Shop Local

Well my family is back from vacation, and Esther has handed the blog writing back over to me. She did a fantastic job while I was gone, and I thank her for this. .Now that the holiday is over it is time to get back to everday life again, this includes work, and so this morning Esther and I made a trip to the border. Esther makes the trip several times a month, and it is really worth it. When we ship some of our products to the border rather than to Canada we save a substantial amount on shipping. We can in turn pass these savings over to you.SXLLM​​

 Our GO! products are where we probably see the biggest savings by shipping to the border and picking them up ourselves. Our prices are very competitive, and we are the same and even cheaper on some products than the Canadian Accuquilt site, and they charge shipping on top of their prices.

Aurifil thread is another big one, our prices are $6.50 for the small spools and $14.50 for the the 1300m spools. While visiting some shops in Texas last fall, we noticed that their Aurifil was also $14.50 but theirs were priced in American Dollars.

Sometimes we will get asked why our fabric prices are high compared to those in the States but if we do a breakdown, our prices are similar in that regard as well. Many of our cottons are priced at $19.50 right now,but the last few shipments have been coming in at less, and the newest one today was priced at $18/meter. This by the way was Savannah by Gingiber for Moda, which I am thrilled about. But back to my little bit of math here, lets go in the middle of our prices and work with $19/meter. One yard is 0.9m, so 1 yard of our fabric is $17.10. Now if we take prices from an American site, they are at about $11 per yard. That's in American currency though so if we translate that into Canadian Dollars we are at $14.85/yard. Now that is still $2 a yard cheaper but you have to pay shipping and duty on top of that per yard price, as well as wait at least a week for it to come to your doorstep. 

While we are clearing up some questions about prices here, lets talk about kits. Some people think that buying a kit is more expensive, however this in untrue. When we cut kits, we read the pattern first and cut accordingly, some patterns call for a lot of extra fabric and we try to cut this down somewhat making the kits a little cheaper. Also in our kits you only pay for the fabric and the pattern, we do not upcharge for labour and time.

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 Now that we have gone over prices, and determined that local doesn't always mean more expensive lets look at some other reasons to shop local.

 Customer service is a big one. The owners of local businnesses often have their livelihood at stake. Therefore the service they extend will be better than that from a big box store.

At Chicken Feed Quilts we care about our customers and want to help you. We will listen to what you want. Do you have something you love and wish we would carry? Perhaps there is a new fabric or pattern designer that you love, or a notion that you use all the time. Let us know and we will do our best to figure something out. Feedback is so important to us, and the only way for us to improve is to know what you do and do not like. 

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Have you ever heard the term "local multiplier effect'? This phrase refers to the dollars that re-circulate amongst other local businesses. For example, we will need some new doors for our expansion, these doors will come from Bethel WIndows and Doors, we just got another cutting table made at Adora Kitchens and Cabinetry, the construction, electrical and plumbing that needs to be done will be taken care of by local contractors. 

In a small town Local Businesses are so important, I am not referring to just our little quilt store, I am talking about all the independently owned shop and businesses in our area. The next time you need to do some shopping or need some work done around the house, check out the local businesses to see what they have to offer.

 Now I have to get back to my sewing room, I am falling behind on the Luxie Lunch Bag sew along, and I have several quilts cut out that I am itching to finish as well.

Kayla

Kansas Troubles Workshop Recap

The long awaited Kansas Troubles workshops and trunkshow have come and gone!

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We had a fantastic two days spent with Lynne and everyone that attended the workshops and the trunkshow! Thank you to all those that came out, I hope you had as much fun as we did! A thank you to Lynne Hagmeier as well for making the trek all the way from Kansas to visit our shop, and sharing her techniques and quilts with us, and to her granddaughter as well!

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During the 3 workshops Lynne taught us an amazing technique called Layered Patchwork and we applied it using several of her templates, all of which were designed to be used with precuts. The first quilt we did was a sampler quilt with several different styles of blocks involved, and everyone was able to complete a few of each style. Today we had two sessions. The first one several ladies were able to finish their tops, and there was even some trading going on, to create two borders instead of just one, I love the creativity that flows when you get 30 quilters together in the same room. Our second project today was called Twisted, and because I was actually sewing this one, I have no pictures of it, however everyone was able to compete a couple rows of the quilt!  

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At the end of the first day we kicked everyone out of the building for an hour in order to set up for the dinner and trunkshow. When everyone arrived for the evening portion, we shared a meal together. Afterwards Lynne gave us the history of Kansas Troubles Quilters, and showed us many quilts and patterns, each with a different backstory.

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For dessert we had some fruit from Edible arrangements as well as a beautiful cake and some delicious cupcakes made for us by Crazy Cakes from Lethbridge.

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We realize that there was limited room in the trunkshow and the workshops, and also that July is a difficult time for some people to attend, and so we will be teaching some classes this fall at our store using Lynne's patterns and techniques.

Now that we have some some room in our brains again we will be starting to work on the fall class list though it won't be released until August. We do need a little bit of brain recuperation time first. We also have some new promotion ideas that we have been

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 tossing around, and will finalize the details on those!

