12 Days Of Christmas

Can you believe it is the last day of November? My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this weekend, although it was a little quieter than we had been planning, steak dinner at home as opposed to a tropical vacation. 

Our 12 Days of Christmas Event starts at the shop tomorrow, December 1st, so I thought I would just run through what you can expect on each of the 12 days. Each of the 12 days has a little theme and the deal of the day will coordinate with that. 

Day 1 is Tuesday December 1st.  Still time to get some sewing done for Christmas. All Christmas yardage is 25% off, this applies to all fabric on the bolt that we consider Christmas. This one is instore only, however we will happily help you out with an email or phone order and apply the discounts for you that way as well. 

Day 2, Wednesday December 2: Stationary. With the purchase of any notebook or planner you will receive a Chicken Feed Quilts pen and notepad free! This applies to any instore shopping or web orders, no codes needed. 

Day 3, Thursday December 3: LDH Scissors. Buy any pair of LDH Scissors and get a free pair of LDH Snips. This is available in store and online, again no coupon needed. We have been really happy with the products from this Canadian Company and their customer service has been excellent. 

Day 4, Friday December 4: Yardage at a steal. Buy 4 meters of fabric for $40, mix and match 1 meter cuts or choose just one 4 meter cut. Valid on 100% 42" wide cottons only. (Cuddle, Fireside, Gauze, 108: wide backings, denim and canvas are all exempt) Instore only, however we will honor the dicount over the phone or through an email order. 

Day 5, Saturday December 5: Thread, all threads buy 5 spools get the 6th free (the 6th must be of equal or lesser value) Valid instore and online, for online just put 5 in your cart and in the notes section tell us the color and weight of the one you would like as your 6th and we will add it in for you free of charge. 

Day 6, Monday December 7 (note that we skip Sunday because we are closed) Pattern Love. Buy and 2 patterns and we will give you a 3rd free. (The free pattern will be from a basket of our selections) this will automatically apply in store and online.

Day 7, Tuesday December 8: Get Organized. Stash n Store, regular and mini as well as our Chicken Feed Quilts Ruler Racks are all 15%. This is instore only, but again we will honor the discount if you call us or email us. 

Day 8, Wednesday December 9: Creative Grids Love. Get $8 off the purchase of one Creative Grids Ruler. We really love the quality of these Rulers, the markings are clear, they have non-slip grips on the back, and the variety of sizes is incredible! Valid Instore or through a phone or email order. 

Day 9, Thursday December 10: Staying Fueled. Get a free drink coupon to the Chrysalis Cafe with the purchase of any mug, wine glass or water bottle. If you were unaware the Chrysalis Cafe is located in the same building as we are, and serves specialty coffees and teas, baked goods, breakfast and lunch sandwiches and soup. This deal is instore only. 

Day 10, Friday December 11. Pressing Matters. Purchase any wool pressing mat or acorn pressing solution and get a free Chicken Feed Quilts Mister Bottle. This one is valid instore and online, no coupon needed. We find that the wool mats and the acorn pressing solution really makes a difference in how flat our seams get when pressing. 

Day 11, Saturday December 12. Gift It. Purchase a gift card valued at $50 or more and get a bonus card for 10% of the value. For example, buy one for $100 and get a bonus card of $10. Buy it for a friend, family member, or maybe stick it in your own stocking!

Day 12, Monday December 14. Final Day! Get 50% off one item of your choice. Valid instore and if you call the shop or send us an email we will honor the discount as well. 

I know this may be a little inconvenient for our online shoppers, however with our current website POS System we are unable to make the coupon codes very specific at all so this is the only way around it. 

Each day the deal is valid during business hours while supplies last. There is no rainchecks. 

Have a great week! 

Kayla

Weather Watch Sales November 2020

 Esther left for Florida this week so we will not see her in the shop for quite some time. She is on vacation for several weeks and will most likely need to quarantine for a while before she can come back to the shop. 

