Homegrown Progress

In 2018 I participated in Sue Spargo's BOM Homegrown. I'm still working on getting it quilted but I'm making good progress.

There are 27 houses surrounding the center tree block. I've quilted the center block plus 22 houses thus far. I'm quilting by hand using the seed stitch. 

In shop news, here is a link to the latest newsletter if you are interested: Alamosa Quilt Company Newsletter. Our Local Quilt Shop Day Event on Saturday went well. And we will be taking sign-ups for the 2nd Saturday Sampler Club through the end of February.

First Post in Far Too Long

I'm hoping to do better this year at posting here at least once a week. I'll be experimenting with post formats to see what will work best for me. So ... here goes!

What have I been working on?

I have a customer/friend who loves to make bags as much as I do. She received several bag patterns for Christmas and brought them in to show them to me. She wants me to teach her how to make all of the bags she received patterns for and asked me which one I wanted to make first. I chose this one. It turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself!

The pattern is called Chelsea Bag. It is an older pattern from V and Co. Unfortunately I couldn't find any printed patterns for me to order for my shop, but you can still buy the pattern directly from V and Co. as a PDF download.

It is a fairly simple tote style bag. The interesting and complicated part is the folded fabric front pocket. That did take a while to make and involved a lot of marking and pinning to get things to line up. Worth it though!

What's new in my shop?

Click here to read the latest shop newsletter

The 2nd Saturday Sampler shown in the newsletter is open to everyone. All the details are in the newsletter. If you want to sign up give the shop a call (719) 937-2555. We'll be taking sign ups for a few more weeks, until the end of February.

Bohemian Bird Pattern

I made my first Bohemian Bird several years ago. Long before owning a quilt shop was even on my radar.

When I opened my shop I needed things to display and on a whim hung up my little Bohemian Birds. I only had two at the time. When I started carrying Sue Spargo merchandise I made a third. Then the requests for the pattern began.

I started working on a pattern a few months ago. I realized that in order to write a good pattern I needed to make another one. Here she is:

I have named them all thus far. Her name is Isabella. The pattern is currently being tested by a few friends. As soon as I get their feedback I will make the pattern available for purchase. If you are interested in a copy of the pattern, leave a comment. Make sure that your comment includes an active email address so I can contact you when the pattern is available.

These little birds finish at 10" by 10". Besides a small wall hanging, you could make these into a pillow, notebook cover, bag or anything else you can dream up. The pattern will sell for $10.99 and will only be available through my shop, Alamosa Quilt Company. The shop does not yet have an online store as I am only one person and just don't have the infrastructure required to run a brick and mortar shop and an online shop, and do a good job with both, at the moment. It is on the list to open an online shop, but I'm just not there yet.

Aunt Sue's Cross Stitch Quilt :: A Finish

This one is going in the mail today back to it's owner so now I can share it with you.

So ... here is the story: My aunt's MIL passed away a couple months ago. She was a quilter. Like most of us, she had several unfinished projects. My aunt, who doesn't sew at all, asked if I would finish a few of them as they were for her girls (my cousins). Those quilts were already to the finished top stage. They only needed quilting, binding and a label. I had my local long arm quilter do the quilting. All I did was bind and label them.

Then she included a bag of 31 of these cross-stitched blocks and asked me to put them together into a quilt. When squared up these blocks finish at about 16.5", so they are pretty big. And as you probably know, there is no easy way to put 31 identical blocks into a quilt. My original plan was to put 30 of them on the front, with the other on the back. However, with sashing and borders that quilt would have been HUGE! Too big to even be quilted by my long arm quilter! So on to plan B. I ended up making two quilts from the blocks. The smaller of the two is shown above using 9 of the blocks. It is 66.5" by 66.5". The other quilt is exactly the same, except it uses 20 of the blocks. It is still pretty big, too big to fit well on my fence for photography. 

The remaining two blocks I'm just returning to my aunt. I was going to border them and have them quilted but they are stained. I decided not to fool with trying to wash unfinished blocks to see if I could get the stains out.

Honestly, when I first saw these blocks I was not inspired. In fact, I made a big *SIGH* and just shook my head. Now that the two quilts with these blocks are finished, I love them! These are not my style at all, but they are so sweet and pretty all the same.

All Aboard :: A Finish

This one was another shop sample that we are done with.

This one is pretty big finishing at 78" by 85". Check out the back.

This one is now in the "Ready Made" section of my shop. Occasionally we have folks come in and ask if we have any finished items for sale so I started selling finished samples that we are no longer using. Admittedly, we don't sell a lot of finished items throughout the year, but October, November and December we sell quite a few.

Unbridled :: A Finish

This one was a digital sample for a fabric line I had in my shop the first summer we were open.

I had it long arm quilted and I really love the pattern she used.

I'm not sure how well the quilting design shows up since she quilted it with invisible thread. However, the design is a boot, cowboy hat, star and loops. It really is adorable!

And I am happy to report that this one already has a "forever home". I sent it to someone effected by the Camp Fire through the organization Layers of Hope, Quilting 911. If you are on Facebook you can look them up. They only have a Facebook page, no website.

Corky Wallet

I am enjoying sewing with cork. Have you tried it yet? I found a great little pattern for a wallet made from cork. 

What I really like about this little pattern is that all you need is cork, thread and your machine. There is no zipper, button, magnetic snap or anything else needed.

The pattern I used is called "Corky Wallet".

In case you are wondering, this is what the cork I used looks like in sheet form. It is pretty cool stuff!

If you haven't tried sewing with cork yet, give it a try. You don't need anything special - no special machine, thread, needle or anything. It cuts easily with a regular rotary cutter or scissors.