A sign and a banner!

Today we hung a sign on our building! Hand made by my husband, Olivia, Victoria, and Jonah.

A little back story..we have a sign at the road, which has been helpful, but there was confusion as to whether our shop was in the barn or our outbuilding. We had wanted a sign for the building, but it was very pricey.  So,  mom  (I)  got  the  great  idea “we  can  make  our  own!!”  So,  we  got  a full  size  copy  of  our  sign  at  our  local  printer  and Olivia  traced  and  they,  painted  it  together!  My  sons,  Chaim,  Gabriel,  and  Samuel hung  it  for  us  this  morning!  So  instead  of  over  $900.00  we  spent  around  $100.00!  Thank  you  family!  So  thankful  that  you  all  shared  your  talents!!!

A couple months ago, a helpful friend suggested a barn quilt, to help people to know what we are doing here..another helpful friend suggested painting our barn..Well…the quilt is made from nylon by Victoria and the barn isn’t painted, again for cost reasons..but it is roofed by my dear husband and boys..my husband paid dearly for this roof as he fell from the back, 3 stories and broke both his feet.  He is mending now thankfully, and so we have a roof, a barn sign, an Ohio centennial sign and a chippy barn :-)…

One step at a time, Thankful.

 

Podcast about our shop! Fun!

These girls are our new friends! we met over talking with Maureen about longarm quilting some of my quilt tops.

Her daughter Steph and her husband are piloting a quilting community on line called Quilt Swag, check it out!  And enjoy the interview!

Our first quilt class

Just wanted to share our first class, technically Victoria taught a table runner class but this jelly roll race class was our first quilt class!

We had the ladies bring their sewing machines and scissors and their jelly roll..(a.k.a. 2.5 inch wide strips of fabric 44 inches long.)  

Each one was racing  to get a quilt top done.

And everyone save 2 finished their top.  The two ladies that wanted a larger top, ran out of time..Here are some of the ladies finished tops! We are so happy for them!

Aren’t these beautiful???

 

 

We had a good time and we hope to have more fun classes coming up.  We have a list of classes on our website 

 

Fun, new quilting technique

Last fall I came upon a quilt on pintrest that caught my eye. I visited the link and it was a blog by a young woman named Jera Brandvig.  She has developed a fun technique called quilt as you go..I’m sure it is not original to her, but she has developed it well and describes it in her book, Quilt as you go/Made modern.

I got a copy and made up some quilts..the backing isn’t my favorite technique but the front presents so beautifully and I did these quilts in 10 to 12 hours each..

The first quilt, I gave to a friend along with a table runner, and the second I incorporated a beautiful panel from a company that screen prints scripture verses. This quilt I gave to my adopted mother who is staying in a nursing home for rehabilitation.

These were 9 inch blocks and quilted on the backing as described in Jera’s book.

This quilt was made with beautiful screen printed psalms, so encouraging!

 

This particular fabric collection is by a designer named, Brenda Riddle, her collection is called Windermere by Moda Fabrics..We carry many of these beautiful prints in our Etsy fabric shop …As I was saying about the backing, you basically, stitch in the ditch around the blocks that you have quilted on the front..This leaves the back a little droopy in my opinion.  But, if you have smaller blocks on the front this would be taken care of.  Unfortunately, I am usually speeding through quilts, and other projects because of my many duties..I am not able in this stage of my life to leisurely quilt, or enjoy the process..There will maybe come a time..

My husband and family come first. They deserve that. I am so thankful for them, and for the dear friends for whom these quilts were made.

So, I decided to offer this book in our Etsy Shop, Pomegranate Place, and let Jera do the teaching through her book..Just follow the link at the beginning of this post and Enjoy!!!

Quilting 101

I have officially started to learn to quilt..

Other than 2 baby quilts over the years, my sewing has been more clothing and home decor..

My bucket list has had quilting on it for years..While I enjoy cutting something out and making it in one day..I can see that quilting can be very therapeutic, let me clarify and say making quilt tops..

I have not gone into the world of machine quilting..and the two baby quilts I did were o.k.  the first one I bought a panel and quilted around the characters..the second I did 4″ blocks and quilted a heart in all of the white blocks..which were few.]

I have decided to conquer piecing and then go on to hand quilting and machine quilting..

So, here are my first attempts..

a quilt for the girl’s futon bed, it is made from one of our popular clothing lines we made with these prints..

I saw this pattern, called French windowpane by a woman on Etsy and a friend with a quilt shop in Chardon helped me lay it out and instructed me on how to “build” it.

 So, it has memories, including the memory that it is my almost first attempt!

I then followed it quickly with a single version for my youngest daughter’s top bunk..hers was mostly pink..they are  both at Ruby Blue Quilting studio..she is going to machine quilt them for us..

The next day I grabbed one of the charm packs that we have for sale in our fabric shop and started trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it..I wanted to move up to another level..I came across this sweet English lady, the gourmet quilter, and she has you tube tutorials, so I followed her instructions and made this quilt with one charm pack..charm packs are pre-cut 5″ squares usually of a designers collection..This charm pack had 30 pieces it is by Dena Designs..called Little Azalea..We are selling it in our fabric shop on Etsy

 This is how it turned out with the sashing and post technique shown on the you tube tutorial..

I then added the blue print for a border and it is ready to sandwich with batting and backing and quilt..I know the terms but don’t know what I am doing 🙂

Unfortunately, I am not a photographer 😦 and so the blues look LOUD when they are  really soft, calm, and restful like a tropical sea!!!!

This has been fun!  I am happy to have learned something new, and to get some practice in..

Creativity is such a gift and an outlet, whether you cook, sew, craft, scrapbook, decorate…whatever..The Lord is creative..we reflect His image when we create and it is good..