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Esther and I have taken lots of notes, and we have  learned a lot from hosting this event and are super excited for the next one. Yes we are going to be doing more of these! If you have any feedback please let us know.

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Thank you again, from all the staff at Chicken Feed Quilts. I know I write that often, but we really do thank you, without your support this event would not have happened!

Kayla

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Creative Grids Rulers

I often mention Creative Grids Rulers in my blog posts, but tonight I thought I would go into a little more detail about them, and why I love these rulers so much.

My first ruler when I started quilting about 7 years ago, was the standard 6"x24" Olfa ruler that my mom gave to me. It was a great ruler and served me well for a long time. I didn't think anything was wrong with my ruler, sure it had a piece missing in the corner, probably from being knocked off my table one too many times, but the numbers and lines were still mostly all there. Then a fellow quilter told me that rulers can cause knicks in rotary blades, I went home that day and ran my finger down the edge of my trusty ruler and it was like washboard on a gravel road. The old ruler was retired and a Creative Grids ruler made it my table, and it was love at first use. The old ruler was turned into a decor piece for my sewing room. 

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Creative Grids rulers are made in the USA, and all of them have easy to read markings and lines. The back of every single ruler is covered with built in grips, so there is no slip while cutting! 

Creative Grids has a basic range of rulers and a specialty line. The basic range consists of a variety of sizes, and they are all fantastic. I personally love the rulers with the extra 1/2", one side of the ruler has white whole numbers, and if you turn it 180 degrees there are black 1/2 numbers to

make cutting those 1/2" cuts so much easier, no more counting lines to make sure you are cutting on the right one and not accidentally making a 1/4" cut instead. My favourite size used to be the 6 1/2" by  24 1/2" size but that has recently changed and now my go to is the 6 1/2" by 18 1/2" ruler, as I rarely cut a full 21" piece of fabric at home, and the shorter ruler is easier to handle.  

The Specialty Rulers are just that, special rulers for specific blocks. Some of the rulers are made for one specific block and one size while others will make multiple blocks with one ruler. The thing that I love, is that most of the time the instructions on how to use the ruler are printed right on the ruler itself, there is also a pamphlet that comes with for a little more detail(which can be downloaded for free if you ever happen to lose yours), and many youtube videos for demonstrations or new

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ideas. Some of these rulers can look a little overwhelming or confusing but in reality they make a tricky or difficult block so much easier! My log cabin blocks are so much nicer now than they were before, and my square on square and snail trail blocks turn out perfect, which is definitely not the case when I don't use the ruler! More and more pattern designers are using Creative Grids as a basis for their patterns as well. Esther and I have both used many of the rulers, but there are new ones being made all the time and Chicken Feed Quilts is working towards getting all of them. We currently have over 60 different Creative Grids Rulers in store, and we are continually ordering and trying out new ones. If there is one that we don't have but you would like let us know we will order it!  If you have questions about the rulers or would like to see them for youself come in store. I will also be doing a demo on these rulers at the Festival Quilts in Lethbridge next week, more details to follow.

Kayla

Batik Presentation Recap

This past Wednesday we had a total of 60 ladies come to Chicken Feed Quilts for a presentation on Hoffman Batiks.

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During the presentation Rob gave us a little bit of history into how Rube Hoffman started Hoffman Fabrics, and how his two sons expanded the company and also added batiks. He explained the difference between quilting cottons, and batiks, mainly that batiks have a tighter weave, are dyed, that they are preshrunk, do not fray, and are all done by hand.

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We were also told about how Hoffman has installed a water treatment facility in their factory in Bali which filters and tests all water that was used in the extensive process, before they send it back out into the rivers. He also told of us how the designers and the craftsman work together to bring forth the beautiful fabrics.

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Not only does Hoffman make the classic Batiks they have also brought out a modern line of batiks. These fabrics are made using the same quality of materials and craftsmanship, but just skip the step that gives the mottled colors. They also have started producing digital prints, which have been very popular at our store.

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After Rob gave us all this information he had a small trunk show for us, he had several samples from Hoffman, as well as the ones the the staff at Chicken Feed Quilts have made. 

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 At the end of the show all the ladies were given a roll of fabric, a free pattern, and a challenge: to make something with Hoffman batiks and the free pattern and to bring it in store for judging between June 15 and July 1. The winner will receive a basket of goodies courtesy of Hoffman California!

To cap off the event everyone was given the opportunity to do some shopping!

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Thank you to all who were able to make it out to the event, and to Rob from Trendtex for all the information, displays of beautiful fabrics and quilts, as well as for the prizes and gifts!

For all those who were not able to attend, we do hope to do another session in the fall. 

Every week at Chicken Feed Quilts we have a different unadvertised special. Some of our previous ones have included sales on flannels and specific collections of fabric, buy one get one 50% off books, patterns, precuts, gift cards and draw entries. Next week Esther is going on a vacation and leaving me in charge, so in addition to our unadvertised special we will be having daily deals!

Come in store to see what these specials are, and also to see all the new fabrics. We have received shipping confirmations from four different companies today, so there will be lots of new fabrics and notions to check out next week!

Kayla