Tabla de contenidos para Spring/Summer 2019 en Quilt Sampler

After a long winter, nothing beckons quite like an open road. While you’re basking in sunshine and making travel plans, remember to include quilt shops in your explorations. There’s always something to discover in the world of quilting. New notions, techniques, fabric, and patterns are all out there waiting to be found. And what better place to discover them than in one of our 10 favorite destination quilt shops? In this issue of Quilt Sampler® magazine, we take you on a coast-to-coast journey of dazzling shops to ignite your creativity. Not only are the must-see shops inspiring on their own, but each shares an exclusive project that showcases its talented staff, unique perspective, or fresh techniques. Plus, each project has a kit available for purchase, so once you are back home after…

SHOP OWNERS Suzanne Kelly and Steve Hamlin ESTABLISHED 2008 SIZE 3,500 Square Feet MORE INFO? hipstitchabq.com When friends Suzanne Kelly (quilter), Jen Dean (sewer), and Heather Gordon (knitter) opened Hip Stitch in 2008, they envisioned a sewing lounge and community gathering space. “We sewed pajama pants; we knitted; we embroidered,” shop owner Suzanne says of their goal to bring modern fabric and yarn crafts to Albuquerque. “We did not open with the idea that this would be a quilt shop. We were three PTA moms who thought, Let’s do this. It wasn’t easy, but it all fell into place. It was meant to be.” Shortly thereafter, Suzanne noticed via the internet all that was happening in quilting around the country and determined that modern quilting was missing from her world.…

SHOP OWNERS Sharen Weber and Karen Grof ESTABLISHED 2012 SIZE 7,000 Square Feet MORE INFO? happyapplequilts.com As a tour bus approaches Happy Apple Quilts, 20 miles northwest of Tampa, passengers find themselves in a business park, far from the typical quilt shop location. While this quilt shop means business, everything about it is quilting happiness. Owners Sharen Weber and Karen Grof, who are identical twins, chose the business park location in 2016 because it had the space they desired—7,000 square feet—for a customized expansion. With such a large space, they could add a quilting center, serve more customers at once, and still have room for the wide variety of fabrics they desired. When customers exit the bus, Sharen becomes their tour guide. “People are happy to find three cutting stations,…

OF THE MANY EVENTS AND CLASSES YOUR SHOP HOSTS, WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE? WHY? Prairie Point, page 22 Sew Fun Day is a day-long event with one quilting or sewing technique after another being taught from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. We offer snack and shopping breaks, lunch, and door prizes. After a fun day, customers walk away with lots of new knowledge. The Cotton Harvest, page 42 After attending a Sue Spargo workshop, I started one of my favorite classes—teaching her way of stitching. Handwork is a popular movement in southwestern Ontario, and customers find it very therapeutic! Creations, page 116 Our Anniversary Quilt Challenge is a favorite. The challenge is unveiled in August with quilts due in March. We display all the quilts in our retreat center, and…

SHOP OWNERS John and Susan Thorup ESTABLISHED 2013 SIZE 2,700 Square Feet MORE INFO? prairiepoint.com Store owner Susan Thorup overhears all sorts of juicy nuggets from her customers at Prairie Point Quilt & Fabric Shop in Lenexa, Kansas. Not that she’s actively eavesdropping—she just catches their gasps when they come into the store, their cooing over wall after wall of fanciful fabrics, and the oohs and aahs at the sample projects draped here and hung there. “People come in from out of town, and they tell us their friends told them they have to go to Prairie Point,” Susan says. Such accolades are sweet confirmation to Susan and her husband, John, who bought Prairie Point Quilts (and renamed it) five years ago. A longtime sewer and high school home economics…

Materials Finished Quilt: 48½×56½" Yardages and cutting instructions are based on 42" of usable fabric width. Fabrics are from the Grunge Basics collection by BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics (modafabrics.com). □ ⅝ yard each beige and cream tone-on-tones (triangle-squares) □ ⅝ yard each turquoise, navy, and aqua tone-ontones (triangle-squares, squares) □ 1¼ yards gray tone-ontone (triangle-squares, squares, binding) □ 3¼ yards backing fabric □ 57×65" batting □ 6½" Triangle Square Up Ruler from Quilt in a Day (optional; quiltinaday.com) Cut Fabrics Cut pieces in the following order. From each beige and cream toneon-tone, cut: • 7—10" squares From turquoise tone-on-tone, cut: • 4—10" squares • 16—41⁄2" squares From each navy and aqua tone-ontone, cut • 3—10" squares • 12—41⁄2" squares From gray tone-on-tone, cut: • 6—21⁄2×42" binding strips • 4—10" squares • 20—41⁄2" squares Assemble…

