LA Quilt Shops Part 2: The Urban Craft Center

After leaving Sew Modern in West LA, Stephanie, Kristin, and I made a quick drive to The Urban Craft Center in Santa Monica.  A month or so ago Thomas and I were in Santa Monica, as we had tickets for Ovo.  I had read about The Urban Craft Center online, and so we stopped in to take a look.  I fell in love with the store, and thought it would be a hit with Stephanie and Kristin (lucky Kristin, she actually lives close enough to take their classes!).

 

One of my favorite things about The Urban Craft Center is that it is a one-stop shop for all of your crafting needs.  They teach and embrace all sorts of crafts, which is such a wonderful outlook!

Stephanie and I surrounded by beautiful fabrics.  The Urban Craft Center doesn't have a ton of fabric, but what they do have is great.  They have a lot of Japanese fabrics, a couple Moda lines, and all of the Amy Butler fabrics were on sale!

The Urban Craft Center is big on classes, which I love!  Saturday they were having a paper making class (pictured above).  They offer knitting, sewing, embroidery, soap making, bookbinding, and Yudu Screen Printing classes (just to name a few!).

Last but not least, this is their yarn, felt, and book section.  I wish I was a bit more handy with my crochet hooks, as they had yarns in such gorgeous colors!

PS- Can you believe that I've blogged three days in a row!?!  Hopefully this becomes the norm...only time will tell!

LA Quilt Shops Part 1: Sew Modern

I'm so excited to share snippets of my trip to LA with you!  Early Saturday morning I jumped on the freeway, headed west, to meet up with Stephanie, a fellow Creative Consultant, and her sister Kristin!  I had met Kristin before, as she was at The Quilted Fish's Fabric Launch Party in October, however this was the first time meeting Stephanie (after months and months of emailing back and forth!).  Our first stop was Sew Modern,in West LA.

Sew Modern is a relatively new store, as they just celebrated their one year anniversary! 

The quaint (and very useful!) sitting area.  The perfect place for husbands and children!  :)

The store was stocked with beautiful fabrics, and also had a very abundant sale section (my favorite!!!).  After being surrounded by old lady quilt shops, the vibrant fabric prints and colors was definitely a breath of fresh air!  :)

Sew Modern also has all 214 colors of Kona Cotton, which is something I've never witnessed before!  I just started using solids in my quilts, and love that the shop has so many bolts to play with!

This is a photo from the back of the store, looking towards the front.  There is a long arm quilting machine behind me, and the green desk with sewing machines is where the classes are held.

Stephanie and I!  I'm so thankful that we had the opportunity to meet up.  If only we lived closer...

 

I spotted this mustache fabric and absolutely fell in love!  You may recall that for Christmas I made a leather mustache pillow, and now I will be making a mustache quilt for Thomas as well!  I am going to use the pattern that the orange quilt (second photo) was made from, which is available in the Spring issue of Quilts and More magazine.  I will be using orange sashing, the rectangles and large squares will be the mustaches, and I think I'll be using Moda's black Pezzy Print for the small squares.  I'm excited for this quilt, and can't wait to get started!

Come back tomorrow morning, as I'm preparing a write up on the second quilt shop we visited, The Urban Craft Center in Santa Monica, CA!

Quilt Shop of YOUR Dreams

Hi Friends!  I owe you Quilt Market Recaps of Days 2 and 3, but haven't had a chance to sort through my photos.  Do you mind if we have a bit of an intermission, where you let me pick your brain?  (Sounds fun- eh?)

I know the characteristics of what makes my favorite local quilt shop my favorite, although it has recently closed- boo!  I was hoping that today ALL of you would be willing to share what makes your local quilt shop your favorite, via a comment or two!  

Is it the fabric selection?  The kind staff?  The super cool owner?  The selection of embellishments?  The location?  The variety of classes offered?  Do they offer longarm quilting services?  Do they have a customer appreciation program?  Many thanks!!!  :)

SoCal Quilter's Run @ Fresh Picked Fabrics!

Hello!  Sorry I've been so quiet this week.  Its probably been one of the busiest weeks I've had all year as I'm consulting again, AND I've been preparing for my patterns and products to make their debut at the local quilt shop!  Remember this post?  Well, I'm here to happily announce that "the local quilt shop" is Fresh Picked Fabrics (3810 Prospect Avenue, Unit A, Yorba Linda, CA 92886)!!! 

I think I've mentioned this before, but let me tell you...Fresh Picked Fabrics is my favorite local quilt shop.  The fabric selection is wonderful, the shop is packed full of samples (which always gets my mind working in overdrive), and the staff is always helpful and cheery!  Below are some photos of the shop...make sure to scroll ALL THE WAY down, to see my piece of the shop!  :)

Threaded Pear Studio's new Cabana Quilts.

 

A little Amy Butler fabric, and samples galore (I told you their samples are awesome!!!).

My home away from home...have you ever seen so much ric rac???

Halloween is just around the corner!

More great samples...many from Lizzie B Cre8tive's new book.

