June Events

Today marks the last day of May, and for me personally, June is one of the busiest months of my year. It is the last month of school for my boys, and with that comes year end field trips, our annual School Sports Day, year end parties, and trying to stay on routine until school officially lets out. With the warmer weather it is so easy for me to forget about bedtimes and homework. Soccer and softball are both going strong, though soccer only has a few weeks lefts. Also my husband and I both have our birthdays in June, as do several others in my family. As for the shop it looks like it's going to be a busy month as well.
This weekend marks 3 years since Esther purchased the shop, and so we are having a little Anniversary Sale for that. We have some blenders, batiks, and Kona solids on sale in our classroom.
 On Wednesday, June 12 at 7pm we have Rob from Trendtex coming to do a presentation for us on the process of designing and producing Moda Fabrics, and Esther and I will do a little talk about out trip to Market at this time as well. You do need to pre-register for this presentation, and you can do so by clicking this link. There are only a few spots left, so if you interested don't wait too long.
June 14 and 15 is the Lethbridge Quilt Festival. This is a fun event with vendor booths, lots of quilts to see, various demonstrations and a quilt raffle. We will have a booth at the event and we will be doing a little talk on Bag Hardware at the show. To see more details about the event just click here.
Our shop is participating in Row By Row again this year, and this fun Shop Hop type event begins on June 21. The theme this year is Taste The Experience, and Esther has designed a fun block featuring a food truck.
Coming up in July is the annual Settler Days in Coaldale. Our shop will have a float in the Candy Parade, and we will also be having a quilt sale that weekend. The quilts are all samples that we have made for the shop and no longer need.
Esther and I are busy putting together the fall class list right now, so if there are any classes you would like to see please let us know.
Have a great weekend,
Kayla

Gypsy Wife: Section 10

We have reached the last section of Blocks for our Gypsy Wife Quilt Along. Section 10 has quite a few blocks in it, 11 of them, but they are not too difficult so I have decided to lump them all into one group and get them done.

I must admit that I have made a mistake. We will make a block in this section that we actually need to swap out with one in Section 6, the diagram that I was cross referencing with had a mistake in it and I did not catch it until I put them up on the design wall and noticed that one block was smaller than the one below it and on the layout diagram they appeared to be the same size. I will list all the blocks we need to make as usual, and than point out which one we need to swap out, hopefully this doesn't cause you too many issues.

Onto the blocks, there is 1 Focus block and 10 fillers, and the while section is pictured on page 31. 

Focus Block

Puss in the Corner, pg 13 -- make 1 with border

 Filler Blocks

Pinwheel Block, pg 19 -- make 1, finished size 3"

Hourglass Block, pg 21, -- make 1, finished size 5" (this block will actually end up going into section 6)

Square in a Square Block, pg 22-- make 3, finished size 3"

                                                   -- make 1, finished size 3.5"

                                                   -- make 2, finished size 4"

Square in a Square with Pinwheel Center, pg 23, -- make 1, finished size 5.5"

Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps, pg 24 -- make 1, finished size 7"

Puss in the Corner, we made this block once already way back in Section 1, the only difference this time around is that we are going to add a border to make it a little larger.

Pinwheel Block, for this block I used a bunch of premade half square triangles that I had from a previous stitch and flip blocks, if I hadn't had these on hand, I would have cut my squares at the half inch increment rather than the eighth and than trimmed after they were pieced. 

Hourglass Block, so this block is actually going to end up in Section 6, I apologize for not catching on to this earlier, I went through all my papers over and over but this one missed my eye. The block itself is straightforward, we need to make a hourglass following the instructions in the previous column, and than add a border and than add some triangles to the outer edges. The instructions are a little funny, because it first says 2" finished and than at the end it says 5" Finished, but the inner hourglass is what the first measurement refers too and than we add to bring it up to the 5".

Square in a Square Blocks, what would a section in this quilt be without some square in a square blocks? We need to make 6 this go around in three different sizes. I made all 6 at the same time so that I could chain piece. I cut them and laid them out in a neat row, and it worked really well, and was quicker than doing one at a time would have been. 

Square in a Square with Pinwheel Center, for this block the instructions are on page 23, beginning about halfway through the left hand column.  The pinwheel the pattern is referring to is made on page 19 at the bottom of the right hand column so you will need to flip back to that page to first make the pinwheel, than return to page 23 to complete the block. I did cut the squares for the pinwheel slightly larger for trimming room. 

Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps, we have made this block before in a variety of sizes, this time around we need to make it so that it finishes at 7". There are two 7" finished blocks on page 24, and we will be making the latter one, it has a larger center square, and smaller round 1 borders. 

The block that we need from section 6 to swap with is the 5.5" finished square in a square with courthouse steps. 

