Living Room

Good thing we never used our living room all that much, we tend to live in the family room.  

This is now what my living room looks like, seven bookcases of fabric!!

Lots of blenders left, one shelf of batiks and lots of misc.    I am getting it semi organized but that has been a job with doing inventory and lots of other end of the year/end of the shop functions.  

Kathie

Store Front Closing

We are in the last two weeks of having our store front open.   I am loving the amount of fabric that is currently flying out the door but can't help also being depressed that it is coming to an end.  I will definitely miss all the loyal friends and customers and miss seeing all their projects in process.  

Once we are closed and the store cleared out I will start posting here after the holidays.  I will let everyone know what fabric, notions and patterns I have remaining for local pick up, what hand made items I have in stock (baby quilts, lap quilts and table runners) if you need a gift in a hurry and don't have time to make one and also pictures of anything new that I order.  

I will begin placing some small orders after we close our doors from Moda and Northcott and possibly other vendors..  The new fabric will be available on line through our etsy store or for local pick up.  We will be low key, with limited inventory but will still give people the opportunity to purchase locally.  

Kathie

Car Show

Leonardtown's annual car show was on the square yesterday.  Jane and Cindy set up a booth of quilted items, panels and FQs and were part of the festivities selling several items.  They said they talked to several quilters that didn't even know there was a shop in town so that was great, maybe we will get a few new customers out of it.  

New In the Shop

New in  this week is Northcott Stonehenge Canyon horse fabric and a wonderful selection of Timeless Treasures blenders called Willow.  With the variation of shades in each bolt and the subtle willow pattern I think these have a slight oriental look. 

Fiber Arts Retreat

We had our vendor table and taught two classes at the fiber arts retreat over the weekend.  I think everyone had a great time and loved seeing all the quilts.  

Here are a few of the quilts for the show spread out in the church

and the ladies greeting everyone as they arrived for classes or the quilt show

Nice to have a small show in the area since there is no long one at Sotterley and the Honey Bees have also decided not to have any further shows.  

Great job by all the organizers!!

Deliveries

I dropped the 11 Quilts of Kindness going to Hospice off at the St. Mary's Hospice house yesterday on the way home from the shop.  Today the 7 quilts for the Charlottle Hall Veteran's home are being picked up and I will be delivering the 8 Project Linus quilts off tomorrow at our local Fiber Arts Retreat.    Thanks again to everyone that participated in this effort!!

First Friday

Thanks to all that came out for the Twister Demo last night.  Jane did a great job and got several ladies excited about making twister quilts.  We sold several templates, patterns and books so hope that I get to see some of those finished quilts a few weeks or months down the road.

Sorting of the Quilt

Gathered up all the bags and bins that the 26 Quilts of Kindness were in last night and sorted them out.  We are going to be donating 8 kid friendly quilts to Project Linus, 7 quilts to the Charlotte Hall Veteran's Home and 11 quilts to St. Mary's Hospice.

I need to draft a letter to go with these quilts explaining why we were doing this and make arrangements to get them delivered.  Hopefully will be able to do that in the next few days.

We made our goal!!

Thanks to the friends, customers and staff of Olde Towne Stitchery we are at our goal of collecting 26 Quilts of Kindness to be donated to local charities in honor and memory of the 26 that were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Here is Quilt #26 donated from the shop

These will be sorted hopefully this weekend and be ready for donation.

Quilt of Kindness #25

Quilt of Kindness #25 is this beautiful rail fence dropped off at the shop by Jenny today.  Nice and bright and even HAND quilted!!  Lovely.

Quilt of Kindness #24

We are almost to our goal!!!  Quilt of Kindness #24 was dropped off at the shop by Sue yesterday, what a wonderful rag quilt.  

Love the color combination.  

Easter Sale

Could not believe it waking up to SNOW THIS MORNING, it is spring and Easter is right around the corner!!  

Regardless of the weather Easter is right around the corner and Olde Towne Stitchery will be having an Easter sale on Friday and Saturday March 29 & 30.  Come in the shop and pick an Easter Egg, inside will be a sweet treat and a coupon good both days.  Coupons will range from different  percentages off your total purchase to coupons for specific items like percentages off books and patterns or widebacks.  Come in and see what your savings will be.  

Quilts of Kindness #22 and #23

Two lovely quilts were dropped off at the shop today to be part of our Quilts of Kindness effort.

This first quilt (#22) is a beautiful black and white quilt made by Betty.

I have been meaning to make a black and white (with a little bit of red) quilt for years.  Where is all the fabric I collected?  under my stash somewhere!

This second quilt (#23) was made and donated by Janice.  Love looking at all the various fabrics in this one.

Thanks ladies they are both beautiful.  Three more to go and these will all get delivered.

