Quilt Class Tops!

The area where I live and have my shop is quite rural, and many of my clients and quilting friends live a fair distance from me. With that in mind a sweet lady by the name of Linda offered a space for me to teach a class that was more central for everyone. She and another talented lady by name of Eva, coordinated a fun class of quilters! We all came together four Wednesdays in a row and sewed some beautiful quilt tops. Sadly, we missed a photo of one beautiful top, but here are the rest:

Margaret, using the Persimmon line

Eva, using Hubba Hubba

Brenda, using Mixed Bag Brushed Cottons

Betty, using Dreamcatcher Batiks

Maryann, using Maple Island

Mary, using Maple Island

Rebecca's, using Giggles

Linda, using Maple Island

Barb, using Persimmon

Gertrude, using Fresh Air by American Jane

Nettie, using Pine Island Batiks

All the quilts. 

And a happy group of sewists!

Thank you to these wonderful ladies and maybe we'll see some of you again in another class in the upcoming weeks!

A New Start!

So I realize I have not been keeping current with this thing. I have not been at a place in my life that was conducive to time spent on this blog, but I think maybe now will work better for that. I have been doing a lot of quilting and sewing and we've had a few quilt classes so I will endeavor to post those here shortly.

Had an exciting parcel in the mail yesterday. Here is some of what was in it!

Little Miss Sunshine mini charm pack   2-1/2" squares

Polka Dots & Paisleys Jelly Roll  

Polka Dots & Paisleys Layer Cake

Strawberry Fields Revisited Jelly Roll

And that is not all, oh no, that is not all! Be sure to check my website here or etsy shop here to see all the exciting precuts available !

I'm Super Psyched!

I have very exciting news! Here's the back story.  Back in November I attended a quilt show in Nisku, AB at the Nisku Inn. There were many amazing quilts by very talented quilters from all over the province. Sparrow Studioz from Edmonton had a booth set up right at the door way  into the quilt judging gallery. They are the North American distributor for APQS quilting machines. As I was browsing their display a flyer caught my attention. Judi Madsen coming to Edmonton! What??!! I did a double take.  C'mon. Seriously?  I have long been following Judi's blog, Green Fairy Quilts, I have shopped from their store, and I have contributed to their Romania quilt drives, and just altogether adored her magnificent quilting.   There really is no way she can come to Edmonton and I won't go??!! It took me a little while to truly commit 'cause it is six hundred cold hard dollars, non refundable, but I bit the bullet, and I'm going!!!!

So to clarify:   I am going to Edmonton April 8 & 9 to learn how to long arm from a master quilter!

Judi Madsen of Green Fairy Quilts, from St. George, Utah!!!

Can you tell I'm super excited? I never use this many exclamation marks!!!!

Updated to add:
So I spent two days at Sparrow Studioz in Edmonton, learning and having fun with none other than Judi Madsen of Green Fairy Quilts! Sometimes I still can't believe it happened, and its as far in the past now as it was in the future when I was anticipating!  Wouldn't it be nice sometimes to just freeze certain days and make them last a little longer....  I learned so much, and while I don't plan to quilt show quilts, and I certainly don't have clients that are willing to pay for such efforts, it was awesome to learn new techniques. It made me step out of my comfortable box and try things I had never tried before.

Jelly Roll Race, Plus Sign Quilt, and so on...

I've decided to use this blog as a place to catalogue my quilting adventures and not worry about how often I post. Here are two of the jelly roll race quilts my ladies did: 

Here is another one I did last summer. I'd been eyeing up the plus sign quilt for some time and this is my version:

Wow, these pictures make me long for summer!  We've been having -40 celsius here for the last few days. Yesterday morning it was actually -44 degrees!  Very, very, very cold! Thank God for warm houses and dependable vehicles. March definitely came in like a lion so here's hoping it goes out like a lamb. Take care and stay warm!

Some serious catch up

This is the first in a series of blog posts, featuring some of the things I have been busy with the last few months. I have missed some of my projects because of not having a camera, but we'll see what we can do. I will also be posting all the exciting things that have been happening in the shop. Firstly, we moved into a newly renovated space in the shop, just in time for our weekly quilt class. It was really nice to be able to have our class right by the shop instead of at the other end of the store. It's really only temporary though because of another venture we are hoping to add to the back of our building. Here are some of the first quilt tops put together by our talented ladies that faithfullly come each Thursday evening, rain or shine (or blizzard, Loretta! ;))!!!