So the square in a square with courthouse steps will actually go into Section 10 and the Hourglass Block will go into section 6. 

And that is it, we have finished making all the blocks for the quilt. Next we need to cut some strips and put it all together. I have two blog posts scheduled for this one, not that it needs lots of explaining but it is time consuming. 

From our Facebook Group I see that many of you have been able to keep up, and if you fell behind you managed to get back on track. This is amazing and I love the variety between them all. 

I love seeing quilts in person and so I would love to do a final reveal party at our shop. I will put together a few dates and post them on June 11 and hopefully one of them will work for a number of people to attend so that we can do a little show and tell. 

Kayla

Creative Grids: Stripology

As many of you know I absolutely love Creative Grids Rulers. The markings are very clear, and the non-slip grip built into the ruler is just right, I have tried others that are too grippy and they tend to stretch the fabric out. The Creative Grids slide smoothly across the fabric until pressure is applied. All the markings on the rulers are very accurate, and they have a great collection of rulers in the basic range, excellent trim tools for popular blocks and specialty rulers for some other fun blocks. There is also a video tutorial for each ruler that provides instructions on how to use it as well as some tips to go with it. At Chicken Feed Quilts we carry nearly all 128 of the Creative Grids Ruler, our goal is to have all of them but we do run out of stock on them occasionally, usually an event that we do, like Demo Days, or retreats that we attend.
With all this mind I have decided to run a blog series on my favorite Creative Grids Rulers, I will share what I love about them, patterns that accompany the ruler and links to video tutorials. The first one is the Stripology Ruler, a ruler that I love and use almost daily!

At Quilt Market last week, Esther and I attended a number of lectures, one of them was by Gudrun Erla of G.E. Designs. She is the designer of the Stripology Rulers for Creative Grids, and also has a line of patterns that utilize the rulers. There is now three rulers in the Stripology Collection, the original, the squared and the mini. Each ruler has slots for your rotary blade that make cutting for your projects, straight, accurate and quick.
I have two of the three rulers, the original and the mini. I generally use them for cutting strips from yardage, and if a quilt calls for a lot of squares or rectangles I will use them for that too. I can cut 8 strips of binding with the original Stripology without even moving the ruler and cutting squares goes incredibly quick. I keep my Original Stripology tucked under my cutting table, where it is easy to reach. It is definitely a ruler that you need to make a habit of grabbing and using, and the more you use it the more you will love it.
Aside from cutting strips and squares, you can make your own precuts, cut diamonds, square up blocks, trim Half Square Triangles, and subcut pieced strips and blocks.
Gurdrun has done up some tutorial videos to go with it, that are very informative on how to use the ruler. You can view them here, and I highly encourage you to do so, you will not regret it. She goes over how to fold and line up your fabrics, what type of rotary cutters to use, and what all the markings on the ruler are to be used for.
During the lecture last week we were shown several of the patterns by G.E. Designs, all of them were so neat, and using the Stripology Rulers make them so much easier. We have many of them in stock, and some of those that we do not have are on order and should be here in a couple weeks.
In her booth at Quilt Market, Gudrun had a mini quilt called Lil' Alberta made using Elizabeth Hartman's fabric collection, Arctic. I fell in love with it and have decided to make a lap size version of it using the same fabric and the Alberta Pattern.
Do you have any Stripology Rulers? Do you use them or do you forget to grab it when you are cutting for your quilt?
If you would like to see the Stripology Ruler in action come visit me at the store this coming Tuesday (May 28) sometime between 10am and 2:30pm and I will show you how it works, and answer any of the questions you may have regarding the ruler this also goes for those of you that already have the ruler and need a refresher on how to use it, or need to be inspired to pull it out more often.
Kayla
.

