The Fastest Moda Trip

At the start of this week we went on a road trip.  Cindy (mom), Tracy, Misty and myself piled in a Honda Pilot and set off towards Dallas.  We drove late Sunday night after the shop closed. We laughed more than humanly possible, ate yummy food, and arrived at the hotel without any limbs lost. There were moments when we were all too tired. By moments, I really mean 4 solid hours of laughter, yawns, and too many snacks. Shhh! If you ask me how much snack food I consumed in the car, I will not give a straight answer.

Nevertheless, we made it to Dallas late Sunday night, just to wake up EARLY Monday morning to drive to the Moda Warehouse.  Hello sweet mother-load of fabric! The amount of fabric shoved into this warehouse is incredible!

Customer’s quilt quilted with Sweet Shoppe.

Once we arrived at Moda, we grabbed our cart, and stormed off.  Okay we didn’t really storm; it was more like we all scattered, each going in a different direction.  I had control of the cart.  Someone had to monitor everything we were going to buy. 😉

 

 

This wasn’t our first rodeo, so we had learned the layout and what a trip to Moda Warehouse looked like. We knew we wanted the big cart and how they had the fabric organized.

Customer’s quilt quilted with Broken Glass.

I wanted Grunge. I focused there and just started grabbing off the shelf. It looked unorganized, but I knew the colors we had (thanks to pictures on our phones) and I was trying to fill in colors we needed plus restock our low inventory. Everything else we looked at was for restock or something we had seen and had an interest in. Many aisles I avoided, skipped, and just couldn’t focus long enough to walk down.

Moda Warehouse can be overwhelming. It is extremely tempting to grab one of each fabric and walk out with a Semi Truck FULL of fabric.  Remember, we only had a Honda Pilot to fill.  A Honda Pilot that also had four ladies and was making a trip to IKEA after Moda… Our space was limited.

Customer’s quilt quilted with Gems.

We have added precuts, Grunge, Christmas and Halloween fabric. We also added patterns, notions, and much more! You will have to stop by the shop, or jump online to see what is new.

 

After Moda Warehouse we jumped in the car and drove off to IKEA.  We can’t ever make a trip to Dallas without a quick stop at IKEA.  Many of the shelves at the shop are from IKEA, along with quite a few repurposed items.  For example, a TV cabinet holds our Minky, “trash cans” are spotted throughout the shop full of fabric, large planters, tables, garden trellises, and floating shelves are also stuffed with fabric around the shop.  I love walking through IKEA trying to figure out new uses for different items.

Customer’s quilt quilted with Ocean Froth.

After reorganizing our car to fit everything we found, we were off.  Take two seconds to imagine four ladies pulling too many bolts to count out of the car, just to fill it FULL… again!  I’m sure it was a sight to see… hopefully no one videoed that mess.

We made it back safely, and the new fabric is out on the floor.  It was a quick 24 hour round trip, but worth every minute.

 

See you at the machine (with new fabric),

Care

 

 

Moving, Quilting, & Sew Much More

2017 is the year we unlock the doors to Quilter’s Hideaway.  Every day we are one step closer and yesterday was no exception.

 

Millie moved into her new and final home at the shop yesterday.

 

Before we moved her I wanted to play with quilting a quilt using a custom design instead of edge-to-edge or a pantograph.  I still needed to quilt Playtime in the Past, so I decided it was the perfect starting point.

I knew what I wanted in the solid squares, but I wasn’t sure what to do in the pinwheel blocks.  I really liked the secondary circle created by the design I quilted first, so I decided to play off that with a circular design over the pinwheels.  The result was perfect for this fun, playtime quilt.

Once Millie was set up in the shop, I was able to finish two more quilts.  It felt amazing to be working in our quilt shop and imagining what is to come.

This quilt is a customer’s baby quilt for a little girl.  It will be washed quite a bit, so a dense pattern-meandering circles, was chosen.  I love how it adds to the playfulness of this quilt.

 

The second quilt was a Disappearing Hourglass Quilt done in blue and cream.  It was a gorgeous customer quilt.  I quilted this with a damask pattern.  It was the perfect, subtle touch to finish off the quilt. Look at those points!

Aside from quilting and moving Millie, we were able to finish this 20 foot design wall for use in the classroom. Who wants to be first to have their blocks hanging here?

 

 

This was a full and busy weekend: moving Millie, building design walls, quilting, and so much more.  We only have 32 days until our grand opening, and many surprises along the way! Make sure you are following us on Facebook and Instagram to be the first to know!

 

See you at the machine,

•Care

 

 

Packing Away Christmas

My husband started taking Christmas down yesterday. I on the other hand retreated to the sewing machine and pretended that he wasn’t taking it down. I sure love Christmas and all the Christmas lights and Christmas trees, but I’m ready for what’s next. 

In 38 days our doors open, and we celebrate our grand opening. I am ecstatic… And a little nervous. There’s so much to do, so much stuff to finish, so many new things to learn, and I’m sure there are items that haven’t even made it on the list yet.  I’m ready to tackle it all.

