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

 

 

A Long Overdue Update

Well, I jumped off the deep end for a moment and forgot to clue you all in. It’s been a little while since my last post. 

 On top of the quilt shop, I am still working a full time job. This week I had a business trip, so I did what every quilter would do and I loaded up my sewing machine in hopes of setting aside a few hours for sewing. Although my evenings were pretty full, I was able to start a new project. I like to think I needed a new project because I was in a new place. I’ll take any excuse to start something new.

  It isn’t WIP Week, so I cannot get in trouble. Remember, one of the goals about WIP Week is no new projects, though I often break that rule too. 

 

Anyways, right before I left I cut, and cut, and cut my fabric. Now all my pieces are cut and all I have to do is sew. This quilt is an old paper piecing pattern. I’m playing and learning, but mostly playing. 

I did not get far, however  I do have one fully finished block to share. 

I know I have several other things to update you on, but I always forget or jump around while writing. 

We had another warehouse trip this week, so watch for new inventory!! If you come to Open Sew Night tonight you might get a sneak peek as I input everything into our inventory system. Make sure you stop by. 🙂 

Boxes and car loads of fabric are a few of my favorite things. Of course, Millie tops this list, but they are both pretty fabulous.

Last week I ventured more into custom quilting with several wall hangings. They turned out really well, and I had a blast learning even more. 

I also finished a spectacular customer quilt in purples. There are even more quilts making it onto my need-to-make list, but I know I will never quite be able to finish that list. Instead, I will fall in love with each quilt that passes and enjoy getting to work with them for the moment.

A funny story; we looked high and low for a quilting pattern for the Kitty Cat quilt. The customer asked for paws or balls of yarn. The only paws I could find were obviously puppy dog paws or a tiger/bear type of paw. I couldn’t find any balls of yarn either. Finally, I found cricket balls. They really looked like balls of yarn, especially on a kitty cat quilt. I sent a picture to the customer and we agreed this was perfect! You never know what we will find, but I will keep looking until we can capture the look you are hoping for on your quilt.

Another update is that our first quilt class is this Saturday! The class is a disappearing nine patch quilt and we cannot wait. I have worked up several different sizes and the class is aimed at beginner level and up. Anyone can take this class and be successful. 

 I have finished the layer cake friendly version and I am working on the throw quilt/charm pack friendly version. I am using Ellen Medlock fabrics and I LOVE how it is turning out. Such a perfect spring quilt.

I think that brings you up-to-date. Don’t forget Open Sew Night TONIGHT! (It’s free!) 

See you at the machine (tonight at Open Sew!),

•Care

Airplane Projects

I always try to have an airplane quilt in the works. No, not this one…

 

My “airplane” quilt is my travel quilt. It is the quilt I take with me to work on when flying on an airplane, going on vacation, or going on a road trip when I don’t need to catch up on binding. It is not an actual airplane, but is some form of hand piecing. My first “airplane” quilt was started many years ago at a Residency fair with my sister. She had a knack for taking me fun places including Kansas City to join her while they worked a fair for incoming residents. In the evenings she taught me to cut my pieces using a template, and during the day she worked with me on sewing by hand- an entirely new thing, much different than sewing with a machine. I remember constantly grabbing the ruler and checking my quarter inch seam (or lack thereof). We cut and sewed and cut some more. It passed the time and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. 
 

Years later the project still sat in my unfinished project pile. I pulled it out again many times, but never quite made progress. 

The next time I vividly remember working on it was while my grandmother was in the hospital and we were celebrating her birthday. My grandmother was/is a key player in teaching me to sew. The amount of pillows we made in one summer while I was learning at a young age was surely enough to fill a gigantic foam pit at a gymnastics center. We sewed and sewed and stuffed until we were exhausted. We shared so many giggles that summer. Sitting next to her at the hospital talking about our shared, favorite hobby-sewing-was wonderful. I was finally making progress on my quilt. 

After I got home it went right back to my unfinished pile. I typically struggle with hand-piecing unless I’m traveling. I think the long to-do list at home is too much of a distraction for me to pull out some sewing and sit on the couch. I also like instant gratification and that is just hard to come by with hand sewing. At least it is hard when you sew about as fast as a sloth. Think the tag office scene from Zootopia—that is my speed. 

My sisters moved, life become even more hectic, and my unfinished projects pile became a mountain. Finally, I had a flight scheduled and I found my “airplane” quilt. I was flying alone to Kentucky  to visit my sisters and I knew this was the perfect project to bring along. I sewed and sewed until my fingers hurt, but this quilt was finished on the last flight home. A perfect, full-circle ending for the quilt that taught me so much about hand sewing. 

My next “airplane” quilt was an English Paper Piecing quilt designed by Mickey Depre. I’ve mentioned it here before, but be sure to check out her patterns. She is extremely talented! This row-by-row quilt was my first EPP adventure, and unfortunately it still remains in my unfinished pile.  

I did jump into another “airplane” quilt for my cousin’s baby on a flight to Disney World one year and it was finished and shipped in a fairly timely manner (a huge accomplishment!). 

I have found myself pulling out my Row-by-Row blocks by Mickey during my most recent travels. Maybe this year will be the year it is finished, but I am making no promises. I don’t like to race with hand sewing. I find that when I do, I just hate the process and sometimes dislike the quilt’s end result. That is not worth it to me. Unfinished projects keep me busy, so I will continue to add to my pile. One day I will catch up or give a few away, who knows.

