Our Row by Row pattern

I mentioned a while back that we are participating this year in a program called the row by row experience. it was this blog post here. It at that time I copied the information for how the program works. So if you are interested you can refer back to that post by clicking on that link.

The program starts on June 21. So to prepare for it, I had to decide on a pattern, sew it up, and plan on how to display it. It seemed simple at the start.  

however, first I had to decide on some sort of a design for our row.  

I sketched out a few ideas. The theme was water, so I focused on blues,

I started to test sew a few of the ideas.

and it wasn't too long before I had several possibilities: 

so I decided to sew them together into a simple row quilt, child sized to use as a sample.

i opted not to use any sashing between rows to keep it as simple as possible, and added only a 3" border of the white background.

the row I decided on for the pattern is the one that uses these strip pieced sections:

It uses a simple technique where you cut your background piece and insert a contrasting strip between the two pieces.  Just do that over and over....

i thought the design evoked the idea of rain, and it used many solids, so I am calling the pattern... Solid Rain!

Of course I had to sew parts again to work out the pattern, resulting in another project... for the table runner I used part of two different ideas, but still made it to be the 9" x 36" finished size, so a person can see the size of a table runner using only one row.

I quilted the projects very differently.  the baby quilt has very simple horizontal wavy lines.  the table runner is much more densely quilted.

I hope you have fun with the row by row idea, whether you collect any of the shop patterns or make a row quilt.  I think there is such a lot of potential from using a simple pattern as a jumping off point! 

i would love to see what you can make of this simple pattern!

You can pick up your free copy of the pattern starting on June 21st, and we're not allowed to send them out by mail or email, just hard copies given out at the store, so hopefully we'll see you soon!

Applique!!

 This morning I just started in on my applique like a crazy person,

 I have only 7 blocks from the Art to Heart Saturday Surprise blocks from last year, since I also made this pieced quilt using some of the blocks:

At the Show and Tell in September I fell in love with this quilt by Kathy.  Yes, I know that we've used this setting before, but not with those skinny little frames around each block!  Yay Kathy.  I loved the effect of them floating in that light colored background.

So, that's what sparked my plan for my quilt-- I've put a little frame around each of the blocks, and I'll use a lot of white background, on which I will applique a lot of birds and leaves.  (Fusible!)
Definitely fusible, because just yesterday I finished the needle-turn applique on this project:

 Big, isn't it!  Not just the photo....
Actually, the dresden plate blocks are mostly pieced, but I did hand-stitch them to the background.  I love that I was able to use a lot of my Westminster prints that I had collected over the past few years, as well as a lot of American Jane fabrics which I love!

 These blocks with the arcs are pieced:

 However, these blocks were all hand applique:

 The designs are by Sue Spargo, ( yes, we do still have some of her books at the store!)

 Her quilts are usually a melange of cottons, wools, applique, beads and embroidery that make them really rich texturally.  I don't plan to add any wool to this one, but I am contemplating some embroidery.  We'll see.  Right now I have set it aside in order to work on the other project. 

 Whatever you choose to work on this weekend, I hope you have fun with it too!

Store News:
this is sort of an afterthought, and directed at those of you who like to know what's arriving and happening at the shop--
We got in a collection called Aviary, by Nancy Gere for Windham.  There are 14 fabrics in grey, white and black,  you can see them all here,

Plus, we have a new quilt kit! Val sewed it from a pattern called Sweet Pea,

but in beautiful soft greys, yellow and ivory,

These are some from a new collection called Taza, and I brought a whole bunch of them with me to Savannah to play with, because I just love them.  Not sure yet what to do with them though.
(Oh yes, we got in about 12 more colors of Kona Cotton, so don't forget to print off the coupon (below) and use it before Friday to get 25% off of them)
Again, have a great stitchy weekend!

Recent Visit to Shop

 On Friday I had my camera with me when I went to the store.  If you were there, you would have noticed:
1. quilts, on walls, and folded in various places.

 the orchid has a lot of blooms on it lately.

 some great fabric collections came in on Thursday, including this group from Alexander Henry.  I love these ones a lot.

 A nice little container of cupcakes (which lasted about 2 minutes), from Earth Bound Bakery across the street. (Pistachio with rose water icing!!)

And if you had come to my sewing room, you would see that I have tried to tame my felted sweater collection that you last saw strewn across the floor.  I've cut a bunch of 9-1/2" squares and rectangles from them; this has reduced the jumbled up parts to one container from two!  Although I now have these stacks.

Well, a lovely day beckons, can you believe it's at melting point outside??? From the minus 30's of a few days ago? 

The Shop! A Little Tour

The shop was fine while I was away, as usual.  Deb and the others are so great, they keep it in tip-top shape, unpacking stuff, moving displays, putting up samples, even getting a customer or two to bring in a project to show what can be done,

 This view of the front entry area shows 2 new fabric lines, one of them by Fig Tree Quilts, which I love, as usual.  I don't remember what the other one is called, but I love the color combo and the old-fashioned flower designs, with geraniums on them, i think. 

You can also see by the blocks pinned up on the wall that we're getting close to the end of the Saturday Surprise blocks, I think there are 2 left to go:

I think the most popular fabric grouping lately has been the Nancy Halvorson/Art to Heart one called "Garden Song", by Benartex:

You can see how depleted it has gotten in just a week or two.  But it is so lovely for the spring.  One of the projects in the accompanying book is the decorated tea-towel -- thanks Carol!!  My photo of it isn't very good, but it says BLOOM,

 

We went through the tea-towels pretty fast, so I've re-ordered a whole whack of them, and in more colors.  They're also fun to use to turn into an apron.

Oh, the other thing that's happening is the Amy Butler trunk show is up in the classroom until may 16.  There are some nice hand-bags and quilts if you'd like to come in and take a look. ( Again, if you click on the photo, it should make it larger to look at, then use your back arrow to get back to the main page. )

I love the colors in the pink and turquoise quilt!

That's the little tour for today!

Today I took another trip to visit my web-site expert. We're continuing to update the site for Periwinkle to make it better. There are a lot of little details involved. I hope to add in some more photos of the shop so that it feels more like you're visiting a real place when you browse the site.
Speaking of the real place, this weekend we had the floors redone. See how shiny they are now!

On Saturday we pushed everything to one side of the shop and they stripped, buffed and put 5 coats of wax on the cleared half of the floor. On Sunday, we moved everything to the waxed side and they did the other side; then we had to start putting things back where they belonged.
The photo above is taken from the back of the store. On the left side is the cutting island piled with stuff.

The photo below shows the front corner of the shop, with shelves pushed to the side.


Of course it was a good opportunity to rearrange things a bit. Be sure to stop by and see what is different!

michelle