Christmas Part 1

I know many of you are probably reading the title and groaning, "Christmas already, fall just started!" I am cringing as well and yet I know that if I want to get any of my Christmas sewing done in time for it to decorate my home or give as gifts I need to start soon. 

I am going to do a 3 part series on Christmas, sewing for the home, projects to make for gifts, and fun quilting theme gifts for the quilter in your life.

There are so many beautiful Christmas fabrics available and yet the question always remains what can I sew, how many Christmas Quilts can one person have. 

Well aside from Quilts there is lots to sew, but I am going to start with quilts.

I have a Christmas quilt for my bed and  couple pillows to match. I have the fabric to make a wall hanging to match and hope to get that done this year. To some it may seem weird to have a Christmas Quilt on my bed, but I love it, and it is fun to switch up the bed quilt even if it is just for a month. 

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SXLLM​​A throw quilt for the couch is just so cozy and who doesn't want a quilt to snuggle up with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. We are working on some pretty fun samples and will be making kits for them. Esther was also able to get a few more White Christmas Kits so if you want one of these make sure you come in soon, they sold out really quick last time around.

I love doing runners for Christmas, and this will overlap into next week as they make great gifts. But I love doing them for myself as well. It is a great way to get some new fabric into my house as well as do some extra sewing. For myself I love doing patterns that take a of work or to try out a new technique, because in the end I only have to make a few blocks and I am not committing to a full quilt.  The one pictured is a runner I just finished that would look great in Christmas Fabric and is the perfect example of one that was a lot of work, but didn't feel like an overwhelming task. It is done with the Strippy Star Ruler and Log Cabin Trim Tool both from Creative Grids.

Place mats are a great added table decor especially during the holiday season and they are quick to sew. 

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Esther is planning on making herself a jelly roll rug from Winter Village by Basic Grey. This is another fairly quick project that is a great touch to the winter decor in your home. 

Fun wall hangings are always popular, in fact the only time I have quilt projects on the wall is during Christmas. I have a lovely snow man wall hanging that I received as a gift a few years ago, and a wall that is the perfect size to hang it on. 

There are several different tree skirt patterns available, and they make the bottom of your tree look so nice whether or not there are presents. 

Advent calendars seem to be on the rise again, and we even have one or two panels that make up Advent Calendars. I have also seen a wide variety of patterns for making your own. 

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What is your favorite thing to sew for your home and do you make it new every year?

This week is Shop Hop, we will be open 10am-8pm on Thursday, 10am-5pm on Friday and 10am-4pm on Saturday. We are excited to see all of you, it is amazing how many quilters there in the area, and having everyone get together for this event is so fun. 

 Also I will miss out on seeing many of you because I will be away. As a result of me being gone, there will be no blog this Friday either. 

Kayla

Busy Weeks

The last few days have been extra busy for Esther and it won't be slowing down for a little while either. She led the first sessions of the Bag of The Month Club, plus 2 other classes, she went to Calgary to pick up our new Aurifil Stand, and today she went to the Border to pick up all the boxes that Accuquilt sent us for our trunk show coming up next week. 

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The Bag Club went great and the ladies that signed up left with a mesh zipper pouch, and an ID pouch with a zipper pocket and a lanyard to make for easy carrying. Next month is the Bag Workshop, and we can still fit you in if your are interested but have not signed up yet. 

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Our newest Aurifil stand (number 3) was picked up yesterday by Esther, and this morning her and I set it up, and started filling it, when Carrie got to the store she jumped in and we got all three stands pretty well organized. We are just waiting for some 40 weight small spools that were back ordered, but these should be here in about a week and a half. Our new stand is all small spools as we wanted to have a wide variety of colors in the 50 and 40 weights available. This stand got here just in time for our Aurifil Presentation that is just around the corner. There will actually be two presentations, one in the afternoon and one in the evening of Tuesday, October 2. The presentation will be given by the President of Aurifil and their Director of Marketing.  If you haven't yet registered to attend this, do so soon. It will be very informative and will show you how important thread really is.

The Accuquilt Trunk Show starts on Tuesday. I have mentioned this show a few times but haven't gone into a lot of detail about it. Esther picked up an entire pallet of boxes, which contain quilts, product and gifts for the Trunk Show. I for one can't wait to see what all the boxes contain.

We will have the Trunk Show set up in our main floor classroom from September 25-29. Their will be quilts from Accuquilt displayed, all three of the Systems will be set up, and we will do demos on them. We will also give you a chance to try them out, we have lots of fabric available to chop up. 

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There will be gifts available with each purchase of a machine or major bundles. The Baby Go's are on special next week as well. We will also have some draws and there will be some freebies as well, so come on out to see what these machines can do.

