A new year of EPP

The January meeting of English paper piecing addiction hardly got off the ground because of icy weather and flooding in the quilt shop. For February people were really raring to go. It was an excited crowd and they were lots and lots of show and tells. Marlene Sowatzke brought two projects: the first one is tiny nine patches above, not English paper pieced.  Below, Marlene is showing her Just Takes Two quilt by Sue Daley.   It's getting closer to completion every month.

Andrea Gerdt is working on various Hexie projects using Christmas fabrics and fussy cuts.

Donna Spain has been working on Sue Daley's Chelsea quilt in beautiful 1930s fabrics and her Dresdens are about done. Jerry Pitts is fussy cutting a project and it's still a work in progress.

Bonnie Harlow has fallen in love with Stars in the Garden from our friends at Yellow Creek Designs.  She has everything really organized in her box and can work on it at a moments notice

Donna Nigh has completed her king size bed runner from Vicky Bellino's book English Paper Piecing.  She wondered sometimes if she would get it done but it was certainly worth the effort.

Becky Wilson and Sandy Warren are both working on the same project from Sue Daley, called Faith, Hope, and Love. Becky's is mostly bagged and ready to be sewn together but Sandy has made a lot of progress on her quilt.

Barbara Rettig enjoys English paper piecing, but her first love is wool embroidery.  She often shows us her wool projects, but she is also working on It Takes Two from Sue Daley, and she showed us the colors that she's using.

New year of EPP, part 2

Connie Wass watches as Lynette Reynolds shows her English paper pieced star and hexies.  This is the center of the cover quilt from Handfuls of Scraps but Edyta Sitar. The original quilt was done was seven eighths inch hexagons, but Lynette use three eighths for the miniature look she loves so much.

Sharon Howell is working on her Lucy Boston quilt. She has fussy cut the honeycombs to make beautiful blocks.  Carol Federspill has joined our Just like a Jigsaw Club by Sue Daley and is working on the blocks every month.  She's doing a good job of keeping up!

LuAnn Krug brought her quilt back from Di Ford so the new members could see it.  It features hexagons and diamonds. She also has a whole bag full of her diamond stars from Fussy Cut Fridays!

LuAnn and Michele Hellmann are both working on the Millifiori Quilt Along on Facebook, based on the book, The New Hexagon by Katja Marek. There's a picture of Linda and Teri with Katja at Quilt Market last fall.

Michele is super organized and has all her Fussy Cut Friday stars in a notebook. She is also very prolific as she has gotten the quilt below pieced with English paper piecing and quilted.  Here's her version of her millefiori quilt along so far.

Linda and Teri have been working very hard to get their Chelsea quilt from Sue Daley completed. All they have to do now is scallop the border with bias binding and add the yo-yos to the centers of the Dresdens.  Linda also showed her Pies and Tarts quilt from Sue Daley.  It's growing!

Original Quilt and Sewing Expo

We have our booth all set up at the Original Quilt and Sewing Expo.  This is the first time this event has been in Indianapolis, and excited customers started arriving an hour and a half before the show opened!  But there are lots of quilts and displays to look at here at the Marriott Center here at 21st and Shadeland.

The show runs 10-6 Thursday and Friday, and 10-5:30 Saturday.

If you want to purchase fabric for clothing, there are booths here with knits, fine woolens, and other dressmaking fabrics, plus lots of garment designers!  

Don't miss this chance to see a world class show right here in Indy!

And speaking of world class, here's our booth with new quilts.  Can you pick them out?

Recent Fabric Arrivals

We've received loads of new fabrics in recent weeks.  1930s fabrics abound from Moda, Marcus, and Windham.  Check out our new Pinterest board for quilt ideas.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

One of our new favorites is homespuns from Diamond Textiles.  They have the look and feel of Japanese Daiwabos with a much lower price tag.  They would make great backgrounds for wool appliqué, too.

Our new Kim Diehl club is starting in September.  Called Simple a Whatnots, the club will feature a different small quilt each month.  The price is $12 for 6 months, and participants are required to purchase either a fat eighth or fat quarter bundle.  Call the shop at 317.882.2120 or stop by to sign up.

Jo Morton's latest collection is a delectable group of lights.  Haberdashery will make a terrific background for all your reproduction quilts, whether you use one fabric, or all eleven.

We have the cutest sewing fabrics right now.  From zippers to thread, buttons to pincushions, and lots of coordinates, you'll find the perfect fabric for your sewing room projects.  Think totes, zippered project bags, sewing room curtains...the list is endless.

Finally, we have lots of new wool.  We are carrying brilliant Woolylady hand dyed wools, in addition to all our other more primitive colors.  We have different sizes from yardage to small 4" by 6" pieces.  Whatever your project, we can help with your wool needs!

Downton Abbey Tea Time!

Here we are, ready to serve you!  No, wait, we are definitely the downstairs staff.

We are joined by the upstairs staff.  From left to right, Kevin, Linda, Teri, and Brian did the honors as hosts and hostesses.  The fun commenced as people started filing in, dressed in their Downton Abbey best.

Brian's proud mom is front and center, with her friends surrounding her.  The outfits were a lot of fun to look at, and we all had a great time.

 

Most of Teri's sisters were able to come.  Her twin sisters are above, and four out of the five girls are below.  We have here three flappers and a housemaid!  Guess Teri hasn't risen as high in the world as her sibs.

Local designer Brian Haggard circulated among the guests, giving his best impression of Carson...

then he began his talk, covering topics such as photo transfer, crazy quilting, using buttons in quilts, and the use of calling cards in upper crust society.

Brian brought quilts from both of his books, some of which we had only seen in the books.  It was great to get to see them up close.

He answered questions from the floor before our time together was up.

Our guests got to see the quilts even closer as Kevin walked them around the room.  The white gloves came in handy!

Ready for the Downton Abbey Tea

The big day has come!  We rearranged tables and chairs, and got our Annex ready for our special visitors.  Our first visitor was the doll Fiona, made by Martha Powell Jungclaus.  She's watching over pincushions that will be door prizes.

We have pretty Downton Abbey fat quarter bundles all tied up with tulle.  Some of these will be door prizes, also.

Kris Ranck made the large Downton Abbey Mystery quilt from Ebony Love below, and the quilt thrown over the top is from Andover's web site--it's a free download!

Our special guest for the day was local designer Brian Haggard.  He brought us a number of quilts from his two books so we could display them ahead of time.

 

Brian's quilts striking, with lots of hand stitching and buttons.

Known for sepia quilts, he also has quite a few colorful quilts.  Photo transfers appear in most of his work, and each quilt tells a story.

Since this was an English tea party, we thought we'd hang our English Paper Pieced quilts, all from designer Sue Daley (Australia).  Here the quilts provide a nice backdrop for our purse patterns, samples and kits from Pink Sand Beach.

We also have a darling Tea Cozy pattern from Pink Sand Beach, made up in Down Abbey fabric.

All those quilts make a lovely display!