Closed for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day

Just a reminder that we will see you in the new year and that our Open House is Saturday, January 11th 10-4!

Store Wide 25% off in stock inventory sale on fabric (1/2 yards or more), notions, patterns, thread!

Teachers will fill the classroom with their beautiful samples and be there for you to ask questions, sign up for classes and be inspired by! 

Most teachers will be presenting a new class options this time (as well as some old favorites) and we are introducing a new teacher to the shop, Tina Lauzon! She will be offering some wool project classes and handwork classes!

Refreshments will be served! 

(so much easier to be creative with something in your tummy!)

Bring cash or checks to pay teachers for classes--you'll need to pay in order to reserve your spot for each class!

See you January 11th!

She Who Sews

We are VERY excited about this new line! A customer brought it to our attention having seen it in a magazine and asked if we were ordering it. We hadn't seen it yet but were in love with it immediately and ordered it right away! 

Thank you for the cool suggestion Jennifer! 

Can't wait to play with it!

Note the cute "steampunk" vibe of this line!

 Beautiful coordinates with lots of details.

Remember we are closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week to enjoy the holiday. We hope everyone does the same!

Holiday Hours and other tidbits

Remember our holiday store hours are normal except that we are closed 12/24 thru 12/26 and we are closed New Year's day as well.

We hope that everyone has a pleasant holiday.

Don't forget our Open House Day/Sale is Saturday, January 11th!

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Remember recently we showed you these new Bali Tiles from Hoffman?

Well we had a talented customer (Pam) bring in a beautiful top using the Splash colorway in a quilt:

Isn't that a beauty?

Thank you for the inspiration Pam!

New Class and new products

You know we are always trying to bring you new ideas and new products.

Susi Looney is teaching this new art quilt class at the shop. It is a mixed media technique class. 

How sweet is this little mini quilt neighborhood?

Susi's classes are always lot of fun sign up at the shop if you are interested!

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Now for the new products: 

 These Bali Tiles come in two color ways, above and below:

 There are four unique tiles on each piece so you have beautiful coordinated variety with each package:

There are even layer cakes that coordinate with the Batik Tiles!

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  Moda Fabrics is the king of precuts. They recently came up with these 2.5" mini charm packs but what to do with them?

 There are now two booklets available with a wide variety of patterns using the mini-charms! 

Nancy made the mini quilt above and Mandy made the fabric bowl below from some of our mini charm packs.

The booklets and a mini charm pack are a great gift idea!

Honky Tonk by Moda

 This is a new line from Moda called Honky Tonk. It has a country and western feel with a musical slant. Several bolts came in and lots of precuts seen above.

 love the plaid on the diagonal!

 Mustaches!

Liked this line because it could really be boy or girl and the Western theme but without horses which is rare. Not that we don't like horses but they just aren't every Western lovers cup of tea.

Christmas on Commerce Street!

The town of Tomball is having a lamp post decorating contest for all the shops on Commerce Street. It is being judged tomorrow (before the holiday parade on Saturday morning!). So I snapped some pictures of all the lamp posts participating. The pictures don't do them justice and I recommend stopping by to check them out. (avoid parade traffic on Saturday morning though!)

Some are very clever and it is great to get your holiday spirit started!

 Our neighbor Burlap Ranch!

 This one was cute they made the lamp post look like a palm tree with Santa Flamingos and a beach chair!

 Legacy Beauty Academy had some cute gold scissors and golden hair dryers on theirs!

 a ribbon extravaganza!

 This one was clever too- using a huge tire as a wreath!

Gigi's and Sally's on our other side.

It was fun watching all the business owners being creative and taking part in the Tomball Community! Hope everyone gets a chance to stop by and see them in person!

A fun and happy start to the holiday season!

New Stuff

The Scrumptious fabric line is continuing to sell well:

 Deb made this adorable little hexie banner out of the hexie precuts and it looks really cute in the shop!

Our friend Deb, a Program Chair for Tri-County Quilt Guild made this sample out of the same line. This is an upcoming class offered by the guild at our shop! Quick and easy table runner!

Also new even more recently:

 Above: This is a new Stonehenge line with fun rainbow colors and we even have a fun and quick kit that uses this line

 Next we have Bohemian Rhapsody which is has really bold colors and patterns that would make Freddy Mercury jealous!

