Applique [ap-li-kay] noun, verb, -qued, -queing. Noun - ornamentation, as a cutout design, that is sewn on to or otherwise applied to a piece of material. Verb - to apply a decorative feature to a piece of material. (Source: dictionary.com)
It's a fancy word, it's spelled in a funny way, and it sounds like it must be something extra special. Well, applique is just that! People choose to decorate all sorts of things using a similar technique that quilters use. Purses, quilts, blue jeans, jackets... just about anything at all can be appliqued with something to make it especially different or distinct.
Many quilters will make an entire quilt out of applique designs, and there is a giant supply of patterns to support that dedicated and awe-inspiring craft. Two of the more popular applique books around Suzanne's Quilt Shop are Elly Sienkiewicz's books, Elly Sienkiewicz Teaches You Beginning Baltimore Applique and Elly Sienkiewicz Teaches You Advanced Baltimore Applique. Another great reference for the history of applique, over 2,000 modern and traditional design ideas, and even 5 new quilt projects is Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Applique.
One example of a stunning masterpiece of applique handiwork was made by one of Suzanne's most loyal patrons. Linda Heirs brought a quilt for the Show & Tell segment of our January meeting of Saturday Sampler, and the room practically exploded with Ooooooos and Aaaaaaahs.
Not only does Ms. Linda make quilts as impressive as the one above, but she pieces them, puts them together, and quilts them all ENTIRELY BY HAND. No, we're not lying folks! Ms. Linda likes to surprise us here in the shop with her blocks as she is working on them individually, but we are still all blown away at the beautiful quilts once they're all put together and finished so beautifully. So, thank you, Ms. Linda, for sharing your quilting talents and adventures with us and all of our fellow quilters!
While Ms. Linda may make her grand applique quilts look easy, and while some of us may think it's a nearly impossible feat to accomplish, we still believe that anyone can dress up a quilt and create beautiful designs by using applique for embellishment. A few curly strips of material with a colorful block at the ends and you've got a scrolling vine of flowers. And scrolling vines are hard to come by if they're not appliqued onto the quilt! So, why not at least give it a try? A small project can start you out. Or, if you've tried applique before and loved your results, why not try something a bit more challenging? If you can't make up your mind about what project you want to get started on next, our latest eNewsletter (released and emailed out on Tuesday, March 2nd) highlights tons of applique quilting options. If you're not signed up to receive our eNewsletter each week, you can click here and scroll down a little bit to enter your email address and be automatically signed up! You'll see our weekly specials, sales, new products and kits, and even be automatically entered into a drawing to get free stuff!
Not sure how y'all are feeling out there, but we are all DEFINITELY ready for Spring to arrive. Rachel worked on making the newsletter pop with tropical prints to get you in the mood for Spring Break and a little bit of R&R fun in the sun. And when you stop by the shop you'll definitely notice the Spring-inspired mood Trisha and Dallas were in when they rearranged the front of the shop as well as the display windows. Suzanne has been ordering lots of new fun, bright, and cheerful collections of fabric--perfect to brighten our days and put a little Spring in our steps!
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Every year's Quilt for a Cause event is a very special time for our quilters to work together as a team for a greater cause. Last year's was a great cause, and a great success. This year some of our quilters came together again in our large classroom and worked dilligently to finish six whole quilt tops to benefit patients associated with the ALS Association: Fighting Lou Gehrig's Disease. The donated quilts will be given to an ALS patient or used to raise awareness and research money for ALS by being photographed, displayed, auctioned, or raffled. The project, Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS, is sponsored by Quilters Dream Batting, and their website shows the complete list of sponsors.
We snapped a few pictures of our quilters in action. Not only did these gals enjoy a relaxing afternoon of quilting with their fellow friends, but they also quilted for a great cause. And to top it all off, all quilts that are sent in will be displayed on the Quilter's Dream Facebook page! So, get ready ladies: if you were here to help us quilt for this great cause, your work will be displayed on Facebook! :) Thanks again to all of you generous ladies for donating your time and efforts for this great cause!
(Disclaimer: Yes, we realize that Shirley's hair appears to be purple in the above photo. And, no, this is not a doctored photograph! She did, indeed, quilt for a cause wearing purple hair. Doesn't she just brighten your day?)
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Our next big adventure in Civil War reproduction fabrics has only just begun! This brand spankin' new line of Civil War reproduction fabrics was designed by Judy Rothermel for Marcus Brothers. Designed to honor the upcoming 150th aniversary of the American Civil War in 2011, this block of the month project features sawtooth and star blocks which each represent a different battle fought during the Civil War. Blocks showcase both northern and southern points of view.
Our first month of blocks and patterns has already started shipping out, but you're not too late to get started. Any quilter who wants to join in can find more information about the quilt as well as sign up for the BOM project either in the shop or online here. In addition to the pattern, fabric, and instructions for each block, you will also receive historical references about the corresponding battle and how it affected the lives of those on the battlefield as well as those left at home. The quilt will be finished in time for the 150th aniversary in 2011.
