Wish Upon a Quilt Blog

You have probably all heard the term “dedicated quilter”, you know the one that has at least a couple of  sewing machines, a room dedicated to sewing and a stash that rivals any store – she is the envy of all of us. Well, Saturday at our Christmas in July event, I saw someone wheeling a chair out of the office and out to the parking lot….I wondered what in the world was going on…and in rolls Katy! You see, Katy is pregnant and on bedrest but she didn’t want to miss the unveiling of the Christmas fabric and all of the fun! She convinced Lorraine to roll her in and help her shop – I think Katy is the most dedicated of all…don’t you?

First, a big thank you to all of our service men and women! I appreciate all you do for our country.

I finally finished a project that has been on my sewing table for at least a month. It wasn’t hard, I just kept getting distracted by other things…as usual . This is the Sweet Harmony Tote Bag by Amy Butler. I used Laura Gunn’s Poppy fabrics and love the size. It is not too small, not too big…just right!

 I’ve been out of town for the last few days on a shop owner’s retreat with some of the greats in the quilt shop world – Carol Britt of Batiks Etc & Sew What Fabrics; Joyce Hartley of Quilting Adventures; Kelly Ann Richardson of Kelly Ann’s Quilting; Sue Sandritter of Quilt Trends.  We’ve been at the Orchard House B & B in Lovingston, VA.  It’s been fun, there’s been lots of chocolate, but it’s also been hard work – we have been brainstorming and planning great things to bring back to each of our shops, so stay tuned!  We all brought sewing to work on – enough to fill up a whole room and we actually finished some stuff! 

We collectively completed 2 projects in 3 days..I finished the binding on the Megabits quilt using Sandy Gervais’ new Frolic collection. The quilt was beautifully quilted by Bethany Quilts. Sue completed a tote bag pattern made with texture magic. We were having so much fun planning new things to bring to our customers that sewing took a back seat…for now. If you are traveling in Virginia or Ohio, stop by and say hi to these great quilters!

We recently sponsored 10 new hand quilters at the Cameron Village Library. One of our great customers, Clare Bass, approached me about the idea a couple of months ago. She would do the teaching and Wish Upon A Quilt would supply the fabrics. It is so fun to share our passion of quilting with new people and from the looks of these photos, they are off to a great start! Have you shared your love of quilting with a newbie lately? Tell us about it!

I must say that I have neglected blogging over the past couple of weeks. Not because I did not want to post, just not enough hours in the day. What has been keeping us so busy? We were exhibiting last weekend at the Quilting and Fiber Arts Marketplace. It was great to see so many of you there but for our non-local customers, I thought you might enjoy seeing what we have been doing. Here are a few pictures from our booth.

Cathy McKillip, Owner -Wish Upon A Quilt

The best part of any show for me is meeting so many great people. It also gives me a chance to show some of the things I have made. One of my favorite bags is Amy Butler’s  Birdie Sling , can you find it? My new favorite quilt pattern is the Perfect Ten  and my latest quilt features fabrics from Heather Bailey’s Nicey Jane, see it all the way in the back corner? My good friend Susan Emory of Swirly Girls Designs loaned me the Megabits quilt using Sandi Henderson’s Meadowsweet, it was fun to hear all of the wonderful ooohs and aaahhhhs as people looked at the quilts.

Everyone at Wish contributed to making the booth a big success but Janice Pope and Cindy Massey had the great fun of joining me at the show! Janice is the owner of Anything But Boring and her Two Hour Tulip purse pattern was the top seller at the show. We also had her College Bound, Jewel Box and Circle in Square quilts in the booth. All of Janice’s quilt patterns are designed to be quick to put together but not boring! How do you like them? 

Cindy Massey and Janice Pope

The Jewel Box quilt is the one in the left corner with a white background and 5″ batik charm squares. The College Bound quilt is behind Cindy and is made with 10″ and 5″ batik pre-cut squares. Yes, we have these in the store

Cindy Massey

 If you haven’t seen the Accuquilt Go! in action, stop by the store sometime and take a test drive. What is on your sewing table today?

