Slow Quilt Monday--Oh, the Possibilities

I don't have many words of wisdom today because I'm deep in the midst of finishing a UFO (which has developed a real back-story, by the way, but more about that later in the week when it's actually done). So I haven't been practicing "slow quilting" these last couple of days so much as "get 'er done quilting." There are seasons for both of those in our quilting lives, to be sure.

However, I started out this morning in an endeavor that might indeed fit well under the slow quilting rubric, as it's all about imagining the possibilities.

You see, I've developed a thing for Shiva paint sticks. I picked up a few at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival and have been playing with them here and there. A couple of weeks ago I brought them with me when I made a quick drop-by to our guild's March Sew-Days. I knew my buddy Lori would appreciate them--I didn't realize the number of other folks who would fall in love with them too. Soon enough I had a crowd around me as we played with rubbing plates, sketching, and blending. Lori, Florence, and I decided a short shop-hop to an art supply store was in order. So, this morning we met in a grocery store parking lot, hopped into Lori's car, and did some financial damage in a short amount of time!

Today's purchases:

More paint sticks, of course; a few pigma pens, some stencil brushes and a couple of small stencils, some regular paint brushes of three different shape/sizes, and brush cleaner. And then a random bag of little bitty hair scrunchies to keep my bobbins in control, because they've started to bug me of late ($1 for a bag of 300 at Family Dollar, if you're interested).

Florence and Lori also picked up a few paint sticks and some other accoutrements. I'll let Lori blog about hers. Florence doesn't blog, so her quilting life will just need to remain a mystery to you all. Let me just say, though, Florence is a seriously prolific quilter. It's a rare guild show n' tell that she doesn't have at least three finishes to show, and often more. And she does tremendous charity quilting. We love Florence. She da woman.

I've done as much as I can get done on my UFO for the day--waiting for a shipment of remaining parts. :-) So now it's time to cover a work surface and get down to some serious play. I love me some paint sticks. Playing is a big part of slow quilting--you need to mess with something to get a feel for what it will let you do.

So, go mess with something. And have fun!

Quilt Shop Hop--Day 2 Cont'd

And now we'll get through the rest of day 2. Hold onto your hats!

OK, so when I stopped in the last blog, I believe we were still hanging out in Sew What? Quilt Shop. A bit further away was Marie's Sewing Center (Lockport). It looks very unprepossessing from the outside, but you can't judge a book by its cover. This little door and little sign did not herald adequately the wealth that was within.

Particularly for this Janome girl.

I've been using Mom's Janome 6600 for a year now, and had no idea that there were other types of acu-feed feet I could get. Plus, I'd heard a podcaster (Huge apologies--it was awhile back and now I don't recall which of you was talking about this) raving about the new Janome free-motion quilting foot and special free-motion bobbin case. So I checked them out. I now own the quilting foot and have the bobbin case on order, as they were out.

I also picked up a special binding foot to see if that works any better for me on putting binding on completely by machine. Haven't had good luck with that before. Maybe this will be the ticket.

I almost bought an acu-feed stitch-in-the-ditch foot until I recalled that there was some sort of foot, still unopened in its package, sitting in my sewing cabinet at home that I'd inherited from Mom with the machine. I'd never paid attention to what it was. Too much other stuff I'd been sorting through at the time. So--fortunately, as it turns out--I waited to buy any other specialized feet until I could see what it was. The end of that story? When I got home and checked--yep, it's the stitch-in-the-ditch foot that I'd been seriously considering at the store. Phew. Thanks, Mom

OK--back to the hop.

What felt like "a fur piece" away, although still within the same township going by the address, was Heartland Quilt Shop (Lockport). I mean, this really felt like it was out there. But a very nice shop. Seemed to have a very committed clientele of regulars--a few were there while we were. They were clearly fans. I could see why.

Heartland seemed to specialize in Moda (yay!) and country-style fabrics, although they had some Amy Butler and I believe I recall seeing some Kaffe Fasset as well. If I lived closer, I could imagine myself being quite happy with this as my home base shop. It probably had been a real-live house at one point so it's sort of a warren of rooms, each with a special focus. Neat to poke around in.

Next up--and another bit of a drive away...The Whole Nine Yards (Medina).   I heart this shop.

It has a similar feel to Country Treasures (see Quilt Shop Hop--Day 1). It's a mix of country/primitives and fabric, although The Whole Nine Yards is larger so their fabric selection is more extensive than Country Treasures. I'd guess that the gifts/primitives is about the same between the two because Country Treasures uses their space really, really well.

In any case, at this stage of the shop hop I was trying to seriously cut back on my expenditures so I didn't buy much fabric here but I easily could've. Mostly, it was a joy to just look around. Very nicely done.

(This picture so doesn't do it justice. Check out their website for better interior shots. No website shopping, unfortunately, but if you plan to be in the hinterlands of Western NY, this is a place you definitely need to add to your itinerary.)

Besides--how can you resist a comfy kitty sunning herself in the window display?







And then we drove. And drove. And drove some more. A little under an hour later, we made it to the next stop on our shop hop...