As a family we often send weather pictures back and forth to each other, our parents by the pool or on the lake and us with snowdrifts. It has happened quite often that we have the same number on the thermometer here in Coaldale as they do in Florida, however over there it is positive and here it is negative. It has also happened that we end up being warmer than they are, we live in a crazy climate over here. 

So now to the point of that story, we decided to do a weather watch sale while Esther is in Florida.

We have made a Weather Watch Sale album on our Facebook Page and from now until November 24, I will post a picture of our forecasted high for the day, and Esther will post hers from down in Florida. If the numbers are the same, either both positive or opposite we will have a 24 hour sale to celebrate. 

We will give out out a coupon code that can be used instore or online for a discount off your purchase. The discount will depend on the temperature. 

I'll give a couple scenarios to explain:

November 9, Esther posts a picture and it is supposed to get to 22 degrees in Florida, I post a picture and it is supposed to be -22 here in Coaldale. Yay same number, I will post a code that is valid from noon on November 9 until noon on November 10 that will give you a 22% discount off your purchase. 

Or say it is a cool day in Florida only 17 degrees and it is warm here and it is plus 17 here as well, we would give out a code valid from noon of the current day till noon of the next for 17% off your purchase. 

Today our temperature is warm 17 degrees, however Florida is even warmer at 28 so there is no discount for the day. 

 

Small Print:

The code is only valid for 24 hours starting at noon and can only be used one time per customer. 

There will be no photos posted on Sundays or on Remembrance Day. 

The coupon code must be entered at check out online or mentioned at the till when shopping in store, it will not be applied automatically.

If you are not on Facebook you can always call the store to find out if there is a weather watch code for the day or not. 

Have fun watching the weather!

Kayla

Project Jelly Roll 2020

The third Saturday in September every year is National Sew a Jelly Roll Day. This year it takes place September 19. This project started four years ago, and was created by Moda to encourage people to unwrap and unroll those sweet little rolls and actually sew something. There is contests for the shops to create the best store displays using Moda Jelly Rolls, quilts and jelly roll patterns, ( we got first place in the contest two years ago :) )

This year Moda has released 6 limited edition Grunge Jr Jelly Rolls for Project Jelly Roll 2020 and we have all 6 in the shop. Moda also released 4 exclusive patterns to shops. From September 10-19 when you buy a Moda Jelly Roll in our shop you will have the option to choose one of these patterns to take home for free as well. 

In the past we have had Jelly Roll Races in the shop and we have opened up the classroom to work on your own Jelly Roll Project. This year we encourage you to unroll a Jelly Roll on Saturday September 19, and share pictures with us on Social Media of your progress for a chance to win a prize. 

Do you like working with Jelly Rolls? 

I love how cute they look stacked up on my shelf, but I also love the projects that can come from using one too! 

I think this year I may have to make a Jelly Roll Rug for the new sewing studio that I get later this winter, or maybe I should finish last years project ;)

In a couple weeks I will share some of our favorite Jelly Roll Books, Patterns and which Jelly Rolls are our new favorites. 

Kayla

Sidewalk Sale

With September just around the corner we have decided to say good bye to August with a Sidewalk Sale at our shop. The sale will take place this week Thursday, Friday and Saturday. 

Hours for the sale are 

Thursday August 27 11am - 4pm

Friday August 28 11am - 4pm

Saturday August 29 11am-3pm

We will have kits, precuts and finished quilts for sale. All the products will be discounted from the regular price. 

The sale will take place outdoors on the East Side of our building. 

Tuesday, August 25 on Facebook Live we will be doing a sneak peek of some of the items that will be on sale, and there will be an opportunity to purchase some of these items during the Live video as well. This will be at 10:30am on our Facebook Page Chicken Feed Quilts. 

Many of the kits have been made up in the last few weeks and were not available for purchase in our shop before this, so there will be lots of new things to check out. We have also been curating many different Fat Quarter Bundles, and have put together lots in various color ways and fun collections. 

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

Relaunch Reviews

Happy Thursday, today was the first day of our Relaunch Event and we had so much fun. It was a long day for us, starting early with hanging quilts outside, getting our little presentation table set up and making sure we had the shop already to go with signage and sanitizer. 

