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!

Current WIPs

I decided to quick do another twister for the charity auction at our upcoming family campout. Very quick to do if you have charm squares, although I did have to cut the background squares. So we went from this:

to this:

I think the pinwheels make it extra charming. I used Recipe For Friendship by Mary Engelbreit for Moda.
Tomorrow morning I'll sew it together, add borders and attach it to my new Grace quilting frame. Yes, I got a machine quilting frame. I am excited out of my mind but that's a story for a different day.

Here's a little, confusing sneak peek of another quilt I am actively working on:

Shhhhh, don't tell.

The deadline for this one is the end of next week, quilted, bound, everything. I foresee some sleepless nights.

I Have Not Fallen Off the Edge of the Earth

I don't know if anyone follows this blog faithfully, but here is a list of excuses why I have not posted since, oh dear, the seventh of April.

1. On the 24th of April my two year old succumbed to a second bout of intussusception, requiring an emergency flight by air ambulance to the University of Alberta in Edmonton for a reversal procedure.

2. Followed closely by staying in the area for the weekend and being joined by the rest of our family because of a planned tonsillectomy the following week for our 7 year old son, in the same city. When you live 600 miles away you don't just run back and forth.

3. Playing catch-up with laundry and housework after a week in the city and children scattered here and there.

4. Spending two days and nights in a hotel 40 minutes from home on day nine after tonsillectomy. Our son woke up around midnight and started throwing up what seemed like gallons of fresh red blood. Determined not to be a hemmorhage but a slow bleed but we had to stay in the same town as the hospital for two days in case of reoccurence. Didn't happen again thankfully. Grateful for all the prayers on our behalf during this difficult period of life.  I actually took my sewing machine to the hotel and finished cutting and started sewing on a quilt.

5. Laptop went to repair man and desktop PC has a silly filter that won't let me access blogs. Go figure.

6. Planted a huge garden and tons of flowers. Why do I do this to myself?

7. You know what, that's enough. The list could go on, but you get the picture. I am sewing on a quilt and will try to get a post up tomorrow about it with some progress pics. I'm also sewing a bunch of dresses for myself and my girls.

Time to call the children in and get everyone to bed. Thanks for reading. God Bless.

A Project with Pre-teens

Gack. This one was quite something. Remember that woven rug I made a few weeks ago?  From my mouth came an offer to a school teacher to teach her six students how to make woven rugs for an art project. My daughter is in a class with five other girls ranging from 10 to 12 years old. (Small private school)  I thought 2 or 3 periods should do it, but it ended up being, like, five periods, and then I still took them home to sew down the binding. I think all in all, a lot of fun was had. Much jabbering, pinning, ripping stitches, learning how to thread machines, and stick-to-itivesness. Of course Moms don't send their best machines to school, they send the "old" one, the clunker. I learned how to thread and trouble shoot Pfaff, Janome, Kenmore, Shark, and Bernina. Very hands on for me! Here are a few pictures of the finished products:

11 yr old

10 yr old (my daughter)

11 yr old

11 yr old

12 yr old

10 yr old

I had them bring scraps and pieces from home which I then took home and cut the strips. Some are truly scrappy while a few have a bit more of a pattern or color scheme. I can't say I have a favorite. They are all wonderful. Although the process was a bit tedious and there were times I wasn't sure how it would all turn out, the end results are lovely! I tried not to fix to much, to let their own skills grow as they went. Yes, there are wonky seams, and strips that went over the side and had to be cut, but it all adds to the charm, and oh, the satisfaction they feel from having something to show for all the hard work!

A Snowy Good Friday

Good morning to all. Yes it is a good morning even when it seems that we had about a a week of spring, skipped summer and went straight back to winter!

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Today is a day to remember our Saviour, dying on the cross for my sins. Easter always seems a deeply personal time for me as I think of the way Jesus extends his grace to me. He holds out his hand again and says, "Come closer. I died for you." I wish anyone who reads this a wonderful Easter season with family and friends. Please take time to dwell on the real reason for this blessed season.

Source: billygraham.org via Jessica on Pinterest

Catching Up.

I believe three weeks have slipped by since last I posted! Where have I been, what have I been up to? Two weekends in a row I traveled to the city. I hadn't been "out" for several months and now I went to GP one weekend and EDM the next. Quite a shopping shock! On the second weekend I got to see all my sisters which hadn't happened since last summer. Good times. I'd like to blame my loss of daily exercise on my trips but somehow I know that's not entirely true. I've lost my zeal and I need to recommit.


I have been doing some sewing. I followed along with the SewHappyGeek QAL but didn't quite finish by the deadline. Not because the schedule was to tight but because I procrastinated. Here it is on my design wall, in progress.

I'm working on the last block

and then I have to sash it and sew all the blocks together. Not sure what I'll do with this one. I used only fabrics I had in my stash.

I have some garment sewing to do before I do to much other quilt sewing, but I do have a quilt I want to sew for a wedding gift in July so I better boogie.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and hopefully I keep up a little better with updating my blog.

Sliced Moda Bakeshop Entry

I decided to take the challenge put forth by Moda Bakeshop. We were all given a list of items that had to be used in some kind of  accessory for an office or studio. Well, I scratched my head and figured and looked around and decided what I needed was a hard side box to keep my rotary cutters and small templates and rulers in by my cutting mat.

Here are a few progress shots:

I used a candy bar by Modern Workshop for Moda. On the inside I used Dots by Sandy Gervais. I put a buckle on the front to hold it closed and I used a length of Moda ribbon from around a jelly roll to thread through the buckle. And this is the finished product: (drumroll please)

I had fun doing some free motion quilting on it. I did a different design on every side. My husband bent up a piece of aluminum for me in the welding shop, which I then inserted into my fabric. This design includes a bit of hand sewing, but I wasn't sure how else to close it all with the rigid aluminum inside.  This is kind of last minute but I just squeaked under the wire! Go to the flickr page to see all the other awesome entries. Good luck everybody!