SHOP OWNER Louanne Davis ESTABLISHED 1998 SIZE 5,000 Square Feet MORE INFO? fencepostfabrics.com Just about everything at The Pickett Fence brings a smile to people’s faces. Its hometown, nestled in southwestern Wisconsin on the border with Iowa, could be called a geographic sweet spot. Skirted by the majestic Mississippi River on the Iowa side and framed by jaw-dropping bluffs on the Wisconsin side, the specialty quilt shop offers views of both from its location on Blackhawk Avenue, the main street of Prairie du Chien’s downtown. Inside, the store is just as impressive and hospitable as its scenic surroundings. It sprawls across 5,000 square feet of sun-drenched, high-ceilinged space in a historic building constructed in 1872. When owner Louanne Davis, who goes by Lou, moved the shop to this location several…

SHOP OWNER Linda Williams ESTABLISHED 2013 SIZE 3,200 Square Feet MORE INFO? nimblethimble.com Nestled among numerous quaint shops in the two-block main street of Gilroy, California, is The Nimble Thimble, whose owner, Linda Williams, strives to connect all those who love quilting. The shop, prolific in its offerings of quilting fabrics, projects, and people open to making new friends, occupies a periwinkle-painted 20×160-foot space of original 1920s brick, corrugated tin ceilings, and checkerboard tile. Fabrics line the walls and a repurposed washtub, painted hutches, antique sideboards, and wooden crates proffer fat quarter bundles, wool, patterns, and notions. Gilroy, known as the “garlic capital of the world,” is located an hour and a half from San Francisco on Highway 101. Visitors often come to escape the big city bustle and decompress,…

SHOP OWNERS Kathy Thompson and Julie Milam ESTABLISHED 1978 SIZE 5,000 Square Feet MORE INFO? creations-online.com Four-plus decades of quilt shop ownership make sisters Kathy Thompson and Julie Milam pros at delighting customers. Creations, a Quilt Sampler Top Ten Shop in 1996, is located in a former boarding house built in 1895, and its warm wood floors, big bowl of candy, and perpetual pot of coffee welcome sewers and non-sewing companions alike. “There’s a lot to fall in love with here,” says Julie, noting their selection of gift items in addition to fabric. “We blow the leaves off the porch every day and welcome people like it’s our house.” Because the shop opened before the invention of the rotary cutter, Kathy and Julie are adept at going with the flow…

SHOP OWNER Lynn Reppas ESTABLISHED 2013 SIZE 1,000 Square Feet MORE INFO? leavenworthquiltco.com Some people have never met a stranger. That’s true of Lynn Reppas, owner of Leavenworth Quilt Company, and doubly true for the shop’s hometown of Leavenworth in central Washington. Both are small in size but offer an extra-large welcome to visitors. Nestled on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, Leavenworth is surrounded on all sides by majestic peaks—much like mountain villages in Germany and Austria. In fact, after the logging and railroad industries departed Leavenworth in the late 1950s, leaving it nearly a ghost town, community leaders proposed turning the once-typical downtown into a Bavarian-theme village to play up all of the wonderful aspects of Leavenworth: its mountainous surroundings, snowy winters, and warm springs and summers.…

SHOP OWNERS David and Trina O’Rourke ESTABLISHED 2015 SIZE 1,250 Square Feet MORE INFO? thecottonharvest.com Time seems to stand still on Main Street in historical Seaforth, Ontario, population 2,300, where Victorianstyle storefronts still recall the splendor of their 19th-century origins. During its 126-year history, the brick building at 60 Main Street in Seaforth has been an eatery, a theater, and a barber shop. Since 2015, it has been home to The Cotton Harvest Quilt Shop. The friendly quilting hub radiates the warmth of simpler times with displays boosted by owner Trina O’Rourke’s many vintage finds. Old galvanized washtubs hold kits, and antique five-panel doors provide backdrops for myriad patterns. A vintage red-and-white enamel barber’s chair pays homage to the building’s past. “My father had a passion for collecting antiques, and…

