Current Projects

The July Newsletter for the shop went out today so be sure to check your inbox to read it. 

Today I just want to share with you some of the things that we have been working on in the past few weeks. 

Esther has a lot on the go!

She has two projects from Gypsy Soul in the works, one is a quilt the other a fun bag!

She finished up this Canadian themed quilt this weekend, just in time for Canada Day. The fabrics are from True North by Kate and Birdie, which is available in the shop if you ask for it. 

These fun blocks are the start of a Hunter Star quilt using Ballerina and a few blues from various Art Gallery collections. 

This popsicle quilt using Canning Day is going to be the perfect summer quilt!

And she is also going to whip up this fun baby quilt.

Carrie has a few projects on the go too. She is starting a new Homecoming Quilt using Solid red and white, perfect for Canada Day and Christmas.

She is also working on a Scrappy Happy Village Quilt using Canning Day.

And her Heart Quilt using Foresta is finished and looks as amazing as I imagined it would!

I made this Poppyseed quilt this past weekend, using Sugarcreek Wovens. I was nervous to work with them, but there was no difficulty at all, and I really enjoyed sewing the blocks. 

I also finished up my Fresh as a Daisy quilt using Canning Day Fabrics. 

I also have a couple sampler quilts in progress, I am working on the At The Seashore Sampler from Moda Bakeshop, and the Easy Piecing 2020 Summer Sampler. 

I am super excited to start my Cathedral Quilt using Bloomington by Lella Boutique. 

I will also be starting my Woodland Wonderland Quilt this week, and there are just a couple kits left if you want to join me in making it. Just check out this link here to register, the first kit is available for pickup on Thursday. 

Are you working on any new projects right now?

Also please note that we will be closed on Wednesday, July 1 for Canada Day.

Have a great week.

Kayla

New Block Of The Month: Woodland Wonderland

We have a new block of the month starting up next week. 

It is called Woodland Wonderland by Fig Tree and Co.

The fabrics used in the kits is Christmas Figs 2 also by Fig Tree. 

The program runs for 7 months. 

It will start July 2, (since we are closed July 1) and packages will be available for pickup on the first of each month, (unless we are closed for a Sunday or a holiday, than they will be available the next day) Shipping is an option if you are not local. Shipping will be $4 per block package. 

It is $5 to sign up and than each month is $35. The $5 sign up fee will be applied as a credit to your first month making block 1 $30. 

Link to sign up is at the bottom

When you sign up we will contact you to take down your Credit Card information, and you will be auto charged each month for your kit.  

The first month you will receive the pattern booklet plus the fabrics needed for the Chapter 1 blocks. 

Months 2-6 you will receive the new fabric needed for the blocks in each chapter. 

In the final month you will receive the fabrics needed to make the final blocks as well as extra background fabric to assemble the quilt top, and binding fabric to finish it off. 

The backing is not included. 

Each month you need to make just a couple blocks, than save the remaining pieces of fabric to use later in the quilt. For example, during month 5 you may need some fabrics left from chapter 1 or 2 to complete the block. 

There is limited kits available so sign up soon!

You can sign up for this program by clicking on the link below

Sign up Here 

If you are too impatient to wait for your blocks each month and want the kit to make the full quilt, contact us and we can get you all 7 packages at once. 

I cannot wait to get started on mine, I just love the little hedgehog, gnome and mushroom blocks!

Kayla 

Trendtex Partnership Program

Wow, the weather today was amazing. I spent my day at my parent's lake and it was wonderful to swim, ski and read a book in the sunshine. 

Last week on Social Media I kept seeing blocks from the  At The Seashore Quilt that Moda Bakeshop released patterns for last summer, it inspired me to pull mine out and work on it some again. I only got three blocks done last year, but I have doubled that now and would like to get it finished up, so I will be working on that this evening. Do you ever get inspired to work on an old project and get it finished? 

With finishing projects in mind I want to share with you a new program that started today. 

Trendtex is our distribution company for over half the fabrics we have in our shop. To help out Canadian Shops they have opened their online warehouse to the public. Yep, you read that right you can now shop from our distributor!

