Follow Your Heart: London Roads

How was the long weekend for everyone? I was at the hockey rink for most of it, and yesterday I spent some time working on a new quilt.
This week we are working on the third block in our Follow Your Heart QAL. It is called London Roads and after the border is added will be 12.5" by 14" unfinished. The instructions are on pages 12 and 13 of your book.
Now for the cutting it says to use the Companion Angle Ruler and the Easy Angle ruler. If you don't have these there are a couple options.
I used the Non-Slip Multi Size 6" Flying Geese & 45/90 Degree Triangle Ruler, that is one ruler it just has a very long name, and is oddly shaped, but is cuts 45 degree triangles and 90 degree triangles which is what we need. I followed the cutting instructions as in the book, just used this ruler instead.

Carrie's way is probably the easiest.
From the dark and the bright prints she cut a 5.5" square and made Half Square Triangles. Than she cut a 5" square of her background print and layered it right sides together with the one of the previous HST and sewed another half square triangle set (make sure you sew across the previous stitch line). This leaves you with some extra half square triangle blocks but is probably the easiest method, and involves the fewest bias edges.

Whichever method you choose you will want to be sure to make sure the dark print is always on the same side or your arrows will not follow each other.
For the cutting and piecing of the rectangle strip I followed the books instructions.
Don't forget to add the border strip on the bottom, so that when we got to assemble it will all fit together properly.

I used the same dark background as the previous blocks, one coral print for the bright fabric, and 4 assorted greens for the darks.


Carrie used assorted blacks for her background, a white print for her bright fabric and 4 different taupes for the dark.
I can't wait to see all your blocks!
Kayla

Bionic Gear Bag Recap

We hosted our Bionic bag Workshop these past couple days in our shop, although it turned more into a fun little retreat than an actual structured workshop. 

Esther, myself and an additional 8 ladies have spent the last two days, laughing, learning from each other and best of all sewing. The Chrysalis Cafe made snacks, coffee and lunch for us both days and delivered it to us, so we sewed to our hearts content, and when food arrived on our tables we ate, than kept sewing. 

Each of us made a Bionic Gear Bag, and all of them turned out so great. Most of us still need to finish binding the edges, but we decided to do that at home and make the couple bonus projects that Esther had planned for us. 

We had a fun pouch tutorial from Anna Graham of Noodlehead Designs that we modified a little by making it even smaller and it works great for holding Wonder Clips. 

Esther also designed a neat little machine needle holder that has space for needle boxes, lightly used needles, as well as a description for what each needle is to be used for. It rolls up and neatly fits into our gear bags to keep everything together. 

As is usual when you get 10 ladies sewing together there were some mistakes made. This cute little corner was dubbed the "Comfort Corner." Because if you have to pick something out, you may as well do it in a fun, comfortable chair. 

Everyone walked away with a nifty notion or pattern as a prize, and it seemed that every time we drew a name, the winner was not even paying attention to what was going on and we needed to call the name a couple times along with "winner" before they would clue in. 

Thank you again to all the Ladies who joined us, Esther and I had great time, and we hope you did as well. This was a great ending to a season of making bags together, and once we get the plans finalized for next years bag club we will post the details, and the sign up information. 

As a side note my nails matched my fabric so well that I just had to take a picture.
 Kayla
Scroll down to see more pictures of us working hard.

Classroom Update

On March 25 the renovation on our classroom began. Since that day it has undergone a vast transformation. The walls were framed in, drywalled, and painted. We got a real ceiling hung just this past weekend, and today Hermans Carpets laid down a new floor us today. We are also getting more lighting installed by Live Electric so the area will be nice and bright.
Esther and I had the opportunity to design a custom studio for the space as well and this will get installed by Adora tomorrow. We have a nice cutting table to do demos and our own cutting on. We have a custom ironing station that will fit our monster wool pressing mat, which measures 22"x60". There is lots of extra counter space for us to have our most used notions at our finger tips, and customized storage for those that are a little more specialized and for projects.
For the new classroom we have new chairs and new sewing tables that are nice and sturdy, as well as 3 designated counter height cutting tables and 3 ironing stations that will also have wool mats and Oliso irons for you to use.
There are a few more things that have been added but we will be having a big reveal on May 9 and 10, so you will have to come check it out than to get the full picture.
This weekend we have our Bionic Gear Bag Workshop, and I will post a recap of it on Friday Evening.
On Saturday, Chicken Feed Quilts will be featured on Instagram for The Great Canadian Shop Hop that began at the start of the month. If you are on Instagram be sure to follow us.
As mentioned on May 9 and 10 we will have our Classroom Reveal Party. There will be snacks and demos in our newly renovated classroom and some flash sales as well, so come check out our new space and learn about some of our favorite tools.
Also in May, Esther and I will be attending the Spring Quilt Market, which this time around is being held in Kansas City. We hope to also visit the Missouri Star Quilt Company while we are there. I love attending Quilt Market and always come home with so many new ideas and inspiration for the shop and new projects.
In June we have another information presentation planned and will I post more information about it in a few weeks. Also in June is the Lethbridge Festival of Quilts, which is a Quilt Show put on by the Lethbridge Centennial Quilters Guild with lots of quilts to see and vendor booths to shop at. We will have a booth there during the event.
These next two months are looking to be busy for us again, but I must say I love every bit of it.
This week is Easter Break for my boys, and I have spent the last few days hanging out with them at home, getting them to help with some spring cleaning (we cleaned the deep freezer out today) and doing some sewing, my oldest made himself a pillowcase today, and now my 5 year old is asking when he gets to make one.
Hope to see you at all some of these upcoming events,
Kayla

April Events

April is right around the corner and usually I would share our next list of classes but we are not having much for classes this next month because are we doing a major renovation of our classroom.
If you have been in our classroom, it is currently a lot of concrete and brick. But in a few weeks it should be all dry walled and painted with some fresh flooring on the floor and a new ceiling above. We are also getting some custom cutting tables and ironing stations built for the space, as well as some design boards to hang on the walls. There will also be a Smart TV hooked up for some video classes and demos. All of this combined should make for an inviting space for you to come and participate in classes, clubs and sew days.

We put a deadline on the people who are doing the renovations for us, and said we would love to have it done by April 25 so that we could host our Bionic Gear Bag Workshop in our brand new space. They were a little shocked and asked when they could start and we said April 2, but we let them in a couple days early and they started today, will take a break while we have our sale and start up again on Monday.

For those interested the Bionic Gear Bag Workshop is a 2 day event taking place on April 25 and 26. We will be making the Bionic Gear Bag, and Esther and I will give instruction and we will also have some video support from Sally Thompson the designer of the bag. It is $100 to attend and this includes the instruction, pattern lunch for both days and snacks. The supplies are an extra fee and need to be purchased at our shop. 
This Bag was designed to hold all your sewing tools in one convenient bag and still stay organized with a variety of zipper compartments and pouches. It could also be used for any other tools from another hobby, or for your cosmetics or as a way to keep all the little things together while travelling.
I have chosen to use a few pieces from the new line from Bonnie and Camille Little Snippets, I just love the measuring tape and think it will be great for the exterior of the bag.
Their are limited spots available so sign up by clicking the link below to register for the event.

Register Here >

Don't forget our big Spring Clearance Sale starts on Thursday at 10am and continues until Saturday afternoon and we will add new bolts each morning.

Kayla