A Quilter's Necessity

What would we, as quilters, do without our local quilt shops? Where would we go for that fat quarter in just the right color, or for that class to learn a technique that we've always wanted to try? Thankfully, Teri and I (Kara) have quite a few local quilt shops in our area, so we have decided to highlight them here on the blog. It dawned on us that we had featured quilt shops in Alaska and Florida, but we hadn't showcased any of our local shops.

We start with a shop near and dear to our hearts: Patches, in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Patches gave us our first opportunity to teach back in 2014 (seems like so long ago) and has continued to support us as teachers since.

When she opened the shop, store owner, Jackie Bingham, and her husband had recently closed the doors of their cabinet-making shop and retired; however, Jackie didn't want to just sit around. She was a self-proclaimed fabric collector and had been making charity quilts when she discovered the difference in fabric quality, while visiting a local department store. When she looked around and saw that there was no place locally to buy good quality fabric, the idea for Patches was born.

Owner, Jackie Bingham, in front of the Project Linus
supply wall

It took Jackie seven months to find a location that would work; she eventually found a suitable house right in downtown Mt. Airy. She opened in February of 2003, and the shop had room for fabric, a long-arm, and a classroom, but Jackie quickly realized, in that first year, that she would need to expand.

One of the original rooms

In 2004, a 30'x36' two-story addition was built that provided a large classroom upstairs, space for another long-arm, a line of sewing machines, and most importantly, space for more fabric! (Great cause for Jackie to do a bit of dancing!)

The beautiful batik wall

Jackie wanted to appeal as many different fabric tastes as she could support, so you can find an array of fabric styles, including reproductions, batiks, modern, flannels, and more. One of the most important things to Jackie was to have a store that was bright and well-lit. All the lighting is fitted with daylight bulbs, so that the fabric can be viewed in the best possible lighting conditions.

The reproduction corner

More fabric as well as fat quarters

If you need a sewing machine, Patches carries the Viking brand, along with a wide variety of machine quilting and embroidery supplies.

A couple of the Viking embroidery machines

Do you need patterns, books, or notions? You will most likely be able to find them at Patches. And if you need long-arm quilting services, they can provide that as well!

Just some of the many patterns Patches carries

Books galore

An assortment of supplies

Almost any notion you could need

Patches has twelve helpful employees, who work together as a family to help you with your quilting needs. The shop opened as a business, not a hobby, but when you love what you do, it shows—and 13 years later, the store is still going strong. If you are in the area, please stop by; I'm sure you will find some treasures!

And who knows? Maybe we'll see you there!

Ella's Cinderella

I (Teri) have written several posts about my grandchildren's quilts. Both of my grandsons, who are about six weeks apart, got Cat in the Hat quilts. [See Thing 1 and Thing 2 and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.] Unfortunately, my boys didn't get their quilts until their first and second birthdays. I was determined that my granddaughter, Ella, would actually get a baby quilt. I was planning even before she was born and looked to many sources for inspiration. [See Inspiration for a Baby Quilt.] Finally, having completed our Fairy Tale Album, I thought that there could be not a better quilt for Ella than Cinderella. 

A baby blanket should be soft and cuddly, so I decided to use flannel for the appliqué. Off to the quilt shop I went to do my favorite part of the quilt process: choosing my fabrics. Although I was a bit more limited in my choices, since there is not nearly the selection of flannels as cottons, I was able to find everything I needed in one stop. It probably helped that I shopped in the fall, and I was stitching a pumpkin. That, and I love the whole autumnal palette, so it worked out perfectly.

Kara's Cinderella block from
our Fairy Tale Album

When Kara and I made our Fairy Tale Album, we divided up the blocks and each stitched different ones. Somehow, although Cinderella has always been one of my favorite fairy tales, Kara ended up stitching that one. I knew that block would be in my future, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to appliqué our design. I went to the copy shop and had the 12.5-inch block design enlarged to a 20-inch design area.

To do the vine, Kara used bias strips of the greens and wove them as she stitched. Because my design area was so large, I would have needed more than a yard of each of my vine fabrics to use bias strips. So to save money—flannel being more costly than cotton—I decided to do one section at a time. That ended up being quite the challenge, as I had to determine just what overlapped where to figure out which sections to stitch in what order. Good thing I've always liked to solve puzzles and brain teasers! I would definitely just buy the extra fabric and weave bias strips if I ever stitch this again.

