Katie’s Blog

We’re back from International Quilt Market in Houston, TX and what a wonderful show it was! In my last email I promised to give you the entire scoop on my first Quilt Market as a fabric designer for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. What a fantastic experience! I started my weekend off by leading a Schoolhouse Session on Marketing to Today’s Modern Mom. I had a great turnout, and was delighted to share my tips for selling my new line of fabric, Chirp!

I had a great crowd! It made my first presentation much easier!!

I also had fantatic assistants!!

Here is a look at what the attendees recieved- a charm pack of my fabric. I also had examples of kits that we will sell in the shop.

After Schoolhouse day, I was stationed in my own little booth off of Robert Kaufman Fabrics for the 3 days of Market.

Here I am helping a new shop write an order for my line!!

I featured the Kwik Sew pattern #3685 for the nursery set. It is a great pattern with instructions for the bumper pads, crib sheet, crib skirt & diaper stacker.

Gina made up these adorable pillows from my panel fabric.

Here is a look at the precut items that Robert Kaufman is offering: fat quarter bundles and 10″ square sets.

In this photo you can see some of the free patterns that will be offered: DREAM letters and a panel quilt.

And, finally here is a look at my cheerleaders!

My mom, sisters, & myself in the Chirp! booth

We will soon be posting all of the items that will be available for purchase on our website including kits for 3 quilts that take the line from baby to teen, the panel quilt, a memory board, the nursery bedding, & yardage of course! The fabric is scheduled to hit stores nationwide in February. We will be hosting a baby shower for the line of fabric on Saturday March 6th all day, so mark your calendars for a great day of fun!

Although it felt like market was all about my line of fabric, we had lots of fun visiting our favorite vendors & quilting celebrities! Have you heard that Kaye England will be here in Perham on Sunday November 15th? It’s true! We are hosting a dinner with Kaye at the Perham Golf Course along with Blow’s Sew & Vac of Fargo.  Tickets are only $18 in advance ($20 on that day). We guarantee you will have a great time! Kaye will present a trunk show of quilts, demo rulers, etc… and definitely keep you laughing. Sign up by calling the shop or visit our website under Event Tickets.

Quilt & Fabric Designer Kaye England & Sarah at Market

My mom, Sarah, was also excited about the new fabric company Blue Hill. They will have a new paper dolls line of fabric in our shop soon.

Blue Hill Fabrics

Maggy was inspired by Amy Bulter’s booth and she and my mom had fun taking a picture in Moda’s booth.

Amy Butler

 My mom also fell in love with a line of fabric by Karen Montgomery for Timeless Treasures.

Anyone need a rebel? The motorcycle image in the center of this quilt is actually a panel from Free Spirit Fabrics. Cool!

On the last day of market I always visit the Seven Islands booth to indulge in fabrics and products from Japan. This year I fell in love with tons of stuff!! We’ve ordered products from this adorable baby line:

And we also ordered prints featuring a cute dog, mushrooms, flowers, and so much more. It is like Christmas every time I open a box from them!

And, just in time for some Halloween inspiration, take a look at Alexander Henry’s booth display. It won first place for multiple booth entries. The more you look at the pictures the more you see, including the witch who is sewing a black and gray quilt.

Here we are buying next year’s Halloween prints from Alexander Henry. They will be in the shop in May 2010!

It was a great trip, filled with lots of memories! We ordered a fantastic assortment of new fabrics, gifts, & notions. Some items have already started to arrive in the shop, while others will start arriving in the next couple months. I will keep you updated on everything! Happy Quilting!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the wonderful response to our first ever Quilt Challenge. We were hoping to receive at least 12 entries to fill each page of the calendar and instead received 34! Wow- we have awesome customers!!! I’ve just finished putting together the Bay Window Quilt Shop Quilt Challenge Calendar for 2010. It features all 34 entries in photos as well as information on everything that’s happening in our shop in 2010. It will be a great way for you to remember all of those important dates. Plus, the proceeds from calendar sales are all going to Someplace Safe here in Perham! Calendars are on sale now on our website under Great Gifts for Quilters, or just search for the word calendar. You can also purchase them at the shop for only $10 each.  Here are a couple of the pictures that didn’t make the calendar for you to enjoy.

Take a picture of this one mommy!

A rooster in the garden didn't quite work, look for it on the wall instead!

Every year I get really excited to receive the Kokka & Echino fabrics from Quilt Market. They arrived last week and Jack and I had fun putting them out on the floor for shoppers.

Here is a look at some of our favorite fabrics!

The strawberry print would make adorable aprons or shopping totes. It would also be cute as a tablecloth, just hem it and go!

