Abbey Bag

The Abbey Bag by Abbey Lane Quilts

A full day of sewing has yielded a whole crop of pincushion scrapbags.  Congrats to our students and teacher!  A great accessory for your sewing pleasure, you need several of these spaced out around your sewing, cutting, ironing and hand stitching areas.  Pattern available at Bear Patch!

A Great Read

If you are a bag lady, or have the secret dream of becoming a bag lady, this is a book for you!  It would even make a great gift for a bag lady friend!

written by Lisa Lam, published by David and Charles, available at Bear Patch

There is a total of 12 unique bag designs in this book with full-size paper patterns included.  If you have ever looked at books published by David and Charles, you will recognize their ability to include lots of detailed photos and diagrams.  Lisa is an accomplished bag designer and blog writer from England and this is her second book.  The first was titled The Bag Making Bible.  This new book includes lots and lots of basic information and details and tips on making your bags look like a real professional worked on it!  There are 36 pages of information like the pictures below:

Details regarding fabrics (including laminates), hardware, pattern reading, zippers, interfacings, etc. are explained.  It is hard cover with that great spiral binding.  The book sells for $27.99 and is worth every penny! 

Scrappy Sacks

  We have just added a new product to our shelves that we want to tell you about.  They are called Scrappy Sacks and are designed by Lola Hendrickson of The Quilt Company Patterns.  The samples are on display and are loaned to us by Lola.  The patterns for these come with the fabric kit---and best news of all, the fabric pieces are pre-cut!  What a perfect gift idea for a quilting friend or someone who wants to learn quilting.  They are small in size, just right for a little wallhanging or table topper.  The kit comes in a little fabric bag, so there's not even a need for gift wrap!

Samples of Scrappy Sacks

Some designs are available in more than one colorway

 

 We have 9 different designs on hand and should be adding to that, I believe.  The kit includes the binding strips (also cut to size!).  They are priced at $16.95.  These samples and kits have been a feature at Fabric Town, but sadly, that store is closing.  The good news is that you can still find your little Scrappy Sacks at Bear Patch.   And my apologies to the caller this morning who asked about purchasing them before I knew we had them!

Variations on a Theme

Here's a fun project that is a great example of ways to personalize a simple bag pattern.  Three people started out with the same fabric but ended up with different looks.  We each found a different coordinating striped fabric for the trim.  Some pockets were altered, straps were changed, etc.  

The source for the ideas came from the Label Crew by Sweetwater.  The Label Crew delivers a little pattern and a set of custom labels to my mailbox every month.  This bag was the most recent arrival.  These are some of the labels included:

This bag is made with a product called Soft and Stable, which gives it the ability to stand up on its own power.  Available at Bear Patch, of course!  It was pretty easy to sew with and gave good results.  You should give it a try!

Hexie Heaven

I have a little bit of temptation to share with you today!  I have been toiling away with a project that I plan to have ready for a series of classes that will start in the fall.  This was something that I loved immediately when I say it at Houston Quilt Market last October.  It is an 8 month series called This Goes With That designed by Sue Daley of Patchwork With Busy Fingers, an Australian company that focuses on English paper piecing.  I will be leading the class and passing on tips to make the 16 block variations in Sue's project. Below are pictures of some of my blocks as I was auditioning setting, border and binding fabrics yesterday.

As you can see, I am making this up in 2 different styles, because even though I love the traditional reproduction fabrics in the first 2 pictures, my heart also goes out to the more contemporary bright blocks.  Since I couldn't decide, I am making both!  I do have some fabric "starter kits" that include many of the fabrics shown here, but there also are some bits and pieces picked from my own stash mixed in.  And I will highly recommend that each person do the same to make the blocks uniquely yours.  Don't worry about all those little points sticking out, those won't be showing in the finished product.  This is also a project that can be as large or as small as you choose, depending on how many multiples of the blocks you want to make.  There isn't a formal quilt pattern from Sue but I will be bringing you ideas for ways to use your blocks each month.  And did I mention that all of the blocks are made by hand?  Oh yes!  There will be no hum of machines when this group gathers!  And no hauling around those machines, which makes this the perfect take-along project.  If this is something that you have questions about or need more information, you can check with me at the store and watch for our fall class listing due out in early September.  I already know of a few who are jumping on the EPP (English paper piecing) bandwagon, and each time I show these at work I get more interested folks.  I promise to share more pictures as things start coming together--