 Here are the Honky Tonk pre-cuts- bolt shipping to us soon!

And Vin du Jour which we also received some pre-cuts for as well!

Article about the shop

We were pleased to be asked by the Community Impact magazine to be interviewed for an article last month. 

They spotlight one local business per issue and we were honored and grateful to have our business selected. 

Mom and I were both anxious leading up to it because we knew there was a picture component to the interview and, as many of you know we both have PHOTOPHOBIA! 

Which means we prefer all photos of ourselves to be from an angle like this:

See how we didn't close our eyes in these two shots?

It turned out okay she just took some pics as we worked and didn't make us pose which helped. She was really nice and made us very comfortable.

The article is in this month's issue which you can see by clicking  here if you live outside of the mailing range.

The Quilters Crossing Gals

So we were all dressed and ready to go to Preview Night of the International Quilt Show when the weather report went sour.... Rain, flooding and severe thunderstorms threatening all night long.

So we decided to wait and go on Sunday- more time there, safer...

 But since we were all at the shop together- which very rarely happens we decided (I begged!) everyone to take a group photo. Now, anyone who knows us knows that Deb, Nancy and Mandy have "issues" with photos. The three of us avoid pictures at all costs but, you know for the record, and the memory of these good times with these wonderful ladies we took the pictures!

 Deb joked and asked if she could hide behind the sign so we were taking a silly photo but, at first only two of us hid our faces and my daughter (our photographer) was laughing and saying, "You guys know only TWO of you are actually doing it right?" So then we got it together and coordinated our joke picture! (Above)

And miracle of MIRACLES we managed TWO yes 2 pictures with all our eyes opened! See the evidence above and below!  

For the record, there were more pictures that didn't make the cut-- for various reasons--I was making a goofy face, Deb blinked, Nancy turned away, BUT, TJ looked GREAT in every single picture people! I mean to say, she is one photogenic lady, pretty in pictures and in person!

Hope everyone has a great week visiting the International Quilt Show! We will have tickets while supplies last.

"Peppered" Shot Cottons+ a Contest!

The second session I attended during Schoolhouse day at Quilt Market was on Peppered Cottons, put out by Studio E. 

We recently received these in the shop, they are named after Pepper Cory, of course, and are actually "shot" cottons.

 Shot cottons have traditionally been made of silk and traditionally in India but, are now made of cotton in a 60x60 thread count comparable to quilting fabric's thread count. 

Shot cottons get there name because woven fabric is made up of loom or warp threads (threads that are threaded onto the loom) which run parallel to the selvedge and weft threads that run selvedge to selvedge. These weft threads are loaded onto a shuttle that "shoots" across the loom back and forth while the fabric is being made. 

Note in the picture the threads are purple one way and turquoise the other

Shot cottons get their name because they are unique. While normal fabric is being made the threads for the warp and weft are the same color, in shot cottons these are two different colors which gives a very different overall color effect. Thus the "shot" of shot cotton is the extra color seen in the weave. 

Pepper Cory holding a quilt designed by Laura Gilvan made of  Studio E's Peppered Cottons

Pepper Cory gave the following suggestions for shot cottons:

 If you pre-wash your fabric, do so gently and, in pieces large than  quarter yards if you are using a washing machine. Pieces smaller than one quarter yard should be hand washed. After machine washing you should clip frayed threads off before putting the fabric in the dryer. She also gives further information about shot cottons on her blog.

Washing will remove the very slight sheen that these fabrics have that is applied during the finishing process called "calendaring". Washing will plump the fibers of both thread colors as well which makes peppered cottons great for rag quilts or chenille effects.

Shot cottons are not recommended for quilt backings but are sturdy and beautiful for quilt tops, bags, purses and even some gently washed clothing.  Shot cottons shrink very little when washed- comparable to any other quilting fabric shrinkage.

They have been enormously popular with "modern" quilters and traditional quilters as well.

Studio E was looking for some softer colors to compliment and fill out their current jewel tone colors. The photo above shows the new colors being released in December to quilt shops. I am not sure the chartreuse green on the right end is "soft" but I like it!

Speaking of shot cottons and Studio E.... They are having a contest! Check out the Studio E website for more information. We are talking CASH prizes ($500 for the top winner) and even prizes for the shop selling the award winner's fabrics! Win-Win! Check it out and see if you might be interested in playing with a little Peppered Cotton?