A New Quilt Shop

This past Saturday I visited my sister. While the husbands enjoyed watching a game on TV or sitting on the patio with a cold one or two, we went to a new quilt shop she had seen on her way home from work.

2nd Street Quilt Shop

What a great name. It is on 2nd Street in Rochester, MI. If you click the shop name above, it will take you to the home page. The shop opened just 5 weeks ago. They set up in a house and have used each of the main floor rooms to showcase themes of fabrics. I had a very nice time talking to Heather, one of the owners. They are very enthusiastic and delighted to talk quilting!

I got permission to take some photos to show you what they have. They have fabrics I like--brights, geometrics and solids to name a few. The displays are done nicely. It is bright and open. It is fun to explore the various areas.

This was the door we entered. 

And the first item that caught our eyes was this lovely sample of one of 

Laura Heine's patterns, Perfect Form Dress Form Collage!

Kaffe Fassett fabrics were to the right. 

To the left we looked and saw the batiks and this lovely giraffe collage pattern sample. 

We headed through the door to the back porch area and found a wrap around porch. This had baby items in it. There was minky on a shelving section. I bought a bit of light pink to make some Funky Friends Factory bears from the free pattern on the website. (You'll find the pink bear on the Home page.) On the floor in the photo there is a sample of a tuffett that my sister and I decided to work on when we get together this summer.

And who wouldn't want to make their own umbrella with any choice of fabric(s)?

We made our way back into the main quilt shop, but only after passing by these fun kids prints.

The largest room held so many modern prints. I found light grays with small prints to use as 

neutrals in my projects. There were some wonderful solids and floral prints. 

A view from another angle.

 The front porch was a seasonal embroidery area with Christmas and Halloween samples.

We left the quilt shop and walked next door to the Cupcake Station 

where we bought a carrot cupcake to split. It was delicious and I forgot to take a photo!

If you are in the area, do make a stop. Tell them you read about them on my blog. 

Quilting Progress Bit by Bit

I have made slow progress on my projects of late. It seems "life" just puts other things in my way that take precedence. So I go with the flow. I also found that it was difficult to get my brain thinking and sewing quilt block units after surgery and 4 weeks of not sewing. I changed my plan by sewing some simple table runners.

This weekend my husband and I made a trip to the east side of the state to see my sister and her husband. We stayed the night and then went home by way of a visit to the newlyweds. I had made the simple 10-Minute Table Runner before the trip. I gave one to my sister

and one of these to our daughter. (The other was mailed to our out-of-state daughter.)

I did find time on Monday to make some hot pads. I tried to use blue embroidery thread. Not having to change thread colors made it go a bit quicker. I couldn't resist making the turquoise hot pad, so that was a thread change. I am getting much better at the quilting of the layers. I have done enough of these that using the free motion embroidery foot around the state outline and then the circular quilting around the background is very easy.

The Gridster's Bee blocks were sewn and sent out to the recipients for June and July! They were both fun to make. 

Mary got these colorful confetti stars. If you'd like to make this HERE is the link.

Carol got this very large 18" Patriotic Star Block and the link is HERE.

The August block for Debbie comes from the Homestead Hearth and I will be making Block 4. For quite a few months, I have been interested in making this quilt for myself. This might be the start. 

Shop Hops Revisited

I am joining Val's Tuesday Archives with today's theme of Shop Hops.
Instead of linking each of my shop hop posts individually at Val's Quilting Studio, I am going to give you the links in this post.

My husband and I have taken a few trips south to warmer places for a little while in the winter. My husband doesn't mind stopping for me to have a short visit to some quilt shops along the way. But for some serious quilt shop hopping I have taken a yearly bus trip for four years that is filled with lots of stops at quilt shops in many of the states as well as seeing the sites as we travel. These bus trips have satisfied my desire to travel to places that my husband isn't really interested in.

So here are the posts that tell about the shops I have visited. Let me know if you have been to any of the same shops, or know of one that no one should miss.

Front Porch Quilt Shop

JEllen's House of Fabrics 

Cleveland ...By Way of Quilt Shops

Bolts of Fabric

Bus Trip During Row by Row

Robert's Quilt Shop So Many Fabrics

Missouri Star Quilt Company

New Mexico Quilt Shop

One Last Shop in New Mexico

Appreciating Sewing Time

With our daughter's wedding and then my hip replacement surgery, most of my sewing was put on hold for the last 1-1/2 months. The happy couple are settled after their honeymoon. My recovery is going very well four weeks after surgery. I am walking much better and got the O.K. to drive. I am able to walk downstairs (carefully) and I was able to do a bit of sewing.

I finished sewing a sample of my row for the Christmas Caroling Row Along coming in September, hosted by Marian at Seams To Be Sew. I am sorry I can't show you what it is; but I will say it is a pieced row that measures 10" x 30" and has so many possibilities for it's use.

I made one sample of a child-sized bucket hat for The Yellow Window Boutique and Consignment Shop. I have so many children's fabrics I can use. It was very satisfying to sew a non-quilt project. I'm going to make more in various sizes. More quilt-related items are on my daily schedule.

I am so happy to be at my sewing machine again! There will be more photos to post soon.

FABRIC, here I come!

Giveaway Winner Selected

 Just a few moments ago I pressed the Rafflecopter button to select 

a random winner for last week's giveaway. 

I am happy to announce that it is Quilting Tangent! 

I emailed Quilting Tangent for a mailing address 

and will be sending out the leftover Island Batik fabrics (about a yard or so)

from the Funky Friends Factory patterns I made very soon!

I took a tally of the patterns that people said they liked. 

The pattern listed the most was the Hedgehog.

There was a tie for second place between Raff the Giraffe and the Bear. 

Thank you to all who visited my blog and Facebook page and entered the giveaway. 

I wish you happy sewing!