Observations in a quilt shop

Something we have noticed repeatedly over the years, is the oddly large number of customers who subconsciously wear the color they are shopping for. 

In January I started collecting pictures of this phenomena and here is a curated set of pictures documenting this! 

Thank you to all the customers (and employees!) who were willing to allow us to post pictures of them-- there were many more who were not in their words "hair and make-up ready" and they declined, which we completely understand! 

Some of you had some fun with this! :-)We hope you enjoy! 

It always makes us smile when it happens at the shop.

Caught Deb in the act! 

Tanya couldn't figure out why she was drawn to this fabric that day????

Elsa needed red and white stripes that day!

Friends should always coordinate!

Valerie having a little fun with it!

Even our youngest customers were guilty of it! Check out this little cutie perched on her mama's hip! She matched her fabric all by herself!

She's got the blues!

Both colors she was wearing!

I mean come on.... even the same shade of green!

Then we start getting into the over achievers who matched their whole outfits!

I swear they were not told of this before hand! Jessica almost has them stacked in the correct order even!

Pat here wins the ultimate award! I mean she hit it on the nose!

Thanks everyone have a great weekend!

Value

We took this staff photo at our recent open house event and jokingly some of the ladies said- if I have less wrinkles in a black and white version let's use that one! So when I was manipulating the photo to post it on our facebook and website I did experiment with a black and white version- thanks to the miracle of photo effects on my phone. In comparing the two photos my eye was immediately drawn to the values revealed in the black and white version.

Here are the two photos:

When the color is leached out of the photo in the black and white version suddenly all you can see are the values of the fabrics (surrounding a great looking group of quilters!). Value is something customers struggle with a lot. I was particularly interested in this part of the picture:

When I looked at the colored photo that series of red-orange grunge dots all look pretty dark but look how that changes in the black and white version:

In the black and white version only that ONE darkest red bolt looks like a dark. The others are suddenly much lighter. This is a great example of how our perception of value is often skewed by color. Our eyes are very distracted by color, often the only way to see true value is to remove the color and look at things in black and white.

Many of us are drawn to bright colors in a medium value. When we look in our stashes they are full of medium value fabrics. They are like eye candy, we love them! But, to make an interesting quilt often times we need to have a variation in value. 

The stunning Lone Star Quilt below was made by one of our customers. It's colors are all from the yellow-green-blue part of the rainbow, a very popular choice for many quilters. What makes this quilt even more successful is the use of value.

Here is the black and white version of the quilt where you can see even WITHOUT color the quilt is very successful because of her changes in value. You can still make out all the elements of the quilt and indeed it seems to glow from the center, even in black and white, all because of her value placements.

At the shop we see quilts everyday that depend on value to convey the pattern just as this quilt does. Often taking a picture of a quilt or a group of fabrics you are considering for a quilt with your cell phone camera, and then converting the picture to black and white is a very useful tool in guiding your choices for a deeper more value filled quilt!

Open House and Upgrades!

Hi everyone! We are now Quilters Crossing 2.0-- just kidding but we have made some upgrades and positive changes as you can see on our website! Click here to see!

We now have our website open for class sign ups online! So you can sign up for classes in your PJ's if you want! We are working on having some products online for sale as well and it will come in time. 
Meantime we have introduced a new system in the shop where we have computers at each cutting table- no  more post its with your fabric cuts written down. This cuts down on errors and it also makes the check out line move more quickly. 

We are slowly moving our rewards bonus information to the new system but with a few thousand customers it takes some time to do this. Please hang in there with us. It will all transfer and your rewards will continue to accumulate in the meantime!

This weekend is our Open House! From 10am-4pm please enjoy our hospitality, ask questions of our teachers, sign up for classes, and take advantage of our 25% off sale on all in stock merchandise. We have a 1/2 yd minimum cut on this day only. We will not CUT fat quarters but any that are already cut are included in the sale price as are notions, batting, tools, rulers, thread and patterns.

Parking: PLEASE do not park directly in front of Gloyers or Haven. These businesses need their customers to have spots as well. Please note that you CAN park behind our building OR at the Spirit of Texas bank which is closed on Saturdays! Please refrain from parking at TAD's Bar and Grill unless you are a paying customer to their restaurant! They CAN and will Tow your vehicle if you do.

We will accept cash or check payments for classes on Saturday and you may pay with a credit card at check out also but we will turn off the website purchasing during business hours on Saturday to prevent any confusion and overfilling.

Please remember this is not a quick in and out day at the shop. We try to offer you the best help we can and to cut accurately but this does take time. We have drinks and snacks in the classroom to sweeten you up and keep everyone in a good humor!

We will be giving out "passports" that you can have each teacher sign in the classroom. If you complete your passport and turn it in  you are eligible for a goody bag prize drawing.

