Quilt Market is a merry go round of a gazillion new fabrics, notions, patterns and whatever else you can think of or not. It is miles and miles of walking and stopping to see and sometimes buy. In addition there are classes with all of the folks whose fabric we buy and love and whose books we read over and over. Portland, Oregon is a great city to visit and shop and eat, especially eat. If we had more time, there are lots of beautiful places to see outside the city but we would have had to add a couple more days to the itinerary.

The following are some photos I took at the market and a couple of the Japanese Garden in Portland where we did spend some sightseeing time.

Kaffe Fassett in his Schoolhouse Session with Liza in the background.

Amy Butler’s Booth and a photo of Amy preparing for an interview.

This is an exquisite ensemble designed and created by Cindy Friedman of Merion Station, PA and shown in the Bernina Fashion Show “Diamond Odyssey”. Cindy is a member of the Heartstrings Quilters and an accomplished fabric artist.
This is a photo of a spot in the Japanese Garden in Portland. Peaceful and serene and a great place to visit especially after the hustle and bustle of the Quilt Market.

We have just received some beautiful new Tonga batiks from Timeless Treasure. The colors are wonderful. Check out these photos and the quilt top Linda made from the pattern that was included with the fabric.

This is the sample quilt top, very easy to make and using as many different fabrics as you want.

I’ve been having a fantastic time teaching!  Adults and children have been taking private lessons to learn the basics and then sometimes we continue to making the project of their choice.  Below is a photo of Emma who is 8 years old.  She was taught to sew by her grandmother who is a longtime quilter so she already knew all the basics.  Emma and I made a skirt for her to wear on Easter and here it is. 

This is a skirt made from the “Little Hip Skirts” pattern by Favorite Things in a Kaffe Fassett ”Spot” called Duck Egg.  This pattern is also available in mom sizes!

We have received 12 bolts of the new Amy Bulter line-Midwest Modern!  I hope my photography will help you see the beautiful colors.  For those of you familiar with the line through the Westminster website, we have received all but one of “Garden Maze”, one “Martini” and four from the “Honeycomb” line-certainly enough to get started with whatever you have planned this spring.

We also received our delivery of the Chambray line from Tonga Batiks.  This is a really pretty blue and white, light weight batik.  There is a quilt made by Julie Scheckman in February’s issue of McCall’s Quilting that would be perfect to brighten up a bed for the summer.   I can also see this as the “Cabo Halter, by Amy Butler”. 

If you have a couple Tuesday evenings free, come take the class on the ”Swing Bag” on April 1 and 8.  This is a nice roomy bag useful for taking shopping on your weekend errands.  This one was made with an Alexander Henry 8 oz home dec cotton and is reversible.

 Sorry I’ve been so slow with the blogging news!  Life at Cloth & Bobbin is constantly busy and I’ve been spending more and more time teaching, especially to kids, and making samples for the store.  For those of you who think that owning a fabric store means you get to sew all the time, well….not really but its nice to take a break from the rest of the work and make some fun stuff for you to see.

Hope to see you soon.  Hurry up Spring! 

The Wizard of Oz line from Quilting Treasures has arrived.  It is very cute with pictures of Dorothy, the good witch and the bad witch, and Toto too! There is a bolt of the yellow brick road, another of ruby red slippers, blue and red bolts of witches wands. and one of Dorothy’s dress fabric. A free pattern is available for a quilt.  Stop by and look and let me know what else you want to make with these new fabrics.

I went to New York last Monday to the New York Gift Show.  Wow! It was my first visit to the show and it is never ending. I went to see Renaissance Ribbons who I had first seen last spring at the Quilt Market. This time I bought lots of beautiful ribbon. Some should be here next week. I can’t wait.

Winter classes have begun. We had some beautiful baby pinwheel quilts finished this week. The students in the pants class are half way there. This week they’ll put in their zipper! The winter Beginner Quilters have begun their sampler. Machine Applique is this coming Sunday.

Thanks to all of you who stopped by during the Kickoff Sale. It was fun. I have set up a sale table in the store. Stop by and see what bargains you can find. 

Stay tuned for photos of the new stuff mentioned above. Next week I’ll set up a monthly “Come hang out and sew” day. Look for the newsletter.

We welcome Diana Moro and “Ewe and I” to Narberth, opening March 1. Knitting and sewing all on one block, can you imagine how lucky we are.

It is a rainy January 22 and I realize that it has been way too long since I updated the “news”. Hope everyone has recovered from holiday parties and is looking forward to sewing their way through the dark days of January and February. The store has continued to be a center for bright fabrics and new projects for everyone. 

If you aren’t planning to watch the Super Bowl, join us at the store for a “Girls’ Afternoon”. Bring a project, any kind of needlework or fabric project is welcome. I’ll set up the tables and serve goodies!

I had a wonderful time over the holidays teaching some 9 year old girls to sew, some using their new machines and one using a hand me down. One has continued to take lessons, last week we made pants for her 3 year old cousin.

We have ordered the entire new line from Amy Butler which is expected to be delivered in late March or early April. We ordered before they were even showing the photos so our order would be one of the first in.

Here are some photos of new fabric. Those of you who have been in the store recently have noticed how much cozier it is with the new bolts all over the place. If you haven’t been here recently, come see!

  By Carla Miller for Free Spirit, vivid turquoise, purple, oranges with patterns in diagonal stripes, script and something that looks like spin art!

