Where to Shop Now that Joann is Closed?

There's been much discussion about shopping for fabric and supplies ever since Joann (Formerly known as Joann Fabrics) announced the closing of approximately 500 of its 833 stores following a second bankruptcy filing in less than a year.

"Wherever will we get affordable fabric and notions?" seems to be the main concern as both Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Walmart and other chain crafts stores are still out there for yarn, crafting, and decorating bits and bobs, plus some crafting quality of fabric.

As a teen I worked in a Ben Franklin and the long-gone Clothworld. I never thought back then that I'd be a quilt shop owner. Though I would rather think of  Sew Simple/AmyQuilts as a creative sewing center, since we do carry some garment fabrics, flannel, felted wool, and fabulous threads for hand embroidery. Not to mention our Janome sewing machines and top notch machine and stitching help.

500 stores.... I feel for the employees who will not only need to find new jobs, but those the public are used to seeing, the average employee on the floor, likely will be guilt tripped into staying until the stores lock their doors for the last time. 

According to Comparably (,com), a business ranking website, those store employees earn an average of $22,001 per year. Admittedly, there were no details given as to how many hours the average store employee worked. Comparably went on to say,

"Comparably has a total of 3 salary records associated with Jo-Ann Stores employees. 416 employees at Jo-Ann Stores rank their Compensation in the Bottom 5% of similar sized companies on Comparably (based on 1244 ratings) while 407 employees at Jo-Ann Stores rank their Perks And Benefits in the Bottom 5% of similar sized companies on Comparably (based on 411 ratings)."

Of course, things looked better in the C-suite offices, where Wade Miquelon, the former CEO of Joann Fabrics, earned $2,740,178 in total compensation. This included a salary of $834,231, stock options of $1,275,651, stock of $626,247, and other compensation of $4,049. He left the company in May of 2023 and received a severance payment of $392,500 in cash.

An NPR report indicated some fabric shoppers will delve into thrifting and repurposing. I think that is great and certainly a fabulous form of sustainability. But unlike the article stated, it's far from the only option.

I specifically refer to a sustainable business model as we do see time and time again that when business' offer lower quality items at low prices and also embrace the use of coupons for 30-40% routinely, they are competing in a race to the lowest prices. That is not sustainable in the long run. At least not while JOANN was a publicly traded company. It hoped to see stock growth make up for low margins in the store. You really do not want to win a race to the bottom. 

Yes, sales have a place in retail. Appropriate pricing models are important, as is making sure to offer customers what they want. JOANN certainly was no longer the large fabric store they used to be, instead adding more and more decorative items, crafts, yarn, beads, fake flowers, etc. 

Most quilt shops do have regular sales or even a dedicated clearance section for those who shop with a smaller budget in mind or just love getting a deal. Some, like mine, offers a rewards program of some sort to give discounts to loyal shoppers. (Actually we do all of these things at Sew Simple home of AmyQuilts.com) We love helping new customers and beginners with classes, advice, and encouragement.

That glimmer though....

JOANN had 833 stores across the nation. 

Did you know that there 4,547 quilt shops in the US?

That's 5.47 quilt shops for each of the previous 833 JOANN stores. 

This number comes from the number of shops using the tax code designation for quilt shops. Arguably this number could vary quite a bit. But that's 4,547 shops calling themselves a quilt shop on their taxes. There could be more. Sadly, at the rate I'm seeing quilt shops close this past year, there could be fewer.

I can hear it now, "I need more than quilting fabric."

These shops are on their way to do one of 2 things. Deciding that they are working harder than ever for very little return, even if they enjoy it, and are thinking of getting out. Then there are other shops, maybe those run by younger people, who are actively looking for ways to grow, thrive, and intersect what they offer with what customers want. It's these shops that I hope and pray will convert JOANN shoppers to local independent creative sewing center shoppers.

These types of quilt shops are paying attention! They often have fabric suitable for certain garments; cotton lawn, canvas, linen blends, and other more drape-y woven cottons. They've got interfacing, thread, sewing machines, notions and more. Many will listen to their customers when they say they want something else and will bring it in if they can, or special order if needed in enough quantity. If they've been around long enough, they may have been fabric shops at first until quilting was the main thing left to them. I'm hoping we see them diversify and become creative sewing centers.