Chestnut Bay Quilting.  (Caledonia).

I actually discovered this shop several months ago. I was really glad I'd found it. Chestnut Bay has a very nice collection of wool for wool felt projects, a great selection of batiks, and a whole room full of Civil War repro and that style of fabrics. Plus other fabrics, of course. Again, not a huge shop, but she makes great use of her space. Plus the store owner is very friendly and I've enjoyed every stop I've made there.

By the way, if you go to Chestnut Bay, plan to have lunch or dinner right across the street at the Caledonia Village Inn. Great, great food and atmosphere.

Finally, our last stop of the day--Mt. Pleasant Quilting Company (York). I've been here whole bunches. This was one of my Mom's fave shops, so I used to pick her up and we'd make a day of it.

Not only does Mt. Pleasant have a great selection of fabrics--plus one of the nicest flannels sections I've seen--they have excellent and affordable long arm services. I have had several quilts done here and have never been disappointed. Plus, dropping off or picking up is a good excuse for me to check out the new fabric. I don't get here too often because it's a drive and I have several shops much closer to me that I enjoy visiting. But I will say, it's worth the trip.

By then we were exhausted and the stores were near closing for the day, so we headed home. A couple of us agreed to meet this afternoon for the last shop we had to complete to have our names entered in the drawing for all the prizes, so in keeping with my roughly-chronological posting system, that will be the next blog entry!

Quilt Shop Hop--Day 2

I'm going to divide Saturday in half because we visited a ton of shops. We managed to make really good time. None of us thought we'd actually be able to get through all the shops we got through, but we did. And even stopped for lunch. And never felt rushed in any of the stores. There were five us in our group--me, Kate, Lois, Kathy, and Sonja--and we had a great time!

I spent way too much. But that's another post for another time.

12 shops in the shop hop. I did 2 shops on my own. That left 10. One of which is nowhere near any of the others. Sonja did a fantastic job mapping everything out and figuring out the best route to take--so we met early early in a nearby parking lot, everyone climbed in my car, and we made the longest stretch of drive first. About an hour and 15 minutes to the first shop. Timed it perfectly. Got there two minutes before the shop was supposed to open for the day, but they already had their doors unlocked and ready to go! We'd decided ahead of time that when we got to shop number 7 on our list, we'd assess where we were time- and energy-wise. We got to 7, had plenty of time, and just enough energy, that we were able to hit shops 8 and 9 as well. Some of us are completing the shop hop by visiting 10 today (the one nowhere near anywhere else)--Kathy and I are carpooling. Everyone else is on their own. But more about that later.

So--first shop: Aurora Sewing Center in East Aurora.

First time I'd ever been there. Actually, first time I'd ever visited most of these shops, which is why I did the shop hop. I realized later I should've taken notes about what each shop seemed to specialize in, etc., but didn't. Dang.

Loved this place. I got a quick demonstration on a Baby-Loc serger I'd been considering. A little pricey for the moment, I think, so I'm trying to decide if I want to go with a lesser machine I can afford now and eventually go up, or if I want to hold out a few more years to get one I really want. Hmmm. Anyway, this is definitely a place I'd go back to. And East Aurora is a pretty village center.

Next, Carriage Quilt Shoppe, just up the road from the last shop. Literally. We could've walked from one to the other but didn't realize that until we'd already taken the car.

Nope--never been there either. If I go back to visit one, I'd be definitely visiting both!




Carriage Quilt Shoppe was a very little shop--not a lot of elbow room--but gorgeous displays and lots of great inspiration. Very nicely done! I dropped a disproportionate amount of money here for the size of the shop. Their offerings were apparently right in my wheelhouse.

Cool moment note: the designer of a couple of the patterns I'd decided to buy worked in the shop. Always kind of neat to meet the person behind the product. Martha Eddy of Eddy and Eddy Designs: Check it out.

 A little bit of a further drive (but still not bad--maybe 15 minutes? Don't recall now); and we're at the second of the Aurora Sewing Center locations (Williamsville, same website).

Another very nice shop. Both Aurora Sewing Centers had nice big classroom space. This one seemed a little smaller than the other to me, but still nice fabrics and other sundry. Both locations have lots of sewing machines for demonstration and for sale--Baby-Loc and Bernina.

Once again, just up the road from the last shop (couldn't walk from one to the other this time, mostly because they're on really busy streets, but only about a 3 or 4 minute drive), was Sew What? Quilt Shop (Williamsville). This shop had a ton of kid's panels and specialty fabrics. They also seemed to have a goodly collection of landscape-type fabrics, and a nice section of batiks. The classroom space seemed a bit smaller but still comfortable, and I particularly enjoyed checking out the sample quilts on the classroom walls. Very nice stuff.

I'm trying to remember--I think that might have been the shop where I saw a whole shelf of very pretty pre-quilted fabric; you know, the kind that makes it really easy to make totebags. I wish I'd written down which shop I was in when I saw that. Wherever it was, there were several very pretty options.

OK--ran out of time for blogging this morning. More later!