Pam

The Epilogue, Spring Market 2012

Can you believe these beautiful chocolates?  I selected 4 from the display case to bring to my sweetie back home (and maybe with the hope that he will share!).

We found Cosentino's Market just 2 blocks from our hotel, and wished we could bring it home with us.  Right in the middle of downtown, a wonderful grocery store and mega deli serving just about anything you can think of!  We actually ate one dinner and one breakfast here.

We loaded up Laurel's deluxe minivan nearly to the roof and said farewell to the Downtown Radisson Hotel.  What normally would be an 8 hour trip took us about 12 due to necessary stops at a few quilt shops along the way!

One destination that we did not want to miss was in Liberty, MO, at the Corbin Mill.   We were very happy to find an abundance of wool and even some beads, yarn, and cross stitch supplies.  Debbie and Patti could not keep their hands off the shelf after shelf of wonderful hand-dyed wool, and so 2 more big bags were crammed into the van.  Available soon on a shelf near you!

Although we were only about 400 miles south of our homes, it was obvious that the growing season was way ahead in MO.  These little bachelor buttons were growing between the Corbin Mill parking lot and railroad tracks, making a beautiful memory of our trip.

Eventually, we made it all the way north to White Bear Lake.  Sharing stories, snacks and laughs makes the miles pass more quickly.  And knitting a few more rows on my scarf, which we are all loving!

I have the feeling that I might be gifted a few more scrap skeins of sock yarn soon!  And I know there are more of these scarves in my future!

To top off the trip, we got back to the store to find the new door installed between the quilt shop and sew center, making the world a better place for all of us!  And this morning Debbie has been back at the store, meeting with a fabric rep to BUY MORE FABRIC!  Yup, she's like the energizer bunny when it comes to finding just the right stuff for our customers.  Can't wait to see what she picked out this time!

Winding Down

 The booths are coming down and everyone has been packing up their samples and displays.  As for the BP gals, we are staying over one more night and making the drive home tomorrow.  Then it will be the big unloading and logging in all the goodies that we are bringing to the store!  It takes a few days to get it all sorted out, but do plan to stop in the store in the near future to look at the new things.  Here's a few more ideas to entice you--

Bareroots has little owls and sewing notions on candlemats, and I love the embroidered quilt blocks.  It was so nice to have a chance to chat with Barri because she lives near my son out in CA, so getting a hug from her is the next best thing to a hug from Dan!

You would not believe this fabulous new iron and ironing board from Laurastar!  This might be the answer to all of my pressing needs.  We plan to have one in the shop soon.  It's made in Switzerland, so should get along just fine with the Berninas!

This fabric is called Washi and we ordered it from Timeless Treasures.  

This is Anne from Olive Ann patterns.  We loved her patterns for little girl and doll dresses.  Sorry, Ian, she doesn't have any grandsons yet so no new outfits for you! :(

Yes!  We ordered wool felt!  Some bolts and some pieces, numerous colors, perfect for your applique.

We met Birgitte and her husband when we went to order fabric from Moda.  She is a new designer from Germany, her company name is Zen Chic and her line called Juggling Summer was our favorite.  She told us that she is relatively new to fabric design, after spending years working as an accountant.  

This is Morton from Stof Fabrics, a German company.  The sample quilt in the background lured us in and Morton forced us to order the fabric!

So now we are going to unwind, find a good dinner and toast our successful trip!  We are also toasting the 15th anniversary of Bear Patch plus Patti's birthday!