Hey mom, maybe I should unroll this bolt for you!

There are tons of new prints. Some are a midweight cotton which makes them perfect for home decor projects. I think it would be cute to make a dress out of the mushrooms & deer print.

This is a fun fabric!

Hey mom, maybe we should cut some half yards and yards of this fabric for the ladies to buy. I’ll unroll it and you cut!

Do these match?

You can find some of these prints on our website under Echino or Kokka. We weren’t able to find pictures for all of them, so give us a call and we can tell you about the rest. Or, better yet- stop in the shop and discover them for yourself! Let the creativity begin!!

On July 1st, 2009 we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the day our shop opened!!! Can you believe it, we’re 20 years old?! We certainly don’t look like it!! We have a HUGE party planned for the 1st-4th. There will be special discounts, special gifts with purchase, special prizes including a quilt, & special food. Here is the scoop: from July 1st -4th you will be able to take 20% off storewide (with the exception of consignment & the clearance area). That’s right- for 4 days in a row! Plus we will be having our annual Quilt Sale of finished quilts out on the sidewalk. They will be 25% off! On top of that, if you spend over $100 you will receive a special gift from us (a cute bucket filled with goodies)! This offer is available while supplies last. And, if that isn’t enough you can also register to win door prizes. We will be giving away tons of stuff, including a finished patriotic quilt. Okay, finally we will be serving delicous cake too.  FYI our shop hours will be 9-5:30 on Wed-Friday and 11-2 on Saturday the 4th. Hope to see you there!

We’ve just returned from a fabulous week at International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh, PA. We spent a day in classes learning about the latest and greatest products, and then 2 1/2 days shopping the booths. Here is a look at our favorite finds & designs!!! PS. If you’re ever in Pittsburgh, I highly recommend the restaurant Eleven on Smallman Ave- delicious!!!

We started Friday at the show with my favorite find of Market: Vicki Payne! I attended her Schoolhouse Series class and learned all about her new line of Home Decor fabrics for Free Spirit. Did you know that she hosts a show on PBS titled For Your Home? She and her daughter makeover homes and rooms and you can see the transformation on her tv show. Soon you will be able to see the fabrics we purchased on the show as well. I am quite excited to set up a display here at the shop and teach you all how to decorate your own home with nothing more than a staple gun!!! I love my staple gun!

Primitive Gatherings booth!

Oliver + S Pattern Company

Before our Moda appointment we spent some time chatting with Pieces From My Heart designer Sandy Gervais. Sandy always has one of the cutest booths at market. This year they even had a real pumpkin pie! Her two new lines are fresh and fun as ever. Gobble should be arriving in the shop soon and the floral group will come later in the fall.

One of the local finds that we discovered was this cute pattern company that makes card holders for any occasion. So cute!

On the final day of Market we took out the camera and went on a mission to find our favorite designer’s booths so that we could show them to you. First stop, Pearl Louise Designs… each Market we always sit down for a chat with Pearl and the gang. We bounce ideas off each other and talk about our favorite finds at the show.

Next stop, Anka’s Treasures where Heather was working on her latest fabric line that will be available later this fall. You can see the awesome quilts from her newest book behind her.

Then we were on to Atkinson’s Designs where Kirk and Terry agreed to adopt me for the photo. You can see the quilts from her Fonts book in the background. Terry also has a new line of fabric that will be available later this summer… it is beautiful!

Across the aisle we found Mary of MH Designs. Her adorable paper piecing patterns have been in our shop for years. She has some great new patterns that we will have in stock soon. It is always fun to catch up with her and her husband in their booth!

Next on the list was Kaye Englund in the Wilmington Fabrics booth. We chatted with her for a long time about her new fabric lines, which will be here soon! PS. I am not the greatest photographer in the world… always blurry…. oops!

We made a quick stop at Seven Islands, home to Echino Fabrics. This is one of my favorite places to visit. I am able to find the coolest fabric that is imported from Japan. SO MUCH FUN!!!!

Look for this bird fabric soon at the shop!

I bet you didn’t know that I could be Vanna!

See the strawberry fabric? Yep, that's on its way too!

And, saving the best for last, Alexander Henry! This was our final appointment of Quilt Market and we were able to chat with designer Philip for awhile about babies! Yep, not fabric… he has twin girls at home that are 9 months old so we were able to swap stories about being a new parent. I love Alexander Henry! I even named a pattern after this fabric line a few years ago. Every fabric image is first painted by Philip or his sister Nicole… not your normal fabric designers. You can find lots of their fantasic prints in our shop, including the one he is holding.

