I have finished up two more shop samples.
Both of these are from a series of patterns that use Five One Yard cuts per pattern.
The first one is called Mirrored and it finishes at 63" by 66". Fabrics used are from the collection Playmaker by Victoria Findley Wolfe.
And this one is called Round and Round. Finished size is 59" by 71". Fabrics used are various batiks, not collection specific.
Both of these patterns are fairly simple. Actually, all of the patterns in this series are simple, well-written and fun to sew! I'm working on another one right now. It will be a shop/class sample. I'm using patriotic themed fabrics and plan for to eventually be a Quilt of Valor, when the shop is done with it.
Another shop sample finished now that my long arm quilter is back from her break. This one is called Canyon Creek.
It features a new fabric line called Terrain from Windham fabrics. The pattern is fairly easy and is strip pieced. There are two different but very similar blocks. The hardest part is staying organized!
And we also got the new Pillow Talk book by Edyta Sitar.
I pulled some of our ombre fabrics and whipped up this pillow cover from the book.
The ombre fabrics made it really easy to get the subtle color changes instead of picking several different fabrics in similar shades as the pattern suggests.
We are going to be offering a Pillow Talk club at the shop. The book covers lots of basic techniques so the idea for the club is to teach folks a new technique each month. There are patterns in the book for strip piecing, a pieced braid, English paper piecing, regular paper piecing, a lone star and applique. In my club I plan to cover every kind of applique and let club members decide which method they want to use. We'll start out with a fairly easy technique then go from there.
My long arm quilter is back from her holiday break. Yay!
This is a new kit we have available at my shop. The name of the pattern is Boxed Tapa and it is a batik quilt. The main fabric (the leaves) are a panel! Batik panels are rare because they are so time-consuming to print. Just like all batiks, they are all hand printed. These are some of the softest batiks I've ever handled too.
The quilt is 53" by 66" finished. Did you know I opened an Etsy shop for my "real" shop? Here is a link to the Alamosa Quilt Company Etsy shop. I am slowly adding items to the Etsy shop, as time allows. So if you see something I show here that you might want to buy, let me know. I will list it in the Etsy shop and send you a direct link to the item.
I also got a new phone recently with a great camera. I can finally get good pictures of my black cat, Ms. Spooky Boo. Here is a photo I took of her recently.
I don't think she is as excited about the new camera as I am! She loves to lay on my husband's pants! In case you are interested, the pattern for the quilt she is laying on is one I wrote. It is called Charming Churn Dash and is available for purchase in the Etsy shop.
I recently purchased Deb Tucker's new Wedge Star ruler.
The free pattern included with the ruler is called Freelancer. I have made two versions.
The top one is the second one I made. It uses 3" finished size blocks and finishes at 14". The bottom one uses 9" finished size blocks and finishes at 37".
The ruler is really nice and Deb just came out with two videos explaining how to use it along with tips and tricks. I made the first one just from reading the directions included with the ruler. Then the videos came out. So I watched the videos and decided I needed to make another one.
This will be a new class at my shop soon. If you are local, look for the class on the schedule. The class will be called "Freelancer".
I just love Deb's rulers! They make difficult units easy to sew and precise.
The last Saturday in January I had an LQS Day event at the shop. We had a short bolt sale. Afterwards we had some bolts left over so we have been getting creative with ways to use them.
One of the left over sale bolts was this Merrily fabric. The animal is fat quarter size. So I designed this lined drawstring gift bag using the animals. Shown is the moose. The others are a polar bear, a deer and a penguin. We kitted up the animal with coordinating fabrics, twill tape for the drawstring and a pattern. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!
My family has used only fabric gift bags for several years now. I have made them in several sizes. It makes Christmas morning clean-up much easier! And there is very little trash to throw away. Birthdays are easy too. It is a great way to use novelty prints that you bought because they are so cute but you don't know what else to do with.
This one took far too long to finish, but I'm excited to finally have it finished!
Click here to read my last post about this project. I started this in 2012. I finished quilting it in 2017 and then it got lost in my sewing room. I recently spent 3 hours cleaning in my sewing room and found this under a pile of other stuff. So I picked a binding fabric from my stash and "got 'er done." This project was inspired by the backing fabric. I didn't take a photo of the back when I finished this but if you click here you can see a photo of the backing fabric from a past post.
In shop news, we are getting ready to celebrate our 4th anniversary at the end of this month. It is hard to believe that I have been a shop owner for four years, but it is true.
This one is both personal and shop sewing. Bonus points for me!
These fabrics arrived in my shop recently and this is the pattern I purchased to go with them. We have kitted it up but also have the individual fabrics and panel for sale. Yes, the center is a panel!
The quilt will finish at 59" by 68.5" The binding fabric is the darker red used for the half-square triangles in the outer pieced border. This will look lovely hanging in my dining room once the shop is finished with the sample and it's quilted up.
