Accuquilt: Christmas in July

Every year Accuquilt runs a sale in July called Christmas in July. This year their sale is buy 3 dies get the fourth free and it is on select dies only. 

We decided to run it in the shop a little differently.

All instock Accuquilt Go Products are 25% off the listed price. This includes all dies that we have in the shop right now, as well as the GO machines that are in stock, and the die mats too, and we have decided to include the Qube selection as well. 

We have a wide selection in the store, they may say out of stock on our online website, but just call the shop if you are interested in any, as we have an offline reserve and so there may be a couple left on the shop floor. 

Now is a great time to get that new die you have had your eye on for awhile or maybe get the Qube or expansion pack for the Qube you already have. 

If you have not heard of the Accuquilt System it is a cutting machine that is very safe to use and results in quick and accurate cutting. 

How it works is you take the die for the shape you want to cut, place your fabric on the die, layer a die mat over top and run it through the machine, and voila perfectly cut shapes, strips, squares, rectangles, or triangles.

There are 3 sizes of Machine

The GO Baby or GO Me which is a nice small and portable machine. 

The GO, which we call the regular machine, it works with nearly all the dies.

And the GO Electric, which does not require any hand cranking, just load the die, push the start button and it will run all by itself. This one has become increasingly popular. 

The blades that cut the fabric are all surrounded by foam so there is little chance of you cutting yourself.

You can also cut multiple layers at one time, which really speeds up the process. 

All the triangles have the 1/4 inch notches built into the die, which removes the dog ears, and also shows you where the two shapes need to meet when sewing. 

2 of my sons have used the system to cut the fabric needed to make a quilt when they were 6 years old. The oldest 3 love using the fun shape dies and pieces of felt to make new critters and scenery items for their Felt Board. 

Have a great week, 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

Accuquilt GO October Dies

With October here we have a new set of Accuquilt dies and promotions to share with you.
Accuquilt has released 3 new fun dies this month. The first is a new Alphabet Die. These letters are 2" tall but are a lot narrower font than the previous die and all the letters fit on one board. Personally, I love using the letters to cut out my boys names and than appliqueing them onto projects I have made for them. A great Christmas Gift idea is to buy a bath towel in your child's favorite color and put their name on it. Or use it in conjunction with the second new die which is a Stocking.
I love this Stocking, and Esther is thinking on making Stockings for my boys, if she doesn't, I am definitely going to have to do this, and maybe even put their names on top. The stockings finish at 10.5" wide and just over 18" tall. There is also some free patterns here for different piecing options of the stocking if you are interested.
The Final new release is a Gingerbread Man. This little guy is charm pack friendly and it would be so cute to cut several of them and make a table runner or wall hanging. Or use felt and do a fun kid friendly craft with buttons, ric rac and googly eyes, you could even use a glue gun, you don't have to sew them.  There is a free pattern for this one as well at the same link as above.
As for promotions there is a mail in rebate available for both the GO and GO Big, the GO has a $75 rebate until October 16 and the GO Big a $100 rebate until the end of the month. There is also 15% off mats, accessories and select Dies, the new Dies are excluded from this Promotion.

My boys have no school for the remainder of the week due to a Teacher's Convention, so I plan to hang out with them for the rest of the week, they also play really well while I quilt, so hopefully I can get a little extra sewing in as well.
Kayla

More Clubs

Our family is back home from our camping trip. We had a great time, and it was wonderful to spend another week away with my kiddos before they head back to school next week.
As mentioned prior to my vacation I have a couple more clubs to share with you that we will be running starting this fall.
Starting in September and running through May we have our Accuquilt GO! Club. In this club you will learn how to get the most out of your Accuquilt machine and the dies. There will be new inspiration each month with some seasonal projects included. This club has a commitment fee of $90, and each class that you attend you will receive a $10 Chicken Feed Cash Coupon. The classes run from 9am-noon on the second Tuesday of each month.
In October we have two other clubs starting the first is PhD Club and the second is Sampler Club.

PhD Club is a club in which you come and use our sewing room for the day and work on any quilting or bag project that you currently have on the go. At the end of the day you need to set a homework goal for yourself to have finished by the next month. If you come to the class and have your homework finished you will get $10 of your $60 commitment fee returned to you as Chicken Feed Quilts cash, if you do not come or your homework is not finished the cash coupon will go into a pot for someone to win at the end of the year. This club is a great way to get projects finished and sew for a full day with none of the usual interruptions like housework, laundry and cooking.