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A while back through Facebook, Twitter, and here in the shop, we made a shout-out for all of our Jo Morton Little Women Club members to show off their finished quilts. We got a great response! There was a total of 8 different quilters who finished 15 quilts and brought them in for us to display as one giant Little Women Club quilt installation here at Suzanne's! We have to give credit to these eight lovely ladies, so in no particular order, we are displaying the quilts of Shirley Thomas, Pat Hall, Donna Hembree, Joyce Whaley Luke, Dee Motto, Karen Cross, Rae Giddens, and Jane Rogers.
Eight different Jo Morton designs are featured in an array of Jo Morton fabrics. Each lady selected whichever Jo Morton fabrics she wanted to use for each quilt, and we now have a countless number of options to show how remarkably beautiful these Civil War reproduction fabrics can truly be. While some may be subtle, neutral, and quaint in their combination of fabric color/pattern, others are more robust with bright reds, greens, pinks, black, and blues. The combination of these two translations of Jo Morton's fabrics is incredibly striking here on our white walls, and we couldn't be happier to display these beautiful quilts made by our loyal patrons. Thanks, ladies! We love looking at your quilts every day!!! (And you should hear all the compliments you're getting on a daily basis!)
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The Nicey Jane fabric line is a Retro Chic collection of florals, geometric prints, whimsical leaves, dots, and stripes. Depending on your personal use of the fabrics, your finished project could look soft and romantic with lots of flowing flowers. It could also look chic, contemporary, and stylish with stripes and giant roses. Or, if you're in the mood for a little bit of retro influence, there are dots, leaves, flowers, and geometric designs that would get you there.
We have two colorways of Heather Bailey's charming line for Free Spirit. Here's the blue/green/gold colorway, ranging from light sage green, to lime green, to deep forest green; from soft sky blue to rich teal; and from a soft and buttery yellow to a brilliant gold:
And below we have the pink/green colorway, ranging from a romantic rose pink, to bubblegum pink, and taking it all the way to a brilliant hot pink with touches of a bright cherry red; ranging from light celery green all the way through olive green with hints of turquise here and there:
Jennifer took the blue/green/gold colorway and made something very pretty out of it--a new pattern called Nice & Easy designed by Suzanne! If you have other fabrics in mind, this pattern is available on its own as well.
Just click here to order the Nice & Easy pattern! For this project, though, it was Nicey Jane all the way. But not one of us could decide if we liked the romantic flowers, hip stripes, or retro geometric patterns best, so we mixed and matched them all to create this new sample. Our new
Nice & Easy quilt kit is available here in the shop or in our online shop, folded nicely into a sturdy plastic box--an easy and convenient way for you to store your scraps for a future project! This is the perfect collection of fabrics and shop sample to have near our front windows. It's
so airy, fun, bright, and cheerful.
And here's a close-up of all the different fabrics sewn together, only separated by long strips of cheerful, pretty teal:
Oh, but wait! We like this group of fabrics so much, Tonya sewed up another shop sample. The Mini Miranda Bag, pictured below, will be one of the great classes that Tonya will be teaching here in the shop. While you don't have to use the Nicey Jane fabrics (you can choose whichever fabrics you'd like), we just thought it sewed up quite nicely. Tonya's Miranda Bag Class will be a one-day-only class on January 30th from 9:30am until 3:00pm. Don't miss your chance to take this class! By the time you leave, you'll have a cute and functional bag to add to your collection! We're taking sign-ups now. Class fee is $30.00 plus the cost of materials.
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It's the 23rd aniversary of the Hoffman Challenge, and we're inviting you to take part! Every year Hoffman releases a new collection of fabrics that are specifically designed and released for this challenge, and because it's Hoffman fabric, you know you're using some of the best materials around.
The task at hand is a simple one: create anything that your heart desires! The only big rule is that you use a nicely recognizable amount of the challenge fabric (pictured below, the star fabric of the challenge is in the middle), but you can't use more than two yards of that fabric anywhere (including the backing). The specifics to this and other rules are listed on the Hoffman Challenge Rules site. Of course you can submit more than one entry... so, get started now!
(click on any of these to see a larger sample in our online shop)
Entry categories include: quilts, dolls, clothing, or accessories. Oh, and be sure to take lots and lots of good pictures of your newly sewed masterpiece, because if it is chosen as one of the finalists to represent the collection and the challenge, it could be on tour and on display throughout the USA for a whole year! Wow, you could create a sewed celebrity.... If you click over to the Hoffman Challenge Official site, you can also check out previous years' fabrics and previous challenges, as well as FAQ for this year and a list of prizes for the 2010 winners! Keep in mind, you can't win if you don't submit your sewed masterpiece in time: July 23rd 2010 is the last day any entries will be accepted in competition.
