Patch Halifax - Somethin' new (with fabric)!

It's a big day in my neck of the woods! Our first ever modern quilt shop opened today! It's so new that their permanent sign isn't quite ready yet!

  

Located at 2571 Robie Street in Halifax, it's a bright, fun little space - complete with classroom/studio area at the back.

This lovely little vignette greets you as you walk in the door!

 

There are a lot of mod sewing and quilt books on the shelves, as well as patterns from Oliver & S.  And then there's the wall of fabric goodness - treats from Liberty, Charley Harper from Birch Fabrics, and there's more coming! It's so fun to see (and touch!) fabric lines that I've only seen on my computer screen.

 This shelf drew me in...Joel Dewberry's newest line, Birch Farm.

 

I had a great chat with the owner, Chris, and found out that my guildmates, Linda from Scrapmaster and Dominique from The Running Thimble had already been in for a visit. And before I left, more fabric arrived - a pile of goodies from Denyse Schmidt!

Their website will be up and running soon, soon, soon and you'll be able to see more pics of the shop and the fun stuff they've got on offer! I can hardly wait for classes to begin in September... it's been a while since there was something different on offer around these parts. In the mean time, I'll be making myself a little something with the treat I picked up today!

I told you that shelf of Birch Farm grabbed me!

J

Impulse purchasing... quilter's best friend?

It's been quiet here at A Quarter Inch from the Edge... I was off on an adventure this past week - some quality time in La Belle Province. Whilst in Montréal, Himself found me a little treasure of a quilt shop, Effiloché. I've got a mix of iPhone and camera pics since my camera battery conked out on me... isn't that always the way?

 

 Love the wall colours!

   

This little shop is as much about knitting as quilting, but there's no way yarn could hold my interest when there was drawer after drawer stuffed with fat quarters!

And the designers! There was shelf after shelf of designer fabric that I never see anywhere but in on-line pics. Lotta Jansdotter, Joel Dewberry, Tula Pink, Lizzy House, Kate Spain. It goes on and on!

This one's a little blurry, but I couldn't resist snapping a pic of their little kitchen corner. Shouldn't every shop have an espresso machine? There were also comfy couches to chill out on... I'd love to have this as my LQS.

If I could think of a way to store something quilting related in cans nailed to the wall, I'd seriously consider it! And yes, those are maple syrup cans!

 I will freely admit, I went more than a little wild. I don't remember the last time I spent this much on impulse fabric. Get ready for some eye candy!

To kick things off, the stuff for which I have a plan!  These are destined to be turned into baby bibs or maybe baprons! The green is a Lizzy House print... it was rolled up tight, so I couldn't see the selvage!

Given that I've asked for red and teal for my Global Scrap Bee blocks, I thought these might come in handy later, perhaps as binding for the finished quilt. And they're Joel Dewberry... yum.

I thought I'd make this Lizzy House print into some pillows for the living room. I love the ones I made in the winter, but they're not very summery!

On to the impulse fabrics! These corals called to me! The owls are a mystery designer (no selvage when I unfolded the FQ), but the middle one is a Michael Miller and the cherry blossoms are Kate Spain. I've never really seen her fabrics before, but I like 'em!

There's some more Kate Spain in this combo. I didn't mean for all these fabrics to go together, but when I was sorting them for pics, they seemed like kindred spirits. That green one is from a line called Frippery. What fun! The green and blue swirlies are Valori Wells. And the hexie honeybees are more Kate Spain. Check out that selvage!

They had a whole section of my pal, Amy Butler's prints. Okay, she's not really my pal, but I've been friends with her fabric for a long time. I went for something a little more neutral... I'm thinking of a sun hat. ☺

.

I can't decide what I love most about this print by Kate & Birdie Paper Co... the colour palette, the hedgies, the squirrels, the selvage. It's too hard to choose. But I bought enough of it to make a baby quilt and to use it as the backing. I'm thinking impro blocks using blue, green, and brown Kona and fussy cut centres of those little park vignettes.

And a few more FQs. I don't normally buy FQs, but it seemed like a way to keep myself from buying crazy amounts of yardage. Like I hadn't already. I found some Bike Path and some Lotta Jansdotter. And don't get me started on those orange elephants!

Here's my photo assistant, Dylan (pronounced Dullin... he's Welsh, you know). These shots were taken on the extensive grounds of Chez Dexter. And Lord Dylan definitely believes himself to be the master of house!