Ella's Cinderella block in flannel, a 20" design centered on a 32"x38" baby blanket.

Stitching this was great fun, and quite a different kind of appliqué experience. Such large units were both easier and more challenging at the same time: gentler curves and more straight lines to stitch, yet there was so much more bulk to handle, especially when appliquéing the center of the block. But flannel is a dream to appliqué! If you've never tried it, I encourage you to do so. I expected the fabric to fray, but it didn't at all, and it turned under so nicely. 

Technically, this is not really a quilt, because while it does have three layers—a piece of flannel in the middle for the "batting"—I chose not to quilt it, because my experience is that the flannel stays together nicely, even through washings. (I've made quite a few flannel baby blankets.) I toyed with the idea of using a sashiko-style quilting around the appliqué, but ultimately, I was afraid it might detract from the design. I am planning to stitch her name beneath the design before I officially give it to her, however.

Here are a few details of her blanket.

Pumpkin turned carriage

Cinderella's glass slipper
I had to pad the light blue so that the leaves and flowers would not show.
It gave the slipper a bit of dimension as well.

The magic wand

A wee mouse, before transforming to a horse

The bow on the slipper: carefully and securely stitched with beads;
and the center of the pumpkin flower: knots surrounded by bullion stitches 

    

Ella loved exploring her new baby blanket! She especially loved the shoe and the flowers.

And she got it before her birthday!!

A Little Preview!

As we announced last week, we are going to be teaching at the Academy of Appliqué in Williamsburg, VA, February 27–March 4, 2017. We are currently finishing up our blocks, so our needles are flying furiously! The class list will be posted on August 8th and you can see the full blocks then, but this week, we thought we would give you a little preview of the blocks we will be teaching.

Clematis with appliqué

 Clematis with ribbon

It's amazing how embroidery can transform a simple ribbon rose!

The magic of the bullion stitch

A different type of ribbon rose

Silk ribbon, perle cotton, floss, and wool are combined in this garden.

Wisteria in progress

Can you guess what was used for the trunk?

More ribbon!

Jasmine

A rosebud embellished
with silk thread

If you saw the fabric used for this lily, you might be surprised!

The bullion works perfectly for recreating the lily center.

We are so excited about these blocks—and the fact that we will be teaching them in Williamsburg. Appliqué, ribbon work, and embroidery will all come together in our classes there. It is a dream come true for us, and we hope that many of you can attend. As soon as the details are available, we will share them with you, our readers. Stay tuned!

Flowers—The Appliqué, Ribbon, and Embroidery Way

Last winter, we invited you to join us on our quilting road trip to Virginia, where we went to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton, and then we took a class at the Academy of Appliqué in Williamsburg.  (To read about that road trip, read A Quilting Road Trip and Our Quilting Road Trip Continues.) Well, Kara and I (Teri) are already planning next year's trip. But there will be an exciting difference: next year, we will be teaching at the Academy of Appliqué.

It would difficult to express how thrilled we were when Barbara Blanton, the owner of The Academy of Appliqué, contacted us about teaching next year. Our creative juices immediately started to flow, and naturally, we turned to our two favorite sources of inspiration: literature and our gardens.

We love appliqué, but we really enjoy the embellishment of the appliqué with embroidery. There is so much detail that you can add using an assortment of threads and ribbons. The first book we looked at for inspiration was an old edition of a poetry book, which includes poems about many different flowers. In our minds' eyes, we were already stitching these flowers as we read the verses. I love to take photos of flowers; sometimes I see the detail in a close-up shot of a bloom that I don't seem to notice when I look at the beauty of the flower from afar. So I began searching my photo files for blossoms to stitch.

We don't want to give away too much too soon, but here is a sampling of the flora we will be stitching at the Academy in February/March 2017.

Every garden needs some lilies.

And roses, of course!

Nothing says spring like the cheerful face of a pansy.

The aroma of jasmine sweetens the air.

One of my personal favorites: wisteria.

Part of the charm of a clematis is the variety of the blooms with that interesting center.

Getting started on stitching clematis petals. Embroidering that center will be fun!

The fun has just begun!

With our love for telling stories, we turned to a childhood favorite: a classic story that we both loved as young girls. Perhaps you can guess what story we will be stitching. Any ideas? Stay tuned, and watch for the class listings for the Academy of Appliqué in August. We hope we will see you in Williamsburg!

Can you guess which story we'll be stitching?