We did the day in time slots, everyone got 45 minutes to shop and this method worked really well. It gave us time to clean, organize and catch our breath between groups. 

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The presentations also went really well, and the feedback so far has been great. 

Thank you everyone that attended today and has signed up for tomorrow, although we were very busy during the shut down with curbside and online orders, it sure is nice to have customers in the shop again. It just is not the same without you!

We are closed Saturday through Monday for the long weekend, but we open our doors again on Tuesday. There will be no need to make appointments, just come and shop as usual, we will just give you a squirt of hand sanitizer when you come in. If there is more than 7 customers in the shop we may ask you to wait outside until someone leaves. 

For those uncomfortable with shopping in store or those who are unable we will still offer curbside pickup. 

Have a great long weekend, we have some yard work to do at our place so hopefully the weather forecast remains good!

Kayla

PS no blog post Monday May 18

Sharon Holland - Art Gallery Fabrics Designer

Meet Sharon Holland, surface pattern designer for Art Gallery Fabrics! Her passion for fabric and
creating, as well as her numerous talents, has earned her many titles over the years and include
small-business owner, artist, photographer, quilt designer, and author. Look for her book
Utility-Style Quilts for Everyday Living for a beginner-friendly guide to patchwork. Find
easy-to-follow instructions, beautiful photos, fully illustrated step-by-step essential techniques and
information to stitch 12 different quilt projects from beginning to end.

Sharon came to Art Gallery Fabrics though an interesting path. She first got a taste for the industry
after designing four collections for Paintbrush Studio, after which her work began appearing in
numerous quilting magazines featuring both her quilts and fabric. This ultimately brought about a
career in the magazine industry working as an assistant editor, graphic designer, and photographer
for Sew It...Today! and Quilt-It...Today! But her heart was in the design process--especially textile
design--and she longed to pick up the threads of surface pattern design once more. After two and a
half years as an assistant editor, it was time to find her artist’s voice again. Sharon set to work
drawing and creating a group of prints–something she personally would like to sew with--and began
licensing her designs to Art Gallery Fabrics. In many ways it brings her life’s work full-circle--infusing
her design aesthetic and sewing background with the creative artistry behind Pat Bravo’s credo to
bring beautiful prints on quality fabric to life.

Sharon currently has eight collections with AGF. Her latest, called Spirited (released November 2019)
is a collection with an attitude as big and bold as the Midwest prairie. She was inspired by the last
blooms of summer and the majesty of nature to create a boho, free-flowing collection with wildflowers,
horses, vintage calicos, and tribal-inspired geometrics in warm, earthy colors. View the
Spirited Look Book for a glimpse into Sharon’s vision for this collection. 

     

To see more of Sharon’s work, look at her AGF Everlasting collection (May 2019) and the beautiful
Everlasting Look Book. Everlasting celebrates love, marriage, and family in an eternally classic
color story that brings together heart red, creamy ivory and of course…something blue.

Follow more of Sharon’s fabric designs, quilting and sewing projects, sew alongs, and tutorials on
her blog at www.sharonhollanddesigns.com where there’s always a fun project in the works, free
patterns, and creative inspiration.

For a daily dose of Sharon Holland, join the following on Instagram @sharonhollanddesigns
where art and textiles seamlessly mix in beautiful photos and friendly community. 

I hope you enjoyed this little feauture piece about Sharon. Next week Thursday I will do a feature post on another Art Gallery Designer. Next week Thursday is also our Art Gallery Feel The Difference Presentation, if you have not signed up please do so soon, this promises to be a fun and informative event, with a door prize, giveaways and a 20% discount off Art Gallery Fabrics during the event for all those that attend. You can sign up for either the 2pm or 7pm time slot here, both presentations will be the same, so choose the one that suits your schedule the best. 

Have a great weekend, Kayla. 

March Spotlight: Art Gallery Fabrics

March is only a few days, and I have some serious spring fever right now! I changed out a bunch of the greenery in my house yesterday for blooms, am working on a spring table runner, and am eagerly looking forward to the day I can pack away all the Winter Gear for a few months.