Quilt Market Highlights

Esther and I attended Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City last week. We arrived late Tuesday night, and headed straight to our hotel rooms for the night.
Wednesday we got all our badges for the event at the conference center, which by the way is built directly over top of several interstates. Afterwards we found a couple places for parking during the event and than headed out to Hamilton, which is the home of Missouri Star Quilt Company. Esther and I spent a few hours touring through the 12 shops, and met and took a photo with Jenny, of course we did some shopping while we were at it. We had a lunch at J's Burger Dive, and those were some really good burgers!
Back in Kansas City we went to the Steamboat of Arabia Museum. This steamboat sunk in the Missouri River in 1856 and was located in the middle of a cornfield in 1988. The boat was full of cargo destined for new mercantiles, and so all the artifacts are brand new, never been used 1856 originals. It was really neat to see a Museum full of brand new but old things, all the dishes were in perfect condition, and there were lots of boots, buttons, hardware and other household items as well.
After dinner at the Texas Roadhouse we add a break at the hotel, than decided to go out clothes shopping for a little while, Esther and I both found some fun summer outfits, as well as a great kids store that we did some damage at as well.
Thursday was a day full of Schoolhouse Sessions. These sessions are quick 30 minute lectures on a variety of topics. The topics ranged from class ideas, upcoming book releases, new fabric and patterns. shop display ideas, and more.
After Schoolhouse was Sample Spree. A number of vendors have booths set up with their product at a slightly discounted price, when it opens it is a free for all with people running all over the place and grabbing whatever they can get their hands on. It is so intense and so much fun! Esther and I came away with some great fat quarter bundles and several Aurifil Thread Boxes.
On the way back to the car we were trying to guess how much fabric we had and we decided there was no way we could have 150lbs worth on our shoulders, but when we got to the airport the next day it turned out we had close to that, as between our three suitcases we had over 150lbs and had to move some of it our carry-ons, and our suitcases together weighed less than 50 lbs on the incoming trip.
Friday was the actual Market. Exhibitors from the quilting world all come together to market their goods to shop owners and industry professionals. There are fabric designers, pattern designers, notion companies, books, batting, threads, and more. It is so neat to walk through all the booths and meet the people behind the products we love and use all the time.
Esther got her Moda All Stars On A Roll book signed by many of the Moda Designers that contributed patterns to the book. And I was able to get an early copy of Sunday Best Quilts by Sherri McConnell and Corey Yoder, and they kindly signed it for me too.
We met with Aaron Hoffman of Hoffman California, and showed him some of our recent quilts made using their fabrics, and he was thrilled to here that we have nearly all of the Call of The Wild Digital Prints in our shop.
We reconnected with Brad from Aurifil and talked about how things were going, and we talked about some new things with the Aurifil App. In the app you can "stash" the colors and weights of Aurifil that you have and make wish lists for what you still want, you can also see stores that carry it, what each weight should be used for, ad more. Brad said they are working on a color matcher for the app but it is not quite ready for the public use yet.
We also met with many of the fabric designers from Moda, Hoffman, Art Gallery and even a few new companies that are just starting out.
There are some fun new products coming from some of our favorite notion companies as well.
After walking through all the booths it was time to head home. We arrived at the airport with 3 heavy suitcases and boarded the first of two flights home. We were a little worried about our connection time, which was only 40 minutes, but storms across the North Western States turned that 40 minute connection into a 4 hour one. When we arrived in Great Falls at 1:30 am we headed to a hotel instead of the highway. After about 6 hours of sleep we got on the road and made it safely home to spend the remainder of Saturday with our families.
It was great to attend Quilt Market again this year, and we have some fun new ideas to implement, new classes for the fall, and new fabric to start making fresh samples. And there is a lot of new fabrics coming to the shop this fall!
To say our brains felt like exploding from all the new inspiration is not an exaggeration.
We truly love what we do, and we are so excited to be able to share the love of quilting with all of you!
Kayla

Gypsy Wife: Section 9

This week we are working on Section 9 of our quilt. This section makes up the top left portion of our quilt, and you can see it pictured on page 30 of your pattern book.
There are 5 blocks to make this week, two focus blocks and three fillers.
Focus Blocks
PG 9: Hope from Hartford, make 1
Pg 17: Old Maid Puzzle, make 1

Filler Blocks
Pg 19: Pinwheel Block (Bordered) make 1, 6" finished
Pg 22: Square in a Square Block, make 2 -- 1 that is 2.5" finished and 1 that is 3" finished


Hope from Hartford: This block introduces a partial seam to us. We have to a few when we sew our quilt top together so this will be good practice.
First we need to construct the components of the block. I cut as the pattern states, if you are looking at the picture in your book of where each piece is going, I is the dark triangle, J is the stripe, K is the white triangles and the polka dot,  and L is the small square in the center. Be sure to stitch the K strip to the J triangle.
When you have all the components together lay it out at the pattern instructs. For the partial seam, I like to mark a little line on my square 1/4" from the edge, and than make sure I do not stitch past the line (in fact I usually stop a little before the line.) Than add each component as instructed, and that partial seam will get finished when you stitch the final piece in. You may need to fold your fabric out of the way a little on some parts to avoid catching it.



Old Maid Puzzle: we made one of the blocks for section 2, so this block should not be anything new. I chose not to go scrappy this time around and just used 4 colors total, pink for the big triangles, taupe print for the background, red for the four triangles that cut through the center, and green for the outer corner sections. Here is the link to the tips I made the last time we made this block.
http://chickenfeedquilts.blogspot.com/2019/01/gypsy-wife-section-2.html


Bordered Pinwheel Block: The instructions for this block take up the full first column on Page 19. I had some half square triangles already made so I used those to make my block go really quick, you could also use some of those triangles that we have set aside to make your pinwheel, and you can use all different fabrics or just a couple.