Many JOANN shoppers have commented that they will shop online instead.

According to Google, there are 3521 quilt shops with online shopping. A few of them are huge. One  of the largest has alienated a portion of the quilting and sewing community with their stance on certain cultural issues. Many are small enough that they can help you shop online with them if desired.  You just can't get that kind of service from the big discounting kind of shops.

One thing is for sure; these independent shops can't expand to serve a broader range of sewing interests without getting to know these shoppers. It can be a real "chicken versus the egg" kind of thing.

With 4,547 quilt shops across the country, I propose that you just might have more shops around you than you realize. 

The average age of a quilt shop is just 5 years and 9 months and the number of shops have increased by almost 4% since 2003. Not a huge increase, but statistically, shops are coming and going fairly frequently.  A sign that creative people love the idea of providing what they perceive people like them need. Unfortunately, also a sign that it doesn't make big bucks for the owners.

Ask around. Do a google search. These shops aren't as visible as a 10,000 square foot "big box" business, not just in size but also in marketing dollars. But they are out there. Sure, some might not be your "cup of tea" but there will be others that are. There are plenty that want to serve you up your favorite cup of tea, but they can't do that if they don't know you. 

Additionally, if you are a quilter, you may find that your projects turn out better with the higher quality fabrics. (I know, I know, some will never be convinced of this.)  Unless a quilt shop is serious about being a bargain style shop, they typically sell fabrics by companies who source their cottons (greige goods) from South Korea, Japan, India, Bali, and Pakistan where a better grade of these raw fabrics are used to then dye or print than Joanns did. 

Even better, more and more cotton is being digitally printed in the USA. Without tariffs, these fabrics may no longer seem as expensive as in the past. (They likely will be printed on cotton milled overseas for a finer quality, but the final step done in the US will save against tarifs.) I've also read about a number of old textile plants in the US being brought back to life to weave denim, toweling, woolens, and other fabrics. That brings an even brighter glow to that glimmer. I did recently order a few bolts of quilting cotton solids from a company that makes them in the US. Sadly, it felt awful and will be going straight to my clearance section.

This is a conversation to be had with other creative makers, shoppers and shop owners. This is a chance to grow and learn together, to get to know people in your community, and to look at what does a sustainable creative hobby or even small cottage businesses and their suppliers look like as we go forward. Because we must continue to move forward, even if stitching seems like something from our past. We're making beauty out of the ordinary, and for many, engaging in a practice that has multiple mental health benefits.

My final thoughts on finding fabric and supplies in a post-Joann world:

If you only care about price in the current moment, stick to Am*zon, w*w*k, big box places, and the mega online suppliers like MO St*r & FQshop. (Yeah, I'm not spelling them out; they can do their own promotion.) I mention 'current moment' because these kinds of businesses can be competition killers, which eventually leads to higher prices.

If you might want a place with knowledgeable help, sewing machine support, classes, etc. search out your nearest couple of quilt/sewing shops. Let me toot my own horn in the hopes you are close enough to shop at Sew Simple of Lynchburg VA.

If these shops are limited, or don't have what you want, OR you want something in between for some combination of price/selection/knowledge/customer support, look for independent quilt/fabric shops that have a good online presence. Like AmyQuilts.com, my online shop.

A great place to not only learn, but to find a list of independent quilt shops is a FB group called "Nine Patch a Day" run by Karen Montgomery. She's a Jaftex brand ambassador, former quilt shop owner, a fabulous quilting instructor (a little traditional for some in fabric taste), a Creative Grids Ruler designer, and runs an educational retreat for shop owners- Sewposium. There's about 55 shops she works with including me. All of these cooperating shops have online stores, run special programs, and are committed to customer service. (If they don't do good customer service, they don't get to stay a "Sewposium shop" for long!) 

I know pricing is usually a main concern, but it's nearly impossible to have quality products, knowledgeable suppliers, and good employees to help, without paying a bit more. What's that old slogan? "We cost a bit more, but we're worth it!"

What do you think? Am I off base? Be kind, but let me know in the comments.