Ticklish layer cake, pieced and hand quilted by Leona

Snap Pop layer cake, pieced by Loretta

Bungle Jungle, pieced and hand quilted by Loretta

Boho layer cake, pieced by Lucille

Sassy Layer cake, pieced by me

Boho layer cake, pieced by Leona

Most of those got hand quilted in  a quilting bee we had at our local fire hall where my husband is deputy chief. We are waiting for a few to catch up and then we will have an evening of sewing binding on by machine and hand stitching it to the back.

Next up: Jelly Roll Race Quilts! Very fun to watch these come together!


One evening when we were waiting for others to catch up and what not, a few of us made some nifty twister pot holders. They also await binding and finishing. I hope to feature a tutorial on that here soon as well.



That may be enough for now. Up next: Our current project, and more! Thanks for reading!

I'm Committed!

Source: victorianaquiltdesigns.com via Lisa on Pinterest

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Well, I dropped the ball and got it rolling! I sent out an email to interested customers concerning an upcoming quilt class that I plan to teach. I'm a little behind my projected dates because of several events (including my grandmother's passing at the beginning of the month}but better late than never!

The current plan is to meet in the back of my quilt shop in Fort Vermilion. I have a fair bit of space and I think it's a place to start and get a feel for how much room we require. The evenings I've picked to start with are February 5, 12, 21, & 26. We'll meet up around seven and see how things go, possibly shutting down around ten. I'm very open to feedback, as I want to make this work for those interested.

So the technique I've chosen to start with is a half square triangle trick. Each participant will take a layer cake of their choice and sew all the squares to each other, face to face, resulting in 21 blocks. We will then lay them on our cutting mats and cut them twice diagonally. This gives you four 6-1/2 blocks. Then each person will have to decide how random or how precise they wish to lay it out before sewing it back together.

Over the Christmas holidays I hosted a family sewing day at my house, and showed this technique to two of my favorite nieces . They caught on really quick and it was good practice for me to get a little feel of how this course might actually go. Jamie completed hers and left it for me to quilt, and Carley took hers home to finish.

I did one myself in late fall. I used  a Ticklish layer cake, which has such fun girly colors that really popped with this all over randomness.

The picture is really bad as my camera lens is scratched but you get the  idea.

I am in the process of quilting Jamie's but as soon as I'm done I'll post a photo of hers as well.

If you live in our area or know someone who does, please spread the word about the upcoming course. Everyone needs to bring a working sewing machine and basic tools. Email me at byathreadquilts@gmail.com or call my cell at 780-247-3160 for a complete list. The fee for the course is $20 payable before the course starts, and all supplies and fabric purchased at By A Thread Quilt Shop for this course receive a 15% discount!

A catch up...or a fresh start?

I think I prefer the fresh start. I thought about my blog many times over the last several months, but I decided it was fine to take a break during the busyness of life, and just go back to it when I could.

So much has happened. During the course of the summer I purchased a second hand quilting setup and a brand new Janome to put on it. I have had lots of fun learning how to use it. My husband built a handy dandy  light bar/shelf for over top. Love it.

I started ordering in some   fabric, as well as a large roll of batting and several notions, intending to just sell out of my basement, but a few doors opened up very suddenly, and before I knew it, I was renting a space from the local country gift shop. My space is 11 feet by 12 feet, so nothing huge, but it's a start. People start realizing there's a quilt shop in town, and eventually I hope to realize my own building with lots of space. I'm so happy with what I have right now, though. We have a young girl that works for us, which is great because I get to be home with my little girlies, and not so great because I don't get to meet and interact with my potential customers.  I'm hoping to get to the point soon where I can spend a day there now and then.

Last but not least I have been taking a crash course in how to set up an online store. I'm set up through merchantmoms.com. They have lots of clear easy instructions, but I'm still finding it hard to slog through it all.  My store address is www.byathreadquilts.com. Be sure to stop by and check us out. Very limited stock so far but I'm getting there.

I have been sewing quilt tops as well and will be featuring a few of my latest projects here soon. Thanks for taking time to get through this, and I wish you a joyful day!