Yesterday while at the machine I finished three more quilts. They were all customer quilts and they were gorgeous. I thoroughly enjoy looking at each customer’s quilt and the different techniques  they use and styles that they have. There’s an endless possibility for every quilt made, and I love seeing what different people bring to the table.

The first quilt one of my sisters made. We settled on a damask pattern and it looks lovely.

The other two quilts for a sweet lady. They were each panel quilts with cute borders for babies. We quilted a meandering, stipple pattern on both of them and it’s just subtle enough that it doesn’t take away from the panel. I love the bright colors of the fun animals and cars on each of these. 

With every quilt we quilt, my to-make list grows. I think I’m set for a lifetime with quilts to make, and I’m sure that list will just keep on growing.  I sure hope I’m not the only one with this problem. How do you keep up with making the quilts you want to make and getting them all done?
I’ve been off work for a long weekend and I have another long weekend coming up, so the quilt shop is high priority. We had another quick trip to IKEA to pick up a few last minute things and will be building those soon. 

We have lists and phone calls to make this week and fabric is almost on its way which is very very exciting. I’ll be sure to share when the first box comes in. 

Our website guy keeps asking me if I’ve done any YouTube videos or live videos on Facebook, but I’m so nervous and I don’t know where to begin with that. I might be adventurous and try some type of video when we unboxed our first box of fabric. Would you be interested in seeing a sneak peek of what we will be offering? 

We love, love all of your ideas and we cannot wait to get our doors open and welcome you into our place. We hope that you’ll share your likes, dislikes, and wants so that we can fully become everything you all are expecting. This is a new path for us and we are beyond thankful to be walking it with such sweet friends. 

We hope you each had a magnificent Christmas, and we look forward to celebrating the New Year soon! 

Now, I guess I better re-focus and help repack some of our Christmas decorations. Here is one last Christmas picture-a quilt I made years ago. I’m sure dragging my feet on getting everything packed away. 

Sew you at the machine, 

•Care

Quilter’s Hideaway Has Furniture!

Hi there everyone! It is raining outside and we are supposed to be decorating our house for Christmas, but instead I am sitting here with a half-assembled tree thinking about how wonderful this past weekend was and writing this blog. I sure hope no one realizes I’m slacking ;).

 

Did you have a fantastic Thanksgiving? We had everyone at our house for a late lunch/early dinner that was yummy. There was more food than we could finish, lots of laughter, and the kitchen was clean by the end of the day. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I love how both of our families (my husband’s and mine) get along so well.  It makes holidays easier and life greater.

After dinner we went out to a few shops to see what the big sales were. We didn’t purchase much at all, but we saw quite a few baskets piled high.

 

 

Friday morning I went to one store and spent over an hour in line. After that, I decided I was finished with Black Fridayshopping, and we headed to IKEA with an empty trailer.

 

We spent about an hour walking through the store seeking out different items and options. Then, we found a spot to sit and regroup. We wrote down what we needed to look for in the self service area.  We realized a few of our items were not in the self service area, and there were a couple things we wanted to look at again.

 

With our list organized and our plan set we marched through the showcase floor once more and found a lady named Rachel to help with our items that were not in the self-service area. She turned out to be an amazing help and organized our entire list for us based on aisles and checked inventory. This is when we realized a few things were out of stock. She walked with us to find other options and once again helped us to get a plan in place. She was fantastic!

 

This time, with our list in hand we scooted down to the first floor-the self service area. If you have never been to IKEA, almost all of their items come in flat packs. When you arrive at the store you walk around the second floor to see different rooms assembled with their furniture. Each item has a tag with an aisle number and bin number. You write down the information and when you finish you head down to the first floor and pull all of the furniture yourself. There are few exceptions where the staff will have items pulled for you to pick up after checking out (Rachel did this for us).

 

 

So with our LONG list, we found the elevator and headed downstairs. My parents laughed when I told them we would each need a cart, but it turns out we needed a total of 5 carts. It was crazy, but so fun and exciting.

 

We stuck to plan until we got to the chair aisle and my dad decided to mix it up. A last minute decision meant we had three different chairs on our cart. We also couldn’t find three of our originally planned chairs but it worked out for the best and we found an even better chair (in my opinion).

 

Loaded down and struggling to push the carts we headed to check out.

 

 

 

**I just got caught!! A certain someone just walked in and realized my tree is still only half assembled.**

 

After checking out, we waited on the last two carts with 11 more boxes then we headed for the elevator.

 

My dad decided we could fit everything into the elevator at once so it became a game and we won! We loaded the trailer and headed home.

 

When we arrived back in Bartlesville my husband and his family met us to help unload and start building. It was pretty late but we couldn’t wait.

 

Saturday morning I finished quilting another quilt just in time to head to the shop and finish assembling all of our IKEA items.

The shop is coming together and we cannot wait. It won’t be long before our doors will be open.

Remember, if you want to be the first with a calendar of classes, come see us at Gifts Marketplace on December 6th at Tri County Technology (Bartlesville, OK).

 

 

See you at the machine (but first I must finish this tree),

 

•Care