Now on to my little corner!  I've set up camp towards the back of the store (between the where you get your SoCal Quilter's Run passport stamped and the food)...I'm hard to miss!  :) 

I have four sewing patterns for sale (Burlap Tote Bag, Diaper Wristlet, Nursing Cocoon, and Thread Catcher), as well as finished products of all of the aforementioned products.  In addition, I'm selling the Coffee Burlap Bags, so that you can make your own Tote Bag!

One last thing...see that sweet Tote Bag, sitting on the table (between the Nursing Cocoon, and the finished Coffee Burlap Tote Bag + behind the red and green fabric)?  Well, that is the Mini Burlap Tote Bag (measures 10" x 10", and 3.5" deep) which is a free bonus pattern that comes with the Burlap Tote Bag pattern...not too bad- eh?

I hope that everyone has enjoyed my mini tour of Fresh Picked Fabrics.  It's a really great place, and I TOTALLY think you should come in either this weekend (Thursday-Sunday) or the following weekend to take a look around.  Don't forget to stop me and say hello!  :)

Oh My Goodness!!!

I'm so excited to share this quick vlog, regarding the exciting happenings from this morning! 

 

 

A BIG thank you to everyone for their continued love and support!  :) 

What A Quilting Weekend!!!

I can't believe it is already Sunday evening! Time sure does fly when you're having fun! :) I spent Saturday shopping for a quilt pattern and fabric for my sweet friend Kara, as she is entrusting me with making a quilt for her! I have to say that I'm quite honored! I haven't quilted since I made Mr. D his football quilt, and I have yet to finish adding the binding to my very first quilt, circa January 2009 (Shhh! Don't tell anyone!).

Kara selected Threaded Pear Studio's Fantastic-O Fat Fun quilt pattern which calls for 12 fat quarters- not too shabby!

Above is what we walked out of the quilt shop with- 12 fat quarters, binding, backing, and the pattern.

12 fat quarters and binding (top left- green with blue polka dots).

Today (Sunday) I went to the Long Beach Quilt Festival with my Momma and Grandma M. We all love to sew, create, and quilt which makes for fun outings. Long Beach was my first experience with a quilt show and I really enjoyed myself! I walked out with some Riley Blake fabric (one of my favorite fabric companies), business cards from lots of creative ladies, as well as a handful of patterns! I've got some great things in store for my blog and for Squirmy Worm Studio...I sure do hope that you stick around to experience it all with me! :)

A Quick Shout Out!

If you're looking for the Squirmy Worm Studio Appreciation giveaway...click here (giveaway ends Friday!).


Ordering fabric online an be very painful and costly, however I wanted to make you aware of Fabric.com as I have recently had great success with them (I just received my first order, with the second on its way!). In my experience, I have found that Fabric.com has great prices on all of their cotton quilting fabrics as well as awesome sales! Shipping is free with orders over $35 (which is easy to achieve), the cuts are generous, and you're able to buy fabric in half yard increments (my favorite!). I've found that their shipping is fast, they label all of the fabrics with a little sticker which helps me organize the fabric when I store it, and their Customer Service department is top notch.

If you decide to give Fabric.com a try, I hope that you have as many great things to say about the company and experience as I do! :)

*Please note that I was not paid for this review, as I'm only documenting my personal experience. :)

Orange County Spring Fling Hop!

(Source)

Remember the Orange County Holiday Quilt Shop Hop? Lucky for us, the quilt shops have organized a Spring Fling Hop! This Friday, March 26th through Sunday, March 28th, eight Orange County quilts shops (Cozy Cottage Fabrics, Flying Geese Fabric, Fresh Picked Fabrics/Cranberry Quiltworks, Orange Quilt Bee, Quilter's Garden, The Calico House, The Quilt Cupboard, and Timeless Quilts) are participating in the Spring Fling Hop in which each shop will be giving away a free pattern, free fat quarter, and a return coupon! Get your passport stamped at all eight stores and be eligible to win 40 yards of fabric! In addition, each shop will be giving away a basket worth $100, and a $25 gift certificate- not too shabby!

I'll be participating in the Spring Fling Hop on Saturday with my Mom, and I'm hoping my Grandma M. will join us again (she had a BLAST last time!). Perhaps we'll see you there...

Orange County Holiday Quilt Shop Hop

Hello faithful readers...it's me again, remember me? :) I'm using the same excuse as I did last Friday- blogger's block (it's the worst!).

I briefly mentioned the Holiday Quilt Shop Hop here, and am back to give the locals more details! Friday, November 20th through Sunday, November 22nd nine Orange County quilts shops (Bear's Quilt Shop, Cozy Cottage Fabrics, Flying Geese Fabric, Fresh Picked Fabrics/Cranberry Quiltworks, Orange Quilt Bee, Quilter's Garden, The Calico House, The Quilt Cupboard, and Timeless Quilts) are participating in the 2nd annual Holiday Quilt Shop Hop in which each shop will be giving away a free pattern and free fat quarter. Get your passport stamped at all nine stores and be eligible to win 45 yards of fabric! In addition, each shop will be giving away a basket worth $100, and a $25 gift certificate.

I'll be participating in the Hop on Sunday with my Mom and Grandma M. (my Dad will also be joining us as it is my Grandma's birthday weekend- how sweet is that!). Perhaps I'll see you there...