Blueberry Buckle

It Was a LOT of Stairs.

We made it! We moved an apartment-amount of furniture, my office and 400 bolts of fabric from our home in Maryland to a third floor apartment in Delaware. Yes, you heard correctly. Third floor. Walkup. No elevator. 40 stairs. We had LOTS of help from wonderful friends and family who lugged a lot of heavy boxes for us, and even figured out how to get our gigantic old leather sofa through a tricky entry way.

Whew! Thank you, everyone!

Erin came over yesterday and helped me organize the fabric in Lizzie's room. Lizzie is my longarm machine, and tonight I'm going to find the wood frame assembly instructions so I can get her up and running. I'm confident the instructions are in a box...I remember packing them. Everything else is put away except my office. I need to overcome some storage hurdles in there (there's just a countertop for a desk) before I can put anything away.

Other than that, things are good! My first sewing project is something for the shop that everyone will see...I hope it works out. Looks good on paper, though.  =)

I'm also planning on uploading some photos tomorrow. This all-text blog is boring!

Happy sewing everyone!

Sue

Let's Get Caught Up!

Bad blogger I am, I thought I'd get you all caught up with the activity here at Blueberry Buckle with the Reader's Digest version of the past few weeks.

New Fabric in the Shop!

Kona Cotton Solids...125 colors are in-stock and more arrive every week. (I just can't help myself.)

Essex Cotton/Linen blend...great for quilts, garments, home dec, and especially zakka-inspired projects.

New Fabric not yet in the Shop:

FROLIC by Sandy Gervais for Moda. I so love the colors and tones of fabulous prints in this line. I'm working on getting them listed. Maybe...tonight?

Fabric soon to arrive:

RURAL JARDIN by French General for Moda. I'm so excited about this fabric line...I can't wait! The prints are gorgeous, in reds, blues and whites, and it looks like they coordinate with Rouenneries.

RURAL JARDIN toweling. It's so pretty and will make lovely dishtowels! I can't wait to hem up some pretty sets of towels, perfect for gift-giving. I just had a memory of hemming dishtowels by hand in 5th grade home ec. It was our first sewing project.

Oh, and, uh, did I mention that more Kona cotton will be in soon? (I just can't help myself.)

Fat Quarter packs and collections are coming!

I'm having so much fun playing with fabric to come up with some fantastic combinations for you. There's even a new section in the shop just for Precuts.

MQX (Machine Quilter's Exposition) in Providence, RI on April 13.

Five days of quilting classes, exhibitions and shopping! I'm most excited that I'll be taking classes from some of the most talented machine quilters in the world, and I'll be studying with Karen McTavish to receive McTavishing certification. I'm so excited to have this opportunity to learn new skills and take Blueberry Buckle quilts to the next level!

Books

Do you like books? Quilting books? I've got some great new titles on my desk that I can't wait to share with you. I'm new to writing book reviews, but I've decided to giveit a try. Stay tuned!

Take care and happy quilting!

Sue

I'm Ready to Quilt Now...

Day 5 of post-knee surgery recovery, and I'm dying to get back to the Blueberry Buckle studio! Actually, I was ready to quilt at Day 4, but as my knee is not ready yet for standing at the cutting table or sitting at my machine, I'm still stuck on the couch. Trying not to go a little crazy here, I've been knitting (one hat and 1/2 of a man's vest finished), reading, watching way too much television, and planning some new quilts.

My quilting to-do list grows longer and longer each day I'm not in the studio:

I have a new design ready to go for the Love U fabric line by Deb Strain for Moda. It uses one of the ABC panels and fat quarters of some the other fabrics in the line. It is quick and easy and will make a great baby gift. I can't wait to make a sample to show you.

I have two other new original quilt designs that I'll debut in February, one for little girls and one for little boys. It's been fun to play around with drawings and graph paper, but my real love is the fabric, so I'm itching to get started.