It is meant to be a partnership, so if you are looking for some fabric that we do not carry you can head on over to the Trendtex website (link at the bottom) and see if they have it for you. You need to put it in a quilt shops special code in order to check out and we hope that you choose ours (also provided at the bottom) Than when you checkout we get half the proceeds of the sale :) It is a way for you to support our shop, and keep your shopping in Canada rather than buying from the USA. 

Fabrics are not added to the Trendtex Website until 3 months after they are sent out to Quilt Shops, so there won't be any brand new releases listed. However if you are looking for fabrics to finish off a quilt it can be really helpful. Also if you are interested in a fabric collection that we did not order, you can get it and still support our shop. 

The minimum cut for fabric from Trendtex is 1meter. 

Some Precuts are also available. 

Shipping is $15 on orders 0-149 and free on orders over $150

You can ship to our shop or directly to your home. I did ask and was told they do ship to post office boxes. 

The link to the website is here https://shop.trendtexfabrics.com/

Our Shop Code is CHI004, though you can enter our shop name, Chicken Feed Quilts, and that will work as well.

Have fun checking it out!

Kayla

Needles

It's a new week. We were supposed to be leaving for Edmonton on Wednesday to be a vendor in Quilt Canada. While I was excited to attend this show, I am not too sad that it was cancelled, as it means I will be home with my family on my Birthday later this week.

Instead of being in Edmonton for a show, we are going to do our own mini market here in Coaldale. This takes place Thursday and Friday. Thursday is nearly sold out but Friday still has some spots available if you wanted to attend. 

Quilt Coaldale Sign Up

Today I want to share with you the importance of changing your needle. Your needle may be the cause of breaking threads and skipped or uneven stitches. They can also damage your fabrics, so it is important to change them often.

 

Take a second and think back to the last time you changed the needle in your sewing machine. Was it so long ago you can't remember, last time you started a new project, just the other day? 

So how often should you be changing your needle?

The rule of thumb that I always heard was new project new needle. However if you tend to work on more than one project at once, it can be a difficult rule to follow. 

The other rule I have heard often is after 8 hours of sewing. 

I change my needle every time my bobbin runs out, I do have really large bobbins in my sewing machine, but it is a rule that works well for me. I have to unthread my needle to wind a new bobbin anyways, so I just change out the needle quick, and clean and oil my machine while the bobbin winds. This works well for me because it is consistent and there is no forgetting or guessing about it. No keeping track of which project I was on when I last changed my needle, or how many hours I have sewn with it. 

Now there are a wide variety of needle types and sizes to choose from so which one should you be using. 

If you click on the Needle Guide below it will take to you a chart from Schmetz listing the different types of needles and what they are used for. We carry Schmetz needles in the shop and have always had very good results in quality with them in all our various brands of machines. 

 

NEEDLE GUIDE

I use a Chrome Microtex Needle in 80/12 for almost all my sewing, if I am sewing with Batiks or Art Gallery Fabrics I use the same needle but in a 70/10 size. 

The 70/10 has a smaller blade and so is ale to puncture through the tighter weaves even easier. 

If you are curious about anything else concerning needles, I encourage you to check out the link to Schmetz below as it is very informative. 

Schmetz Needles

Have a great week, there will be no blog post Thursday.

Kayla

Bag Making: Patterns

Happy Thursday, how has your week been? Our Annuversary Sale is still happening and so it has been quite busy at the shop. If you haven;t heard, all the yardage in the front room is 30% off for our in store shoppers. There is a minimum 0.3 meter cut to get the discount and if you finish the bolt you get 40% off that piece. This sale continues until June 24th so there is still time to come in and get some new fabric at a great discount. 

Quilt Coaldale our little Market is taking place next week Thursday and Friday and Thursday is nearly sold out but there is still some spaces available on Friday. You can sign up for that here.

Tuesday we did another Facebook live and talked about some of our favorite bag makers and why they are our favorites.  Esther, Carrie and I love making bags, and swap between that and quilting often. All the bags we make are sewn on domestic machines. 

Pattern designers all have different ways of writing patterns, both in quilting and in bag making, and I am sure any other craft as well. Some of them are very wordy, some use lots of pictures, some have very few pictures. Some over explain things and some don't explain it enough. 

Classic Carryall Andrie 
Roadtrip Wallet Emmaline

I am going to list some of the ones Esther mentioned in her video and provide you with a link to their website. Many of them have a free pattern or two available for download, and most of them are quite simple to make. 