Quilts of Kindness #21

This Jelly Roll Race style quilt is quilt 21 in our effort to collect 26 Quilts of Kindness.   This was made and quilted by Cindy of Olde Towne Stitchery.  Great job Cindy!!!

Just 5 more quilts to go and these will all be donated locally.

Undersea Adventure

A couple of days ago I showed the new Northcott Undersea Adventure panel that we just received in the shop.  Thursday I went ahead and put a few simple borders on one and put it up on display to help sell the fabric.  Guess it worked as two of the panels sold while I was putting on the borders.

Some people still call panels cheater quilts but with the new colors, prints and themes I would rather just think of them as a good started to a quick quilt.   We also have a couple of patterns in the shop specifically using panels if you want to do something more complicated.

Books

When I went to the Hampton Quilt Show I wrote down the names of a few books I would like to carry in the shop.  Ordered the first three and they are in the shop now.

I like all the books but love some of the patterns in the Strip Therapy one and also many times I don't feel a border is necessary so also thought the Skip the Borders one would be interesting to have.

New In The Shop

I know that several people have been waiting for this to come in.  It is Northcott's first Stonehenge Kids line titled Undersea Adventure.   We have this beautiful panel

some coordinating fabrics...

and I have found that some of the colors of other blenders from other Northcott kids lines also coordinate well with this.

I intend on spending time today getting a couple of simple borders on one of these panels so I can display in the shop.

Quilt of Kindness #20

Cheryl dropped off this beautiful scrap half log cabin quilt yesterday as part of our Quilts of Kindness Effort. This quilt is #20 that we have collected so only 6 more to go and we will see that they get donated to Hospice House, the Veteran's Home, Project Linus and our local hospital.

Dragonfly Quilt

When this pretty dragonfly fabric from Blank came in the shop recently I just knew that I had to make something with it.  Finally settled on this very easy pattern that has nice big blocks to show off the fabric.

Here is a close up so you can see just why I fell in love with this fabric, love the colors, the Asian feel and also all the gold in the fabric.  

Cut some backing fabric for it yesterday so hope to get it quilted and back in the shop in the next couple of weeks.  

Fabric Ordering

Tomorrow I will be meeting with the P&B and Timeless Treasures fabric rep to see what they are going to be offering for Christmas.  Can you imagine having to order Halloween and Christmas fabric in January and February or as late as March and having it all start arriving May and June?    Sure wish they could be pushed off a bit but if you don't order them for delivery when they are being released you might miss out. 

Of course you don't know what business is going to be like that many months out or how the sequester is going to affect this area so it is all a guess.  It sure is fun to pick out but stressful at the same time.

Quilts of Kindness #19

Quilt of Kindness #19 was started last summer during a Leonardtown first Friday celebration.  Staff and customers made string blocks over several days and they were eventually made into this quilt that will ultimately be donated to the Charlotte Hall Veteran's Home.   I finally managed to find time to get it quilted and Jane just finished doing the binding.  It is a nice effort by all.

Recent new arrivals in the shop include Enchanted Pond pre-cuts and yardage from Moda and also several bolts of new blenders.  Stop by and take a look.

Mid Atlantic Quilt Show

My Husband and I went to the Mid Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton, VA on saturday.  What a wonderful show, lots of great quilts and many interesting vendors.  I made a list of patterns and books that I hope to purchase for the shop in the next few weeks.

It was also fun to see that two of the ladies from the Pax River Quilt Guild had entries accepted at the quilt show.

Here is a beautiful bears paw made by Joyce

The colors are absolutely stunning and the workmanship is top notch.

This quilt I believe was called something like Tree of Life and was made by Julia

I love the look of the iron gate.

Warm Wishes

I recently completed this shop sample.  The pattern is called Warm Wishes and you can find it free on the internet.  I use this fun and easy pattern at least once a year for a gift or charity quilt.   It is just a solid focus fabric square combined with a rail fence variation.  The secret is to have an odd number of blocks both across and down so that your framed looking squares look complete.

Quilts of Kindness #17 and #18

Jamie dropped off these two small kids quilts yesterday as part of our Quilts of Kindness efforts.  Very cute and I am sure some child will love them.

Very simple patterns but with lots of different fabrics makes wonderful kids quilts.

First UFO Night

Our first UFO night was held on friday night.  The kitchen was full of food, music was going and rotary cutters and sewing machines were humming.  

We had a great group of people turn out and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time.  We will definitely be doing this again in the future.  

Here are a couple of pictures from the night.

Aphrodite Fabric

Here is a unique item we used the Aphrodite fabric for, my husband made a custom headboard for a customer.  

Great job Ed!!