Sampler Club is another club where you come and sew for the day, although we will be working specifically on Sampler Quilts. We have several different options to choose from for this club.

• Sunday Best Sampler which requires the Book Sunday Best by Corey Yoder and Sherri McConnell. 
• Summer Moon which requires the book Summer Moon by Carrie Nelson
• Moda Blockheads, which requires the Moda Blockheads Book. 
• Moda Bakeshop: At The Seashore, this quilt has several lay out options and a variety of block patterns to choose from. 
• Moda Bakeshop: Camp Oda May, this quilt is a medallion style quilt with two different options for each round. 
• Moda Bakeshop: Countdown to Christmas (2018), this quilt is made up of a variety of Christmas themed blocks. 
• Threadology: this quilt is s a sampler that forms the shape of a spool. 

The Moda Bakeshop and Threadology quilts are free downloads and you can print them yourself or if you are a member of the club we can get it printed and spiral bound for you for a fee of $12. 

To sign up for any of these clubs or the bag clubs just click here or come in store. 

Shop Hop is only a month away and early sign up ends soon so if you were planning on attending make sure you have your passport. 

The Modern Blended Quilts Workshop is also right around the corner and registration for that ends on September 7, to read more about this event click here.  

I am off to make some supper for my family and than I have a couple of pencil cases to stitch up for my two boys that head off to school next week, the oldest wants one from the Toronto Raptors fabric, and his brother wants his made out of a new basketball collection that came into the shop last week.

What are your plans for the week?

Kayla

The Accuquilt System

Last blog post I mentioned that Accuquilt was having a Christmas in July sale and that many of the dies were up to 40% off. Today I want to share a little about the Accuquilt System as many people do not know much about it.
Accuquilt is a company that makes GO! fabric cutters and specialized dies to go with them.
The cutters come in a variety of sizes and range in price from $135 up to $810. The lower priced GO! machines are not lower quality you are just limited a little more in the number of dies that you can use on it, though there is still a large range to choose from. Most of the models work by turning a crank while the most expensive machine is electric and cuts your fabric at the touch of a button.
The dies are boards that have blades built in that cut your fabric in the shape specified. The blades are surrounded by a thick foam and only cut when pressure is applied.
The dies come in a wide variety of shapes, and many of them follow the standard precut sizes uses in quilting, there are the basic strips, squares, rectangles, triangles and circles. For quilting there is also half square triangle blocks and flying gees blocks again in a variety of sizes. Also available are a huge variety of applique dies in almost any shape that you can imagine, there are flowers, leaves, animals, vehicles, feathers, letters, and fun geometric shapes as well. Accuquilt also started producing dies that they call block on board dies. on these boards are all the pieces needed to make a single block, some of the ones included in this lineup are the drunkards path, pineapple block, Ohio star, wedding ring, blazing star and more.
There are also Go! Qubes which are sets of dies that make a specific quilt block size, specifically 6", 8", 9", 10" and 12". The Qubes come with a pattern book and the dies can be combined differently to make different blocks. On my never ending list of quilts to make is a sampler using one size of the Qubes, maybe I need to do a blogged sew along to complete it.
So how does the system work?
Step 1, place the fabric on the board ensuring it reaches past the darker toned area of the board
Step 2, cover with a mat
Step 3, turn handle of machine
Step 4, remove perfectly cut piece of fabric from the board and repeat.
It really is that easy, my 4 year old used it to cut felt shapes for his felt board, and my 5 and 7 year old boys have used it to make quilts for themselves.
So now that you know what I mean when I say GO! cutter and dies I will tell you why I think they are a great addition to your sewing room.
The GO! cutter and dies allow you to cut accurately and quickly. You can cut up to 6 layers of cotton fabric at one time and the dies can be used many times before the blades go dull. Because you are cutting on a set die you know each cut is going to be exactly the same every time. Starting off with accurate pieces can make the rest of your quilt assembly go a lot smoother.
The dies are two toned, the darker area is inside the blades and shows you where your fabric needs to lay, the lighter is just background on the board. This two tone allows you to quickly lay your fabrics down, and make good use of scraps that you have as well.
The piecing dies are made so that there is a 1/4" seam allowance included, and the dog ears are trimmed off.
The cutters fold for easy storage when not in use, and when folded they have a nice handle for easy transport too.
The cutter is a great way to introduce the younger generation into quilting and crafting as there are no sharp scissors or rotary blades to worry about.
I know of many people that use them because of arthritis or other ailments made rotary cutting difficult but turning a crank or pushing a button is a lot more doable.
Accuquilt has hundreds of free patterns on their website to go with the dies.
We carry a large number of dies in our shop and any that we do not have we can order in for you. We also have the machines available to purchase.
We have a GO! club that runs throughout the fall and winter months where we work on projects using the dies. You can learn more about this club on August 14 in our shop, and I will blog on it afterwards as well.
I am also planning on doing a little post each month featuring a newly released die, a new project for a die you may already have and some other tips.
Until the end of July there is a good selection of dies that are on sale at up to 40% off.
Kayla