At the shop there is a large amount of fresh new fabric that give off some springtime vibes!

 In our shop we love to work with full fabric collections, and this is also how our shop is setup, everything is displayed as a designer collection of fabric, even our blender fabrics our organized like this. We do this for a couple reasons. 

1. The designers go through a lot of work putting the collections together as well as marketing it on social media

2. It takes a lot of work out of the fabric pulling process, all the pieces in that collection were designed to work together and will look fantastic in a project

To get to know the various fabric companies and the designers better we will be doing a special focus on a few different fabric companies and their designers. For the month of March we will focus on Art Gallery Fabrics.

Art Gallery Fabrics is a company that started up in 2004 with a goal to bring a chic and modern perspective into the quilting world. The quality of these fabrics is consistently excellent making them beautiful to work with. Art Gallery has beautiful collections that range from quirky, bright and fun to soft and sweet, to earthy  natural prints and colors. Their collection of basics go from solids, to near solids to some with a large print, and they blend wonderfully with the collections. 

We have William, our fabric rep for Art Gallery, coming in to the shop on March 12 to do 2 presentations on the fabric. One presentation will be in the afternoon, the other in the evening, and both of them will be the same, so just attend whichever one works best for your schedule. At the presentations there will some giveaways and a door prize. Everyone that attends the presentation will be given 20% off their Art Gallery purchases on the day of the event.
You can sign up for the presentation here

There will be some more fun little flash events happening through out the month, so be sure to stop in the store to check those out, and feel the difference in the Art Gallery Cottons.

On the blog here, I hope to do a couple designer spotlights throughout the month of March to share with you a little history on some of the talented designers that work for Art Gallery as well as where they get their inspiration from.


Have you worked with Art Gallery Fabrics before?
Kayla

SABC Retreat

On Tuesday Carrie and I spent the afternoon packing up Esther's vehicle with totes full of Fat Quarter Bundles, Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs, Kits, notions of all sorts, some GO Products and Creative Grids Rulers. That evening I spent some time putting together blocks in various stages of completion to show how certain rulers worked. All of this was to attend a retreat the next day to set up a little shop and do a demonstration on rulers. 

Wednesday morning we grabbed a couple last minute things, a latte from the Chrysalis Café and hit the road at about 9, shortly before 10 we arrived at our destination, the Southern Alberta Bible Camp. T
here we were warmly greeted by the group of ladies who had gathered to sew together for the week with no interruptions. 

Carrie and I unloaded the car and quickly set up all our goods on a few tables. This was when we noticed we were missing a very important tote... the one with all the rulers had been left at the shop, along with a special order from one of the ladies that was at the retreat!

I jumped into the demo anyways and told the ladies they would have to some visit me at the shop where we did in fact have some.

The first ruler I showed was the Strippy Star, this ruler makes amazing floating star blocks quickly and easily. The quilt shown here is one I made using the ruler, and it shows off the various sizes of stars the rulers can make, it is also one of my all time favourite quilts.

I also showed the Log Cabin Rulers, these are trim tools, and so only the first squ
are has to be exact after that you trim each round to get nice equal "logs" all the way through the block without being overly fussy. I made this mini heart quilt by using the 4" ruler and making 4 blocks, laying out my pinks to get the heart shape in the center. There are rulers in the 4", 6", 8" and 12" finished sizes to choose from as well as the 4", 6", and 8" in Curvy Log cabin as well. 

I also did a little demonstration on the Cats Cradle Ruler, which makes the block shown here, quick and easy, 3 rectangles, 2 squares and a few seams gets you two quick blocks in a variety of sizes.

Carrie and I also did a quick show and tell of our latest quilts, which we had kits available for. 

Than the ladies were free to shop, which they did enthusiastically! When everyone was shopped out we packed up our things (a significant amount less than we started with).

We stayed for lunch with the retreat gals, and than headed home. 

Thank you again to the gals for inviting us out, we are excited for next years event already. We absolutely love coming our to retreats, guild meetings and shows to share about rulers, new products, or teach a new technique. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, here we will be celebrating my sons 5th Birthday. 

