June Events

 June is right around the corner, and with it our 5th Anniversary!

First off I want to say Thank You on behalf of Esther, Carrie and myself for all your support and business over the past 5 years! We have had so much fun and look forward to the future. 

We had been planning to have some instore specials the first week of June as that is our actual Anniversary, but with restrictions lifting more all the time we have decided to wait until nearer the end of the month for the sales instead. So watch for more details on that in the next few weeks. 

We have our first few Tuesday Facebook Live Videos planned out. These take place live on our Facebook Page at 10:30am and we publish the videos when we are done filming so they stay on our page. 

June 1 we will be going over our PhD projects, as well as what we have planned for the remainder of the month. 

June 8 is Moda Stitch Pink Day and we will be doing blocks 16-20 

June 15 I will be doing a little "class" / "tutorial" on a baby panel quilt, showing how to square up a panel and how to add borders not only to panels but to all your projects. 

June 17-19 we are a Vendor at Virtual Quilt Canada. We have a booth set up, will be doing some demonstrations and having some show specials. This is the first time we are a vendor of a virtual event like this so we aren't sure what to expect but we are excited to be included. 

At the end of the month we will be having our instore 5th Anniversary Sale. 

We have more fabric arriving all the time and we have been busy putting together kits and samples for the shop. 

We are also spending time getting things ready for our Sidewalk Sale in July. 

Carrie will be here on Thursday with her Garden Sampler Blocks. 

Have a great week, 

Kayla 

New Fabric: May

 We have received so many boxes of new fabric in the last few weeks! Carrie was kept very busy entering all the new fabric into our computer system and putting it online, and I was busy finding homes in the shop for them! We have been sharing all the new collections on our Social Media Pages and I thought tonight I would share a few of them here. 

We have a few new collections from Moda in the shop

First up is Sunday Stroll by Bonnie and Camille. Esther and I both have a quilt on the go for this collection and the Moda Boxed Kit finally arrived this past Friday, and there is just 2 left. Esther's project uses the 10" Log Cabin Duo ruler from Creative Grids and she isn't using a pattern she is just making a bunch of blocks with the ruler and sewing them together. A fat 1/8th bundle would work really well if you want to do the same and we have a demo on our Facebook Page of how the ruler works. I will be making kits up of my project tomorrow, so watch for that. 

Sneak Peek of my project

Esther's Log Cabin Duo Blocks

Spring Brook by Corey Yoder is in the shop and we have sold lots of it already. Esther made this fun quilt with the fabric which is available as a kit, and we have the Moda Boxed Kit as well. 

Smoke and Rust by Lella Boutique is selling really quick. This collection of neutrals with a pop of rusty orange is a great collection if you need to make a quilt for an older boy or man. 

Illustrations by Alli K Design is a great collection made up of Black, Grey and White, and it comes with a really nice panel as well. My quilt from this is nearly finished (1 side of binding left) and kits are available. 

We have a couple new Batik collections in the shop from Robert Kaufman. 

These are the Modern Twist Batiks. I love the purple! 

And there is this Animal Safari inspired line called Serengeti. 

From Art Gallery we have a low volume collection called Soften The Volume. 

Also from Art Gallery and on the opposite side of the spectrum is Andina, which is bright and bold!

Velvet by Amy Sinibaldi for Art Gallery lies nicely in the middle of the first two, with pretty color but not so bold!

Lilliput by Sharon Holland is also available now. We have made several bags from this collection and just love it!

From Riley Blake we have just one new collection called Ava Rose and it is beautiful!

And we have a darling baby line called City Hoppers from Michael Miller available too and we made kits that utilize the panel and larger prints, but have not yet made the sample for it. 

As always there is more to see in the shop and on our website! Click here to visit our website. 

Have a great week. As next Monday is a holiday there will be no blog post and the shop will be closed. 

Kayla

The Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee: Month 4

 We are on Month 4 of our Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee. I hope you are having fun making the blocks! Several of you have sent me pictures of your progress and I love seeing them so please keep sending them to me. There is also draw for a prize in a couple months for those that have been sewing along, so be sure to send me photos so I can add your names to that draw. 

I found this month's blocks to be quick and easy. We are making the Cross Stitch Block which can be found on page 96, and we have to make a total of 7 of them, and that is it for this month.

 I love how these blocks were constructed and than trimmed. So much easier than using triangles to make them sit on point! 

I went through my fabrics and chose several that I hadn't used much of yet for my 7 blocks. 

The cutting is quick and I followed the pattern for that. 