That’s it… we headed home and started dreaming up what we are going to do with all of the fabric and patterns and books and notions and gifts and everything that we ordered. Some of it has already started to arrive in the shop… look for new models and displays as it arrives!

In honor of Spring Cleaning lets clean up some of our stash with one of my favorite new patterns, the Easiest Ever Jelly Roll Quilt. We were given this pattern by our Moda rep to use Moda’s precut Jelly Rolls (2 1/2 x WOF strips). I decided to make up one with some of the Kaffe Fassett fabrics from my stash, so I just cut my own 2 1/2″ strips. The pattern calls for one Jelly Roll, so you would need 40 strips. WARNING: YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO MAKE JUST ONE QUILT! Once you see how much fun this is, you will be searching out every Jelly Roll you can find! PS. Check out Moda’s newest website: www.modabakeshop.com for lots of other great patterns that use their Bake Shop line of products.

Easiest Ever Jelly Roll Quilt

1. Sew each 2 1/2” strip end to end with a diagonal seam.

Note: Jelly Rolls cotain 40 strips so this will make one continuous strip approximately 1600” long! Don’t worry too much about fabric placement. There’s no way to judge which fabrics will end up next to each other.

2. Trim seams to 1/4” and press in one direction.

3. Cut the first strip off approximately in the middle and discard the loose end. Trim the selvage off the 40th strip.

4. Here’s the hardest part of the whole quilt– bring the two ends together rights sides together with no twists in the strips. Sew the long sides together. Your strip will now be 2 strips wide and about 800 inches long!

5. Clip the folded end so that you can open the strips and press the seam in one direction.

6. Again, bring the short ends together, sew the long sides right sides together, clip the fold and press.

7. Repeat step 6 until you have 32 strips in width. Notice that each fold cuts the strip length in half and the seams become much easier to sew!

8. Optional: add a 6 1/2” border.

9. Layer your quilt with batting and backing, quilt, bind, enjoy!

Optional:

Use matching charm squares or additional yardage, appliqué simple shapes onto the quilt.

To enlarge the quilt, use an additional Jelly Roll to add on. Simply measure the quilt top to get the proper length, sew several strips together to get enough strips of the right length. Add this border to the opposite sides of the quilt, sewing across the ends of the original 32 strips.

I’ve been doing a lot of sewing lately, and it got me thinking about why I sew. There are a couple different reasons: first I sew for the store making models or designing new quilt patterns; second I sew for my home- I just finished reupholstering a chair for my living room (granted no sewing was required for that project, just a staple gun); and third I sew to be creative. Sometimes the most fun I can have it delving into my stash and creating something new from what I have on hand. I love the challenge of figuring out what I can make with what I have. I also love creating something from scratch and not having to follow a pattern.

Here’s a look at the tablerunners I designed for the new issue of A View From Bay Window. I call them Strip It! Runners.

 If you’re not familiar with A View From Bay Window, it is a bimonthly magazine that I publish for the store. In each issue you get a newly designed quilt pattern, articles, and a special coupon. The yearly subscription is $18.

I also love sewing for my son Jack, the newest “fix it” man on staff. Here he is working at his tool bench in dad’s studio!

I would love to hear what inspires you to sew! – Katie

Have you heard about our annual Schoolhouse Series? This is a great day of quilting education, a trunk show of quilts, food, & fun. This year our featured designer is Linda Hohag of Brandywine Designs. She will be presenting a trunk show of her latest quilts at the end of the day. We are so lucky that she has agreed to also teach during the morning! Linda’s “Perfect & Easy Applique” technique will be offered 3 times in the morning (with each time taking up two sessions). You won’t want to miss this opportunity to learn from one of the best. Date: Saturday March 28th, 2009 from about 8:00-3:00. To register for Schoolhouse 2009 give us a call here at the shop (toll free 1-888-346-7275) or go to our website and click on Event Tickets. Cost: $50 (includes all classes, breakfast, lunch, trunk show, & a goodie bag filled with featured products)

Here’s a run down of the other classes being offered:

Sessions 1 & 2 :  

Quilt Labels: Hands On Session- We all know how important it is to label our quilts, in this class you will make your own unique quilt label for those special gifts. *This class takes two sessions. 

Pefect & Easy Applique: Learn to hand and machine applique using the starch method. If you are new to applique or simply want to learn a new technique, this is the class for you. It’s fun, easy, and you will be amazed with the results. *This class takes two sessions

Overdying for a Vintage Look: An overview of products and techniques used in overdying cotton and finished projects will be discussed as well as pros and cons to each method. Natural dying will also be touched on. *This class is offered in both session one & two.

