Art Quilt Class

Last Saturday was the art quilt class with Lenore Crawford. 17 of us piled into our old storefront and listened attentively as Lenore told us how to proceed with her techniques of Misty Fuse and fabric. Then we began to cut out and fuse our fabrics. Poppies and coneflowers began to come to life. There wasn't much conversation because we were all concentrating so hard! Music would have been nice, but we didn't think of that beforehand. Towards the end of the class, Lenore demonstrated her techniques with fabric paint that added a 3-D effect to the art quilt. Some used her paints and brushes to try it out. Everybody had a fabulous time and could hardly wait to finish what they had started. Lenore had her patterns to sell....they are also available at her website: http://www.lenorecrawford.com/ If you have never seen her work, check it out! She is a resident of Midland, Michigan but travels all around teaching her techniques.

Fabric, Fabric and more Fabric

Hi ladies - and gents too! This is Amy I am going to try to get on here now and then. Lately Cathy and Kathy have been bringing in more and more beautiful fabrics. I told them the other day to stop it, I want it all!!!!! As I sit here and look out the grass is getting greener by the day. I can see little green sprouts starting to show in my flower bed. I am getting inspired to want to work with light and bright colors again. Winter and bog us down and perhaps that helps make spring time even better, it is a time of renewal. Did anyone else make a quilty lent promise this year? I did, I gave up the piecing process. The result, I have quilted 6 lap quilts in 6 weeks. I actually have one more king sized one to go that has to get done by the end of the month. Another idea I heard about was making charity quilts only. Let us know if you made a quilting promise this year and how it went.

SPRING!

Has spring really arrived? Saturday is the 1st day of spring...snow is gone, at least for now, and warmer weather has been felt. This past weekend I saw crocuses beginning to bloom up in Petoskey, Michigan!!

Spring brings in lots of new fabrics. We've received shipments of this really neat new Jinny Beyer fabric and Pam Kujawa stitched up a great new pattern with the fabric. 2010 Christmas fabric will begin to arrive within the next 6 weeks. Hard to believe, isn't it? Every day UPS arrives with a box of beautiful designs. Our fingers itch to stitch!

March also brings the planning for our next newsletter. What classes do you want to take? We'd love to hear from you. We try to guess what might interest our customers, so any ideas are well received!

Have you had enough snow? This weekend is the OH-MI shop hop and we quilters sure are a hardy lot. It started snowing Friday--only 1-3 inches expected.NOT! At last count we have 7" on the ground. Did that stop the hoppers?? Not on your life. One hopper was heard to say we should call it the "Shop Slide"! It is so much fun to meet all kinds of quilters. We share so many ideas and there are so many fabric collections out there that no shop can carry it all. The variety is a spark to our creativity.

We've begun designing our Cross Wall hangings of the month. The patterns and kits will be available soon for purchase and mail order. I've included a picture of the first one-"FAITH".

Fall, Christmas and the Superbowl have come and gone.....I'm just getting back to blogging. My knee is great, the shop is warm and cozy. Are you quilting? I organized my sewing area over the past two weeks. It's still not the way I want it but it is SO much better! I can actually find things!

We've begun the pillowcase challenge sponsored by American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. Today I logged in 106 pillowcases donated. I have been hitting my stash of fabrics for pillowcase kits to share with those who have time but no fabric. I've got fabric that needs a home and what better way to share!!!

We finished our 2009 Bible Study Block of the Month and are starting the 2010 one. We had to cancel Tuesday's class due to the snow. Look at the quilt we made in 2009 . We are making a cross wallhanging each month this year. Watch for a picture of it too!

I must begin with an apology! I cannot believe it's been a month since I wrote! In that time, I have had arthroscopic knee surgery (which went quite well! ), got the newsletter out, celebrated my 38th wedding anniversary and have been sewing on the projects which will go in our new book! Open House was a big success. It's always good for us to have a deadline for us to have OUR projects done! Did you miss it? There are still lots of classes which have room in them. We have filled up 2 of our Beginning Quilting classes.Saturday is still open and we are taking names for at least one more class we are opening up. Call us or email us if you are interested. It would start some time in October. Don't delay!

The newsletter is on its way!

Yippee! The fall schedule is planned, the newsletter is written and should be in your mailbox within this next week. We have tried to offer a wide variety of classes for beginners and up. Amy is offering a whole new set of stripping classes, Kathy has a few new purses to teach as well as some new classes and Lois is starting a new block of the month. That is only a bit of what is going on at Sonflower Quilts.