                                       Floursacks and ginghams by Robert Kaufman.

Rain Blossom by Nancy Gere for Windham, c.1915 repro in dusty blues, chocolate brown, peach and greens.

                     A line in both blues and yellows and also black/grey with a slight pearlized finish.

  Both from Le Rouvray by Free Spirit, light and dark prints including a border print too.                                                                      

Classes have begun and we are creating hand and machine applique, baby quilts and tote bags and fabric bowls and postcards.  Don’t miss the fun!

The good and bad news about not working in an office at Christmas is that you don’t have an opportunity to eat way too many cookies and candies that hang around offices at this time of year!

If you still need any gifts or fabric to finish that one last thing, I will be open Friday, December 21 until 7pm, Saturday 10-5pm, Sunday 12-5pm AND Monday, December 24 10-3ish.

I’ve received many new things in the past couple weeks and haven’t had time to fill you in, so here are some of them.   These are BIG buttons for handbags and sweaters, also a decorative pin which puts me in mind of pins we used to use for wool kilts in high school.  I didn’t even go to Catholic school and still wore them. These days I believe they are used to pin together sweaters and shawls.  

Next are some plush, cushy rollups in micropolyester fleece.   They are 28×40 and would make anyone want to have a “blankie” to sleep with.  

Now, some fat quarters of velveteen and some of luscious silk.  The sky’s the limit.  You can mix these with anything you are making.  The colors are really vibrant.

  Silk                               Velveteen

The Farmer’s Market bolts are here too!  We have some bananas, limes, grapes,  ears of corn, oranges, dewy tomatoes, carrots and potatoes.  Figs are coming later.   Yummy!

This is the happy Quilt Class with their “almost finished” projects.  Linda Rosenstein, our teacher is the one in the middle without a quilt.  She did a great job helping all of us through our various stages of learning!

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!!!! 

Our Winter Schedule has received a great response! Two classes are full and others are close.  We are continuing to plan additions to the schedule and have added a Machine Quilting Class on Saturday, February 16, 1 to 4 pm.  Linda Rosenstein will teach you how to machine quilt those quilt tops you have been collecting!  You’ll need a quilt top and a walking foot for your machine. The cost of the class is $35.

                              This is a photo of the bag we will be making for the “Create a Tote Bag” class on February 19, 7-9pm.  It is 14″ high and 12″ wide and uses three contrasting fabrics.  The cost of the class is $35.  Call to register and get a supply list.

The delicious Valentine Wall Hanging you can make on Thursday, Jan. 17, 7-9pm and give to your Valentine in February.  This is a quick project so you can go home and make more for your other Valentines!  We have received some Valentine fabric just in time!

One more class sample is the Four Block Wall Hanging on January 26, 12 to 4 pm.  This is a perfect introductory class for those of you who think you might want to go on to take a Beginner Quilt Class but aren’t sure it’s for you.  You’ll be making this four block top using the churn dash block.  This is a perfect size for a wall hanging.  Cost of class is $35.

More photos of new fabric in the next blog!  Have fun shopping and don’t forget your friends who sew, they always need something. 

new, new, new from Hoffman: tubes of 40 7″x7″ squares of their batik Watercolors.  imagine how easy these will be to use.  no cutting required!

plus the very colorful toiles by Sis Boom for Free Spirit. these must be able to fit into your next quilt project. how can you pass up these colors?

here are a couple photos of projects made in our classes. the first is the Trip Around the World quilt completed by Cathy DiNardo. she’s behind the quilt!

next a postcard from the recent Fabric Postcard class:

 keep sewing!

                                Here are  some new Kaffe stripes, Ikat dots and Ikat checkerboard.  The stripes are woven and soft.  There are some multi stripes and another pattern where the stripes are two different widths on one length so can be cut differently depending on which stripe you need. 

The recently released Moda lines: “Sweet Baby Jane” and “Full Moon Forest” have also arrived.  Sweet Baby Jane is soft pinks and yellows, perfect for that holiday quilt for the new baby in the family.

Full Moon Forest is in a beautiful lavender and teally green with hidden rabbits, and other forest creatures. 

At the suggestion of Jenny Wells, a quilting/crafting customer, we are adding a class to the December roster to create “soft trees”.  There is a small forest of them in the window of the store and you can find more info on them at www.flickr.com  Put the words ”soft trees” in their search field to see trees made by others.  The class is on Sunday, December 9, noon to 2:00 pm.  Call to register and for details:  610/667-5366. 

One more tidbit:  We just received some kits for an 88″x108″ quilt with a pattern called Ocean Waves.  The fabric is in the Cape Cod line by RJR in a soft green/yellow with a little pink colorway.

This week, we received some of Shangri La by Moda.  Really pretty colors and patterns.  There is a color that I can’t really put my finger on that is a rosy red/salmon/coral.  I need some help with a specific name.  Unfortunately Moda calls it #15.  Anyway, there are also some quilted bolts with this line and it is really pretty and beautifully done.  I see an instant bedspread or placemat or jacket.  Jelly rolls too.  Not sure my photography does it justice so you might have to come to see it soon.

Bolts of quilted patterns.

Oh and there are six bolts of 108″ backing fabric in light tan, blue and green patterns!

I know some of you are thinking about holiday shopping so I got some new Amy Butler stationery, a collection of Gees Bend postcards and some 2008 calendars.  Don’t forget your favorite sewing person who needs a new sewing basket too.