The construction is quick too. I chain pieced all my blocks to make it go even faster. 

For the trimming it is very helpful to have a 6 1/2" ruler for this block. 

It may seem odd but I trimmed my block with the wrong side facing up. Using an iron away pen I made marks where my two creases intersected and at the edge of the print and used those marks for trimming. I put the center of my ruler on the intersection dot and made sure the diagonal line matched up with the creases running through my block and the markings on the edge of the print, after checking that I had a quarter inch seam allowance left around the 8 points of my print, I trimmed around all 4 sides of the block. 

I did it wrong side up so that if the marking lines didn't go away completely it wouldn't be a problem. 

I love these blocks and how they are made and I am thinking I may have to make enough blocks for a twin size quilt for one of my boys.

I probably say it every month, but I am having a lot of fun making these blocks, and it is really hard to stop working on it when I have completed the work for the month. 

Please send me an email with your progress or post a photo in the comments of my photo on our Facebook Page.  

Have a great week, 

Kayla

Garden Sampler BOM: Month 5

 It is the beginning of May. That seems crazy, these months are flying by, and personally I hope they continue to do so. In my mind September can't come fast enough. 😂 I've been busy wedding planning, enjoying the warmer weather and off course doing a bit of waterskiing. With the warmer weather we have been having I'm sure everyone has been outside enjoying the weather, but it is time to pull out all of the block of the months and get those blocks done.

We are working on the fifth block of our Garden Sampler. This block was fun, and I tried a new technique which I would've avoided if it wasn't for this block. 

So for cutting I didn't like the way the pattern asked us to make the quarter square triangles, so I adjusted the cutting and rounded up to the nearest half inch. 

I then sewed 1/4" on either side of the center of my squares, cut, pressed, and put them on right sides together having a background triangle on each side. Then I sewed on either side of the center on both of these sets. 

I used my 4-in-1 HST tool to square these blocks. I pressed them open, then put the 2" marking through the center and trimmed, I then flipped my square, lined up all the 2" markings and trimmed again. 

To do the flip and stitch corners I didn't even use my Folded Corner Clipper, shocking I know. 

I lined my squares up on my rectangles and used my Diagonal seam tape, ensuring the corner of the squares followed the red line on the tape.

The petal component I constructed exactly as the pattern shows us, just make sure that quarter square triangle is flipped the right way when you begin. 

Since we have to start stitching 1/4" away from the edge of the center square to construct the block, I drew a line 1/4" away from the edge of all 4 sides, this helped me make sure I stopped at the right point.

These partial seams are the part where I normally would've looked at the pattern and put it away, but since it was just one block, and I need it for the quilt I figured I better try it, and it wasn't as scary as I thought.

My finished block is below, and I love how it turned out!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and if the weather is looking like they forecast I hope everyone makes it into their sewing rooms for a little bit. 

I think we plan on going suit shopping for my fiance and my dad for the wedding so that will be exciting for us. 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

May Events

 Can you believe it is already May! With Summer right around the corner, classes at the shop will be winding down until fall again but we do have a couple events planned for this month. 

Our last sessions of the spring Tabletastic and Bag Club are taking place this month. Both went really well, and I am sure we will try do something like it in the fall again. 

We originally had planned on a Sewing Retreat to make some Sallie Tomato Bags, but have changed it to some Live Facebook Videos showing off each bag, as well as a Trunk Show next week Monday in the shop. 

You can sign up for the Trunk Show by clicking here. There are 4 different time slots available, each with limited spots. There is  $10 registration fee, but it will be given back to you as Chicken Feed Quilts Cash when you show up that you can use during your time slot. If you do not show up or don't spend it in your time slot you will forfeit your $10. 

To celebrate our 5th Anniversary, this month we are focussing on Charm Packs. If you were unaware, Charm Packs are little packages of squares that are each 5". There is either 40 or 42 in the package depending on the manufacturer. We will have some fun quilts and projects to show off, using our favorite Books and Patterns. 

Sneak Peek of a Quilt I am working on right now that uses Charm Packs

Carrie will share the next block in her Garden Sampler on Thursday and I will have the next set of blocks for our Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee quilt next Monday. 

Aside from our Sallie Tomato Tour of bags on Facebook Live, we also have PhD and Carries Sewing Room Tomorrow as well as Moda Stitch Pink Blocks 11-15 next week. These videos will take place at 10:30 am on our Facebook Page - Chicken Feed Quilts. 

We have lots more fabric collections scheduled to arrive this month, so check out our Social Media Pages, our website or come in store to see what is new. 

Have a great week, 

Kayla