Kelly Ann's and Oh Sew Persnickety

The last 2 stops on Sue's "rowed" trip were Kelly Ann's Quilt Shop in Warrenton, VA, and Oh Sew Persnickety in Haymarket, both wonderful but very different shops.

Kelly Ann's welcomes you even before you walk through the door, with it's sidewalk decoration and old town character and charm.

Kelly Ann is the Virginia coordinator for Row By Row, so she is definitely A-Buzz!

Her Row By Row "Misbeehaven" greets you as soon as you walk through the door.

You can see from the photo above that the shop is a feast for the senses.

Though it required discipline, Sue managed to get away with just a couple of fat quarters and a magazine in addition to the license plate and row kit!

Located in the small town of Haymarket, Oh Sew Persnickety is a newer shop, open since February 2015.

This is not your traditional quilt shop.  It features the latest in fabrics from Alexander Henry, Art Gallery, Blend, Cloud 9, Free Spirit, Michael Miller, Moda and Riley Blake, and carries trendy clothing patterns as well as quilt and bag patterns.

It's clean, contemporary interior reflects the fabrics and other merchandise for sale.

Sue found this graphic print knit to use for a dress pattern she bought last year.  Since it seems she failed to get a photo of the completed row,  below is the photo from the Facebook page.  The row was designed by Polly Monica.

So that's it for Sue's "rowed" trip.  Soon we'll be sharing some shops that Elizabeth visited on her trip to New Hampshire.

Manassas and Nokesville Row By Row

The next 2 shops on Sue's road trip were Suzzi's Quilt Shop in Manassas and Daffodil Quilts in Nokesville, VA. 

Suzzi's is a great shop - tons of fabric, especially batiks.  A little crowded, but she is moving soon to a larger space in the same shopping center.

Above is Suzzi's row - isn't it cute?  Her kits include all the embellishments.

Sue purchased the kit and license plate, along with another pattern and a couple of fat quarters. Also in this picture, the pattern for the row from the Variety Store (Mt. Vernon).

Daffodil Quilts is located in Nokesville, about 10 minutes from Manassas where Suzzi's is located.

They are offering a horizontal row and a vertical row, both designed by Cindy Sisler Simms.  Above is their lovely display with the horizontal row, kits, license plates, and the row by row fabric line.

They also had the vertical row, Tree House, on display.  Kits for both were available.

Sue purchased the horizontal row, Picnic at Grandma's, and license plate.  This shop has a wide variety of fabrics, helpful staff, and some comfy seating up front for those accompanying the quilter!

In another post - the final 2 shops on Sue's "rowed" trip.

"Rowed" Trip!

This summer will be a little different for PGFiber2Art.  For the last 7 years, Sue has joined Elizabeth in New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesaukee for several weeks of "quilt camp", where we play with surface design, work on our business, shop hop, and just have fun experimenting with techniques we've been wanting to try all year.  This morning Elizabeth left on her 2 day trip north. However this year will be different for several reasons.  First, Elizabeth's mom Barbara passed away in April; Barbara was as much a part of quilt camp as the two of us.  She let us take over the garage for our studio and supported our endeavors, as much as we offered advice on design decisions for her quilting projects.  We will miss her dearly, more than words can adequately express.  Then in May, Sue's husband had a motorcycle accident with serious leg injuries, and after a month of hospital and rehab, he is recovering at home.  However, with no weight bearing on the injured leg he is still home bound with Sue as the primary care giver, so a trip to NH this summer is not likely.  The good news is that he IS recovering, and for Elizabeth, the sorrow of Barbara's loss is followed by the joy of her son's wedding coming up in August.  So it looks like Quilt Camp 8 will be long distance and individual, with perhaps some online collaboration. 

Sue was able to get a day off from care-giving Saturday and decided to use it for some Row By Row shop hopping locally.  She visited 6 shops in Northern Virginia to pick up row patterns and license plates, and whatever else struck her fancy.  She'll share the first 2 shops today and the others in subsequent posts.

Artistic Artifacts is the shop we teach thermofax printing at, and this was the first stop.  It was great to just spend an hour here and soak up the atmosphere!  This year's row for the "Home Sweet Home" theme was designed by Cyndi Souder of Moonlighting Quilts, you can see the row in the background above and the photo below.

The houses and trees are paper pieced with Tim Holtz and Australian Aboriginal fabrics.  The doors (or windows) can be embellished with stencils, stamps, or screen prints.  That's one of our thermofax screens in the package under the row.  We have several screens that could work here and will be putting on our creative thinking caps for more ideas.

Artistic Artifacts is a great source for Design Inspiration, as seen in the photo above.

In addition to the row pattern, kit and license plate, Sue also picked up some paints, more Tim Holtz and Australian fabrics, and Jane Dunnewold's new book Creative Strength Training.  Another great source of inspiration.

Second stop on the "rowed" trip was at the Hollin Hall Variety Store south of Alexandria, a few miles from Mt. Vernon. (no website, but there is a Facebook page) They are a new shop participating in Row By Row this year, so designed a row but not a license plate.  We could devote a post to the Variety Store in itself, and perhaps we will!  This is exactly as it's name says, a variety store.  Think of the modern day dollar store, but better!  The Variety Store has been around for more than 50 years!  Both Sue's husband and Elizabeth grew up in the area, and remember it from childhood.  They have an entire aisle of floor to ceiling shelves devoted to fabric and notions, and the remainder of the store has everything from household items to toys and educational kits, hardware and floral supplies, to penny candy.  You name it, its probably there!

If you didn't know what to look for, you'd probably miss it!