If you are new to making bags this is a great place to start, as it will give you a peek into how that pattern designer writes her patterns and constructs her bags. Most bag patterns are labelled with a difficulty level, so you can gauge whether or not you will be able to make the bag. Many of the designers also have a tips and tricks section on their website to help you with various techniques. Most also have a tutorial page with more tips and hacks on some of their patterns to add zippers, change the straps, use different closures and more. 

We have many of these designers patterns in our shop available to purchase, and are willing to offer classes on them as well in the fall. 

We are also planning on doing some virtual classes with the free downloadable patterns and if you are interested in any of those please send us an email to chickenfeedquilts@gmail.com 

Andrie Designs is one of our favorites, she writes great patterns, has lots of pictures, and the pieces always fit together so well. She is also in the process of creating lots of free video tutorials on various techniques related to making bags, which is super helpful if you are at all nervous about anything, and several of her patterns also come with the option to purchase a video class where she walks you through walking the whole bag. Here is a link to her website. Andrie Designs

Adventure Time Backpack Andrie

Chris W has fantastic patterns. We do not carry them in the shop, but we have taught several classes with her patterns, and what we have done is buy enough copies of the pattern for everyone in the class from Chris W and than get the patterns printed and coil bound for you at Minute Man Press. Chris W

Penny Inn Wallet Chris W

Mrs H is another one of our favourites. She has some fun bags, and her instuctions are really good. 

Sallie Tomato designs bag patterns and produces hardware, and we carry both. Her bags are quite easy to make and her hardware is great. Carrie has taught several of her patterns in our young adults bag class and our Bag Club 1. 

Emmaline is another one that designs patterns and produces hardware, we really like her hardware and have nearly all of it in our shop. I find her patterns a lit difficult to understand when I read them, but if I follow the instructions I end up with a great bag. Emmaline has several free patterns on her site to check out. Emmaline Bags

Noodlehead has great patterns, and we teach many of them in our beginner bag making classes. My 6 year old son just made a tote bag for himself using her wax and wool tote, and Taylor and Shay both made a Range Backpack for themselves, and neither of them had sewn very much before making it. 

She has a couple free downloads, and tutorials. Noodlehead

Wax and Wool Tote Noodlehead

By Annie is a designer that we do have in the shop but I don't really care for her bags, mostly because they are quilted and so they require a lot of fabric, and they also call for you to bind the bag, and I just prefer to flip mine. That being said I have made several of her patterns and the patterns are written very well. 

Next week Tuesday at 10:30am on Facebook Live we will be talking about stabilizers for your bags, tune in too learn more. 

Have a great weekend,

Kayla

New Fabric Collections

Happy Monday, it has been awhile since I have shared new fabric here, so that is the plan for today. Even though a lot of things were shut down, we still received a lot of shipments from our fabric companies so we have lots of new Art Gallery, Moda and Riley Blake Collections that have come into the shop in the last month or so. 

First up the Art Gallery Releases

Maarakesh Fusion just arrived and the coloring in this one is quite different than any of the others we currently have. 

 

Marrakesh Fusion

Foresta Fusion is full of rich colors and Carrie has a quilt top all finished out of it, and will have it quilted and bound for our Quilt Show next week. 

Hello Sunshine is a bright and summery line that I am in love with. I have a project planned for it and as soon as our shipment of white arrives I will be getting to work on that. 

Hello Sunshine 

Rosewood Fusion arrived last week and is gorgeous. It is made up of coral pinks, teal and denim blues and some more darker pinks. 

Her and History is a collection inspired by stories from our grandmothers. 

Her and History

From Moda 

We have Bloomington by Lella Boutique, which arrived this morning so it may not even be unboxed yet at the time you are reading this. 

Gypsy Soul by Basic Grey arrived during the shut down, and it has been quite popular since we opened our doors back up. Esther is working on a project called Cobblestones with it and it is looking so cute!

Cultivate Kindness also came while our doors were closed, and is actually nearly gone, most of the bolts are pretty short and several of them are sold out already, so if you have been on the fence make sure you get some before it is too late. 