Happy stitching,

Sew Simple Studio for AmyQuilts.com

I have been remiss in blogging about my newest challenge and project. I've talked about it in Facebook, but haven't actually posted here. For Christmas, I gave myself a building!

OK, so I actually signed a lease for the building, a 1920's storefront in my local town of Altavista, Virginia.

Why? First of all, we're not moving or closing our shop, Sew Simple of Lynchburg. Rather this is a way to make our shop better. We are getting crowded in our current location and I kept driving around Lynchburg looking for possible places to move the shop. But there really wasn't anything that was a reasonable step larger. Just places that were huge, expensive, or not in a good location.

Add to that, we still have a few years on our current lease and it is in a great location. I had spent a fabulous weekend in early December with Carol Britt from Batiks Etc. & Sew What Fabrics in Wytheville, VA where we talked about our visions for our businesses. I had shared with her my trouble seeing us get bigger, as well as my frustrations of not having time to make the projects I wanted, recording my videos, and topped off with late hours at the store trying to do that, I was missing having time with my kids.

On my 2 hour drive home from Wytheville, I had plenty of time to think. I began to think of what our shop did, what our customers wanted, and whether there was anything that could be taken out of the store to give us more room for the necessary activities and products. Suddenly, it hit me, I didn't need to be there!

That's sounds a bit drastic, I know, but as I thought about it, my video equipment and my sewing machine set up could be removed from the shop and would give the shop's classroom some much needed space. Additionally, I could do much of the shop's admin in a different location which would allow us to use some of the office space at the shop for processing inventory when it comes in. This is an activity that often was being done in the classroom. As a result, we often had to clean up the classroom to have a class and also, get my stuff back out in order for me to make samples and videos.

I love my set up, but it takes up a lot of space in the store's classroom.

But I already knew working from home wasn't going to work. I have already been doing much of my computer work from home and it just wasn't working well. There certainly wasn't room in our house for the sewing and quilting studio, plus the video equipment. So what's a girl to do?

While space in Lynchburg was hideously expensive, the small town we live in (or officially, across the river from) had several vacant storefronts, like many small towns these days. I set a budget and decided that if I could find a space that fit it, I'd set up a studio space. This choice has been a real challenge! It means stepping up and making sure I am using this space to generate it's own income via video classes, pattern design, writing that book on ruler work that I really need to do, and more.

Isn't it funny that even when you feel like you just can't do one more thing, life has a way of making sure we step up, take it on, and move forward?

Removing a partial wall that had been added in the past.

My new studio has three main areas, my quilting and video area, an open space twice as big as the shop's classroom, perfect for hosting classes and workshops, and a private back area for my office and space for my kids to hang out.

Speaking of the kids.... the studio is walking distance from school for the older two, as well as the library, 2 parks, and the Y. It's a mere one mile from our house, though with the hills, river, and road between the two, not great for walking or biking from home. Since the studio will not be open to the public other than for special events and classes, they can spread out through the space. Leah is looking forward to more sewing time with me and my geeky oldest is looking forward to inviting his friends over after school to game together sometimes. Leah has asked for crafty classes for her and her friends too.

The community is also asking for classes. Some are quilters, but there is also interest in just having something fun and creative to do in a small town. I'm certain we can provide that eventually.

The building had been home to a series of hair salons since the 40's. The last one had an interesting mix of Art Deco meets Industrial design.

In the meantime, I have a lot of work to do. Nearly 100 years old, this building has a lot of character and what has been referred to as "layers."  Some of the layers are good, others, like the remnants of a past dropped ceiling and the cheap paneling put over the original bead board is not so great. My budget is small, so the work and outfitting the space with what it needs will happen gradually, especially as I still have my duties at the shop to attend to.

The painting begins. Not sure what colors we will paint the walls, but we're starting with primer.

While I will be separating my duties across two places, it will allow me to be more focused, efficient, and present in each space. That's a good thing.

Binding Quilts with the Janome Quilt Binder Set

I love to free motion quilt my quilts, but once I get done quilting them, especially if I've gone a little over the top with ruler work and dense fills, I tend to stall out on the binding. So I finally got around to using the Janome Quilt Binder Set.

