Meet our friends, a new quilter and a long-time quilter

Good morning everyone,

Having a quilt store gives us many opportunities to meet wonderful people and to share our passion with them. This last week I was privileged to talk to two of them. One beautiful young lady has been quilting for just one year. She brought in two finished quilts to share with us and her arms were filled with several more that she was working on. Meet Carrie DeBoer with two of her newest quilts!


It seems Carrie is a very generous quilter. These quilts were made for Carrie's friends and her next project (a queen size bed quilt) is going to another friend. Great job Carrie--I loved the sparkle in your eyes when you were telling us about your quilts!

The other quilter has been a customer of ours from close to the beginning of our store--almost 30 years ago. She's taken lots of classes (in fact she is taking one today) and loves fabric. She was lucky enough to win a stack of batiks--over $100's worth last week at our Shop Hop. Meet our friend Joan Parpal!

Congratulations on winning so many fat quarters, Joan--I bet she's using some of them today!

I think I'll go wander through the store and classroom and soak up some inspiration! Happy stitching!

Lynda

Happy Halloween Blog of the Month, Part 5

Hi Happy Halloween friends,

We are almost finished with the applique and will be ready to start constructing the quilt. I saved the Mummy for last because I thought it looked so hard. In reality it was one of the easiest blocks to applique. The Mummy is just six applique pieces--head, eyes, eyelids, nose, and eyebrows. I sprayed and ironed the background fabrics (the darkest background for the Mummy and the green for the Happy Halloween words) with spray starch to stiffen them so they would act as a stabilizer. I used my lined white fabric for the Mummy.

Again, build small sections on your Applique Presser Sheet before combining the pieces together. For Mummy build 1 section: eyes, eyelids, and nose. After fusing the sections together, use the placement guide to fuse them into place. Mark all detail lines. I used my Sewline black pencil and a sunny window to see the lines. Fuse Mummy to the background.

Stitch all of the detail lines. I stitched the bandages with a straight stitch--I did not need to stitch over the lines. Be sure to bring all of the threads to the back and tie off as you go. I found a neat tool to help with this. It is a very fine crochet hook. You punch it through from the back to the front, wrap the thread around the tiny hook and pull to the back. It took a bit to get used to wrapping it correctly, but I love it now!

Blanket stitch the head. Stitch his left eye from the top right lid around to the nose. Stitch the right eye from the right side of his nose around the top of the lid and down to the nose. Stitch across bottom of eyelid and then the nose. I stitched his mouth with a very narrow and short zig-zag stitch. As you can see in the photo, I forgot to stitch his eyebrows.

Now for the Happy Halloween word panel. Tape paper pattern together and cut out on the trim line. Press it flat and then press it in half horizontally and vertically. Do the same to the green background fabric. The green fabric will be larger than the paper pattern. It will be trimmed to the correct size after the applique is finished. Pin the pattern to an ironing board and pin the green fabric over the top, matching all of the pressed lines. Place and fuse the letters from right to left, following the placement pattern that shows through the green fabric. Applique in place. My black letter fabric frayed a bit while I was sewing, but I think it added a little character.

Press the word panel flat and place it over the placement sheet. Mark the final trim line on all four corners lightly with a pencil. Double check that the measurements are 11 1/2" x 40 1/2". Square and trim using a rotary cutter and a ruler.

Follow placement sheets for trimming all 12 appliqued blocks or make a plastic template that measures 9 x 11 1/2". Place template over block with bottom edge of template along bottom edge of applique. Mark corners and trim with a rotary cutter and ruler.

Trim all 12 blocks and we are now ready to construct the quilt. See you in a few days!

Happy stitching,

Lynda

Rocky Mountain Fever Shop Hop Block Tutorial

Yeah!!!! This is our 10th anniversary shop hop! We have designed an exclusive (only our 8 shops can sell it) beautiful batik in 6 colorways. We chose our favorite colorway for the shop hop quilt. The quilt consists of star blocks set into an 8 pointed star. Each shop designed their own finishing kit.

We promised we would have a tutorial to help you make our shop hop block--so here it is! You will need to refer to the printed pattern as you watch the slideshow. We also have two classes scheduled to help you. One will help you make the 8 different blocks from all of the shops. The second class will help you make our beautiful quilt. Call or email for more information.

Here is our version of the Rocky Mountain Quilt Fever Shop Hop Quilt.

Have fun,

Lynda and Nancy

Happy Halloween Blog of the Month

Hello friends,
I got a new hard drive for my computer this month and have had to re-install so many things, so the Blog of the Month will be a bit late. Computers are wonderful and dreadful at the same time--glass half empty or half full--but so far it is taking far less time to post than before. See you soon.
Lynda