Summer Updates

Can you believe we are halfway though July already, I sure can't it seems summer is going by so quickly and yet to me it doesn't feel like summer outside. I love the heat and this summer has not been super warm so far.
At the shop we have a few more summer classes going on, as well as a couple of sales.
This coming Tuesday evening Esther is doing a make and take for casserole totes. These totes hold the 3 classic sizes of baking pans and are perfect for bringing to pot lucks, or giving as a shower gift. The wire frame inside keeps it nice and sturdy, and is also removable so the tote can be thrown in the wash.
On Tuesday August 6, Carrie will be doing a make and take class for the Wax and Wool Tote by Noodlehead, using cotton fabrics instead of wax and wool. This tote bag is the perfect size for throwing all your daily needs into and heading out the door. It's large enough to hold it all, but not so big that the smaller items get lost. I use mine for my wallet, water bottle, some snacks, a coffee mug, keys, cell phone, chap stick and a book. There is morning and evening slots still available. $66 gets you all the supplies as well as the pattern book which includes 2 additional patterns.

On Tuesday August 13, I will be teaching a class on the Stripology Ruler. We will make the Alberta Quilt by G.E. Designs, and learn how to cut strips and squares from yardage as well as how to trim half square triangles all using the Stripology Ruler. If you buy your supplies from our shop the class is free to take, if you wish to use fabrics from your stash there will be a $25 class fee applied. The class will run 10am-12noon and the classroom will remain open until 4pm for you to continue working on your project. There is also a mini option available for the class.

Tuesday August 20, Esther will do a class on hot to make a silicon pot holder. This class also has a morning and an evening session. This class has all the supplies included for $26.

To sign up for any of the classes just click here. 

On Wednesday August 14 from 7pm-9pm we will be hosting an open house in which we will reveal our fall classes and clubs. There is no need to register for this, just pop in and see what we are offering this fall. All of us are hard at work getting samples done for this date, so you can see exactly what the projects look like. Today Carrie and I did a lot of playing and did some fun fabric pulls for a couple of the projects I need to complete by the 14th.

As for sales,
Accuquilt is running their Christmas in July promo again this year. Select Dies are up to 40%. There is a large number of dies included in the sale, so if you have a Go Cutter or are looking into purchasing the cutter or new dies, now is definitely the time.


Also on Thursday, July 25, we will be having a Beat The Heat sale. The doors will open at 8am and the shop will be 40% off. At 9am the discount will change to 30% and at 11am it will go down to 20%. Starting at 5pm the discount will again increase to 30%, and at 7pm it will climb once more to 40%, the store will close at 8pm. The discounts cannot be combined with any other special offers or discounts.
 Have a great weekend, mine looks to be quite busy again with a trip to the grocery store, a visit to my inlaws, Sunday Worship, and Sunday Dinner at my parents, and hopefully a whole bunch of sewing in between all that.
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. 

SXLLM​​

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. 

MLXLS​​

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. 

SXLLM​​

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

Fall Events

For the past few weeks Esther and I have been finalizing the details on the fall events, clubs and classes that will be taking place in our shop this fall. We will send out a couple emails with them all listed for you later today, if you have signed up for emails but haven't been getting them check your spam, as we have heard from some people that this is where they found theirs.

MLXLS​​

 The first class on the calendar is the Mini Pineapple make and take on August 30, there is still a few spots left in this class. We have kits available for the class, and it finishes up at 22" square.

The next class is a Laura Heine Collage Class on September 8. I have taught this class several times in the past year, and it is always fun and productive. You can do any of the Laura Heine patterns and learn a few tips and tricks along the way. There is seats open, and we need to have at least one more person register by August 31, or we will have to re-schedule this. Some prep work required, so if you are interested sign up soon. Class fee is $40 and supplies are an additional cost.