Moda’s Bake Shop: What’s a honey bun? A jelly roll? A layer cake? Discover Moda’s Bake Shop products and their cool new website devoted to using these items. *This class is offered in both session one & two.

Kwik Sew-Sewing Organizer: Every quilter needs this system! A bag for carrying all your supplies, a quilt roll, and an organizer. See tips for constructing these cool projects. *This class is offered in both session one & two.

Rulers 101: There are tons of new rulers available to quilters. Carolyn sifts through them and shares some of her favorites and tips on how to use them to your best advantage.

Sessions 3 &4:

Needle Felting: Hands-On Session: Learn or practice your needle felting skills as you create an adorable case for your cell phone or eye glasses. *This class takes two sessions.

Pefect & Easy Applique: Learn to hand and machine applique using the starch method. If you are new to applique or simply want to learn a new technique, this is the class for you. It’s fun, easy, and you will be amazed with the results. *This class takes two sessions

Working with Grainlines: Learn the principles or working with grainlines and making grainlines work to your advantage. Incorporating these principles into your projects will increase the level of accuracy! *This class is offered in both sessions 3 & 4.

Baby Love: What’s better than adorable baby items? View the latest in home-sewn baby projects from the book Baby Love and Amy Butler’s Little Stitches for Little Ones. *This class is offered in both sessions 3 & 4.

Bigfork Bay Applique: See tips for creating beautiful wall quilts using Bigfork Bay’s iron-on applique technique. You’ll also see lots of beautiful quilts from their company. *This class is offered in both sessions 3 & 4.

Not Your Grandmothers…: Log Cabin & Flower Garden- see how to make these traditional quilts using specially designed rulers. *This class is offered in both sessions 3 & 4.

Sessions 5 & 6:

Wool Applique-Hands-On Session: Make a cute mini calendar/notebook holder for your purse as you learn the basics of wool applique on fabric. *This class takes two sessions.

Pefect & Easy Applique: Learn to hand and machine applique using the starch method. If you are new to applique or simply want to learn a new technique, this is the class for you. It’s fun, easy, and you will be amazed with the results. *This class takes two sessions

Marking, Drawing on Fabric: Different fabrics require different marking tools and methods. All types of tools and their fabric applications will be discussed and demonstrated. *This class is offered in both sessions 5 & 6.

Fabric Forecast 2009: View the latest trends in the quilting industry as Katie displays the hottest, newest, & coolest fabrics. Plus get a sneak peek at Christmas 2009. *This class is offered in both sessions 5 & 6.

Kwik Sew-Newest Bag: Sew Simple! This cute bag pattern is perfect for displaying your favorite fabrics. Learn tips for easy construction and fantastic results. *This class is offered in both sessions 5 & 6.

X-Block Mania: Have you discovered this cool new ruler yet? You can make fun blocks and quilts that feature the X-block’s funky shape. Very Fun! *This class is offered in both sessions 5 & 6.

It is finally here! Brown Bear, Brown Bear fabric by Eric Carle for Andover Fabrics has finally arrived. The beloved children’s book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?” is a favorite at our house with Jack. It is one of the books he loves to have read to him. When I showed him the fabric here at the shop he had a great time playing with it. He actually pushed the bolt onto the floor and then proceeded to sit on the images of each animal. Then I asked him to point out which ones I was looking for like “gold fish”, “red bird”, and of course ”brown bear”! He had so much fun hitting each animal as I asked him to find them that it gave me the idea to make the featured quilt and use it as a play mat or to snuggle with on the couch. You can check out all of the fabrics on our website under Fabrics/Just Arrived, you can also see the quilt kit! To download the free quilt pattern visit Andover Fabrics website.

‘Tis the season for locking yourself indoors for the weekend and sewing all day and night! Granted, many of you may be with friends at a retreat while you do this, but either way I’d say “Quilting Season” has officially begun. It is my favorite time of year for finishing up projects. For me that means it is finally time to sew down the binding on quilts that have been piling up throughout the year. I hate to admit there are a few quilts that have been sitting in my sewing closet waiting for this final step for a couple years now! I resolve to bind them immediately! Or, maybe before Easter. I mean I really don’t have a purpose for those quilts right now, except to decorate Jace’s studio. I will have to put off decorating Jack’s “big boy” bedroom (he won’t need it for another year or so anyways), and those quilts I wanted to make for my living room, and the curtains for my kitchen…. okay I’ll just bind the quilts so that I can have a clear conscience.  Happy Sewing!! ~ Katie

By the way, check out the pattern Star In A Star. We have kits available for the featured quilt on our website!