On a personal note, I have a stack of Civil War quilt repro kits to put together in 2010. One of my goals is to learn to do custom heirloom quilting on my TinLizzie, particularly for these quilts. I also have a bunch of quilts that I'd like to make for the kids. Some are just ideas, some are patterns, some I even have fabric for. The list could go on and on...need more time to quilt!

I'd better do some leg lifts now! The sooner this knee is better, the sooner I can get back to work!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Manic Monday at Blueberry Buckle Quilt Studio

So many quilty things to do, so little time to blog.

Cutting.

 

Fabric bound for Portugal and Iceland. How cool is that?

Piecing.

 More Figgy Pudding fabric love. 

Quilting:

Shade Garden fabrics by Michelle Engel Bencsko for Henry Glass. Find it here.

Binding.

Now it's time for sleeping. Good night!

Sue
 

Which Fabric Do You Desire? (Another Giveaway)

My Moda salesman was here on Friday, tempting me with samples of all the fabric lines that were introduced a few days before at Quilt Market in Houston. I'm attempting to maintain a style of fresh, modern, designer fabrics to use in my quilts and sell in my etsy shop, so it was easy to say no to the traditional prints, reproductions, and soft, florals. Then came the hard part. There are SO many really great modern fabrics by really good designers.

Then, Michael Miller Fabrics called me yesterday afternoon to show me (via the web) all of their new fabrics from Market. Then I thought about all the Kona Cotton colors I need to reorder as my stock is getting low, and the colors I would like to add to my stock.

Not to mention Kaffe Fasset and Amy Butler...

Overwhelming? It wouldn't be if I could just buy it all, because it's all so pretty!

Being on a budget, like most people, I need to be selective and limit what I buy. (Until I win the lottery, lol.) It's still risky, though. What if I buy fabric and no one else likes it? Oh! The pressure! Haha.

Yes, I ordered some Moda lines. Won't see those for months, though. Needing something fresh for the shop now, and I've narrowed my options to two:

1. Restock the Kona Cottons that have been selling well and add 10 more colors. (Very tempting.)

or

2. Go out on a limb and order these Michael Miller fabrics, which I adore:

 

Which fabric would you most desire?

So...here's a little giveaway for you. This week's prize is...

an Objects of Desire Jelly Roll, by Sandy Gervais for Moda. What a great prize!

Here are the rules. Pay attention, please, so you can earn as many entries as possible.

Comment on this post and earn:

1 entry for voting on option 1 (Kona Cotton Solids) or option 2 (Michael Miller prints).

5 additional entries for telling me what type of fabric you use the most. Moda? Amy Butler? Reproductions? Solids? Cotton/linen blends? You name it.

10 additional entries for linking directly to this post from your blog.

No extra entries for linking to your own blog, but please do, because I'd like to visit!

Comments will close on Sunday, October 25 at 7:00 am Eastern Time. The winner will be announced soon after and posted here.

Let the commenting begin!

Sue
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Behind the Scenes of a Grand Opening

There has been so much activity here at Blueberry Buckle, I'm not sure where to begin! Here's a brief overview of what I've been up to in preparation for the grand opening. I'll tell you more about everything over the next week.

Designing Quilts

I love coming up with new designs that show off great designer fabric collections. Six modern quilts, each in two sizes, will debut in the next few weeks. I'm so excited to show them to you very soon!

Ordering Fabrics

I did not anticipate the amount of time I would spend selecting fabric, especially from lines that will not be released until months from now! I though I would just order, and, voila! Fabric would arrive in a week or two and quilts would be in my shop! What an education I'm getting, lol!

Setting up the Studio

Blueberry Buckle now occupies most of the lower walk-out level of our home. It didn't take long for me to realize that I like having space to spread out. To my large sewing table, I added a cutting table and made an ironing table.

Sewing!

This week you get to see the very first quilts to come from the Blueberry Buckle Studio. They are fresh, modern and I can't wait for you to give them good homes.

This is going to be a big week!