Road Trip

Road Trip

 

 

 

Got up the other morning and it was just one of those days that I really didn't want to do anything much.  Not that my "To Do" list isn't huge, but I didn't want to do those things.  I'm sure you understand exactly what I'm talking about here.  I asked my husband, what do you want to do today?  His response, "I don't know."   Hummmmm.  After breakfast I sat down at the computer and opened up my facebook page and was looking at recent things and there it was!!!  Several weeks ago I had found on facebook a quilt shop called "Chattanooga Quilts".  I had said I wanted to visit that shop and just had not previously had the time.  Well guess what, now I have time.  I asked tubby hubby if he wanted to ride with me and he said okay.  That is not normal for him to be agreeable to visiting a quilt shop with me!  Must be kismit!

 

Like the wonderful planner that I am (not), I got the address and put it in the GPS and off we went.  Drove straight to the place without incident!  Between 40-50 miles from my house so a nice little drive.

 

This shop was a very nice small shop and the lady who was there was very friendly, but a good salesperson.  She did not hover,  she did offer help and even offered to get a chair for my husband to sit in while I shopped!  That impressed him and made him feel good too.  There was a class going on at the time I was there and the classroom was held behind a curtained off area of the shop.  There were lots of samples hanging on the walls with the books depicting the patterns located next to the samples and they were clearly labeled as to which book had that pattern which is always nice.  Makes it easy to find anything that is of interest.

 

I am sure it was designed for the shop owner, but the way the cutting table is set up next to the check out area was a good ideal and the area was L shaped with the long arm of the L holding the cutting table and the shorter base holding the check out area.  This configuration is nice because if you have several people waiting to have fabric cut and then more people waiting to check out they are not crowding each other.  I have been in shops where it is one long area and it was hard to tell who was waiting in which line. 

 

If you have some free time, this shop is worth a visit.  You may even decide to go back once you see the prices are reasonable and cheaper than some of the other stores I have visited.

 

Oh I do have to tell you that while I was there I bought another book.  I am forever buying books and this is another one that will help you use up your scraps.  This one is titled "Friendship Strips & Scraps" by Edyta Sitar for Laundry Basket Quilts.  Of course the sample on the wall is what prompted me to purchase this particular book.  The title of that quilt is Spool Quilt and I loved the strips used to depice the thread on the spools.  They had shades of blue which is one of my very fav colors in theirs.  The only thing is there is a lot of applique around the border of their quilt that I'm not too sure I will do!  Sorry I'm not really into applique unless it is by machine like a lot of  El's quilts.

 

At any rate this particular book has several different quilts using the fabric made of strips that are very intresting and something I may want to do after I retire.  (I keep saying that like I don't already have enough projects to keep me busy until I'm 100!)  Well at any rate this project is for a later date.  I've got too many on the back burner that need to be finished before I start another one!

If you have visited this shop already, please drop me a line and let me know what you thought.  Believe me I can handle it if your opinion and mine are not the same.  If you decide to go here in the future, let me know what you thought when you visit.  I love getting the opinion of others.  I often miss things on my first trip to a shop and it would be helpful to me! 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful day, quilting and sewing with love for your loved ones!  Now on to my next project!





Another quilt top in the works.....

Okay, I'm officially and unofficially a quilt addict.  They don't have "QA" (Quilter's Anomious) meetings so what's a girl to do?  My plan is to keep on quilting.  This year I'm doing a block of the month at a local quilt store.  This is in addition to the block of the month with the local quilt guild.  Of course both of these are in addition to the other projects I have ongoing. 

Here are a couple of the blocks we have finished so far.  I really love them especially because these blocks are actually suppose to be different sized that you make an extra sashing to keep the blocks the same size!  Not many patterns will tell you to do that, but it is something that I have used in doing the T-shirt quilts and so I am familiar with the process.

This particular block was really easy for me since I had just
completed presenting my block of the month to the quilt guild and the patter was basically identical.
So strange.  I didn't even look at the pattern!



I know you aren't going to believe that I had to take this apart twice
before I got the placement right!  Some days I'm in another world.

 I'm really liking the blocks so far.  I'm not too sure about the colors and where I may want to use this particular quilt but we will see as time goes on how it evolves.

Really and truly taking these block of the month classes is a wonderful way to get some tips and tricks from fellow quilters that they may otherwise never even mention in the normal course of events.  Typically or maybe I should say historically they were very inexpensive and quilt shops used this as a draw to get customers into the shop so they could showcase their new products and new fabric lines.  The intent was that the customers once in the shop would typically buy other items before they left so having them in on a Saturday morning could increase sales 400 to 500% over other regular Saturday sales.  Historically these classes were not very expensive because basically they were advertising and using the advertising budget to purchase the fabric that went into the kits was less expensive than purchasing radio or television advertising and this had more impact on the bottom line that either radio, television or newpapers.  I can remember in the not too distant past when you could join a block of the month club for as little as $5.00.  If you attended every meeting and took in your block you had completed each time at the end of the day you would have squares for a regular size quilt for $5.  Then you would need to purchase the borders, backing, binding and you would have a quilt that was much less expensive that purchasing everything you needed to make a quilt.  This was a great bargain!  Alas I fear those days are gone.