The fabric and notions aisle.

The row - a depiction of Mt. Vernon, George's "home sweet home."

Extensive row of ribbons.

The same aisle from the other end.  The only thing I got here was the free pattern.  They did have kits available too, but I decided I had plenty of fabrics in my stash for this row. 

That's all today - come back for more of the "rowed" trip!

The Making of Scarlet Globemallow

Sue here.  It dawned on me today that now that the National Parks book has been published, I can share pictures of the construction of my Scarlet Globemallow quilt.  It's fun to revisit this project that was created 2 years ago. 

It started with a background of 2" squares (2.5 before stitching) of batiks and a hand-dyed blue for the sky.  These were pieced on the diagonal.

The background was quilted before adding the globemallow plant. Click on the photo to enlarge for a better view.

The plant greenery was made from hand-dyed greens; one piece used was dyed with color magnet which creates a two-toned effect.

The flowers and leaves were created from hand drawn patterns based on photos and cut individually.

Then the leaves and flowers were quilted.

Next, the flower centers were added.

Above is a close-up.

Then some hand stitching was added in the flower centers.

And there you have it, the finished quilt.

Postcard Swap

Sue, here.  I've been part of a postcard swap with some other VCQ members for 10 (!) years.  We swap cards twice a year on a chosen theme.  Since we've been doing this for 10 years now (hard to believe its that long), we chose the theme "Perfect 10" - which could relate to our 10 years, or even the Olympics this summer.  The topics are always open to interpretation.  So far, I've received 4 cards.  Our group is down to 6 (from about 15 when we started).  And one of those other 2 is my card, not yet completed.  These are the 4 I've gotten so far.

Cathy's card was first to arrive - featuring 10 perfect strawberries, one for each year of our swap!

Paula's came next and was good for a chuckle to brighten the day.  The text reads "The worst part about kissing a perfect 10 is how cold the mirror feels on your lips."

Sherry used surface design to wish us each 10 perfect June days.

And Lois sent us some watermelon to make a hot summer day a perfect 10!

I finally got started on mine today.  I made a prototype and am excited to get them made and into the mail.  No hints, you'll have to wait and see!

Row By Row 2016

The Row By Row Experience for 2016 starts next week, on June 21!  Are you ready?? 

Go to the website and check out your local shops and places you will be traveling to this summer to start planning your shop-hopping!

For our Virginia friends, here's the list of participating shops in the state.  Another thing you want      to do is go to the Facebook page for the state you are visiting.

On the Virginia page, for example, you can see photos of the shops' rows along with their license plates, to help you decide which shops you want to visit.  Last year, we used the FB pages to help us decide which shops to visit in New Hampshire and Maine during our summer quilt camp, and also to find shops along the route from VA to NH.  Very helpful!!

This year's theme is Home Sweet Home.  Above is the row for our home store, Artistic Artifacts.  It is designed by Cyndi Souder of Moonlighting Quilts and features paper pieced houses and trees made with a mix of Australian Aborigine and Tim Holtz fabrics.

Of course, once you collect the row patterns and license plates, you need to make them!  (At least, that's the theory!)  But in the meantime, have fun planning your travels and visiting new shops.   We know that we will!

Fat Quarter Pop-Up Sew Along

We're repeating this post from April because Sue will be teaching this project as a sew-along at Artistic Artifacts this Friday, June 17, from 6-9 PM.  If you're local to Northern Virginia and want to join us, go to the website to register for this fun project.

We know you've seen these pop-up collapsible containers - they're in quilt shops everywhere! 

They were designed by Joanne Hillestad (aka The Fat Quarter Gypsy) who we met at CABS (Creative Arts Business Summit) last year, and again this year.  Well, after much procrastination Sue finally got around to making one yesterday using a snow-dyed/screen printed piece of fabric.

She used 3 screens that are different versions & sizes of a black eyed Susan, and printed with ProChem opaque textile paint in teal.

This is the small size pop-up, which is 6" tall.  It also comes in medium and large sizes.  You can check the Fat Quarter Gypsy website for a link to find shops near you that carry the pattern.  A piece of elastic is stitched into the seam to hold the pop-up flat when you want to collapse it.

Joanne's instructions are very clear and easy to follow, and her method for inserting the spring is very clever.  What a fun way to showcase some of your own unique screen printed fabric!

Along the Spice Route at the Virginia Quilt Museum

On Saturday, June 11, 2016 Elizabeth went to Harrisonburg, Virginia, for an Artist Reception marking the Virginia Quilt Museum’s display of  Along the Spice Route. Both Elizabeth and Sue have quilts in this exhibit but Sue was unable to attend. 

The quilts are mostly displayed on white walls in the basement gallery of the museum which is located in an historic home in downtown Harrisonburg. Elizabeth likes seeing them displayed against a white background. There is one room called the log cabin room where the walls are a light wood and some quilts are displayed there, but she likes them best on the white because the warm tones of the wood absorb some of the light and provide less contrast.

This is the fourth time she has seen the exhibit, twice on white walls in a gallery style setting, twice on black drapes in a show setting. The white walls seem to show off the vibrant colors in these quilts quite nicely and are her preference although the hanging in Fredericksburg at the Sewing and Quilt expo was dramatic with the quilts hanging in two long rows.

The reception hosted by the museum was very nice and it was a treat to get to meet many of the other quilters who contributed to this exhibit.

Other posts about this exhibit were in August 2015 at the New England World Quilt Show, October 2015 at the Sewing and Quilting Expo, and November 2015 at the Manassas Center for the Arts.  It's always a thrill to see your own work hanging in an exhibit!