Thanks, Molli Sparkles, for leaving Sunday Stash open longer than just Sunday! There's no way I could wait a whole week to share this haul!

J

P.S. You've still got a day or so to enter my birthday giveaway from my last post!  

On the road again...

... seems to be the theme song around here these days! Himself and I have made two trips to Cape Breton (5 hours drive away), one to Lockeport (2.5 hours away) and one to Lunenburg (an hour or so away) in the past few weeks. And we don't consider any of them to be our vacation for this summer! To say I'm happy to be home is an understatement at the moment!

Not all of these trips away were devoid of quiltyness. On our first trip to Cape Breton, I made a stop at a new to me quilt shop in Himself's home"town" of Marion Bridge - The Mira Stitch N Post. I made a major score in that the owner was celebrating her birthday by giving her customers 40% off!!!

I might have lost my usual reserve a little here... I usually try to buy fabrics for a particular project and not just because I like them. There's too much evidence of willy nilly purchasing in my stash already! But those turquoises and oranges just looked so good together. And the minimum cut was 1 metre because of the sale, so I HAD to get a metre of each.

 Then I stumbled upon this little gem... isn't it funny how you've never heard of a designer/blogger and suddenly they pop up everywhere? I had only seen the Jaybird Quilts website once before and here was a pattern from the same fab designer. I gave in. Let's not speak of that resolution about books and magazines that I made some time ago.

Of course, she doesn't just design cool quilt patterns. She created this handy dandy ruler to make it easier to make her stuff. I hesitated... I'm not normally into gimicky notions, but it really did seem like this one would be more doable with the handy ruler. Now I'm just deliberating on what fabrics to use.... I'm considering a Christmas themed quilt or maybe the oranges and turquoises. I just can't pull the trigger.

Anyway, our trips to Lockeport and Lunenburg ran pretty close together.. no pics from Lockeport. It just wasn't that sort of excursion. But here are a few from Lunenburg. Just for you, Q-D!

 View from our room at the fabulous Fleur de sel. Doesn't this cry to be made into a quilt somehow?!

 Reflections

 The UNESCO Fresco... shades of last year's trip to St. John's, Newfoundland

Ripply sand at Sand Dollar Beach... I mostly included this one because I'm pretty pleased with the new skirt I'm wearing (sewed up the day we left)!

Our latest trip to Cape Breton featured a first for me - a trip to Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site. Before you inundate me with comments about the horror of living in Nova Scotia my entire life and never having visited, I accept and echo your opinions. We'll just say I was waiting for something big - like the 300th anniversary!

I don't normally post pics that aren't quilt-y, but this place is awesome. Makes me want to do art-y landscape quilting. For which I have no talent, I might add.

On this trip, I knew I'd be chillin' back at the ranch without a vehicle since Himself was working, so I planned ahead.

It's tricky to figure out what projects to bring on an excursion like this. I knew I wouldn't have an iron and didn't want to schlep a cutting mat in a warm car (that being pretty much a death sentence for most mats). So machine quilting won out.... I packed the two Lunch Box Challenge quilts, a baby quilt and a few other goodies.

Not too bat a set-up all things considered. The living room area of our "suite" wasn't a whole lot bigger than this picture shows, but I had a lovely window to look out of and a TV to listen to!

I started off with the orange and blue quilt made by Nurse M (ret.). Because of the usual size and shape of the blocks, I wanted an all over design, but didn't want my usual stippling.

 I opted for a longer version of stippling, looks a little like wood grain.

Only I forgot how much thread stippling (or any free motion for that matter) takes. Nearest sewing notions available - 1.5 hour drive. Ugh.

So on to the other Lunch Box Challenge quilt I have for quilting. This one's tough for me to work on, because it's thoroughly un-Modern. Though the longer I looked at it, the more I thought I might like to make this strip based block for a baby quilt in the future. This one is quilted in straight lines 2 inches apart vertically and horizontally. And it's finished.Guess for which quilt I prepared the binding in advance? If you say the yellow and blue, you'd be wrong!

Now that I've started with the pics that aren't quilts, I can't stop. But it seems a travesty not to include some of the glorious Cabot Trail.

 The Cabot Trail money shot headed toward Cheticamp

 La Bloc, near Cheticamp

View from Middle Head... glorious Cape Smokey


Thanks for reading this très long post! Hope you're having some summer adventures and fitting some quilting in too!

J