In addition to the Accuquilt Trunk Show, it is also Shop Hop Next weekend. This is always a fun weekend with so many quilters coming through in such a small space of time. I am sad to have to miss the majority of the weekend, due to a work thing I have to attend with my husband, but I am excited to go away with him for a couple days with no kids. 

A new shipment of Emmaline Hardware came yesterday, this shipment contains her latest releases as well as everything that needed to be re-ordered because we were running low on inventory after the bag classes this past weekend. 

A shipment of fabric came today as well. Another 6 boxes. I didn't get a chance to see what was inside but it was whispered to me that it is supposed to be Art Gallery, so I will definitely be checking them out tomorrow!

Our first Phd Class session yesterday went really well, and everyone commented that it was nice to be getting some of these older projects finished and off their mind. The next one goes tomorrow and I am excited to see the next batch of projects half done. 

As a side note and something that made our day, on Wednesday, Moda mentioned us on their blog and shared a photo of the Moda Blockheads we have been doing. That in addition to Chris W Designs including a photo of Kayla's backpack in her email last week made us feel pretty special. 

We love to see what you create with fabric you purchase from Chicken Feed, so tag us in your photos!

Kayla

Be My Neighbor: Block 14

Since we started this quilt back in March, I have been looking forward to this block. I think it is so fun and I love that the designers included a boat in the Neighborhood.

This block was a quick sew for me, about half an hour from start to finish, including choosing fabrics, which is generally a very time consuming part, in my case anyways. The sewing is just one large half square triangle set, 8 stitch and flips, and than some sewing together of all the rectangles. 

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SXLLM​​My Sherri and Chelsi boat I decided to nestle in the waves, and chose two blues as the fabrics for the waves. For my Art Gallery block I chose to rest the boat on top of the waves, and used 1 blue fabric, and the background. I am really happy with both of them.

With only two more houses to sew up and some sashing and borders, this quilt along is nearly over, the last blog post for this quilt along will be on October 30.  With that being said, Esther and I chose Tuesday, December 11 as the date for the party. That will give you just over a month from the last blog post to get your neighborhood quilted and bound. If you are laughing at me right now saying "yeah right I am way behind," work to get as much as you can done, we would love to see your progress. 

The party will be in the evening, and will include refreshments, a show and share, and some prizes and goodies.

Kayla

Fabric Friday

We have received piles of boxes in these past few weeks, so I thought tonight I would share some of the new collections that have arrived.

We have two new capsule collections from Art Gallery, one called Craft Bound and the other is Star Gazer.

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SXLLM​​Craft bound is a colorful collection of blacks and whites mixed with yellows, pinks and aqua. The prints are inspired by traditional crafts like mosaics, embroidery and tapestry, and they are gorgeous.

Star Gazer is such a cute line of fabric, so cute in fact that I told my husband when I got home that we should try for another baby, he shut down that idea pretty quick, so I will have to be content to look at in store. It features little animals lost in space and exploring the universe. With the black and white and just a touch of blue and mint the colors are soft and airy, perfect for a nursery.

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We have also received the final shipment of Art Gallery Basics. We have already sold out of a few of the solids and they have already been re-ordered.

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Speaking of basics, we also have the Grunge Seeing Stars and from Hoffman 4 designer bolts which contain 8 fat quarters of blenders in a 2 meter cut. We have grey, black, sand and purple available right now.

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Also from Hoffman we have a new Digital Print called Zookeeper. During the shop hop, Esther will be doing some demos on the stars that she plans to use with this panel to make a quilt. 

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From RJR we have another digitally printed collection, this one called Fleur Couture. This collection is so beautiful and is inspired by blue jeans on a warm summer day. Esther has plans for a bag and wallet using a few of the prints. It would also make a beautiful quilt.

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The collection that I am most excited about is Clover Hollow by Sherri and Chelsi. It is once again a beautifully done collection, I have a bag for myself all planned out for it, and I ordered patterns today to make a quilt as well. 

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Our fall and Christmas fabrics are out on display right now as well. We have Autumn Love by Lori Holt and 101 Maple Street by Bunny Hill Designs. We have kits coming for 101 Maple Street so be on the lookout for those.

As always there is lots more in store so come check them out in person. Tomorrow (Saturday, September 15) would be a great day to visit. It is National Sew a Jelly Roll Day, and all Moda Jelly Rolls will be on sale!

Kayla

Shop Hop 2018

The annual Harvest Hop is only two weeks away!

This year there are 6 shops participating: Chicken Feed Quilts, Finely Quilted, Fabric Fusion, Lethbridge Sewing Center, Sewing Lane, and Village Quilts. 

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Esther and I have been planning out the demos that we will be doing in the store throughout the weekend. So far we have a few Creative Grids Rulers that we want to share with you, and because our Accuquilt Trunk Show overlaps the Shop Hop we will be doing demos on the Go! Systems as well. We also have some nifty new notions that we absolutely love and we will have them set up in the classroom as well so you can see what they do and why we love them so much. Our demos do not have set times, we will run them whenever people wish to see them.