Esther's Violet Craft Paper Piecing Class is a four week session that begins on Wednesday, September 12 and takes place in the evenings. In this class you are free to do any of the Violet Craft Paper Pieced patterns, and Esther will share with you some tips and tricks to help you create your own masterpiece! Cost is $80 plus supplies.

We have three different clubs taking place this year.

GO Club which has been an ongoing club in the shop for several years will once again take place the second Tuesday of every month. The fee for this one is $80 and it runs from September through May. In this club you can share tips with each other and use a variety of GO dies over the season.

The PhD Club is a new club that has been designed to motivate you to finish off some of those projects that are half done. There is a weekday and a Saturday session available to join. Each sew day you will bring a project of yours that is incomplete, work on it for the day and set a goal for yourself to have done by the next months sew day, whether it a a few more blocks, the whole top, or binding it that is up you. I will record your goal, if your homework is not done you will pay a penalty of $10, if you are done you will get an entry into the bucket for the jackpot at the end of the year. There is no class fee, and you are able to join just one session or both of them. The more people that join the more fun it will be! This club runs September-May, but we will skip December.

SXLLM​​

The third club is also a new one, it is the Bag of the Month Club, which I have mentioned several times over the summer. We still have some spots available in both the Tuesday and Saturday sessions and would love to have more people join us to make this club even more fun. Esther finished up one of the September projects this week, an ID lanyard, which turned out really cute and is already being put to good use by Carrie. Each month we will share tips and tricks on various parts of bag making, interfacing, different fabric choices, hardware, and accenting. This club is great for beginner bag sewists and will be fun for experienced bagineers!

MLXLS​​

If you have checked out our events page recently, you will have seen that there is several different ones happening this fall.

First up is National Sew a Jelly Roll Day, on Saturday, September 15.  The purpose of this day is for you to sew a jelly roll, it doesn't matter what you make, just that you pull out a jelly roll and sew with it. We will be having a Jelly Roll Race in store that day, and stitch off is at 10:30am. We will also have jelly roll patterns, and jelly rolls on sale that day. There will also be giveaways, draws and freebies so come in store for this fun event, and be sure to register yourself for the race! Watch our Instagram page next week for some Jelly Roll Inspiration. Also start going through your Moda Jelly Roll stash and pull out the oldest one you own. We will be having a fun little contest with this as well.

Our Accuquilt Travelling Trunk show arrives on Monday September, 24. There will be projects made with the Accuquilt Dies and we will be doing demos all week on this amazing cutting system!

Later that week is the Annual Harvest Hop, pre-registration has already started for this, and ends on September 15. Our prizes from our distributors have started trickling in, and we have our gifts for getting your passport stamped all ready to go. The Hop runs September 27-29. 

Tuesday, October 2 we will be having an Aurifil Information Session in our store. The President of Aurifil as well as the Director of Marketing will be coming to our store to do a presentation on all things Aurifil, as well as hand out some swag! There are two time slots available, one at 3pm and the second at 7pm. There is a $5 fee to hold your place for this presentation, which will be given back to you after the event as Chicken Feed Cash to spend that day.

I have frequently mentioned the Bag Workshop and Trunk show which is taking place October 18-20. We would love to have a few more people join us for this. The workshop is beginner friendly, so don't be intimidated if you have never made a bag before. We will help you through the process! The workshop and the trunk show are two separate events and you may attend both or either if them. Even if you don't sew bag the Trunk show would still be a fun evening out with friends!

SXLLM​​

 For our final event of the year we will be hosting a Zen Chic travelling Trunk show in partnership with Trend Tex fabrics. This will take place December 3-8. We will have a games evening on December 4, focusing on  Zen Chic. There will also be a contest to enter your projects made with Zen Chic fabrics. The projects must be brought in store by November 30, contain at least 75% Zen Chic fabric, and can be a quilt, wall hanging, topper or bag. We have had some representatives from Trend Tex offer to judge the entries, but don't be intimated as they are not quilters and are not critical at all! 

If you need some days set aside to make your Zen Chic project feel free to join the PhD club to finish one off, or join the Go or Bag Club to make a new project using Zen Chic!

These classes, clubs and events all have limited spaces available (aside from Shop Hop) and you need to be registered ahead of time to attend. To sign up, call the store, send us an email, or better yet come in store and see all the new fabric that arrives every week!

Kayla