes better with this panel than the cow print.

There are just 4 of these kits left and then we will be done with this shop sample as most of the fabrics used are now gone.

We Remember

Salute to all of our loved ones, present and past. You brought us to the place we are and paved the way for our future. Bless you.

We are closed on Memorial Day to spend time with family and friends.

New Stuff!

Lots of new stuff coming in as we prepare for the All Iowa Shop Hop, June 1 to 30.

Isn't this vibrant?

These bright coordinates go with. 

And another fun panel. We have plans to trim the top half of this panel and use the bottom half for backing. That will make it approximately 18" x 18"