Beth Ferrier’s Blog

The goal was to be able to present the new block of the month project today. But then I decided that I’d like to offer fabric kits to go with the design. Shopping for yardage to sell is not nearly as much fun as shopping for fabric for my stash. Since it’s something that I don’t do all that often I don’t have a fabric rep or contacts at the manufacturers. Progress stalled.

 I have found this killer fabric to use for the applique, five shades across the width of the fabric! When it comes to applique it doesn’t get any better than that. Still working on the background fabric, but I am making progress.

These lovely sorbet colors came from two fabrics, medium and light. Isn’t that cool? The colors blend across the width, with magical swirls of shades. I especially like how the fabric reads as a solid, just begging for thread work and embellishment.

All of this applique came from just four fabrics! Oh, be still my heart.

So here’s the deal. This year, instead of one large project, we’ll be having four seasonal block of the month projects. The quilts will finish about 38 x 42 inches, a nice wall or lap size. We’ll post the projects in three steps each, and just as we’ve done for years, the steps will be free for one month.

New this year, we’re going to offer the complete pattern for sale, as a download, when the first step is posted. We’ll get our act together and offer fabric kits. I’d like to also offer thread or embellishment kits. And eventually I will combine the motifs from all four seasonal patterns into one really deluxe larger quilt. At least that’s the plan as it stands today.

I could use a little help with a name for this quilt. Ideas anyone?

With the AQS show at Paducah less than a month away we’ve turned the studio into a workshop kit factory. My two piecing classes need the most prep work. Ordinarily the students would have received a supply list with directions to cut and sort their fabric before class. One of the classes even has a little bit of sewing in the prep work. For the kits, all of that work fell to me.

First I had to convert the directions from cutting for one to cutting for thirty. Good thing I like math, huh? Of course because the numbers were so large I would second guess myself, cut only half what the calculator said I should and then have to go back and cut the rest. Geesh.

This kit (for the Slick Slicing workshop) required a bazillion (which comes after a trillion if our congress is wondering how much to spend next) 2 1/2 inch strips and squares. I don’t use this short cut ruler very often, but for something like this it’s an amazing time saver.

Finally the pieces are sorted into numbered zip top bags. Each kit gets five bags. We’ll add thread, a sewing machine needle and the class note book, and pack them all into a nice string tie plastic envelope.

The fabrics for the Tools Rule! piecing class have been ordered and are on their way. In the mean time we’ll move on to the applique kit. To make thirty kits we’ll need templates for 120 large flowers, 180 small flowers, 300 leaves and 360 berries. Guess I’d better get back to work.

It seems that I have finally risen to the level of my incompetence. While it’s nice to know one’s limits, it’s not so much fun when it involves frustrating customers. Of those who ordered Pinwheels & Posies kits from us, most were wonderfully patient, some understandably disappointed, a couple were downright mad.

It’s hard to believe, but it has only been a month, start to finish.  In that time we have been wrangling bolts,  nearly seventy-five bolts in all. We ordered them in “rounds”, eight bolts of background, three bolts of accent and one bolt each of the twelve colors. Each round would make about sixty kits. When we started I worried that we would ever sell sixty! Every quilter covets yards and yards of fabric, but not all the same fabric! Three rounds later we finally called it done. Every single kit sold.

We cut more than two thousand fat quarters!

And folded them neatly.

Packed them up, ready for their new homes.

To be fair, we never dreamed that the response to the kits would be so big. And we were trying to fill all those orders while I was away on a long teaching trip, and Kent was away on vacation (with me, more on that later) and my crack assistant, Elaine, was away on Spring Break. Geesh. Note to self: don’t advertise kits and then leave town.

Thanks to all who ordered and waited so patiently. Quilters are the very best people in the world.

Now the fun begins. The design for the new block of the month is complete. The fabric has been selected. Let the sewing commence!

A palette of thirteen cheery fabrics were chosen from that glorious stack of more than seventy-five different prints. A pretty pale aqua will sparkle as the overall background. I can hardly wait to get started.

 Yes, we will be offering kits this year. The details will follow in the next week or so. We’re on track to begin on February 15th.  The introduction pages with the particulars should be up on the web page soon. Stay tuned!

Yes, I am thinking about the new block of the month. Yes, I have even begun work on the design. And even better, I already have the fabric for it.

Isn’t this an amazing stack of fabric? The design is barely started but my theme for this year is “cheerful”. These basics from P&B and Blank Textiles fit the bill perfectly. I’m thinking that we all could use a little whimsy in our lives.

I have other, more pressing projects that demand my immediate attention. The fabric line is coming along wonderfully (more on that soon), the applique book is moving forward (available in May) and my teaching schedule is pretty hectic until mid-March.

The goal is to get the new project posted on the website by mid-February. So far the plan is to make a smaller quilt this year, wall or lap size, not the ginormous quilts that we’ve done the last few years, but don’t hold me to that!

And we’re hoping to offer fabric kits again this year. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

In the midst of an arctic cold snap I’ve been preparing for a summer cruise to Alaska. We’ve been shivering with subzero wind chills and thinking about the trip in June.

Of course it’s a quilting cruise, what else would a quilter choose? It’s my pleasure to have been invited to teach for this group. I’ve never been on a cruise, so I feel like I have as much to learn as my students!

It’s a “cruise for a cure”, so when I was asked to create a special, exclusive project for the class sample of course I had to include pink ribbons. Since the project is for a class it was my challenge to include all the important lessons basic to my applique technique. The forget-me-knot flower is perfect for that, and so fitting for the sentiment of the cruise as well.

Never good at leaving good enough alone, I’m working on another version using Christmas colors and one for my kitchen. I’ll post pictures of those as soon as they are done. I’ll be able to provide kits and patterns for the project on my web page as well.