January Classes

January is right around the corner, and with it a new class list. Many of these classes we have held before, but there have been several requests to run them again.

On Saturday January 12, Esther will be teaching a Tuffet class, we have not done this class in quite some time, but several people have asked u to teach it again. The Tuffet is a cute little stool, and we use a 15 degree ruler to cut the wedges. Layout of color and the fabrics chosen make each tuffet truly unique. The class will run from 10am-2pm. The fee is $125, which also includes the hardware kit (foam, legs, wood base). The fabric, ruler and pattern are an additional cost. 

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We are also doing the Jelly Roll Rug Class again. This time around we will do it over two evenings with some homework in between, rather than one long day of sewing. The dates are January 15 and 29 from 7-9pm. The class fee is $40, and the pattern, fabric and batting are extra. We just received the Colossal Round Rug Pattern which uses two jelly rolls, and measures 54" in diameter. You may use this pattern instead of the Original Jelly Roll Rug, but you may not finish it in the allotted class time. 

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Laura has fallen in love with English Paper Piecing (EPP) and will be teaching a class so you cn learn to love it as well. She will be teaching the Sunflower Pattern by Violet Craft. The project finishes at 40" square, and would be a great for the coming spring. The class fee is $60 an we will have kits available for $115. The class will include 3 sessions of instruction and sewing which will take place from 7-9pm on January 22, February 5, and February 19.

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Esther will also be teaching two Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP) classes. The class fee of $50 includes the pattern and fabrics to make either a Valentine or Spring Table Topper. This is a great beginner class for those that have never done FPP but would like to give it a try, or a great refresher course for those wanting to get back into it. She will teach one evening class, which will take place over two sessions, January 17 and 24 from 7-9pm, and a day course that runs 10am-2pm on January 24. 

If any of these classes interest you, sign up in store, or by email or phone. 

Our Holiday Hours for the next two weeks are listed below:

December 24: 10am-1pm

December 25 and 26: Closed

December 27 and 28: 10am-5pm

December 29: 10am-4pm

December 30: Closed

December 31: 10am-1pm

January 1 and 2: Closed

January 3: Regular Hours Resume

This will be the last blog post until January 4th as my family will be going to Mexico for a Christmas Vacation.

On the behalf of all the Chicken Feed Quilts Staff I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

Thank you again for your continued support in all our endeavors and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2019.

Kayla

Sew Hometown: Introduction

Sew Hometown is the 2019 Block Of The Month put together by Amy Ellis and Heather Valentine from Inspiring Stitches. It is a fun quilt made up of whimsical blocks. I will be doing this quilt through the bog, posting tips or motivation each month as will as a link to the blog posts by Amy and Heather who will also be doing some videos for instruction as well.

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During this BOM we will be making a new block each month, each block occurs 3-6 times in the quilt so some months will be busier than others. This quilt also features some improv piecing which is great for those small scraps, and a fun way to learn some new skills. 

The designers suggest choosing either one favorite print and using that as a starting point to choosing fabrics or to pick 3 focal colors that work well together and choosing colors that will coordinate well thinking about the size of print, the color saturation (deep jewel tones versus pastels) and color family. They also suggest sorting the fabric choices into like colors to make them easy to select while piecing. They did a great little write up in the beginning of the pattern to help you out in your choices whether you are shopping from our store or from your stash. 

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I have decided to use a fat quarter bundle that was designed by Amy Ellis. It is called Wanderlust and is mainly green, yellow and a fun coral color, with some dark brown, and lots of white prints. Because the white prints make up a large portion of the bundle and there is only a little of the brown, I am going to use the brown as my background. Now if you know me, you will know that I almost never use brown or green, so I am going to be stepping out of my box on this project.

There is no real fabric requirement for the main fabrics as it is written for scraps but you will need at least 25 fat quarters though fat eighths will also work well. You do need a total of 4.5 yards of background fabric which can be all one fabric or several. This measurement also includes the border. 

The quilt finishes at 67"x79", which is a great size.

This Block of the Month will begin on January 4th which is 3 weeks away. We have the pattern available in store. The pattern is actually put together in the form of a desk calendar so it would also make a great gift. 

Speaking of gifts and January being only 3 weeks away, do you have many Christmas and yer end parties to attend this year? Have they already started? We have our first one tomorrow evening at Esther's house. 

Kayla;

Be My Neighbor: Reveal Party

Tonight we hosted the long awaited reveal party for our Be My Neighbor Quilt Along. We started our first block on March 13, the final block was posted on October 16, with some finishing instructions posted two weeks later, and tonight 6 weeks later we got together and showed the results of 9 months of work.SXLLM​​

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We seen 10 finished quilts this evening and two that are works in progress, but they have challenged themselves to get them finished and not leave them in a box hiding away. (Next time you see Carrie, ask how her Be My Neighbor Quilt is coming along, because she is one of the ones not yet finished)

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Many of the ladies were able to make the quilt from their scrap bins, buying a small piece here or there to add a color, or to do the borders. 

