Ebay blocks and an IQ

I”ve been quilting up a storm lately.  Having taken a 2 week break from customer work to quilt my own quilts, I’ve wanted to make the most of it.  And I had three sets of blocks I purchased from ebay earlier this year.  The first one of the sets is now quilted and I LOVE IT!

I used a combination of IQ (robotic) quilting to set in the motifs and freehand for the echo and backfill.  I can’t wait to see this off the machine bound and hanging on the wall.  I’ve got eggshell walls in the house with cathedral ceilings so I can envision this is really going to POP on the wall!!!

And hanging down off the machine, this shows how much the quilting pops out.  I used a rather thick poly batting from Quilters Dream to get the added fullness filled in.

There’s still a bit more fullness in the ebay applique blocks than I’d like to see, but I’m hoping that a combination of steaming and blocking will take care of that.

Next up, a little boy baby quilt…..that one I’ll put a panto on…..I’ll be back later with more pics!

Portugal Quilt Pattern

Materials needed:

1 Jelly Roll, Moda Portugal
3 Charm Packs, Moda Portugal  (each pack contains 40 – 5” squares called nickels)

Step One:

Sew the Jelly Roll strips into pairs using 1/4” seam and sewing down the length of the strip.

Step Two:

Cut the Jelly Roll pairs into 120   4-1/2” squares (jr squares).  You will have excess jelly roll strip pairs left over, put them aside for the binding.

Step Three:

Lay a nickel right side up, place a jr square right side down, matching one outside corner and two sides.
Draw a diagonal line across the jr square.

Stitch 1/4” away from the diagonal on both sides.

Step Four:

Square the jr square/nickel unit to 4-1/2” square, cut down the middle to seperate into two Unit A pieces.

Step Five:

Sew two Unit A’s together, on the pieced edge as shown, to become Unit B:

Step Six:

Sew two Unit B’s together to make a  block.

Step Seven:

Lay out the blocks in rows of 7 blocks wide, by 8 rows high to make the quilt top.

Quilt as desired.

To Bind, un-stitch enough Jelly Roll strips to make binding, or purchase co-ordinating fabric for the binding.

PLEASE NOTE:
This makes more Unit A sections than necessary to make the quilt top, but allows you to have more control over color placement to keep a scrappy looking quilt.  You will be making 240 Unit A’s and need 224 Unit A’s to make the quilt.  The excess blocks can be used on the backing, or to make a pillowcase style carrier to store the quilt in.

One Stop Shop Hop

I am pleased to be part of the Quilting and Needle Arts Extravaganza to be held in Statesville, NC on January 9th and 10th.  Below is the press release for the event.  If you’re in the area, come see us, we have 23 shops participating under one roof!!!!

PRESS RELEASE

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Quilting and Needle Art Extravaganza Features Local Quilting, Sewing and Knitting Shops

December 29, Statesville, NC.
The Quilting and Needle Art Extravaganza will be held Friday, January 9 and Saturday, January 10 at the Statesville Civic Center, 300 South Center St., Statesville, NC 28677.  The hours are 11 am – 5 pm on Friday and 9 am – 5 pm on Saturday.  Admission is $3.00.  The Quilting and Needle Art Extravaganza features 23 shops under one roof that will interest any quilter, knitter, or fiber craftsperson.  The show is organized by The Quilter’s Gallery which is owned by Cindy Page and Patti Cline, sisters that operated their quilt shop in Charlotte for over 25 years.  The purpose of the show is to help small needlework shops work together to promote business.  The Page sisters chose Statesville as their location because of the easy access from I-77 and I-40.  Knowing that many customers don’t like the traffic in Charlotte, or even Mooresville, they chose to bring shops from Charlotte, Winston Salem, and Mooresville to the Statesville Civic Center.  Several local shops, as well as shops from as far away as Raleigh and Suffolk, Va. will also participate.  With easy access and plenty of parking, the QNAE will pull customers from Asheville to Greensboro, and from the Virginia border to Rock Hill, SC.  Customer can enjoy “green shopping”  by saving gas and time, since all their favorite shops are in one accessible location.

Shoppers will find lots of fabric, both cottons and wools, as well as quilting supplies at the QNAE.  Several dealers with sewing machines, embroidery machines and long arm quilting machines will be there as well.  Knitters will find yarns and a variety of fibers.  Shaker boxes, thimbles and buttons will round out the variety of merchandise.  Some shops will have shop samples, quilt tops and quilts for sale.  This is the perfect time to pull out those quilt tops in your closet, bring them with you to the show, and talk to some of the long arm machine quilters who provide finishing services.  Machine quilting is now a beautiful and practical alternative to hand quilting.  It is strong, durable and cost effective.  Many machine quilted examples will be on display in the different booths.

As the economy slows down, small shops are the first to feel the pinch.  Small entrepreneurs don’t have a corporate pocketbook to carry them through tough times.  A “shop hop” format provides small shops a focused, affordable retail event.  “There is enough business for all of us, but we have to help each other, not compete with each other.” says Shirley Bailey, co-owner of Sew Original, a Bernina sewing machine dealer, with shops in Winston Salem and Boone. “Having all the shops in one location helps make it more convenient for shoppers to see how each shop has it’s own individual character.  My philosophy is that if one of our customers is looking for an item that I don’t carry we will direct them to another shop where we know they will find it. The more quilt shops we have, the better it is for the quilting community. When we’re united, it’s free advertising for each other.” says Aimee Griffin, owner of  Overall Quilter in Indian Trail, NC.  “January is when quilters start a new project.  The frenzy of the holidays is over, and they want to have something fun and creative to do inside.  Sewers and knitters can’t sit still.  They need a project to be happy.”  says Brenda Arrowood, owner of Schoolhouse Quilts in Forest City, NC.  Some of the shops have been around a while, but for some shops like Needle and Thread, located on Broad Street in Statesville, NC, this is their first experience at a retail trade show.  All the participating shops hope that exposure from this show will help maintain their businesses  during this economic slowdown.

The Quilting and Needle Art Extravaganza will offer shoppers a variety of merchandise.   The 23 participating shops are excited to display their talents and to offer shoppers a wide variety of the latest and most innovative merchandise to get those creative juices flowing.   Easy access makes this the perfect venue for some shoppers that have limited mobility, or those intimidated by metro area traffic.  We are hoping to provide support for small shops that are often overlooked or ignored  by retail news.  Yet these small businesses are the backbone of the US ecomony.  The Quilting and Needle Art Extravaganza proposes to create excitement for the Statesville venue and the participating vendors which will allow QNEA to become an annual event rivaling other well known consumer quilting shows.