I am totally in love with the quilt binder set! It's perfect for just getting these quilts bound and done. And I'm a big fan of done over perfection any day.

People usually wonder, "What about the corners?" Well, I think my corners are possibly better than my usual traditional method. I've got a pictorial tutorial for you and I will hopefully follow up with a video at some point. (This is not the easiest process to get good video footage while still getting my hands where they need to be.)

Four fabulous corners and #2 is where I joined the beginning and end!

This is the Janome Quilt Binding Set, not to be confused with the simple binding foot, which can't handle the thickness of a quilt but does a great job with binding raw edges of garments or making thin straps. If you have something other than a Janome, check with your dealer as I would think some of the other brands would have a similar product.

It attaches to the machine, in part, by replacing the bobbin cover door with the base of the binder set, so it's important to get the right one for your machine. It's only meant for the bigger machines as you've got to have some room to work.

It does a half inch binding using a 2 inch strip of fabric. There are other binders that are compatible that do different sizes, but you need the base from this set to make them work with means another purchase, which can get spendy. So just stick with this one unless you've got your own sweat shop going.

I cut my strips 2 inches wide and join them with 45 degree seams, then press to one side. I've tried to press them open but the binder just pushes them to the right as it is fed through, so to one side they go. I also make sure to load it with the seam allowances going to the right.

 As you can see in the above picture, the attachment wraps the binding around the edges. That 90 degree positioning/fold of the binding really helps get the quilt fully into the binding. There are several adjustments that the various screws allow you to make, including angling it for a curved edge and making the bottom fold stick out further than the top fold of the binding.

It comes with a foot but I chose to use my narrow Acufeed Flex Foot (a built in walking foot that is perfectly synchronized to the regular feed dogs) for more even feeding of the quilt layers and binding. It works fabulously together.

You can use a straight stitch but using a decorative stitch ensures that you'll catch both edges of the binding for sure.  In these two samples, I used pretty wide stitches because they looked great with the quilts, but I have used a narrow serpentine stitch, blanket stitch, and straight stitch with great results.

When you get to a corner, you stitch right up to the edge. Then you lift the foot and pull the quilt straight back about 10-12 inches (away from you) and put the foot back down on top of the binding and finger press the folded binding hanging out the back of the machine. Don't skimp on how much you pull through the back or you won't have enough to comfortably work with.

Then you fold the mitered corner down in front and secure with pins or tape, then the same for the back.

I now prefer Kimberbell Tape to do this. I do not sew over pins and when using them, as soon as I took them out, it would shift. I can sew right through the tape and it picks out easily without gumming up my needle or fabric.

Then you pull the quilt towards the back and insert into the extra binding that was pulled out. Then you carefully pull the binding backwards through the binder attachment, moving the quilt backwards as you go, until you are at the corner ready to continue stitching.

Gently pull until the binding encases the edge and you are back at the corner

Since I use the Kimberbell tape, I don't have to futz with pins. Just start stitching again. For the record, I wouldn't use any other brand of tape for this even it it does look like paper bandage tape. It's been made for stitching through.

And how do I join the ends of binding? There are a couple of different methods, but I am now a fan of joining the ends at a corner! This means I can use the binder as much as possible. If I joined along a side, I'd have to wing it to secure the binding on either end of the join.

 So I just hand tuck the raw ends to make a nice mitered corner and stitch it down. If I stitch all four corners down at the miters, it would be super duper hard to tell the difference. My friend and one of my favorite customers, Ann, took a look at this quilt and totally approved.

Because the attachment covers the bobbin cover door, you'll want to start with a full bobbin. Learn from my experience! Also, I don't recommend using a super complicated decorative stitch for this reason; uses more thread.

I wouldn't use this for show quilts, but if you want something to help get quilt binding done, this is fabulous. Great for charity quilts, utility quilts, and in my case, shop samples. I know some will say they prefer to hand bind, that's it's relaxing. I actually agree, but I am strapped for time and this helps.

My daughter is certainly happy to finally have her first quilt done. She pieced these 10" squares together and then we split the quilting. We each quilted every other block, and then it sat....waiting for its binding. Now it's all done!