Tri- County Quilt Guild will be in the classroom with their raffle quilt (tickets for purchase!) and postcards reminding you of their upcoming show at the Berry Center! 

See you Saturday!

Happy Holidays

As the year comes to a close, we wanted to update everyone on the shop.

We will very soon be switching to a new system at the shop that will allow our customers to see our products online. We understand that shopping online makes decision making at the shop easier when project planning. We hope that this encourages you to stop in more and that it is a helpful tool in your quilting.

With this new system comes a brand new look for our website, we are very excited to have a more professional look. It comes with handy extras like the ability to sign up for classes online, text reminders and more.

We will still offer our rewards program and a guild discount (for those who present a guild membership card), but the new system will also give us freedom to offer a birthday club, coupons and more. We ask for a little patience as we make the transition but think it will be well worth it!

Our winter open house will be on Saturday, Feb 3rd 2018 from 10am-4pm. 

Fingers crossed that no hurricanes or other natural disasters occur to prevent our event from happening (again!). 

As we get closer to Open House we will be revealing new classes and new dates.

Holiday Hours:

We will be closed December 24 through the 26 and will reopen at 10am on December 27!

We will be closed December 31st and January 1st. We will see you in the New Year on January 2nd at 10am!

Wishing you all a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year! 

Panel Palooza: The Voting Begins!

Below are all of the Panel Palooza Entries! We were delighted to get a total of 21 of you to participate!  We hope it inspired you!
The pictures will appear here and they will also appear on Facebook. To vote on here you may post a comment at the bottom with your favorite entry numbers. You may vote for as many as you'd like but you may only vote once here and once on Facebook. 
Please remember when you vote on Facebook to click the album to open it and vote on EACH picture not the whole album. Only the votes for each individual picture will be counted not the votes for the whole album!
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Without further ado and in no particular order:

Entry 100: Wolf Panel used. Stars, sky and snow quilted with glow-in-the-dark thread. Paper Pieced stars from Carol Doak "Massachusetts" block. Tree border is gems template

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Entry 101:
With lots of sparkly bling added! What girl doesn't love sparkle?? 
A Janet Wecker-Frisch Panel used.

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Entry 102: Texas Panel Potholders, Technique used: Chenille

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Entry 103: Small "Thicket" panel used with a "Thicket" Jellyroll. Walking foot quilted plus stippling around the critters. Original design.

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Entry 104: Used the Supernova Rainbow panel. A Ricky Timms Convergence technique for the colored portion. The pattern was something I dreamed up! Note the word "Spectrum"bottom right of the quilt done in the quilting only.

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Entry 105: Original Design that came to her as she went along! Stag Panel used.

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Entry 106: Loose interpretation of " Love is a Rose" of L+L Studios. Janet Wecker Frisch Panel used. As always - a challenge to make squares- square using a panel! Embellished with Shell and Octopus Buttons, and dimensional Scallops

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Entry 107: Ceramic Tiles Decoupaged with Music Panel and a Canvas wrapped in a panel. Home decore! Original Design

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Entry 108:Original Design, Custom Quilted using a Janet Wecker Frisch panel

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Entry 109:Original Design. I had collected a lot of train prints and when I found this panel, it gave me the inspiration to start!

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Entry 110: Pattern used: Simplicity #1363. This creation took 4 panels of the Northcott Shimmer Line

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Entry 111:The center is from a pattern but the rest I made up as I went along!Northcott Artisan Shimmer panels used.

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Entry 112: Scrap Therapy Purse Pattern using Texture Magic technique on a Northcott Shimmer panel.

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Entry 113: Uses the Bear Panel. Custom Quilted with bright fall colored fabric and bear claw blocks in the corners.

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Entry 114: Used the Artisan Shimmer panels to construct the "Sew Together Bag" Techniques: Lots of zippers!!! 

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Entry #115: Original Design. I call it "Lilly's Fish" - my granddaughter is crazy about fish!

******************************************************Entry #116: Design inspired by Janet Wecker Frisch Pennant Panel I made this pennant banner to hang above my sewing area. I love Janet Wecker Frisch fabric lines especially the Quilting B's Fabric. She combines funky with vintage!

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Entry #117 This is an altered apron pattern based on Simplicity 1971. She used the Moda Bee Creative panel

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Entry 118: She used the Rainbow Supernova Pattern and created her own design!Custom Quilted, piping detail in binding!

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Entry 119:She used a Janet Wecker Frisch panel for a cute little kitchen set! There is a hot pad, mini wallhanging and bowl cozy!

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And last but not least!
Entry 120:She used one of our Paris Panels to make this cute embellished purse. She even dressed it up with a cute hat to model for us!

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Remember you may encourage your friends and family to vote for your entry! Winners will be awarded on April 29th! Remember one drawing from all the entries for a $50 gift card to the shop for the participation award and one for Viewer's choice for $100!