Every quilt looked so different, even though they are all the same patterns, but they all are absolutely beautiful!

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Aside from doing a show and share of our quilts and handing out some prizes, we played a few games, and had some snacks, and those that attended got some sneak peaks of what was inside the 30 boxes that were delivered over the past few days. The rest of you will have to wait until Carrie sorts through the boxes to see what came. SXLLM​​

I would like to thank everyone that participated in this quilt along, I had so much fun, learned a lot, and it was great to make a quilt with a group of others and the encouragement along the way was amazing.

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Kayla

Gypsy Wife: Fabric Requirements

The Gypsy Wife Quilt Along will begin on January 8. This is only a month away, so tonight I will share the fabric requirements with you as well as my fabric pull, a coloring page, and some inspiration.

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If you do not have your pattern yet, you can get one at our shop, you will need it to sew along. It is called The Gypsy Wife, and is written by Jen Kingwell.

For fabric the blocks require 2 meters total of assorted fabrics. These fabrics should vary in color and pattern, and you will be able to use smaller pieces from your scraps. We also need full wof strips for the vertical ribbons that make up the background of the quilt, the pattern states that we need 60 strips.

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I will be using Sherri and Chelsi Fabrics, they design for Moda, and I absolutely love their fabrics. I will be using their last 4 collections, and adding in the newest one, Walkabout, when it arrives in our shop.

Here is a link to a coloring page if you would like to plan your quilt out a little bit. If you are nervous about choosing colors, or are not sure where to start, follow this link to watch Jen Kingwell in action as she starts a fabric pull and shares her process for how to choose colors. 

I find that looking at what others have done for their Gypsy Quilt as helped me come up with a plan for my quilt. I have created a Gypsy Wife Board on our Pinterest Page, and have posted pictures of different ways that people have sewn up the quilt. There are some that use a wide variety of shades of just a few colors, and some that use every color of the rainbow, some planned the ribbon strips out and went light to dark across the quilt or made a pattern using 2 colors. The quilts done in pastels look vastly different than those done in the rich emerald tones. Looking through these may help you come up with a place to start, start with what appeals to you and work from there.

As with the Be My Neighbor QAL, I have also made a Facebook Group for those sewing along. Here we can share pictures of our progress, and encourage each other on this adventure. Click here to join the group. 

As we go through the blocks I will share different tools and tricks that I found helpful in my construction. 

I am so excited to start on this quilt, it's been on my Bucket List for some time now, and I am glad to have you join me on this Quilt Along.

Zen Chic Game Night: Recap

MLXLS​​We hosted our Zen Chic Themed Game Night this evening and as hosts we had a blast, thank you again to everyone that came out and joined us.There were snacks to munch on and hot apple cider and egg nog to drink. Once everyone had a plate of food and something to drink we started on the games. Our first game involved some trivia and was inspired by Jeopardy. We had three categories, Moda, Germany and Zen Chic, each with 4 questions. Each question was worth a prize and points. The two players with the highest number of points went to the final round, to compete for a White Christmas Layer Cake. There was a lot of laughter going on during this game, and we may have to do it again with new categories and questions in the New Year. 

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We also played a Scavenger Hunt game in the shop. Earlier in the day we had mixed 12 Zen Chic bolts into lines from either designers and the challenge was to find as many of these bolts as possible. In addition to the mixed up bolts, there were also 8 notions hidden around the shop to find. This may sound easy but it turned out to be quite difficult, and no one was able to find all 20 items, although a few ladies came quite close. They all said that the other fabrics on the shelves were too distracting, and they started shopping and than would remember they were supposed to be searching. 

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All the ladies that attended were given some shopping time and received a discount off their purchase of the night and some bonus goodies from our Trend Tex reps, Rob and Marqui, who were at our shop helping us out for the evening.  

Aside from helping us out with our Game Night, our Trend Tex reps also showed us a couple suitcases worth of new fabric lines. Needless to say we have some pretty fun new lines and Moda Kits coming next spring!

Carrie also received 18 boxes today, so there will be plenty of new fabrics coming out onto the shelves in the next little while. 

Our Zen Chic Trunk Show is on for the remainder of the week, and there are still some coupons hidden in some of the bolts. The brand new Backgrounds line from Zen Chic just came in, and not only is it good for backgrounds, they also make amazing quilt backings, so come on out and check out the new lines. 

 Kayla

Fabric Friday

Since our events of September and October have come to an end, we have had some time to open boxes, rearrange the store, and get new products priced and into the store. There are many new fabric lines that have gotten priced and are in the store now, as well as many that are just about ready to get put into the store and will be on display in the next week or so.