Do you have an “airplane” quilt or a travel project? 

See you at the machine, 

•Care

14 Days!! 

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

Millie Hums

We went on vacation this last week and I completely checked out on technology. It was wonderful, but I am happy to be back!

I missed WIP Week for this month, but I did spend some time working on an unfinished project. I hope you did too! See my last post for more about my WIP Project. It was an English Paper Pieced quilt designed by Mickey Depre (Her patterns are fabulous!).

We flew back home late Friday night and yesterday (Saturday) I spent on a date with Millie. If you remember, we had a few boxes delivered the week before I left town. Those boxes turned into an amazing, APQS longarm machine. I AM IN LOVE! Sorry My Love, you might have a little competition.

Back to Millie- Her full name has turned into Millennium Falcon thanks to one of my awesome Brother-in-Law’s suggestions. For short, we will still call her Millie. The week before we left I was able to get her all assembled, we plugged her in, saw lights turn on, then I had to leave and drive back to my house. This was so tough! It was just before midnight when we saw her lights turn on, so we were not able to actually hear her hum.

The week was crazy and I wasn’t able to get back to her before leaving town. Thankfully, I had a great distraction-Disney World. Though I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about sewing with her every day.

Back to yesterday. Yesterday I finally got to not only turn her on and hear her hum!

At first, I loaded on a couple fat quarters to check tension and play with settings on QuiltPath, the computer program she is able to work with and we have conveniently named “Millie’s Brain”. Here is what we came up with.

After this was finished, I decided to work with a larger area and loaded a little over a yard top and a backing then played more. This time I didn’t have a plan and just wanted to try different things.

I wasn’t looking up tutorials or spending too much time fighting through settings because I am taking a two-day class next weekend. This was just a time to get my hands dirty.

The first row I was hoping to alternate a teddy bear and crosshatching. Everything went well for the teddy bear, then it moved to do the crosshatching, but instead of making a jump, it sewed the transition line. “It is just a test piece,” I reminded myself, though I was already looking for a seam ripper to mend this mistake. On the next jump from crosshatch to teddy bear I thought I could trick it and stop her right after finishing the crosshatch then move it to the start of teddy bear and search for closest stitch. In theory it sounded like a fabulous idea, but in action it just didn’t work. I moved along to a new row.

Another issue I came across was that sometimes after starting a block, setting the safe areas and where the block should sew, Millie would move through the pattern, but wasn’t stitching. I was able to jump in the middle of it and get her to start stitching again, but I couldn’t figure out how to back up and get her to fix what she missed.   I’m hoping to clear this up with a YouTube video or in class next weekend.

I’m very happy with how everything is going so far even with this learning curve. I’m glad I was able to start playing and come across these issues ahead of time.

After coming across a few issues I decided to take a stab at freehand quilting. I turned QuiltPath off and unlatched her from the belts to give me full control. Once ready, my mind went blank and I had no idea what to quilt. I started with a simple “hello!” and I forgot halfway through how to write cursive- brain fart!

Next up I played with writing “Quilter’s Hideaway.” Remember that surprise I hinted at a few posts back? Here is another part of it. I’m going to let you slowly put pieces together as I share hints and clues.

With that, I moved on to some meandering, straight lines, and a box. I also tried pebbles in a smaller box, but my goodness, this will need some work.

I hope you enjoy this journey with Millie. I cannot wait to continue learning and sharing along the way.  I already realize I will need to come up with a better option for getting pictures of the quilting.  Often it was hard to get the stitches to show up.

 

See you at the machine,

•Care

Traveling With My Needle & Thread

Hand sewing is happening.
We were up and at the airport by 4:00am this morning, but we are heading to our favorite place on earth-Disney World. 

Last year I started an English Paper Piecing (EPP) project. My Momma-In-Law gave me a pattern for the first row of a row quilt using EPP, and I dove in. It was a learning curve but not too difficult to figure out (you could definitely figure it out!). 

I was doing a decent job of staying on top of things with the first row and even the second row. However I quickly fell behind. Then, our rental lease ended, we frantically searched for our first home to purchase and we moved. I’m still trying to find everything again and really dig back in to my slower projects. 

This week happens to be WIP Week, and a travel week so I dug this quilt out and have started it again. 

The pattern is by Mickey Depre and I could not recommend her work more. If you are a fan of English Paper Piecing, she is a fabulous resource. She also has many other patterns outside of the English Paper Piecing world and all are spectacular!! Be sure to hop over to her page on Instagram (mdquilts), Facebook (MDQuilts) or her site. You won’t be disappointed! 

A fun little back story- After I started working on my first block I wanted to find the designer on Facebook (nothing is official until it is Facebook official-or something like that). When I began my search her last name was awfully familiar, and when I found her page, MDQuilts, I instantly realized I roomed with her daughter in college! Small world! Mickey is in Chicago, the college was in Arkansas, and I’m from Oklahoma. I love how things work. 

Enough of the jabber, here are some of the blocks I have finished. 

Everything always works out perfectly. As I dug for my EPP box last night, I hopped over to MDQUILTS and was greeted with a super exciting live video that Mickey has just released a Basic Hand Piecing Acrylic Template Set! You can read more about it or even purchase it here. 
That’s all for now friends. It is time to lay my phone down and pick my needle up. 

See you at the machine (or maybe the comfy chair with a needle and thread?) 

•Care