As soon as Patricia put this T-shirt quilt out front we had a customer walk up! Now we also have our coming soon sign up as well (as you can see in the picture). Please continue to bring in your beautiful quilts tops for long arm quilting, batting and binding! These services are full steam ahead though we haven't officially opened for retail business yet. We DO have a phone number already which is : 281-516-7515.

We hope everyone will enjoy the "Big Reveal" when we open. I know, I know....it is hard to wait but I promise your patience will be rewarded! We are shooting for mid July.

Here is Deb opening our very first box of fabric!

Here is how lovely that fabric looks arranged in the store! I can't wait to get to work on the sample quilt for the line!

Here's a shout out to Tom and Manny for all their help with the property and the build out for the store. We couldn't have done it without you guys! Many thanks.

Logo design

We are fortunate to know a talented and enthusiastic college student named Jenny Powell who is studying graphic design and typography at Texas State University. We hired her for a little project...our logo. We asked her to combine the quilting and railroad tracks themes because our shop is located within site of the railroad tracks in told town Tomball and is part of the Relics by the Railroad complex.

Jenny had several designs for us to choose from. It came down to two. We were torn between a cute little train engine logo she made up with the name of the shop and spools of thread, and the crossed needles you see above. In the end we decided on this one, with the crossed needles, because it was clean, clear and would fit better on multiple medias. We think she did a great job. If you would like hire her to design a logo for your business you can contact her at jp1491@txstate.edu .

One more thing! We have a phone number now 281-516-7515.

Building Part One

The windows in the classroom are newly decorated and it warms it up a bit, the floor is newly cleaned, and the tables have been assembled and arranged as well. We expect the chairs to arrive this week.

After a couple of days full of appointments with fabric reps we now have fabrics, and notions officially on the way.

Sitting in on some of these meetings I overheard the following words: "different", "balanced", "pretty", "texture", "blenders", "unique", "saturated", "soft" and "adorable" along with lots of OOOhs and ahhhs too.

Are you excited yet?

One Foot in front of the other...

One step at a time....

We are starting to order fabric, notions, patterns and other fun stuff. It is challenging to order fabrics from so many companies and still make sure we provide our customers with a well balanced array to choose from. It is a blast to order enough fabric to fill a whole store though! How many times do you get to do that? So many beautiful things to choose from. What would you like us to carry we wonder?

Deb and Patricia are also starting to meet with Quilting arts teachers in our area to set up classes which we hope to begin hosting in August. So far we have some beginner piecing classes planned- one that will walk you through a sampler quilt learning different techniques with each block, a surface design class using paint sticks, a more advanced pattern class for a dimensional center medallion block, and a quick to piece wallhanging (perfect for a gift), and that is just the beginning.

The Quilters Crossing website was on the to-do list today and so we sought out our friend Diane (Renaissance woman that she is) again for her expertise. We have a start on it here check it out and see how we are doing, much more to come on that in the near future.

A teacher becomes a student

Remember I said both Deb and Patricia are retired teachers? Well, Patricia has had a business for over a year now doing long arm quilting as The Celtic Quilter and selling Nolting Long Arm machines. As business partners now- Deb and Patricia both want to be able to use the long arm for customers and to answer questions about the machine so..... Patricia is teaching Deb some of the basics. Deb is a little hesitant, and I have to agree, it is easy to be intimidated by these large machines. I think Patricia was actually daring Deb to touch the machine here- (which was turned off).

No worries customers,--we'll make Deb start out on her own pile of quilt tops until she learns the ropes.

The beautiful results and speedy quilting the long arms provide are too good an opportunity to pass up! Deb will be whipping out beautiful quilts in no time!

For anyone interested in longarming Patricia will be going to a mini workshop later this month June 24-27 where they are giving classes, selling machines etc...here is the link to sign up if you are interested : Longarm Academy. It looks to be very informative!

Updates: I thought for a few seconds we were done with painting today(finally) but alas, I forgot the vaulted ceiling in the shop! It looks clean and bright in there now, just waiting to be filled with beautiful fabrics.

Friends are stopping by to see the shop daily and we are so grateful for the support.

Hey have you heard?

Look at that porch, does it not scream for beautiful quilts to be draped over it?

Located right across from Relics by the Railroad on Commerce Street in Tomball, Texas, was this little gem of a building.

Both retired teachers and quilters, Deb and Patricia are opening Quilters Crossing here in July. They are excited to bring you new fabrics, long arm quilting services and Nolting Long Arm machine sales, classes for all levels of quilters and more. With nearly 800 square feet of classroom space we'll host classes of up to 20 students.

We are currently giving everything a fresh coat of paint while we stock up our inventory for our grand opening. Long arm machine quilting is already happening at the shop so drop us a line if you are interested in hiring us for that.

Did you know you could use the Electric Quilt software EQ6 to design things other than quilts? You can! Our close friend Diane, from the Cabin Quilter blog put our shop in EQ6 so we can now design the shop furnishings and arrange things to best use the space. How cool is that?

Check back frequently for free project downloads and tutorials in addition to sales news, new products that are available in the store and more.

See you soon!