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Monarch Grove, by Sara Berrenson, is a bright and cheery collection. This line has some great florals, as well as some butterfly prints. There are 12 prints to choose from, and I think it would make a great table runner and valance for my mom’s kitchen and dining room come spring. I have also been drawn to this line for a tote bag that I have been wanting to make.

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One of our favorite bag pattern designers, Noodlehead, got together with Robert Kaufman and put out a line of Essex and Essex Yarn Dyed, called Forage, which is great for bags. There are 20 hand drawn designs in this collection. The collection is inspired by where the designer lives, western Wisconsin along the Mississippi river. Kayla has already made a bag and a pouch from this line, and if you come into the store asking me to help you pick for a bag, I will very quickly go to this line.

The staff at Chicken Feed Quilts just loves to work with Art Gallery Fabrics. We have gotten two knew collections in that we are very excited about. The first collection is Autumn Vibes, by Maureen Cracknell. Esther has made a few gorgeous wallets from this collection. Both a Penny Inn and a Necessary clutch. Laura made a beautiful backpack at the Bag Workshop in October. Autumn Vibes has 20 prints. The florals are very bright and vibrant and the squirrel print is just adorable. Esther plans on making The Broken Herringbone Quilt by Violet Craft from this collection, and there are already kits available for this quilt in store. If you want some of this collection you better come quick, as some of the bolts are already running very low.

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The other Art Gallery collection that we got in is called Little Clementine. While being down in Orlando, Esther has almost completed the top for the sample of this line. She chose a fairly simple pattern that whips up really quick, but showcases the fabrics very well. She actually texted me today to ask me to send the last piece she needed for it with Kayla when she goes down.

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I have a Gabby Bag cut out of this line, which I just cannot wait to put together and start using. I have taken one of the main florals for the body, the blue cross stitch as my accent and strap, and the light blue floral as my lining. I plan on using antique brass hardware.

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Another sample that Esther is hoping to complete while being down in Florida is the sample that she is doing from a new line, Shiny Objects Sweet Something. This line by Flaurie and Finch has been descried to be 40 all-new pieces of sparkling eye candy. Esther is making the pattern called Prism Parkway. She is using all of the prints from the line, with an Essex linen that has a little bit of a shimmer to it as the background.

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Oxford by Sweetwater fabrics is a wonderful line of wovens and prints. The pattern that Sweetwater designed to go along with this collection is amazing and as soon as the collection came in the kits were made. The pattern is called Oxford Lane and just an adorable quilt that reminds me of a little village. There are a variety of different house blocks in the quilt, as well as some flower blocks.

Lynne Hagmeier from Kansas Troubles Quilters newest collection Nature’s Glory has also come in. This line has the traditional Kansas Troubles colors of tan, orange, red, blue and brown. This line, while looking great on its own, would also blend well with any of her other lines. The Kansas Troubles collections are great for doing scrap quilts or mystery quilts because all of the collections will blend together and come out looking amazing.

Since I am not really a winter person, and love spring and summer, I actually squealed when I opened the box that held the newest collection from 1Canoe2, Twilight. This beautiful collection made me long for spring, when the flowers begin to bloom, and winter hasn’t even begun yet. While looking for a sample idea for this line, I came across the 1Canoe2 website, and actually downloaded the iPhone wallpaper that they designed to go along with this collection because it is so bright and cheery.

There are a few other new collections that came in, but since I am trying to write this before I have to leave to go babysit I do not have time to mention them. I guess you will just have to come into the store to check them out.

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Before I leave to babysit, I just wanted to quickly share with you the new Luxe Cuddles from Shannon fabrics that we got in. We got in new colors of the Chenille cuddle, new Marble cuddles, and also a few new colors of the 90” wide cuddle. We also got in some all new types of cuddle. We got Luna cuddle, Heather cuddle, and Galaxy cuddle in. These types of cuddle are super soft and making your quilts super soft, warm and cuddly. With what the weather is like outside, and it being only the beginning of winter, I am going to need to make a quilt with one of these new cuddles on the back to have for cuddling under while sitting on the couch by the fire and watching Christmas movies with my family, or reading my book.

Just a reminder that there will be no blog posts now until Tuesday, December 4th as Kayla and her family will be going down to Orlando to waterski and vacation with our parents.

Carrie

Updates

Next week my family and my brother's family will be on our way to Florida for our vacation. Before I leave I just wanted to post a few updates and reminders for the remainder of this month. On Friday I will post pictures of the newest fabric lines that we have in store and than that will be it for November, the next blog post will be on Tuesday, December 4.