Now, it's not cheap. But time is priceless. Many dealers don't keep the binders in stock because of the price, but I do, now that I've seen how easy it is to use. You can find the Janome Quilt Binder Set over at AmyQuilts.com in two versions for different machines.

Finally, yes, I'm back to blogging here. Turns out our online shop's blogging platform makes it difficult to format a decent article and more importantly, it didn't allow me to respond directly to comments! That's a total deal breaker, so this will become the blog for all of my sewing and quilting adventures.

Amy's Quilting Juggling Act

Hard on the heels of teaching at the Janome Education Summit, I've been dabbling in quite a few quilty projects, though only a few or them involved quilting with rulers or ruler work. Click on the above link to read about the summit and links from other fabulous participants.

Janome passed along some photos from the event, so I thought I'd share them with you too. The Summit was my biggest class yet in teaching free motion quilting with rulers. Thank goodness we all had the same machine (Janome 9400), ruler foot and the Janome Ruler Work Kit for our rulers.  That made it a lot easier even though some of our participants hadn't done free motion quilting before.

Here's a great shot of Sarah Ann Smith! It was an honor to have her in class as she's been an inspiration over the years. She totally did her own thing with the project and gave a fabulous write up on the quilting with rulers class segment on her blog.

Have you seen the Jelly Roll Rug yet? Just had to make one of these fun things. I used a jelly roll and two rolls of pre-cut batting strips, but it's an excellent project for using up scraps of batting.

The trick to getting a nice flat rug instead of a ruffled thing my husband said looked like a swimming flounder is to make sure to sew on a large flat surface (pattern gives a suggestion how to set up machine next to a table if you don't have a machine cabinet) and to ease the fabric around the curves. I loved using my Horn cabinet for this.

As soon as I returned from the Summit, I had to get cracking on my shop's Row by Row pattern and project. Row by Row (aka rxr) is like a giant shop hop, all across North America (possibly elsewhere? Unsure) where travelling quilters collect either free patterns or buy the kit from shops. If you are the first to show a finished "row" quilt with 8 patterns from row shops, to a participating shop, you will win a bunch of fabric. It's something really fun to add during your summer travels.

My "row" is actually an 18 inch block as they are allowing different pattern sizes this year. I played with my machine's decorative stitches and a couple of different weights of Aurifil thread on it. I'll write up more about Row by Row closer to the launch date of June 21st. 

I'm really excited about this fabric line by Hope Yoder that we've got in the shop, especially the panel. I decided to order two more bolts of the panel in the thoughts that this might be the basis of my first either Quilt-along, or a new online class. I've got kits for this quilt featuring the panel in the shop right now, but I'll let you know more about what I want to do with it soon. Need to get the additional panels in before I launch something online.

Speaking of hosting a Quilt-along or a new online class, I'm working on two big changes for you  and my business/teaching.

Ever since we bought our bricks and mortar shop, Sew Simple of Lynchburg, I've been neglecting this blog and my video making. I've been scattered in several places online too and it's been quite a juggling act. To make up for my lack of blogging and video making, I've been shooting more live Facebook videos and they certainly helped me feel more connected to you in my online audience, but I've really been spread thin. Live videos are fun and easy to do, but lacking when it comes to organized instruction.

I finally reached out to a pair of mentors of mine and asked them what to do with my websites. I was afraid to hear how bad my sites were as I'm the one who set them all up, so they're a bit amateurish, though fit for my tiny budget. Their advice? It was that I need to condense the various sites into one site if possible and shorten the url. If you've ever heard me struggle in a video to say "I'm Amy from Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures," you know they're right!

So....I'll be transitioning everything over to AmyQuilts.com!

I'm excited about the change though it will take a lot of work and a bit of time to get everything moved. If you follow the blog via a feed reader like Bloglovin' or something else, I'll let you know when the blog makes the switch and you'll want to change your settings to the new blog. This blog will stay online, but I won't be adding to it once I make the switch.

Lastly, I'm looking at doing some of my own online classes! These will fit somewhere between the highly scripted classes I did with Craftsy and my very casual, informal Facebook live videos, or even my YouTube videos. This will give me better control over the content I teach and how I teach it. Some classes will be free, others will be paid. All will be full of great information and taught in my laid-back style.