Materials Finished Quilt: 59⅞×83⅝" Finished Block: 11⅞" square Yardages and cutting instructions are based on 42" of usable fabric width. Fabrics are from the Bali Batiks collection from Hoffman California Fabrics (hoffmancaliforniafabrics.net) and the Malam V collection by Jinny Beyer for RJR Fabrics (rjrfabrics.com). □ 5 yards pale blue batik (blocks) □ 1½ yards blue batik (blocks) □ 2⅜ yards purple batik (blocks, binding) □ 1⅝ yards teal batik (blocks) □ 5¼ yards backing fabric □ 68×92" batting □ Lightweight fusible web □ Lightweight tracing paper or other foundation material of your choice Cut Fabrics Cut pieces in the following order. The Half-Circle Pattern is on Pattern Sheet 3. To use fusible web for appliqueing, complete the following steps. 1. Lay fusible web, paper side up, over Half-Circle Pattern. Use…

SHOP OWNER Nicole Morgenthau ESTABLISHED 2013 SIZE 2,100 Square Feet MORE INFO? finchknittingsewingstudio.com In the historic town of Leesburg, Virginia, stands a white house with black shutters. Two centuries ago a straw hatmaker and his family worked and lived in the rooms that today are filled with contemporary fabric and yarns. Though the hatter of centuries past might be baffled by modern items like rotary cutters, the spirit of making that fills the space would surely feel familiar. Building a creative community is key at Finch Knitting + Sewing Studio. “Classes make the world go ’round for our shop,” says shop owner Nicole Morgenthau, who notes that students who meet in the popular School of Sewing classes (based on the book of the same name by Shea Henderson) often go…

SHOP OWNERS Eric and Jennifer Davis ESTABLISHED 2012 SIZE 4,000 Square Feet MORE INFO? thelittleshopofstitches.com Miamisburg In the state that started the Barn Quilt Trails movement in 2001, The Little Shop of Stitches is paving quilt trails of its own. Situated in historic Miamisburg, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton, the 1830 corner building has seen many evolutions, including a grocery store and an art shop. Today, the shop intersects traditional and modern quilting with a busy schedule of classes and events and an interactive take on learning. “People walk in the door and step back in time,” shop owner Jennifer Davis says. “We keep the building’s historical feel and mix in new things.” Outside, a mural of 4-foot-square quilt blocks—painted by dedicated customers—reflects the shop’s commitment to quilting as an…

Materials Finished Quilt: 34×43½." Yardages and cutting instructions are based on 42" of usable fabric width. Fabrics are from the Grunge Basics collection by BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics (modafabrics.com) and the Chicken Scratch collection by Blank Quilting (blankquilting.com). □ 1½ yards yellow tone-on-tone (border, appliques, binding) □ ⅞ yard turquoise tone-on-tone (quilt center) □ ⅜ yard green tone-on-tone (appliques) □ 9×21" piece (fat eighth) brown tone-on-tone (appliques) □ ¼ yard multicolor print (flange) □ 1½ yards backing fabric □ 42×52" batting □ Lightweight fusible web (Designer Charlene Giancola prefers to use Quilters Select Appli-Web (quiltersselect.com). □ Beading thread: brown □ Seed beads: brown, gold, bronze Cut Fabrics Cut pieces in the following order. Cut yellow tone-on-tone border and binding strips lengthwise (parallel to selvages). Patterns are on Pattern Sheets 1–4.…

Tools Before you begin any quilting project, collect the tools and materials you’ll need in one easy-to-access place. Below is a list of general supplies. FOR CUTTING Acrylic ruler: This thick, clear-plastic ruler helps you make perfectly straight cuts with a rotary cutter. Many sizes are available. Marking tools: Use special fabric markers so the marks are easy to remove after sewing and quilting. Rotary cutter and mat: These tools have revolutionized quilting because you can cut strips, squares, triangles, and diamonds more quickly, efficiently, and accurately with a rotary cutter and mat than with scissors. Always use a rotary cutter with a mat designed specifically for it to protect your work surface and to keep fabric from shifting while you cut. Scissors: You’ll need two pairs of scissors—one for…