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The voting for the next quilt along ended on Friday. The Gypsy Wife Quilt received by far the most votes, out of the 56 total votes it received 27,  so we will definitely be doing that one as a quilt along through the blog. I will post a schedule, coloring page, a link to some inspiration and the fabric requirements in December. We have the pattern available for sale in our store. The other three options for the quilt along split the remaining 29 votes almost equally. I am still debating in my mind if I have time to run all four of them or if I should start two in January and two later on in the year. Thank you everyone who voted, it helps immensely when planning projects when we know what you want. 

Facebook Bingo has ended again. We had a picture posted to our page today of 15 squares that matched the ones Esther has been posting. Her prize for winning the game is a notions Advent Calendar. 

We are taking food donations until the end of the month for the Food Bank. That means we have just over two weeks to collect, and see how many hampers we can fill with your help.

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Our pillowcase challenge has gone over really well. So many of you signed out a stack of pillowcases to sew that we had to cut more kits. As of today's count we have 155 finished at the store. Tomorrow is another sew day in our classroom dedicated to pillowcase sewing. 

Starting in December we will once again open our classroom for regular sew days. We will try to have one a week , and the dates for the month will be posted on our events page. The fee to use our classroom would be $5, and we would be available to answer questions that you may have. We have irons and boards, as well as extension cords available to use. If there is a special ruler you want us to demo for you on one of these days just let us know, and we will make sure we have it in store that day.

Our Zen Chic Trunk Show is the first week of December, if you would like to attend one of the Game Night Sessions you need to pre-register, and spots are filling up so do so soon to ensure you get a seat. 

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On December 11 we have our reveal party at the store for everyone who participated in the Be My Neighbor Quilt Along. I am so excited to see everyone's quilts and find out if they stuck to the challenges that they made for themselves. I am in the process of binding my first quilt and the second is loaded onto the long arm machine, and I hope to get it quilted tomorrow. 

As I start to prepare for a new year of blogging, I would love to hear what you would like to see more of on this blog. Should I share new fabric collections and products more often? Do some feature pieces on various designers? Tips and tricks from myself and other staff members at the store? Please let me know in the comments. 

Kayla

Zen Chic

Our Zen Chic event is happening in just under a month. So I thought tonight I would give a little background information on the designer. 

Brigitte Heitland is the face behind Zen Chic. She is a designer for Moda and has been producing Fabric lines and Patterns since 2010. Brigitte lives in Germany with her family, she is married and has three children. Brigitte grew up sewing clothes, and went to school initially for interior design but ended up switching over to textile design. 

After discovering a book on Quilting she was hooked, and soon started her own online shop, and a long arm business. It wasn't long before she produced her first collection.

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Her fabric lines are modern and sophisticated, with enough color to draw the eye in but simple enough to keep them there. Her patterns are simple and tend to have a lot of negative space, she likes to capture your attention but give somewhere for the eyes to focus, or give them a clear line to follow. 

White Christmas has been in our shop for a few months now and has been very popular, and the patterns that came with it as well. We sold out of the Tree Kit twice, and the mega star pattern has been reordered several times. 

Her latest line to be released is called Spotted. We received it in our store last week, with a load of other boxes, and Carrie is working as fast as she can with one arm to get it out into the shop for you. 

The trunk show is set for December 3-8 in our store. It is an open house type of event, we will have the quilts on display in our store all week, along with some in store specials focused around Zen Chic. The show is being done in partnership with Trend Tex Fabrics who are the Canadian Distributor for Moda, and it is being done in shops across the country. 

Tuesday, December 4 will be our Game Night. We have three time slots available, 5pm, 7pm and 9pm and there is still room in each one for you to attend. We will be doing some trivia, a hide and seek inspired game and have snacks and drinks as well. The fee to hold your seat is $10 but this will be returned to you as Chicken Feed Quilt cash when you attend the event (if you do not show up your money will not be returned to you.)

There is also a little contest going on just prior to the event. Any quilt, wall hanging, table topper or bag that is made using at least 75% Zen Chic fabric is eligible to be entered. We have a couple Representatives of Trend Tex willing to judge the entries, don't worry they are not quilters they just sell fabric, so they won't judge too harshly :)

I also got into contact with Brigitte and she has agreed to choose her favorite project as well via email.

The winner will be announced at the end of the show and will also receive a Gift Basket inspired by Zen Chic. 

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All the projects need to be brought in store by November 30 for judging, I made the date on this a week later than I had originally published, as I will be on holidays that week and will not be sending photos off for judging while spending time in Florida with my family. 

We would love to see lots of projects be entered into the contest, you have a few weeks left to finish them off and bring them in store.

Now as you seen on Tuesday I have quite a few projects that need worked on so I better go and take care of some of those now. 

Tomorrow I will be spending my time at the hockey rink, watching my Husband play in a tournament.

The shop will be closed on Monday in honor of the soldiers who lost their lives and the veterans that have sacrificed so much to keep our country free.

Kayla