I'm very excited about these changes and I hope you will be too! Let me know your thought in the comments.

Janome 9400 Ruler Foot and Upgrade

So many people have been asking me about a ruler foot for the 9400 and I can finally let you know that it's almost ready to launch. Dealers have already gotten this information, so while I can't really tell you all about it until the public launch, I can tell you its on the way and I'll give you full information about it shortly!

Amy's Newest Quilting Adventure: Artistic SD16

I've always been a little leery of moving up to a bigger machine when it comes to sharing free motion quilting, ruler work (quilting with rulers), and offering up tips for machine quilting. Especially as I know most of my readers and students don't have huge machines.

But when it comes to quilting big quilts, there's no denying that bigger machines sure help. I hear from many folk that they've taken the plunge to a long arm or a larger domestic machine mounted onto a frame system. Some are delighted, others...not so much.

Artistic SD16

A sit down long arm breaches the divide for me. I don't have room for a long arm on a frame, I certainly don't have the budget for one, and I'm a confirmed "quilt pusher!" I don't have to change or adapt my free motion quilting skills to switch to this machine.

We've got a very large and active long arm dealership in our area, so even if I wanted to AND had the room, I'm not sure I'd bring in the new Janome long arm machines, though they are getting great reviews (they're no longer the Tin Lizzy clones). Plus pushing my quilts to quilt them is my forte, so it makes sense to stick with what I know best.

We've brought in the Artistic SD 16, which has a ton of room and also sits in the same orientation as a sewing machine. I love this! I can reach all parts of the machine with ease and I can push a quilt right to the back without running into the body of the machine.

It comes standard with a stitch regulator too. This is a big help for those with less experience with free motion quilting. My daughter loves the feature. Yes, I've been letting my 11 year old use this machine, with stern instruction to keep her fingers away from the needle.

I haven't spent a lot of time on the machine, being insanely busy keeping the shop all stocked and cute for the Christmas season and keeping customers happy. While my daughter loves the stitch regulator, I'd rather go without. But I'm trying it anyway as we plan on renting time on the machine for interested customers. I insist on knowing my machines!

Turns out that if you're experienced in free motion and used to slowing down your hands if the machine slows down while the stitch regulator slows the machine down if your hands slow down, you end up in a bit of a stand off!

The black button on the quilt above (my daughter's first big quilt) is resting above the stitch regulator which works much like a wireless computer mouse to tell the machine what speed to run at based on the regulator's motion. This is much different than the stitch regulator on a frame based long arm.

I've heard before that many long arm professionals prefer to work without the regulator and when I recently posted on Instagram about my stitch regulator stand off, I got several comments along the same lines from quilters using a sit down machine. Glad to know it wasn't just me or a problem with the machine.

It's been interesting using designs at a larger than usual scale for me. But the intricate quilting I love to do on my sewing machine isn't the thing for a nice cuddly quilt. These are 9.5 inch squares and I'm putting one large feathered flower in every other block. My daughter is planning on doing the rest of the blocks herself.

Above is my beautiful, creative, stubborn daughter. She's also apparently freezing. I swear our shop is a nice temperature, but you can't prove it with this picture. She helped with the basting of her quilt too. I'm looking forward to seeing her stitch on her quilt too. She seems to feel better about doing it on this machine than she does on any of our sewing machines. I'll keep you posted.

How about you? Have you tried these sit down machines? Are you using a stitch regulator?  Is anyone disappointed that I keep going up to bigger machines? 

By the way, if you are local to Lynchburg or within a reasonable drive, we are having our Christmas Open House Event this coming weekend (Dec. 8 & 9) with demos, sales, snacks, complementary scissor sharpening with minimum purchase. (Limit one free sharpening) We've got great deals on machines and exceptional support and service.

Leah Day and Amy Chat on Hello My Quilting Friends

I cannot believe I never posted that I was a guest on Leah Day's podcast recently! I shared it on Facebook and then totally dropped the ball.

