Cross-Country Quilt Shops

What a summer! It has been a month since I (Teri) have shared on our blog. Kara has been exploring Germany, and I have ventured into the West, particularly Yellowstone National Park. We spent three months in our rental home in Historic Downtown Frederick, the last of which was spent traveling back and forth to our new home, readying it for our final move. I have been thankful that Kara was willing to give me a writing hiatus, so that I could focus any non-traveling, non-box-unpacking time on finishing up our blocks for the Williamsburg Academy of Appliqué blocks. But more on that in a bit.

Frederick, Maryland

Just before we left for Yellowstone, one of our favorite quilt shops, Charlotte's Cottage, relocated to Shab Row in Frederick. Its opening day just happened to fall on my birthday; I can think of few better ways to spend a birthday than to explore a freshly opened quilt shop—especially one filled with lovely reproduction fabrics! I encourage you to read the story of the shop, written by the shop owner, by clicking here.

Here are some highlights of the shop.

The stairway is inviting, with more fabric and classroom space on the next floor.

Fabric cutting time! 

A raffle was held for everyone who attended the grand opening: lots of Aurifil thread!

Owner, Susan, right, helps customer, Kristy, with her purchase.

Looking out the window past the thread display, you can see the charm of these restored 19-century buildings.
Note that the building you see across the parking lot to the left is our favorite wool shop,
Primitive Homespuns Wool and Needleworks., which we wrote about last year. (Click here to read.)

Precuts and patterns

Look at those brights! 

 

If you are ever in the Frederick, Maryland area, this shop should be a must! There is something for everyone!! And the area is reminiscent of historic times of the past.

Yellowstone National Park, Montana & Wyoming

A few days after the Grand Opening of Charlotte's Cottage, my family ventured west to see some amazing views in the nation's first National Park—Yellowstone. I knew we would see beautiful scenery, but I was unprepared for the vastness of the landscape, and the incredible color in these fabulous landforms! 

Water really was this color, only even more stunning in person!

The bottom of a pool; yes, you are looking through crystal clear water here.

Even the wine bottle labels were inspiring; can't you just imagine these embroidered or appliquéd?

One day, we decided to take a break and shop instead of going into the park; it was supposed to be a rainy day—fine for the younger members of the family, but we older wiser ones needed a break. We took our grandson and walked through West Yellowstone, a town in Montana, just west of the park entrance. A friend had told me there was a quilt shop there, so my radar was working. My mom and I took a detour into the quilt shop, leaving the 3-year-old with the rest of the group. This Yarn and Quilt Shop is called Send It Home and has a shipping section in the back—you know, so you can buy plenty of fabric without worrying about your luggage being too heavy on the flight home! 😉

A happy greeting by the owner of the shop

The shop's Row by Row on the wall, above right

Fat quarters, thread, landscape fabrics, and a bison 

Lots of local animal-themed fabrics...

...and lots more!

So many yummy yarns!

A complete shipping section 

They even have jewelry!

If you're Yellowstone-bound, put this lovely little shop on your list of stops!
The sun even came out while we were inside shopping. 🌞

Coming in 2018: Williamsburg, Virginia

Within days of arriving home from our trip, we settled on our new home, and the moving and unpacking commenced. I had to take a few days to just stay put in the rental and stitch my heart out, so that we would be able to get our supply lists and photos off for the catalog of the Academy of Appliqué. This year, we decided to celebrate "going global" by creating blocks with European inspiration: one from an antique French fabric panel, and the other from a vintage German botanical print. Here are a few teases below. To see the whole blocks and the catalog of the Academy—held in Williamsburg, February 26–March 3, 2018—go to academyofapplique.com; the entire catalog should be posted on Saturday, August 5. 

Or come back here next week, and we'll share more about these exciting blocks! 

            

An Adventure With Atarashii

At a recent Black Forest Quilt Guild meeting, I (Kara) was fascinated with one of the show and tell quilts. It was made using Atarashii, or Japanese folded patchwork. (You can see pictures of the quilt here.) The method creates a block or part of the block, complete with patchwork, if desired, and batting; similar to a quilt-as-you-go process. I had a hard time finding information about it when I initially looked into it, but I have found some resources that I will share later in the post. 

Since I was so intrigued by this method, I thought I'd give it a try. Then I realized I didn't have any fabric or batting handy (my stash is apparently still on the boat). Luckily, my friend Birgit's shop is only a block away, and she had a book I could borrow on Atarashii. Off I went to pick up the book and a few fat quarters.

Birgit's Book about Atarashii.

As this was an experiment to see if I liked this method, this post isn't necessarily a tutorial. For a detailed tutorial, you can check here. This is a great tutorial from Jill at the Quilt Rat, and I liked the way she offered many different variations of a classic cathedral window, which is closely related to Atarashii. One of the variations reminded me of a flower, so that was what I chose to do. I used the book to trace my patterns, as I wanted to make sure I had the proportions correct. The book is written in Japanese, but the patterns were easy to trace and there were quite a few pictures to help with the process. I had to be a bit resourceful, making do with what I had—notebook paper to trace with and an Ikea box for the cardboard—but I was determined to make it work. I assembled all my parts and got started. 