Kayla

What are we making?

I have some upcoming events to share with you tonight as well as a look at what some of us are working on here at the shop.
This week Saturday is Support Your Local Quilt Shop Day. You are all such wonderful supporters of our shop, but if you around on Saturday come out and say hi. We will have some yummy treats to snack on, Esther will be doing a couple demos throughout the day and there will be a draw to win a Gift Basket.
In March we will be hosting a talk by our Fabric Rep for Art Gallery. He will give a little presentation on their production and designers. As soon as we have the two session times nailed down and registration is open I will let everyone know.

Our fabric for the Vintage Housewife Quilt Along by Lori Holt has finally arrived, and Jenn was busy cutting the fabric for the kits today. Tomorrow and Saturday Carrie will work out the notions and extra little ribbons and buttons that are needed and get the kits priced. The kits should be already to go Monday morning, just in time for you to sew along. I know Esther is planning to take the first three blocks with her to Florida so she can work on it while sitting by the lake.
If you want more information on this sew along, and to download the guides and binder printouts just click this link.

Now onto what some of are busy working on.
Carrie just finished up this really cool Elephant Quilt for the shop, it is a pattern from Missouri Star. She is now working on a Backpack, almost finished a quilt top from Goldenrod, and diving into a new quilt using the Sailboat Pattern from Chelsi Stratton and Enchanted Voyage Fabrics from Maureen Cracknell.


Esther has been super busy lately. She made this tumbler from an Art Gallery Collection by Maureen Cracknell, as well as a new Penny Inn wallet for herself.
She also made a queen quilt, a fun twin, and is currently binding a cute baby quilt from Pine Hollow Lullaby which just came in.

I have been working on a gift for someone that I cant share quite yet. And I am also working on a backpack for my son who turns five in a couple weeks and is off to Kindergarten in the fall.

I am also starting a new project with the Ombre Bloom fabric. And I finished up my Hearts Table Runner for Valentines Day. 

What are you working on right now?
Kayla

Accuquilt Event: January 2020

Merry Christmas everyone! I have been having a great time celebrating with family, and having my kiddos and my hubby all home has been great. Sam and I have spent the last couple days working on finishing up our reno. I finished the painting of the new space last week and am now busy prepping the remainder of the main floor for a couple fresh coats. We are hoping to put the casing on tomorrow or Thursday and start setting up the furniture as soon as its done. I am so excited for it to all be finished. Needless to say there has not been a lot of quilting happening in my house in the past few weeks, but I hope to remedy that soon too.
With it being Christmas tomorrow, that means January is just 1 short week away, and in January we have an instructor from Accuquilt coming to do few presentations for us.
Pam Heller has been an Accuquilt Instructor for the past 5 years and travels internationally to teach quilters around the world to get the most out of the Accuquilt Cutting System. She will be in our shop on January 14 and 15 to teach you.
On January 14 at 2pm there will be a lecture called First Date with Bob. Pam will introduce to the BOB Dies, which stands for Block On Board. The BOB Dies give you the ability to cut an entire block on one die, and is great for beginners and advanced quilters. The class fee for this is $10.

Later that day at 6pm, there will be a presentation called GO! Beyond the Basics, where Pam will take you through the GO! Qube Companion Sets, the specialty dies, and some curved piecing as well. The tips and tricks she share will take your quilting to the next level! The class fee for this one is also $10.

On January 15 at 10 am there will be a final presentation, this one called There's a Die For That. This one will contain some special tricks to help you convert your rotary cut patterns to be Accuquilt GO friendly. The class fee for this presentation is $20.
For all of these presentations there is no need to bring any supplies, but we would love to see some projects or quilts that you have made using the Accuquilt System so if you have any feel free to bring them along.
For each presentation there will also be exclusive dies available only to those who attend the presentation.
Over the course of the two days there will be sales and giveaways as well.
If you are interested in the Accuquilt System or already have a GO Machine and some dies we would love to see you at the event.
You can sign up for any one of them or all three by clicking here.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
Kayla