Hopefully you've been catching these very interesting episodes hosted by Leah as she interviews people from the quilting industry and beyond. The show pulls back the curtain a bit into the business side of the quilting industry and she decided to interview me about running a "brick and click" business. Brick and click means a business that has a store front as well as an online component.

Actually, she wanted to see how I balance life and work between the two businesses.....insert hysterical laughter here.........and I am not the person to talk about balance! It's a constant juggling act with balls getting dropped from time to time. I liken it to standing on a teeter totter. Ideally, you're in the middle, keeping both ends balanced. More likely, it's a dance from one side to another, a constant wiggling back and forth. It's a pretty wild and amazing ride and I think Leah did an excellent job of asking the right questions to bring out my story.

You can listen here: Hello my Quilting Friends with Leah Day, episode 26

Row by Row On the Go 2017

I'm off for a few days for our annual family reunion. This year we're in West Virginia.

When we get back home, I'll be short 2 out of three kids (Yay for grandparents!) and working on some quilting projects as well as getting ready for our first time participating in the Row by Row Experience. This will be our first time in this huge, summer-long event.

Beginning June 21, 2017, visit any of the participating shops and receive a free pattern for a row in a quilt. Combine your rows in any way to create a unique quilt that represents the fun you had traveling to the stores. Travel with friends, discover new quilt shops and have fun collecting rows!

Create a quilt using at least 8 different 2017 rows from 8 different 2017 participating RxR shops and be the first to bring it into a participating shop to win a stack of 25 fat quarters (6-1/4 yards of fabric!). Use that shop’s row in your quilt and win a bonus prize!

I designed our row in the midst of moving the shop last month. I decided on featuring the 611 Steam engine as it steams through Lynchburg and past our house in small town Virginia as well. My family are pretty big rail fans, especially the boys. We even saw this historic train get underway as it was towed to North Carolina three years ago to get restored and refitted. It fits the theme of "On the Go!" perfectly for us.

If you are on the go  for Row by Row this year between June 21 and September 5th, make a point to visit us in Lynchburg VA. We are one of three participating shops in the area, making it well worth the trip.

This row was fun to work up as an applique project. I prefer turned edge machine applique, so that's what I did for most of it. When it came to the tiny pieces, I did switch to fusible raw edged applique, but the row can be done in any applique method you prefer.  The freight car is pieced, then appliqued.

You can pick up the free pattern at Sew Simple, or you can purchase a kit to make the row as shown.

I am looking forward to meeting more quilters this summer and getting back to my studio for both classes and more of my own quilting projects to share here on the blog.

Amy's Quilting Studio Adventures

It's been a whirlwind here in Lynchburg Virginia, home of Sew Simple of Lynchburg, my Janome dealership and creative sewing center as we prepared to start our second year in a brand new location. The original owner had the shop behind his house on a fairly well-travelled road, but we wanted a better location and more space.

We opened June 1 to several customers waiting for us to open the doors, and while things still needed some minor tweaking, I felt like the place looked pretty good. Above is just part of the shop.

 But behind the public places of the shop, things were chaotic at best. New homes for a lot of our stuff just hadn't been found yet, and there were a lot of boxes. My new studio/classroom was no exception, though I did let people take a peek.

Below I recorded the before shots and even shared them on Instagram, just to motivate myself to get it done.

These big tables are for my students. Can you even see the tables? A total disaster, I tell you.

Pile of white batting we pulled of the wall of the old place. It will be turned into a pinnable design wall as soon as we have a chance to pick up some insulation board. I think we overdosed on the wonder that is Lowe's Hardware when we kept going back for more paint.

Even though we ordered a new Horn storage cabinet, the mess was monstrous. Honestly, some of the mess didn't belong in this room, so that's where I started, getting everything out that didn't belong.

We got a new register too, but didn't get it programmed in time for opening day. We put up with the ancient one for the first week, but I did succeed in moving it to the office in the meantime.

Now it is neat and tidy. At least until the next creative vortex takes over. Below is my Janome 8200 in its Horn cabinet.

Then my cutting and storage area. If you carefully, you can get a peek of my shop's first ever Row by Row pattern. If you travel in Virginia to collect your free row patterns, make sure to visit me in Lynchburg.