Are you running short on time or inspiration this holiday season? If you are looking for handmade children’s clothing, a great source is Oh Hannah!  Marilyn Young is one of our customers and the genius behind these great designs. I have seen the quality of Marilyn’s work and it is top notch. Whenever she comes to visit us at Wish, Marilyn’s daughter is always modeling the latest design and is absolutely adorable! What do you think?

We are happy to be sponsoring the quilt square activity at The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Walk today in Raleigh, NC. Participants will sign quilt squares in honor or memory of loved ones affected by blood cancers. Quilts will then be made and used for fundraising to support the work of the society. Hope to see you there!

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Welcome bloggers! I am excited to sponsor a great giveaway for the Fall Quilt Bloggers Festival! Just leave a comment on my blog October 9th-16th and you will be entered to win one of 3 $20.00 gift certficates to Wish Upon A Quilt. In addition, leave a comment on Park City Girl’s blog and be entered to win our prize of Free Amy Butler pattern of your choice and 4 1/2 yard cuts to start your project! But wait, there is more! Place an order at Wish Upon A Quilt using the coupon code: BLOGFEST and receive a Wish Upon A Quilt exclusive gift! Thanks for stopping by! If you are not receiving our newsletter, sign up here. We give away a gift certificate every month!

I almost forgot to share a quilt.  I shared my version of this quilt here, so decided to post an alternate version. Quilt was pieced by Lynne Creasy (a fabulous Wish employee) and quilted by Angela Clark of Thread Waggle Quilting! Fabric is Whimsy by Michael Miller. Pattern is Perfect Ten by Swirly Girls Design.

One of our local quilt guilds, Capital Quilter’s Guild is auctioning over 80 quilts this weekend at Heritage Day in Raleigh, NC.  There will also be a craft boutique where handmade items can be purchased. Proceeds will be shared with the guild’s charity partner, Military Missions in Action  which helps seriously injured and disabled soldiers and their families.

This quilt, “Silk Purse” will be one of the fabulous quilts in the auction.

Silk Purse by Remnants Bee, Raleigh, NC

I have to tell you the story behind “Silk Purse”. The Remnants quilting bee decided to “destash” a bit and trade fabrics with each other. Each member of the bee brought several fabrics from her stash that she was not particularly fond of anymore. You know the fabrics, you were caught up in some moment, somewhere that you can’t remember and bought this fabric. You get it home and think “what is this doing here”? It no longer works in your world. However, these fabrics are great fabrics and will probably work in someone else’s world. So we traded those. Lo and behold, we still had a pile of fabric on the table after the trade that didn’t work in anyone’s world. We had homeless fabrics. What to do?

Well, we had all admired Diane Shults’ dresden plate quilt made out of holiday fabrics. Diane insisted that the dresden plate was really easy and fun. The rest of the group was doubtful, but we thought hey – why not give it a try with our homeless fabrics? A project was born!

Right around this time, the Capital Quilter’s Guild announced that they would be collecting quilts again this year for the quilt auction. We had found a home for our quilt to be made from our homeless fabrics! So off we went to complete our dresden plates and those homeless fabrics were magically transformed into a beautiful quilt, hence the name “Silk Purse”. Of course, now we all love the quilt and will be at the Heritage Day auction to bid on this quilt because we want it back in our homes! Such is the life of a quilter.  :-)

Here is a picture of the Remnants Bee with “Silk Purse”.

The Remnants Bee, Raleigh, NC

Members of the Remnants Bee are: (l to r): Brenday Keely, Cathy McKillip, Anna Norris, Linda Erhling, Patty Krohn, Diane Shults, Anne Allen, Darlene Silverman, and Sheryl Lucas. Marsha Hendrickson is also a member of the bee.

Have we inspired you to make a “Silk Purse” of your own?

I was looking for something quick and fun and found this great pattern for a pillow. I like that the pattern has the embellishments included so that I don’t have to search all over town for them. Kits are available here.  Stay tuned for more of these, I’m hooked! What are you making today?

Beach Baby Pillow