Tuesdays Project

With it only 10 degrees here this morning and still fighting a head cold I definitely wasn't going to leave the house,  I loaded this 1930's fabric customer quilt on the frame and got it quilted.  I have not done a quilt with 30's fabrics in several years but seeing several lately makes me think it is about time to make another one.

The quilt was nice and flat and square and a pleasure to quilt.  All quilts are definitely not created equal.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday

I was hoping to start sewing these blocks together yesterday but appear to have come down with a cold on top of part of a cold that I had left.  I didn't even know that was possible.  Anyway, I did get a small quilt quilted but then a nice long nap sounded better than putting these blocks together so part of them are still sitting on the design wall. 

The Patriotic Bear fabric I got on a trip to Lancaster PA and the other fabrics were all from the shop we used to have, most of them Freckles fabrics by Northcott.  My favorite blenders, I was so sad when they discontinued them.  

This week I hope to get this quilt top done and the binding on the Mikado panel and hopefully get another quilt on the frame.  

Have a wonderful week.

Kathie 

Sunday Stash Report

This is my first Sunday Stash report in about two years.  We had purchased a small quilt shop and ran that for 20 months before we had to make the decision to go out of business.   I have a living room full of thread and fabric that we are slowing selling in an Etsy Store and my husband has started selling off his vintage sewing machine items also on Etsy.

For those 20 months I just didn't have the time to keep up with the stash report or the Monday Design Wall updates.  Now that our business is all home based I am looking forward to participating in both activities again.

This is a picture of part of my current stash (minus a cabinet of nothing but Christmas fabrics).  With left over fabric from the shop also in my living room I shouldn't have to buy fabric for a long time but looking forward to seeing how much I can use up this year.

This week I have worked on several projects, made blocks for a baby quilt and a few blocks for a future batik quilt for our queen sized bed and quilted a wall hanging for a coworker of my husband.  The only project to the point that I am going to count yardage is the panel wall hanging quilt.  Panel, backing and binding used approximately 2 1/2 yards so my stats for this year are.

Fabric used this week:  2.5 yards
Fabric purchased this week:  0
Total fabric used 2014:  2.5 yards
Total fabric purchased 2014:  0 yards


Kathie

Happy New Year

A friend of mine Shelly, that passed way to young, always used to tell us to do on New Years Day what you hoped to be doing the entire year.  Ever since she said that on New Years I put something in the crock pot for dinner and spend a lot of the day sewing, quilting and also spending time with my family.  All things I want to do plenty of this year.  

So this New Years Day I quilted a Northcott Micado panel for one of my husband's co-workers.  Just need to make up binding and get that and a hanging sleeve on for her...

Then I made up the first few blocks for a Patriotic baby quilt.  I love the way it looks woven where all the sashing pieces intersect.  

What did you do with your New Years?

Kathie

A Project for Us

For a long time I was busy making shop samples for the shop and quilting a few customer quilts when I had time.  Not a lot of sewing for us going on.  I did make this quilt top and finished it up several months ago and just got around to quilting it.  

This is made from a pattern from a Scrap Basket  book by I believe  Kim Bracket.  I used a Moda jelly roll with some additional yardage and ended up with a 62 by 75 quilt.  I nice size to snuggle under and still be able to cover your feet.  

This will find a home in our family room once I get the binding on it.   I love the fall colors.

A New Stage

Well our shop is closed, everything moved out and the place all cleaned up.  Just waiting for a call from the landlord so we can meet her there one of these days for a walk through and to turn over the keys.

We have a fairly large house but trying to find room for fabric, notions and thread in addition to office supplies and many other items has been a challenge.  Right now things are basically put away but it is at the stage where every time I go to find something, something else falls out of a cabinet.  

Now I will slowly go through things a little at a time and see what I can get rid of.   Lots of paperwork has already hit the dump and the shredder.  

Here is what our living room looks like currently.

I guess every quilters dream is to have a house full of fabric right?  

One nice thing is that I have finally actually had a little time to sew.  I started work awhile back on a batik quilt for the master bedroom but have not got very far yet.  I love to make baby and lap quilts and working on a queen sized one feels like it is going to take forever.  

Kathie

Life

Life has definitely got in the way of blogging the last year and a half.

Hubby and I purchased a small local quilt shop in April 2012.  It was a dream for both of us.  Something for Ed to do in his retirement as he also likes to sew, repairs vintage sewing machines etc.   Every quilters has a dream of owning a quilt shop where you can order and play with all the newest fabrics all day long and it also gave me something interesting to do when our daughter went off to college.

Reality of course is never like your dream.  I have enjoyed sewing with and ordering all the latest fabrics.  I love to help customers pick out just the right fabric for a border or to make their colors pop and I have loved visiting with quilters on a daily basis.

The reality was that running a small business is WAY more expensive than we thought.  Everything you need to do is another tax or another fee and it sure adds up.  Add that to 3 other quilt shops within an hours drive, a JoAnn fabrics nearby and many people shopping on-line in their PJs and we decided a few months ago that we just couldn't continue with the shop.  When you are working 5 or 6 days a week at the shop and doing additional at home and not even breaking even it is time to call it quits.

Some days I am really sad that it didn't work out, that there was not enough business in our part of the county and other days I am ready for it to be over and get on with other things.

I am definitely looking forward to having time to have lunch with a friend, go to my sewing groups and just sit and relax on occasion.   Also looking forward to getting back to blogging and the design wall monday and stash report days I used to do.   I will definitely have lots of stash to start using again and shouldn't have to buy any fabric for a long while.

Kathie