Below, you can see a lovely little Janome machine I've set out to do some videos on some new specialty templates made for low shank sewing machines by TopAnchor. Very excited about hiving this option now for those folks with a low shank machine.

Here was no getting around the fact that I had more stuff than I had room to store the stuff, so we ran off to Lowe's (forgetting the insulation board) and got another shelving unit. We love these sturdy units. I love that my hubby put it together for me.

So now my studio/classroom is ready for me and my students. It's fairly small even though we took a wall out between two smaller rooms to make this space happen. It's perfect for the smaller classes I like to do, where everyone can get attention by the teacher.

At the end of the student tables is one of my free motion quilted words. I think it's perfect for my space and the color looks pretty great against my light turquoise walls. Let's hope it's a phrophetic word for this space!

A Free Motion Quilting Finale

Look! I'm making binding, which means I must have finished quilting something. Yay me! Ombre Triangles is done. (I think I need a better name for this project.)

This poor quilt had so much start and stop quilting that I kept forgetting how I wanted to quilt it between sessions, so it lost its cohesive look. But I had fun playing around with these triangles and groups of triangles. Some were done as diamonds, others as hexagons, but all pretty different.

Most of it was ruler work, with the QP Edge (12") but I also used a QP Curve #8, and a free hand scroll-y, flower fill especially around the edges. Then I threw in a few other things just to keep it interesting.

This whole quilt was done in one fabric, V&Co Ombre, and I was able to trim up the extra backing for my binding, which left it mostly as the darker teal color.

I always struggle when it comes to stitching strips of binding together. I get distracted, sometime from others around me, other times from my ditzy brain. So I've taken to ironing one end of each strip (each strip oriented the same way) at a 45 degree angle. This helps me make the angled seam point the same way and makes sure I sew the strips together properly.

Don't you hate it when you pull the strip open and you've done it wrong? Maybe you've stitched right side to wrong side? Maybe I'm the only one whose botched it more times than I want to admit?

Then I open the crease and I've got something to follow for a good straight 45 degree seam.

Now, if I had turned my binding around so the bulk of it was lying to the right, I could have used these handy dandy markings on the needle plate (see red arrows below). Janome machines have a mess of helpful lines on the needle plate! Sometimes I forget they are there though....bad Janome dealer, shame on me!

Then I switched to a different foot 'sole' for my integrated walking foot, aka the Accufeed Flex System. Love these built in walking feet that are completely removable. This foot combination has a 1/4 inch guide on it.

Of course, by the time I got to the binding, I was beyond ready to do something else and didn't audition the binding around the quilt very well and ended up with this....

Now, if this had been an actual solid fabric, I could have easily adjusted that last binding seam that joined the ends. But that ombre was making its move to another color where I wanted to do it. In the end (ha!), I worked it out as far away as I could without having a noticeable change of color between the two strips. (Totally should have done the "No Tails Binding" by Linda Hungerford.)

I like using Roxanne's Glue Baste It for putting ends of binding together. I pressed my 45 degree angle, added a smidge of glue in what would be the seam allowance, hit it with the iron for instant drying, then opened it up and stitched along the crease. Once I stitched, I popped the seam allowance open, trimmed it to 1/4 inch, pressed it open, and stitched it the rest of the way.

Next, I'm machine stitching this guy down by stitching in the ditch. Then I'm off to one of many things on my to-do list. So many things I want to make. I want to make a little girl's dress to show off a new fabric line in the shop, there's a bag I want to make from another line, I want to make a sloth pillow.... the list goes on and on!

Plus, there's moving to do! We're coming up on our one year anniversary of owning Sew Simple and to celebrate, we're packing everything up and moving down the road almost one mile to a better, bigger location. I'm so excited!

Goodness! Look how dark my hair is. I need some highlight, stat.

One of the things I'm loving about this move is that the new location has no overhead tenants. So many videos have gotten ruined by thumping feet. I think they must be little gymnasts. Also, we will have a separate classroom space from the rest of the sales floor, which will give me a better chance to work on projects. Finally, I think we're just about ready to take another giant leap of faith and look for our first employee or two. I just can't do it all, even with my wonderful husband's help.