Medallions

What do you do if you have several medallions left from a previous project? 

These are from the Northcott Aphrodite line and left over from a wall hanging shop sample I made.   I looked at them long enough and decided to cut  right down the center in both directions.  This would give the look of curved piecing. 

I then put 4 1/2 of the medallions together making this table runner top. 

I am not real happy with how the outer border looks on it but hope once I quilt it if I bind it in the darker blue it will look ok.  I do love the way the middle of the runner turned out. 

Quilt of Kindness #16

Quilt of Kindness #16 is a pretty floral hidden 9-patch quilt made and donated by Pat.  I love that she incorporated some of our Freckles fabrics in with a floral from her stash.

Her decision to bind it with the purple really added a lot to the quilt.

Quilt of Kindness #15

Quilt of Kindness #15 was donated by Barbara, lovely quilt!!

Paper Piecing

Do you paper piece?  I have tried a couple of times and never could seem to do it very well.  If you also have wanted to learn proper techniques maybe Barbara's new class will be for you.  You will learn the techniques while making this beginner friendly pillow or small wall hanging.  

Great for Christmas scraps you have left over from other projects, some of the Stonehenge Woodland fabrics we have or even consider making this in batiks!

Check our website www.oldetownestitchery.com for class schedules.

New In The Shop

New in the shop are pre-cuts and yardage from Moda's new line Seascapes.  These would make a wonderful wall hanging, a great quilt for a beach house or beach enthusiast or a wonderful large beach bag.  Jane is going to be teaching an upcoming class on beach and smaller tote bags, details should be on the class listing in the next few days.

Quilt of Kindness #14

This beautiful Kaleidoscope quilt was made by Julia and donated to the Quilts of Kindness efforts.  You can't see in the picture but the backing fabric she used is also beautiful.  I took a Kaleidoscope class from her a couple of years ago at the local Fiber Arts Conference so know that these quilts are fun and not as hard to do as they look once you get the technique down..  

Gift in a Hurry

If you ever need a gift in a hurry or just like changing out a wall hanging with the seasons be sure and consider a panel as a starting point.  They used to be called "cheaters" but I don't believe that anymore, they are just quick quilts.  

You can take a panel like this one and just add a couple of borders for a quick seasonal wall hanging

or you can get fancy and add many pieced borders or blocks to make it more elaborate.  Piano keys or checkerboards are always a good addition to a panel quilt.

Newly Arrived

We have the WOW bag and WOW bag junior patterns back in the shop, thread is back fully stocked and received two additional Stonehenge wide backs today.  

Here is my newly completed shop sample quilt.  This is made from the new Moda Sakura Park fabric line using the X-block tool.  I like the way it turned out, sure reminds me of spring time on this cold rainy day.!!

Quilt of Kindness #13

We are now half way to our goal of collecting 26 quilts of kindness.  Quilt number 13 was donated by Connie.  I don't know if you can see it in the picture but the blocks are made of a Sunbonnet Sue type of fabric, very cute.

Quilt of Kindness #12

Jane donated this beautiful fall quilt made from the Square in a Square 2 pattern off of the Quilters Cache website.  

This will be a nice guy quilt for either Hospice house or for the Veteran's Home.

Quilts of Kindness #11

This is the third quilt that Betty donated.  This was made during a workshop at one of the local guilds making a tessellating pinwheel quilt using the twister template.  If you have not tried that yet it is so much fun as you never sew anything but squares together.  

Love the colors in this, next to purple one of my favorites is teal!

Quilts of Kindness #9 and #10

These next two quilts of kindness were dropped off by Betty yesterday.  I love this black/white and red quilt.  I started saving fabrics to make one a couple of years ago but all the fabric remains in my stash untouched.  Think I need to get a few more of the black and whites to freshen up the stack of fabrics and get something made with it.    Great job Betty, and look at all those small triangles!!

This next quilt I believe was the result of a block swap she was in.  I bet these blocks were a lot of fun to create and to swap.

Thanks again for these wonderful quilts, I am sure they will be appreciated.

Orphan Fat Quarters

We now have a basket of orphan fat quarters on the front counter.  All yardage is gone and only the fat quarters remain.  I have marked these fat quarters down to $1.50 so check them out the next time you are in the shop. 

Quilts of Kindness #8

Quilt Number 8 was dropped off yesterday by Lois.  She did this jelly roll type of quilt all with 2 1/2 inch strips she received at a guild swap.  If you can see in the picture even the binding is made out of these scrappy strips.    Thanks Lois!!

Quilt of Kindness #7

The 7th Quilt of Kindness was given to me Wednesday by Helen.  The butterflies are made using a crayon technique and then embroidered around, very cute and different and really ties in the colors in the border fabric.