All of our fantastic wholesale companies have been sending us some great door prizes and we will be busy these next two weeks packaging them up and getting them ready to display during the event. Last year we had close to 50 door prizes to give out, we haven’t counted this years yet but I’m sure we will have close to that agin if not more! 

The passport gifts are also ready to go. Now the question is have you got your passport yet? 

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Pre-Registration ends this Saturday. You will need a passport to get entered into all the fantastic giveaways and draws. as well as to get your gift at each store. While there is no cost to register, there is a minimum purchase of $5 at each store during the event to get your passport stamped and receive your gift. 

This is always a fun weekend, so be sure to come visit us in store or call to get your passport. 

Kayla

National Sew a Jelly Roll Day

National Sew A Jelly Roll Day is next week Saturday! Last week their was a contest for all the stores that had registered to participate. We had to create displays using jelly rolls, patterns, quilts and the like to inspire quilters, take a picture of the display and post it to Instagram (hence the jelly roll theme last week.) Esther, Carrie and I had a lot of fun coming up with displays as well as quickly finishing up some jelly roll projects to share with all of you. When they announced the winners on Tuesday we were thrilled to win the Best Display Award!

All the projects we made are now hanging in the store. 

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Carrie made a wonderful lap quilt using Yucatan by Annie Brady. She caught some flack for bringing it into our Dad's truck to finish binding it quickly, as he is always muttering about threads invading every aspect of his life. Its pictured in the first picture, she brought it in store as soon as she was done it, so she never got a picture of it.

Esther sewed up a super adorable baby quilt using the fabric collection by Lydia Nelson called Mighty Machines, it is a pattern called Off Track by Cluck Cluck Sew.

I finished off a quilt using Thrive, the top had been finished for months, and I had backing and batting all cut, I just had never put it on the longarm to quilt it. 

I also made a ruler bag which I love, it is large enough to hold a 18"x24" cutting mat and has a total of 10 additional pockets to hold rulers and other sewing necessities. I think we may also add this bag to our Bag Of The Month Club, as many people have commented on how useful it would be. 

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One of our displays featured a Throwback Quilt that Esther made several years ago as well as several of her oldest Moda Jelly Rolls. We would like to know what your oldest Moda Jelly Roll is. Bring it in store anytime next week, and we will record it, the person with the oldest Jelly Roll will win a prize.

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Next week Saturday we will have all Moda Jelly Rolls on sale, at a 25% discount and there will also be selected patterns and books on sale as well. 

There will also be a Jelly Roll Race in our shop on the 15th. This race is free to participate in there is just a few ground rules. Everyone must start with a sealed Moda Jelly Roll, and it must be purchased from Chicken Feed Quilts. The pattern everyone will be using is the Jelly Roll Race. The race will begin at at 10:30 and we will have the doors open at 10am for you to set up and get settled. The first person with a sewn and pressed quilt top will be the winner.  We do need you to register for this race, and registration ends Wednesday, September 12 at 5pm.  You can register in store or by phone.

Have you marked the date on your calendar to be sure you carve out some time to sew your jelly roll?

Kayla

Be My Neighbor: Block 13

Today is a day that for a lot of us marks the end of summer and the beginning of a new season. I sent two of my boys off to school today, one to Grade two and the other to Kindergarten. My oldest tried to tell me that he wasn't excited but he came home full of stories, while the other was super thrilled that it was finally his turn to attend, though there were definitely some butterflies flying around in his stomach as we left home. For me it also marks going back to work twice a week which I am excited for, though I will be ending my days at the store a little earlier to make it work better with my kids schedule. 

Its also the start of a new season of clubs and classes for the store. These classes are all great for those just starting out but at the same time, experienced quilters are welcome as well. Getting out for the day or evening and working on a new project is always fun. So when you have finished reading this post head on over to the "Classes" tab and see what we have in the way of clubs and classes this fall.

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As for the Be My Neighbor Quilt Along we have reached the final row of blocks. 

Esther and I will choose a date for the after party and publish it in the next Be My Neighbor Blog Post. We would love to see some finished quilts at this party so make sure you set some time aside to work on these blocks. 

I sewed up both my block 13's yesterday afternoon when our trip to the corn maze was postponed for nicer weather. 

This block has a lots of different things going on with the flower, leaves, bird and half square triangles. I have not figured out what those half squares are supposed to be, stairs maybe? 

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With only 3 blocks left to go for me I am getting quite excited to see the blocks all together. I usually have a picture in my head and plan quilts out before I sew but I have been working block by block on this one and haven't looked at my previous blocks for color arrangement or anything. I will have to see if my quilts get put together in the suggested manner or if I end up switching blocks around. be my

Have you been working block to block or did you have a picture in your mind or from another source that you have been using as a guide? 

Kayla