From Riley Blake

Homestead Life is quite new and is really pretty, is has a couple gingham prints, wheat print tonals,  some small florals and my favourite is the print that says "Farmers work in Acres not Hours" all in greys, yellows greens, blacks and creams. 

In the Forest is such an adorable line with little fox faces, trees, a multi animal print and a couple great panels. The colors in this one are rich navy, green, orange and light blue. Nearly everyone that walks by it in the shop stops and comments on it. 

As always there is more fabric in the shop. Come in and visit us, we sure love seeing you in person, and remember our Anniversary Sale runs until the 24th and our Quilt Show is next week Thursday and Friday. If interested in the Quilt Show sign up soon, several time slots are already sold out, and preregistration is required to attend. (it is free)

You can shop and sign up for the Quilt Show at the links below. 

We still offer curbside pickup and shipping. 

Shopping Link

Quilt Show sign up

Have a great week, I have several projects to finish up before the show, so I will be spending a lot of time in my sewing room.

Kayla

Quilt Coaldale

Esther, Carrie and I have spent the last few days in our classroom attending Quilt Market Schoolhouse Virtually. We learned lot of new things and have some fun new ideas to try out in the shop! Thankfully the Chrysalis Cafe opened up again this week, and Krisna kept us well supplied with food, drinks and snacks while we were sitting in front of the screen. 

Her new summer menu is full of refreshing treats with options for those that love coffee and for those that don't, stop in and visit her if you are in the area. 

As with so many other things, Quilt Canada was cancelled. We were supposed to be attending as a vendor this year so we are sorry to be missing out. 

We have decided to hold our own safe Quilt Market event instead. 

June 18 and 19 we will host Quilt Coaldale in our classroom. We have invited a couple of our fabric representatives to come and set up a little booth to show off the newest fabrics we have ordered. One of the reps is from the company we order our batting from,he is very knowledgeable about batting and he will gladly answer your questions on that topic. 

We have gotten lots of new products in the shop that we want to show off , and we are carrying patterns from a few different designers as well that we want to share with you. The new products and patterns will be available for you to purchase, because what is a Quilt Market without a little shopping? We also hope to have a table of sneak peeks of products coming into the shop later this summer and fall, and you will be able to preorder these as well. 

Just like the Relaunch Event, you will need to preregister to attend, and once again it is free to come. 

With the registration we can control the number of people in the room at one time. Time slots are 45 minutes each and start on the hour. 

Thursday, June 18 the sessions start at 11am, and run all day with the last one beginning at 7pm.

Friday, June 19 the sessions begin at 10am, and run throughout the day with the last one starting at 4pm. 

We will be using a separate entrance for this event, and the door for that will be clearly marked for those attending. 

You can sign up for the event below, if interested you better do so quick as several sessions are sold out already. Just choose the day you prefer, and than the time slot you would like to come. 

Sign up

Have a great weekend. It is my husbands birthday today so we will be doing some celebrating. 

Kayla

Anniversary Sale

Happy Monday, and welcome to June! June is normally such a busy month for our shop with Quilt shows, our Anniversary, the end of classes for the season and day to day operations. 

Esther, Carrie and I will be taking part in Virtual Quilt Market this week and we also plan to have a little quilt market of our own in our classroom because we were supposed to be going to Quilt Canada in a few weeks but it was cancelled. I will do a blog post about this either Thursday or next Monday and send the information out in a newsletter in the next few days.  

We missed our big Spring Clearance Sale this year and so for our Anniversary this year we are going to have a yardage sale. It will run from June 4-24. All the yardage in the front room of our shop will be 30% off and if you finish the bolt you will get 40% off that piece. The minimum cut for the sale fabrics is 0.3meters. It is a yardage sale only, the precuts and kits will not be included in the sales. 

In case your asking yourself "Which room is the front room? The shop is like a giant maze!"

The front room is the one you walk into when you come in the North Door of our shop. It holds all our batiks, Moda and Riley Blake Solids, blenders from various companies, Essex Linens and a wide selection of collections from designers. These will all be included in the sale.

The North Door will still be locked so you will need to come in the East Door, which is the one on the side street. 

We will also still have restrictions in place on the amount of people in the shop at one time so you may need to wait your turn before coming into the store. 

Have a great week! I am excited to spend mine learning. 

Kayla