(click on any of these to see a larger sample in our online shop)
We have the Hoffman Challenge fabrics set up on display here in the shop and they are a particularly lovely collection of green, turquoise, and blue with an assortment of batiks, florals, paisleys, and lattice. Keep in mind, you're not limited to just these fabrics in just this collection--you can use any fabric you want, as long as you use that one star fabric mentioned above. So, be creative, have fun, and let us know what you're sewing!
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Y'all remember Thanksgiving night this year, when Mrs. Claus came to visit us? Well, you'll never guess who just showed up this afternoon.
Santa Claus was here today!
Santa stopped in this afternoon to do a little bit of last minute Christmas gift shopping for Mrs. Claus here at Suzanne's Quilt Shop. He told us how difficult it is to get Christmas gifts for Mrs. Claus. He said she is always supervising the elves at their Christmas-gift-making stations, and checking over his sleigh to be sure he's got enough quilts to keep him warm, and hot chocolate and cookies to last the whole night of his Christmas Eve special deliveries. He always has such a tough time finding a place to hide her gifts! Well, somehow Santa found out that we actually file away a "Wish List" for our quilters here, and written on it is anything in our store that they might wish for... gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, or Christmas! And since Mrs. Claus shops with us, of course she had a Wish List!
Santa read through Mrs. Claus's Wish List over and over again, knowing that she would really enjoy each and every item very much indeed. But how could he decide which ones to get her? Santa decided to purchase a Gift Certificate to Suzanne's Quilt Shop so that Mrs. Claus could spend it on whatever she wanted from her list. She could come into the store to shop during an afternoon, or if she was too busy at the North Pole she could simply make a purchase online from the store's website and have her new merchandise shipped to her. How convenient for Santa, and how convenient for Mrs. Claus! He was very happy that he could get her such a thoughtful, great gift, and he's sure that she will be very happy to go shopping for new quilting supplies!
Before Santa left, he was sure to ask everyone here what we wanted for Christmas. Dallas wanted this, Tanya wanted that, Jennifer wanted this, Tracy wanted that... and then Santa heard the HandiQuilter at work in the classroom. As he made his way to the back of the store, he found our customer Shera hard at work. She was working on a pretty pink, yellow, green, and white quilt. "And what would you like this year for Christmas, Shera?" he asked. Shera spoke softly to Santa, and we snapped a picture of them together before he left. While Shera wouldn't come out tell us what she asked Santa for, we think it's pretty obvious in the picture below, don't you? ;)
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That's right, folks! We told you we're planning ahead! Along with our Thimbleberries Block of the Month, we have been planning plenty of other fun projects. The next round of Saturday Sampler gatherings has been scheduled to start in February of 2010.
For 2010, Suzanne has chosen three fresh colorways for you to choose from: Batiks (handpainted fabrics), Crayon Box (bright multicolor), and Black & White.
Remember how busy and exciting everything has been at our Saturday Samplers this year? We are hoping for even more excitement and more quilters in 2010! Come and join us! Sign up officially began on December 1st and we've already got plenty of excited quilters ready to get started!
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You may want to go ahead and start planning out your quilting projects for next year. While it's still 2009, it is December! We are now making our own preparations for 2010. We always look forward to the beginning of a new Block of the Month project.
Thimbleberries fabrics have always been popular for us. The brand new line, Village Green, just arrived in the shop last week and we've already started cutting kits! The Village Green fabric line, designed by
Lynette Jensen for RJR Fabrics, is separated into three separate groups: colors for the themes Dawn, Dusk, and Midnight. Choose the colorway you like best, and we'll send you the 12 blocks in bimonthly shipments throughout the year. As a member of this club, you will receive exclusive quilt options for your blocks to create a throw, queen, or custom size quilt. The pattern for each block also includes a bonus pattern to make anything from a tabe runner, tote bag, wall hanging, and more.
Dawn:
Dusk:
Midnight:
All of the sign-up information and details are listed on our
web site. Log on, call, or come in to sign up and join in!
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It has been reported that Mrs. Claus was seen right here in Suzanne's Quilt Shop on Thanksgiving night! Our photographer captured a few candid snapshots of her while she was here:
Holiday spirit must have urged Mrs. Claus to share her Christmas cheer with all who came out to Moultrie's square for the lighting of the Christmas tree and downtown lights display. It is rumored that she was still recovering from a Thanksgiving feast with the Big Man and all of their little elf helpers as she passed out complimentary Christmas tree ornaments in the shapes of snowmen and snowflakes. She spoke gently to children that Santa was busy filling up bags with gifts and getting the sleigh ready for the parade in Moultrie's near future, and that he couldn't wait to deliver gifts on Christmas Eve. We are so honored that Mrs. Claus kept us company and greeted our visitors as everyone awaited the lighting of the Christmas lights!
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