Square in a Square block: These are nothing new, but we do get to do a new size this time around so that is pretty fun. We need to make 1- 2.5" finished and 1- 3" finished.

That is it for this section, we only have one section left after this and than we can start cutting out our strips and assembling our quilt top!

Kayla

May's New Fabric

It's the middle if the month which means I have some new fabrics and projects to share with you all. I have shared several of these pictures on Instagram, but not here on the blog yet.
Day in Paris by Zen Chic has arrived. Carrie is doing a fun Block of Month Sampler with it called Summer Moon. We hope to do a fun club starting in the fall using this pattern so stay tuned for more information on that.
Also from Moda we have a new kit by Gingiber, it is a Christmas Kit but we have already sold quite a few of them.
And it has not arrived yet, but we a have received our shipping notification that True North by Kate and Birdie is on its way! We hope to have it Monday, will cut the kits early next week and than get it out on the shelves.
From Riley Blake we have several new collections. Bliss is the first one, it features some fun florals, polka dots, and stripes, in blacks, blush pink and minty green, it has been selling really quick and some bolts are nearly empty already.
Also from Riley Blake is Azure Skies. I absolutely love the little cactus print!




Another fun new collection is this one called Fox Farm, some of the dots in the one print are actually curled up foxes, and those Rain Boots are so adorable!

The fourth and final collection from Riley Blake is called Someday, it is a soft collection and the print with scooters and bikes is so cute and is available with a light blue, pink or white background.
I have a new project using Grid, a new art Gallery Collection planned. I am using the Turning Twenty Pattern so it should come together pretty quickly once I set my mind to it. I have been focused on sewing myself a new backpack for Market next week and finishing off a few projects before I started a new one. I finished 3 quilts last week and got them in the store so if I have time this weekend after soccer I may be able to get started on it.
Do any of these collections catch your eye?
There will be no blog post next Friday as Esther and I will be at Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City, but I will post about our adventures on Tuesday, May 21.
We will be closed on Monday, May 20 for Victoria Day.
Have a great weekend, and Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's. I  am super thankful to be Mama to 4 amazing boys!
Kayla

Sew Hometown: May

It honestly feels like I just finished the Sew Hometown post for April, and yet here we are a week into May already. In our family, my two oldest have started soccer, and my husband has begun softball again. I love this time of year, even though it is really busy, it feels like a kickoff to summer fun and being outside as much as possible. I also get a lot of binding done while sitting at the soccer field watching practices and games, so that is always a plus. I do find that I have less time in the evenings to quilt but an hour is still better than nothing.
For our Sew Hometown Quilt Along, we have 5 blocks to make this month. The block we are making is called Hopscotch and is quite fun. It is more intricate than last month's and it finishes at 9" when it is in the quilt.
In my Fat Quarter Bundle I had some brown prints that I decided to use as the "background" fabric this time, and than I used solids for the dark section and a print for the light.
I actually followed the instructions this time around and didn't change anything.
Amy Ellis did a video tutorial on the block so you can click here to see it.

 For it being only May, there is already a good number of blocks that we have finished. I am loving this Block of the Month so far, how about you?

Kayla

Demo Days

If you have been following along, you know that our Classroom went through a major overhaul last month. The walls, floors, and ceilings were all given new finishes, and we updated the furnishings, and lighting. We also added some fun new things, and we have some more new decor to hang yet.
To celebrate our new space, we are going to host a Demo Days Weekend May 9-11, so that you can all come see the changes!
Thursday morning starting at 10am and running until 11:30. Esther and I will be sharing our favorite notions with you, what we use them for and why we like them so much. We will do another session later in the afternoon starting at about 3pm and running until 4:30.
Beginning at 1pm on Thursday we will play a game based on Scattergories but with a quilters twist. You need to pre-register for this game, the sign up fee is $10, and this will be returned to you as Chicken Feed Quilts Cash for spending during the event. If you don't come you will forfeit your registration fee.
You can sign up for the event by clicking on the link below.
 https://www.chickenfeedquilts.com/module/class.htm?classId=305705

Friday we will follow the same Schedule but our fun event in the afternoon will be a new presentation by Rob from Trendtex. The presentation is titled How??? and is new to us as well.
The presentation will begin at 1pm and like the game you need to pre-register and pay the sign up fee for this event.
You can sign up for this event here:
https://www.chickenfeedquilts.com/module/class.htm?classId=305704

There will also be a demo session on Saturday morning from 10-11:30am.

All the demos will be an open house type of event, just pop in to see us and we will show you some of our favorites products, there is no need to register and you can come at point during the time frame, for example you do not need to be there from 10am all the way until 11:30.

We will have snacks and beverages from the Chrysalis Cafe throughout the weekend, and there may even be some specials as well.

Come out next weekend to see our new space and all the new features that have been added.

Kayla