 There's a gem of a fabric store in Lincoln, RI, called Ryco. It's a bit far from Aquidneck Island (45 minutes from my home in Portsmouth), but worth the trip for quilting supplies, longarm quilting classes and services, and also TRIM. They specialize in selling trim of all descriptions in bulk or by the yard. Ribbon, fringe, pom pom, bias tape, lace, ric rac, cording, hook and loop tape, webbing...the list is seemingly endless. They sell fabric as well, both in quilting precuts, by the yard, fat quarters, and remnants. They carry a beautiful selection of quilting fabric. You won't find much in the way of apparel fabric because their specialty truly is quilting. You also won't find fabric bargains, not even in their bargain bin (especially if you've already been to Lorraine's in Pawtucket (see my post on Lorraine's here). But you will find Cotton + Steele which is hard to come by in this region in a brick and mortar shop. They offer classes in a variety of topics, mostly quilt-related. They also have several long-arm quilting machines. You can take a class in how to use the machine, then are certified to rent their machines by the hour (~$20/hour depending on the machine). This is a tremendous resource if you are interested in stepping up your machine quilting game without sending out your quilt to a professional.      The shop is located in an old mill, off the main road a bit. Look for a caricature of the owner's face to lead the way! For those not in my area, they also ship just about everything they carry in the shop, but you'll have to call and speak to someone because their website doesn't really accommodate ecommerce well.  While a bit of a drive, once you get off the highway, it's a beautiful one. If you've visited the shop, let me know what you think in the comments!  
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 Image Source: http://sublimestitching.com/collections/woven-labels/products/woven-labels-this-took-forever BEST labels ever for your handmade gifts.  Image Source: http://www.violetcraft.com/blog/233vp75d9fiw2kkkcj1qyjmcly2f9i  Can you stand the cuteness of these embroidery designs from Kiriki Press? Also available as complete kits. The hedgehog is on my must-make list. Have a lovely weekend!  Image Source: http://ing-things.nl/product/wolmeisje/  Image Source: http://www.mikodesign.nl/  Image Source: http://www.amybradleydesigns.com/collections/quilt-patterns/products/quilt-squad-quilt-pattern Happy weekending! This latest project has given me a lot of quilting confidence. Not that I want to shift gears and focus on making quilts, but I'm not going to procrastinate my family quilts any longer. 
A dear friend of mine is a fantastic photographer who happens to shoot a lot of newborn sessions with Navy families. One day we came up with a barter idea: she teaches me how to better use my camera, and I will make her a quilt to use in her photo shoots. There were several quilting hurdles I had to overcome with this project (binding by hand, machine quilting, highly accurate piecing of the squares, etc.) Maybe because it was a smaller crib sized quilt, I forged ahead and learned a ton. The hurdles were completely mental--none of these skills was hard at all to learn. Many of you have seen preview pics on Facebook over the past couple of months, but here is the full reveal. 
If you're curious to try quilting, I say go for it! There are some fabulous tutorials online, plus oodles of YouTube videos. The place I recommend starting is Amy Smart's blog, Diary of a Quilter. She even has a step by step guide to the basics of quilting, start to finish. Give it a try! I know I am not waiting so long to start my next one. Thank you Jennifer, for the motivation!!!
P.S. I think my lessons are already paying off because fabric color is much truer to what it is in real life (my biggest problem when trying to accurately represent something in an Etsy listing). This quilt has been in the works for over a year. If you follow me on Facebook, you've seen many work-in-progress photos. It didn't take a year to make, more like a week, but I never seemed able to work on it without interruption. It doesn't help that I'm not very experienced with quilting yet, and I made this one up as I went along. Pretty gutsy for my second quilt ever! I think it turned out quite lovely, and my son loves it, which is all that matters. It makes me smile every time I walk into his room seeing something mama-made getting daily use and love. On to the photos...  Thank you to my wonderful (and tall) hubby for helping me take pictures! This started with several half-yard cuts of fabric from one designer's line. Most of the fabrics were from this line and automatically coordinated. All except for the tiny anchors are from Michael Miller (Ahoy Matey and Sarah Jane's Out to Sea for Michael Miller); the tiny anchors is now out of print. The map at the center started the blocks and I worked my way out from there, measuring as I went. The quilt consists of three main panels...a top and bottom patchwork panel (with very large patches), and a center panel. The top and bottom are arranged in reverse order, so they mirror each other.  The back is a blue flannel from Joann and another orange rope print from the same designer. Here are some close-up images of the front:    The boys playing pirate--my absolute favorite.   To quilt, I simply hand tied every few inches with embroidery floss. Not being an experienced quilter, and already having spent a year making it, I didn't have the patience to try machine or even hand quilting. This works. The binding was attached by machine, but in the future I want to try hand-binding. Everyone tells me it's a meditative experience--hand-binding a quilt. Maybe for my daughter's quilt and another nautical baby quilt which are both on deck next, I can tackle that. And hopefully have it finished in less than a year!
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Karen KatinAs co-owner of Stitchery in Portsmouth, RI, I teach sewing classes to children and adults. Welcome to my blog Dancing Threads RI.  Archives
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