Ellen Sorenson recently became a grandmother. Ellen is a smart business woman. She has held many important positions, but I think the knitting grandmother is her most important role. She’s smart and knitting savvy. She bought this bulky brown yarn in anticipation of this little guy’s arrival. She turned him into a little football. You gotta dress those babies up before they can protest. Yes, that’s the best time to

Here’s Piper James. She just sewed her first skirt. This is the first sewing class she has ever had. She knew what to do with her summer vacation. I love the fabric that she picked for this skirt. It’s a piece by Red Rooster Fabrics. It is perfect for a skirt. It flows well, but would be equally as awesome in a quilt. I love fabrics like that. More and

So, it’s finally here. I am being featured in this month’s AQS Magazine. It arrived 2 days ago in my mailbox at the shop. How did this all happen? Well, I was at the AQS show in Lancaster Pennsylvania when the Editor-in-Chief for AQS Magazine saw and fell in love with, none other than, my umbrellas. Now, obtaining those umbrellas was no easy feat. For weeks I called people, talked

Not everyone that comes into my shop is a modern quilter. Gasp! I have many a different kind of fabric enthusiast. One of my very favorite customers is Barb Mitchell. You have seen Barb in previous posts. She makes banners for her church. They are sensational. Because of the wide diversity of fabrics that we have in the shop, she is able to find much and most of what she

It’s a proud day for a quilting mom. My daughter decided to make a quilt for her in-laws for their 40th anniversary. So, we picked out a bunch of fabric at the shop and she went about her business making them a quilt. The pattern that she used was also from the shop, by “Night Owl Quilting”. And, it didn’t look like much on the front of the pattern, but

Sherry Purtell loves green. Sure, she makes quilts with lots of other colors. There’s the quilt she made for her daughter who graduated from University of Minnesota. That was, of course, maroon and gold. But for the most part, she loves green. She made this when taking a class from Jackie Gehring. I love how bright this is. By the way, she was at Group Swoop the other night. She

I really enjoyed teaching the clamshell class. Since I have a “Go” cutter with a clamshell die, I decided to let everyone use it to cut out their clamshells. The thing about a clamshell quilt is that there is not a single seam in the quilt that is straight. They are all curved. One of my favorite customers, and good friend is Cathy Campbell. She made this clamshell quilt. The

I can’t be more proud of this little girl that I taught to knit. She knitted this hat and entered it into the Fond du Lac County Fair. She’s in 4-H, and her parents called me for help. It so happened that she was taught how to knit by her grandmother. She had the concepts, but was holding the needles incorrectly, and twisting the stitches. I give her grandmother tons

I can’t get enough of seeing the creations of others. You know how I am always saying that my customers are my inspiration…well, they are. But I have some pretty creative ladies that work for me once in a while…here’s Cindy. She created this umbrella. I love it. I really love this fabric line from Moda. These umbrellas really are waterproof. When you spray them with waterproofing spray, they become