Pieceful Gathering Quilt Shop

Pieceful Gathering Quilt Shop

Monday, May 31, 2010

More from Quilt Market

Hello Pieceful Quilters,



Last week I was almost finished with my Blog entry about market when I was frozen out. Usually the Blog saves itself every few minutes, but not this time (of course). I lost at least an hour's worth of work. Anyway, it was too late to do more (I couldn't stay awake), so I didn't get back to re-doing the captions for the last few photos until yesterday! I would like to say I was super busy all week - but I am not sure what exactly I got done. I did get a lot of things started, though!



Anyway, I had a few more pictures and ideas from Market that I wanted to share with you. There was so much there that I don't think I have really digested all of it yet. Here are a few things that I thought would interest you:






I took this picture at the Bluehill booth. It is the Pink Star quilt that I mentioned in the last Blog post. The picture on the right is of the card from the line that the quilt inspired. This is just part of it! We ordered quite a few of the fabrics from the line. I think you are all going to like these ones. We got our first shipment of Blue Hill Fabrics in the shop this week, Colonial Prints. I am really pleased with the quality of the fabric - I can't wait until my line comes out! They are saying November or December, so I am just holding my breath until then. It is back up on their website, now, so you can go and take a look if you want - Rebecca's Madders. I noticed that they have the Little Pink Stars line up, too. While you are there, check out the House of Seven Gables fabric. I ordered some of that line, too.


This beauty is a reproduction of the quilt that Moda has based their next Collection for the Cause fabric on. The line is called Hope. I am not sure if we are going to do this quilt - it looks a wee bit difficult - but I had to buy most of the fabrics in this gorgeous line.




This is Renee Plains of Liberty Star with her new book from Kansas City Star. We picked up all of her new patterns, including one for the beautiful quilt you see on the bed behind her. We will plan to kit it soon, probably using the new line we just got in from Marcus Brothers, Nottingham Village. It is so pretty!



This is Carol Hopkins and a few of the beautiful quilts from her booth. The one in the corner there is also made with the Nottingham Village line. I wish I had time to make all the quilts I want to make!





Here we have Mary Koval in her booth with the wonderful Baltimore Album quilt that she based her newest line on. She is back with Windham, and they did a great job on her new line. We ordered the main panel and some of the coordinates. It should make a gorgeous "cheater" Baltimore Album quilt (my style!).



This is a Block of the Month quilt designed by Linda Hall of Primitive Pieces by Lynda. She has some beautiful quilt designs. I am hoping to talk one of my teachers into doing this one!



This is another Wool Block of the Month that Debbie liked. She may do it - who knows...


That's all I have from Market. At least, that's all I can remember right now. There are so many things running through my head - well, maybe I had better just get to work!


Happy Quilting - Carrie

Monday, May 24, 2010

Fun at Quilt Market

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

What a great time we had at Quilt Market! Five of us ended up going, and boy did we have fun! We left early on Wednesday morning so that we could stop at a few quilt shops on our way up. We visited three nice shops and got to Minneapolis just in time for dinner.


Theresa and I being silly pretending to be each other - I think she got me pretty well!

We started each with morning classes - mine were usually about merchandising, or something grown-up. The girls took some fucn classes to learn about new techniques, tools and other fun stuff.

Thursday is technically the day before market and they run a couple of great programs. From 10-6 they have Schoolhouse. It was crazy, fun and exhausting. The day is divided into 15 and 30 minute segments and you are given a list of about 15 different presentations to choose from in each period. You don't get the list until shortly before the Schoolhouse starts, so planning is rather rushed. The presentations vary from previews of upcoming fabric lines to demos of new products, books and patterns. It is hard to decide where to go, and sometimes the rooms are full when you get there, so you just go to something nearby and try to learn something new. It is a fantastic opportunity to learn all kinds of things and keep up with what's new. Here are a few pictures from some of the Schoolhouse presentations that I attended:

Edyta Sitar Shows one of her new quilts and a bag. Her new fabric line is really neat, some of it is batiks and part is reproduction. It is just Lovely!


Blue Hill Fabrics did two presentations - first there was one by Margo Krager who is coming out with a line of pinks. The quilt that inspired the line is pictured on the left. It was made by a friend of hers using scraps of double pinks from the 1800s. The stars are only 2 or 3" finished. It was absolutely gorgeous. Margo is a well known quilt historian and she also talked about how double pinks came about, and how they got their name. Margo's line was gorgeous, too, so naturally I had to order some.

