I Hate Ironing

 I have discovered a new product. A customer asked me to order this because she was almost out of the bottle she purchased elsewhere.

Let me show you how this works:

If you don't want to watch the video or it doesn't play for you for some reason, basically you just spray this on your fabric (yardage or clothing or sheets or whatever) with the fabric damp just pull the wrinkles out, smooth it with your hands, and let it dry. Yep, it's seriously that simple! My new best friend! I have put the shirt back in my closet so I can start wearing it again.

If the video doesn't play for you here, you can go to my shop YouTube channel directly and watch it there.

Employee Show and Tell

 Cynthia C. purchased this adorable panel at another shop on her travels. The border fabrics came from this shop. She has embroidered some of the elements on the panel.

The photos below show some close-ups of the hand embroidery she has done.

Cynthia is my newest employee. She's been working at the shop about 7 months now. She is eager to try just about any type of sewing. She's done some hand embroidery before but just recently picked it back up again and is enjoying it.

San Luis Valley Quilt Guild Challenges

 This has been an annual thing at my shop. Every July I hang the challenge quilts from the San Luis Valley Quilt Guild members who chose to participate. It gives them some exposure and advertises their annual quilt show which happens the first two weeks in August.

The photo below explains the theme for this year: 

And here are the 12 entries:

The bottom portion of the first photo explains the 4 voting categories. If you'd like to vote just leave a comment and use the 4 categories from the first photo. I will fill out a paper ballot for you and put it in the basket with the other votes. In your comment, just leave the name of the category and the appropriate number quilt you are voting for that category. You don't have to put a number for every category if you don't want to.

My COVID Sanity-Saver Project

 I was quarantined upstairs away from my family for over a week recently when I had COVID. There is only so much surfing online I can do and watching movies and such on my iPad. I just had to have a hand sewing project! Luckily I had one ready to go in my sewing room. So one morning when I was briefly allowed downstairs to shower I snagged the kit on my way back upstairs. (My sewing room is right at the base of the stairs so I didn't have to go far.)

I had actually started this the afternoon I started feeling poorly. I had one big yellow petal done before I had to put it down because I didn't feel well. I have to finish the purple flowers at the bottom, finish the two satin stitched leaves and fill the center of the sunflower with french knots.

I have a few more of these embroidery kits in stock. You can view them in the Kits section on my website. These Cozy Blue Handmade kits are really nice! The design is pre-printed on the fabric. You get all the thread required, a needle, a wooden hoop and instructions in each kit.

Sundance Sample Quilt Top Completed

 I don't have this quilted yet, but the top is done.

The pattern we used is a Villa Rosa Designs pattern called Quilters Palette. It finishes at 45" by 60". Again, the fabric collection we used is called Sundance. The binding will be the same red fabric we used for the inner border around the center fabric.

We made a little oopsy when cutting the center fabric and had to adjust the red inner border around the center, but it still works. When we cut kits for this we will be sure to adjust the yardage for the main fabric so that you could make the pattern correctly! The pattern is correct - we just didn't read carefully enough and cut that piece wrong for our sample. Rather than wasting the piece we had cut we decided to just make it work for the sample.

If you are interested in a kit you can let me know and I will send you the direct link to the kit on my website when they are ready. Then you can decide if you actually want to purchase it or not.

Songbird Serenade

 These beautiful fabrics arrived while I was out sick and have been "flying" out the door - pun intended. The collection is called Songbird Serenade from P & B Fabrics.

The last photo is the panel. It's standard size 24" wide by width of fabric panel - so those birds are pretty big. They'd be great cut up and used for placemats or the outside of a tote bag. They would also make awesome throw pillows! Again, these fabrics are from the Songbird Serenade collection.

Sundance Fabrics

 I am slowly getting back up to speed. My shop received a lot of fabric while I was out sick!

This is Sundance from Windham Fabrics.

File these under better late than never! These gorgeous western prints are a bit late in arriving (originally scheduled to arrive in March) but they are worth the wait. Lassos, horses, ranch wear, bandana paisleys and an awesome cattle drive print! I have a pattern in mind for these that will really show them off.