All my parts ready to go

I started by piecing my circle.

Drawing my 1/4" seam allowance helped me stitch accurately

My finished 3 1/4" circle

Once I was finished with the circle, it was time to put gathering stitches, near the edge. 

Ready to gather.

I had cut a cardboard circle, 2 5/8" to use as a gathering template and then proceeded to pull on my gathering stitches so that the edges wrapped around the cardboard. Once it was gathered to my liking, I pressed it to hold the edge and then removed the cardboard.

My pressed circle before removing the cardboard.

In order for my "leaves" to align correctly, I folded the circle in half, matching the green edges. I then finger pressed the fold.

Matching the green.

Finger pressing the center fold.

I then opened up the fold and marked, with a small mark on the top and bottom.

Note the small marks at the top and bottom of the circle.

The marks allowed me to align my 1 3/4-inch square cardboard template.

Aligned and ready to press

I then pressed the edges of the circle over the cardboard.

Pressed edges with cardboard removed.

I prepared my center insert by stitching a 1 3/4" square, consisting of one 1" x 1 1/4" rectangle and one 1" x 1 3/4" rectangle of white, and one 1 1/4" square of coral. I put a few French knots on the coral and stitched a green stem using a chain stitch from the coral to the point.

Adding details.

Now the fun part as the flower appears! I put a 1 1/4" square of batting, and then my patchwork square in the center of my folded circle.

Please just pretend that patchwork square has the embroidery on it.

Then I folded my edges over and pinned them.

Ready to stitch!

I worked my way around the edges with a small appliqué stitch, starting at one corner.

A finished block

Just one in this size would be a cute little ornament, but I wanted to see what patterns I could create if I had four of them. So I made 3 more.

One version

A different placement

And one more

I settled on the first version and proceeded to attach the four parts in the same way I would if I were English paper piecing.

Stitching them together

My finished piece!

This is just one variation of many that can be done with this basic method. The variety comes from varying the pieced colors of the circle and the square. You can see a lot of different variations here. I will say that I think this method would be easier using larger pieces—I will admit to having to press a couple of pieces into square submission! However, I do think this would be a fun method to pre-prep and take on the go. Let us know if you've tried Atarashii or Japanese folded patchwork and how you liked it. As always, we'd love to hear from you!

Local Inspiration

When Teri and I found out we would be going global, we knew that running our business would be faced with some new challenges, but we also knew that we would now have a whole new field of inspiration from which to draw. 

I now live in southwestern Germany, and the area is stunningly beautiful! Exploring the local region and all the many things it has to offer has been our primary focus over the last month and a half. We have been to a couple of fests, one castle, and a waterfall. Everywhere we go, I have found some form of inspiration for either embroidery, appliqué or both. In this post, I would like to take you on photo journey of my travels and show you some of the things that have inspired me.

The urn on this armoire would make a stunning appliqué pattern.
Too bad this piece didn't go home with me.

This amazing view is from Castle Hohenzollern

I see appliqué!

The detail on this door is striking.

A painted wall in the castle.

An amazing ceiling in the chapel.

A beautiful stained glass window that would be fun to recreate in fabric.

This reminds me of a papercut pattern.

More lovely stained glass.

I fell in love with this awesome verdigris door.

Even the architecture can be inspiring!

I would love to stitch the pattern on the little sewing box,
but the gnome creeped me out a little.

Since we arrived at the beginning of June, I have been on the GWTD diet. That stands for Gotta Walk the Dogs! It's working pretty well since the beasts below went from a fenced acre to run in to depending on us for their exercise.

Thankfully, just a block from our house are paved trails that meander through orchards, horse farms, and gardens. If that wasn't enough, just a little beyond that is a network of wide trails through the forest. The dogs and I go there just about every morning, and I have been inspired by all the natural beauty I see.

Most of the poppies have bloomed, but I was able to capture this straggler.

These remind me of the Canterbury Bells we have in the states
and would be a lovely wool appliqué project.

A hand-dyed silk ribbon would be great to use to stitch these.

Lots and lots and lots of French knots!

Wildflowers are not the only things we see on our walks—critters of varying kinds can be seen as well. 

This little guy was loving this thistle-like plant!

How kind of this butterfly to pose for me. 

I guess he wasn't finished with his photoshoot! What stitches would you use to make
this "social butterfly"?

Straight stitches for the thistle and appliqué with some French knots for this butterfly.

The snails are pretty big around here!

These sheep remind me of a friend's wool felting project.

A tranquil stitching spot, perhaps?

I have been diligently working on the sample for the Academy of Appliqué, (the catalog will be available August 5th,) so that hasn't left much time to act/stitch on the inspiration I see on a daily basis. Soon my collection of threads and fabric will come into port and make their way to our new, humble abode—maybe then,  I can try to recreate some of the beautiful things I have seen. 

I hope you have enjoyed a little trip to my corner of Germany, and may these pictures inspire you in some way. Have you traveled somewhere that inspired a stitching project? We'd love to hear about it!