Most shops now, if they have a block of the month club, you will pay anywhere from $39.00 to $129.00 for the full years blocks and then you must purchase the backing, borders, stripping and whatever else is needed to complete the quilt. 

Some of the members of the local guild have started something a little different.  As a guild, we make a block each month that will be collected and sewn into a charity quilt.  The guild purchased the background fabric and now we are making blocks and each month people bring in the blocks for the charity quilt and depending on how many people have brought a block that month, we may have enough blocks for a quilt and have some left over so we have a quilt that is made of blocks of the same pattern but with different fabrics except the background fabric is the same to give the quilt continuity and this works quite well.  Other blocks are saved and will be used at a later date in a sampler style quilt.  In addition to making the block for the charity quilt, some of the members have picked out coordinating fabrics they like and are using those fabrics to make a block and then at the end of the year they will have 12 blocks made from their fabric and the blocks will all coordinate to make a lovely quilt.  There are many ways to go about making a sampler quilt and many different block patterns available.  If you don't have a store or can't afford to do a store block of the month, and you don't have a local quilt guild then make up your own.  You can use whatever blocks and fabric you want.  My normal problem is I want to do it ALL!!!

Oh well, isn't that the definition of an addiction, not knowing when you need to stop!  As I said I am officially an addict!

I have also started a couple of new things.  On thing I am doing is finishing up a top that I put together about 3 years ago in a double wedding ring pattern, but it is non-traditional.

Now what the heck does non-traditional mean?  What it means is taking a traditional pattern and making a change and that will typically make the quilt look very different.  The "Double Wedding Ring" quilt top was typically made using a white background.  I decided to use a bubble gum pink with a tiny dark rose colored small dot.  The bands of the rings are done in greens all the way from yellow green to aqua with every shade in between.  I have finished the borders and it's on my machine now.

Just a little thingie that I want to mention about borders.  I recently picked up a book and when I was looking at the book I noticed that the quilts that were pictured in the book had borders that were obviously wavey.  That made me really start looking and what I saw was that a full 90% of the quilts pictured in the book had obvious problems with the borders and with the binding.  Some of the corners were more of a curve instead of square and this was very obviously not intentional.  When looking further at the book I noticed that the directions told you to cut strips across the width of the fabric for borders.  Problem!!!!

Fabric is woven with threads running across the fabric from side to side and threads going up and down the length of the fabric.  The threads running lengthwise have less stretch that the threads running across the width of the fabric.  A line running at a 45 degree angle from the selvedge of the fabric is the bias and has the most stretch.  When making a border you want to have the smallest amount of distortion possible, therefore a border cut on the straight grain of fabric (lengthwise) will have the least distortion, the border cut on the crosswise grain of fabric will have some distortion and this will give you a wavy border.   Now I do understand that you will have to purchase more fabric in order to cut your border this way, but if you really want to best possible quilt this is what you will need to do.  If you are making a quilt that you really want to get it right, then purchase the extra fabric and build your stash a little.  If it doesn't matter, then go ahead with the crosswise grain if you like.  I don't always do the straight of grain for borders, but I know when I don't my quilt border will be wavy, and every border that you add increases the amount of wave. 

Alone with the above I will say that there are different qualities of fabric.  There is good quilt shop fabric, and bad quilt shop fabric.  Get to know your shop and teach yourself to recognize if your shop is carrying a high grade of fabric or a cheap grade of fabric.  Just because it says quilt shop over the door does not mean the owner is purchasing the best for resale.  She is purchasing what she can sell at a price that will afford her the most business and the profit she desires.  Some quilt shops will sell you fabric that is a cheaper grade than Walmart or Hancocks or JoAnns.  As time goes by and you use fabric and see it as it goes through the washer multiple times you will begin to recognize the difference in a high quility fabric and the lower quality fabric.  Price does not tell the story!!!  Don't be fooled into thinking if it cost a lot then it is good fabric!  Also take into consideration the dyes used in fabric.  Dyes that are not heat set will fade rapidly in the sunshine!  Heat setting the dyes is an extra process that you will not find in the typical Walmart quality fabric.  My best advise is chose the best fabric that you can afford at the time you are purchasing.  Sometimes we have more disposable income than others and this will determine how much we have to spend on our quilting.  Take all of these things into consideration when making your purchases of fabric, and books!  Okay I won't start on books today!

I hope you have all had a great day and look forward to seeing you and seeing your projects soon!