The other presentation was about another new line which is based on wallpapers and other textiles from the House of the Seven Gables Historic Site. The lady with the poster is Anita Blackaby, Executive Director. She spoke about the history of the House and Nathanial Hawthorne. Then she talked about how they had chosen the patterns for the fabrics, and she even had some pieces of the original wallpaper. It was just fascinating! The fabric was pretty, too - and, yes, I did order some.


Renee Plains and Edie McGinness holding one of Renee's cute quilts. Renee's new book, A Bird in the Hand, is available at the shop. She had many of the quilts from that and she talked about how the book came about. She is so cute! We got some of her new patterns at Market



Renee Nanemann showed gorgeous quilts made from her upcoming book and fabric line. You may recognize local designer, Lynn Schmitt Cibulka holding a quilt that she designed using Renee's upcoming line. Isn't it pretty? Yes, I ordered some of this fabric - it was too hard to resist!


Jo Morton showed some of the quilts from her new book - we have a few copies left in the shop, but don't wait too long, the are going fast! The quilt on the top left is made from her newest line, Companions. Isn't it pretty?


These are just two of a large collection of feedsacks that were shown at one of the other demos that I went to. You would be amazed if you were to see all the different varietys.

This photo was taken at a Schoolhouse presentation that I attended that featured a new book called Tile Quilt Revival. The quilts in the demo were a little artsy fartsy for me, but it was fascinating, and I actually won a copy of the book. When I get a few minutes (don't hold your breath) I am going to see if I want to try to apply the technique to our more traditional types of quilts. It is a quilt form from the past, so I think it goes with our shop. Traditional tile quilts are reminiscent of Crazy quilts. Very interesting. Here is a traditional tile quilt made by Hattie Burdick about 1876. It's in the collection of the International Quilt Study Center:

For more about the book and tile quilting check out Barbara Brackman's Blog.

Kay Capps-Cross showing off one of her "interesting" quilts in her Schoolhouse Presentation

As some of you may know, Kay and I have known each other since we were both babies in the business. She is such a delightful and fun lady, which makes it much easier for me to overlook her strange fascination with Black & White quilts. Very stark and contemporary - not exactly my look! I have been working hard to bring her to the "dark side," after all, she is half way there with the black! I may have finally made some headway - her next book has a black and tan quilt, sort of a tribute to yours truly. I can't wait to see it. She gave me a few hints at market, but I will keep the secret until the book comes out in a couple of months.

The Pieceful Crew picnics on the floor while we wait to get into Sample Spree!

Sample Spree is one of the craziest things at market. Some of the vendors participate, but not all, and they offer their latest wares for you to purchase right there so that you can go home and get started on samples for your shop. We are usually able to pick up some fat quarter bundles of lines that we will be getting in the fall, or new patterns from some of our favorite designers in packages with one each of all their newest - instead of the usual minimum orders required to get the wholesale price. It was a great opportunity for the girls to pick up some stuff to try out for possible quilts or classes. Lots of fun!

Ok - More to come on the fun times we had at Quilt Market, and some of the great ideas we have for upcoming classes and events.

Stay Tuned!

Carrie

Coming Soon!

Hello Pieceful Quilters,


Just a quick show & Tell - Katie has been working on this gorgeous Eagle quilt from the new Summer Gatherings book from Lisa Bonjean of Primitive Gatherings. We are planning to do several projects from the book, but this one is almost finished. Katie has appliqued hand-dyed wool for the eagles and then used regular quilter's cotton for the rest. There is one more border of pieced triangles in the dark blue to round out the quilt. We have it all kitted up and ready to go for the demo tomorrow. Isn't it gorgeous?

If you google Antique Eagle Quilt you will see many versions of this quilt - here is one that is shown on Cindy Rennels website:

I have purchased several antique quilts and tops from Cindy at shows - in fact, there is a chance that I might have a line with Blue Hill that is based on one of the tops I purchased from her, and it will be named after her - cool, huh?

Here is another example of this style of quilt that I found on Kimberly Wulferts website - always a great source of information on the history of quilts.

I could go on an on, but why don't you start at Kim's site to do a little research of your own and share it with me! I have much more to share - so stay tuned!

Carrie - Quilt History Nut

Monday, May 17, 2010

New Sarah Club Quilt for May

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

We have been busy trying to get ahead, since we are leaving for the International Quilt Market in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning. Yikes! I have so much to do before then!

I just wanted to give you a sneak preview of the project we are introducing at next week's meeting of Sarah's Sewing Circle. Below you will see a picture of Deb's antique quilt that we will be reproducing this month. The original looks like it was probably made in the 20's or 30's, but it was made from a deep scrap bag with many great indigo prints, shirtings, mourning grays and other turn of the century fabrics.

We tried to reproduce the soft and cozy feel of the original with our collection of turn of the century repros and shirtings, and I think you are going to be pretty happy with the results!

Our version is a little scaled down with slightly smaller blocks than the original yielding a nice lap size quilt. Kits will be available to Sarah Club member first, at their club discount, and thereafter any that are left will be available in the shop.

It is never too late to join any of our clubs. We encourage you to jump in at any time, and pay only for the remaining meetings in a session. (Such a Deal!)

Anyway, I digress - Here is the original quilt:




Bet you can't wait to see our version!

Happy Quilting!

Carrie

Monday, May 10, 2010

The Miracle of Best Press and Other Great Tools

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

Many of you are probably fans of Lori Smith (From My Heart to Your Hands). How she continues to come out with so many great patterns is beyond me. I had a chance to chat with her for a few minutes when we were vending at the International Quilt Festival a couple of weeks ago. I asked her if she ever slept. She did divulge that she works a lot, and, since she doesn't have anyone but herself to worry about, she can work at all hours of the night and day. I guess that helps explain - and I thought I was obsessed with quilting!

Anyway, Lori usually has her newest patterns at Quilt Fest - even before we see them at Quilt Market! As usual, she had a few that we fell in love with. Her new format for patterns was two little patterns in one packet. This is a nice size for us, as we don't feel bad about putting the pattern in our kits. The one we decided to kit first is this one:

I volunteered to do the one on the left - I am not sure why, since it is a bit harder to skoonch with these little quilts, but it is so cute! I tried really hard to be perfect, but still ended up skoonching a little to get my corners to match. One of my star blocks ended up looking a little like a bowl! Enter Best Press - the Miracle Liquid. As you can see from the picture below, they all turned out flat as a pancake!

Aren't they cute? Kudos to the genius who invented Best Press! We just got another order in the shop, but it disappears very quickly! So, since I was taking a picture of the blocks, I thought it would make them look better if I squared them up to trim off all the little threads and raggedy edges. For this I used another one of my favorite tools, the June Taylor (another genius) Shape Cut Ruler. Actually, since these blocks were so small, I was able to use the Quarter Cut Ruler. To make them really nice and even, I lined up one of the slits with the center of my block, and one of the lines with the top of the block. This way you don't end up trimming one side too much and end up with a wonky block. (Another highly technical quilting term) I put a red line down the middle to show you how I lined it up with the "V" of the star points.


I have to admit, some of my blocks were a tiny bit too small, but I am sure a little more skoonching and Best Press will take care of that! Hah - you aren't getting this kind of quilting information from everyone else!

So - while I am talking about cool tools, and since I am a sucker for patriotic stuff, let me introduce you to the amazing Quiltsmart interfacing. These brilliant designers have come up with a bunch of patterns - or I guess you would call them kits - that make previously difficult patterns easy and accurate by using fusible interfacing with the patterns printed on them. There are various ways that they use it, depending on the pattern, but I wanted to show you one I love that we have in the shop right now - visit our Patriotic Corner:

The package has enough interfacing to complete two of the flag quilts. Don't you just love it? While I am talking Patriotic, Katie finally finished the pattern for Uncle Sam, which has been on my "to do" list for quite awhile (don't even think about asking how long - it is too embarrassing!) Thank goodness I have a wonderful daughter that has realized that waiting for me to get things done is sometimes a lost cause. She even made the sample out of our kit:

I don't think she has this one on the website yet, but she has several of our other new kits and patterns, including the Little Nine Patch Doll Quilt that Kathy Tracy designed, Sarah's Stars, and the cute bag we did for the Shop Hop:

Visit our website to see many of our patterns and kits. Of course, not everything we do makes it to our web store, so if you don't see something, please call the shop or send us an email and we will be happy to help you out!

I had better get back to work!

Happy Belated Mother's Day - Carrie